What does that say about me?
Somehow it never occurred to me that it's been quite a few years since I went out every night. My bills have grown, my wallet has shrunk, and six hours of sleep just doesn't cut it anymore.*
That said, I do have three different adventures to share. The first involves the theatre. The second Saint Patrick's Day. And the third, a midnight showing.
Adventure One: The search for Midnight Pizza
Earlier this month Leonard and I went to a local production of True West. Those familiar with our theatrical background are probably aren't surprised to hear that this was a black box production. It was fantastic. It gave us both the acting bug, and we were thrilled to speak with the cast after.**
The show ended around 9:30, and we were both feeling a little hungry. In true black box form, the theatre wasn't quite near anything, and the cast could only recommend a local bar. We wandered the city for a little while, but alas all we found were liquor stores and fancy night clubs. My low blood sugar suggested that we go to West Portal, an area closer to home that's loaded with restaurants and shops. Certainly they'd have something for us.
We arrived at West Portal around eleven. On a Friday night, that's closing time. We walked by a pizza place that shut their door and laughed at us. They laughed!!
We got home close to midnight and at this point we were starving. I placed an order with a late night pizzeria and about an hour later, the food was in the apartment.
It was a-mazing.
I'm used to keeping strange hours, between working in restaurants and theatre I've always frequented late night dining establishments. It didn't occur to me that I'd have to track them down here. That places close in the big city.
Adventure Two: Saint Patrick's Day
This was it. The big one. We had the city at our disposal, a city that apparently has the best Saint Patrick's Day celebration West of the Mississippi. Ha! We may not have a social network, but damnit, we have the city.
Clad in green, we headed downtown around noon. We were thrilled to catch the parade, and wanted to check out the street fair at Civic Center. We followed the drunk college kids, and sure enough they lead us to the festivities. The parade was awesome, a variety of bands, dancers, dogs, decorated cable cars and buses. We had candy thrown our way.
But you know what the parade route didn't offer us? Food or beer. By the time we got to the street fair, we were famished.
I'm noticing a theme in these stories. Maile and Leonard go into the city for food, then can't find anything.
The street fair was small, a handful of booths with treats and Irish items. We wandered around for a bit, until we decided to call it an evening early. We returned to our local haunt, West Portal, and got shots of Jameson at the multiple Irish pubs there. It was a lovely, calm way to celebrate.
Turns out we've out grown drunk college kids. Who knew?
Adventure Three: The Midnight Showing
We were prepared. We left with more than enough time to spare. We looked up the late night bus to get us home at three in the morning. We had a Bay Area expert with us, to help us navigate the city.
We saw the 12:15 showing, and stayed through the credits. With the obligatory restroom stop before leaving, this made us the last non employees to leave the mall. With the exception of one other group of movie goers, the streets were empty by the time we got there.
Keep in mind that there were four showings that had gotten out over the past fifteen minutes, so people must have scampered away. We noticed a bus stop down the street, and headed that way to examine the map. Google claimed that our stop was about ten minutes away. Within seconds, this guy appeared out of nowhere asking for money to get home. We said no and continued walking. The F-er followed us. Harassing us, begging for money. Reprimanding us for not helping him. He only let us be when we moved ahead of the one other group
A few minutes later, we were a bit turned around. Our Bay Area Expert hadn't been in the city for about three years, and it was 3am. We turned down another empty street. We weren't lost lost, we all recognized the street names. Just none of them were the streets we needed. A well dressed man on a cell phone rushed past us. We continued on our journey.
"Excuse me, are you from around here?"
We turned around.
"Not really. We're new."
He then proceeded to tell us his tale of woe. He was driving up from Pasadena, trying to get to Eureka, and he was driving through Palo Alto and his family got held up with a gun, don't worry, everyone was okay, but they got to San Francisco, and spoke with the transit authority, and were staying at the Marriot, and their car was about to be towed but they needed money to get gas so they could drive their car away, and all he had was his cell phone and his watch, and the police were no help, and if we could spare $8.18 then he'd be able to be on his way.
Leonard shrugged, giving him a few dollars out of his pocket. The guy looked over at me expectantly. I wasn't born yesterday, there was no way I was opening my wallet. I shrugged and told him that I only had plastic. He glared at the few dollars Leonard had generously given him and stormed off.
Way to show your hand, flim flammer.
We found out bus stop about five minutes later, and waited another ten minutes for the late night bus. We were home before five.
Adventure Four: To be continued...
We may not be party animals, but we're both geeks at heart. Tonight we're going to the grand opening of a comic shop in West Portal. It may not be the hotspot we imagined, but we're finding our way in the city. And I may not be a Carrie Bradshaw fashionista, but I'm pleased with the shirt I've picked out.
And now, we're off to the comic shop!
*Not to mention Grad school
**The two leads switched roles every night. I can't even imagine...
