Three updates in one

It's funny, when we made plans to move to the city, I imagined us all over the place. Hitting hotspot after hotspot, lunching by day and drinking cocktails by night. I blame Sex and the City.

I always fancied myself a Carrie, but Charlotte was my favorite.
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.

This was Leonard's favorite.


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
Ironically the only adventure that does not feature us searching for food

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.

I'll be the belle of the ball

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...

My evening in Oakland

This week I went to Oakland for the first time.* If pop culture is to be believed, I was going to a hell dimension where I'd be mugged the moment I stepped off of BART. Obviously pop culture was exaggerating. I was meeting a new friend for dinner at a mac and cheese restaurant (let me say that again, a MAC AND CHEESE RESTAURANT!) and I could certainly handle a 5-10 minute walk from BART to the restaurant in daylight.

After all, true hell demons don't come out until the evening.
I watch a lot of Buffy

My directions were simple. The restaurant is on the same street as BART. Certainly even I couldn't screw this up. I turned right, walked a block, then noticed everything was pretty much residential. Doh! I walked back to BART, and found a map of the area. Foolish me, I should have gone left. No harm done, I walked left, smiling at the restaurants that I could see in front of me.

I walked. And walked. And walked. Okay, I knew this was a 5-10 minute walk, but certainly it'd been fifteen minutes by now. Everything was residential, but I could see something ahead. A restaurant. I wasn't wearing my glasses (I need a glasses case to keep in my purse) so I couldn't see the name, but it kind of looked like the pictures I'd seen online. It was about five minutes away. I was near what I'd remembered the address to be. I'd get there before dark.

I got to the restaurant right at dark. It wasn't the right place. Not at all. I stood in the light of this new restaurant and texted for the address of the mac and cheese restaurant. It was 400. I was at 1000.

It was dark. I was alone. I was about twenty minutes from my destination, and wandering a strange street in a strange neighborhood. At least I didn't have to worry about vampires.
right?

I may have seen a prostitute, but I think she was just a girl who had poor taste in clothing. She didn't appear to be street walking, just walking. I walked past BART. Double doh! I was supposed to go right.

Long story short, I didn't get mugged, didn't meet any villains, and didn't find Oakland any scarier than some Orange County neighborhoods.**

As for the important part of the story, I did in fact get my mac and cheese.

With Goat Cheese!



*As I was writing this, I recalled that I've been to the Oakland airport, but immediately took a taxi to/from the city, so I don't really count that.

**Newport is scary in a completely different way.

It is time, woo

A favorite movie in my family is Heart and Souls. You know the one. Alfre Woodard, Kyra Sedgwick, Charles Grodin, and some other guy die in a bus crash and their souls get attached to a little boy who eventually grows up to become Robert Downey Jr. He forgets about them, then they reappear so he can help them put right what once went wrong, and they all sing Walk Like a Man.

And it's set in San Francisco.

It came on cable our first week here. It was kind of cool. I mean sure, we're from Orange County, but most things aren't filmed behind the Orange Curtain. Hell, The OC was filmed in Redondo and Long Beach.

Earlier this week I was walking along Haight and I heard this familiar noise. San Francisco natives will recognize it as the electrical wires screeching as the bus comes to a stop. But me? I recognized it as the sound that signifies the bus driver is coming to collect another lost soul.



And as I heard it, as I cognitively acknowledged it as the sound associated with the film, another feeling overwhelmed me. This sound that is deeply ingrained in my subconscience has become a part of my every day life.

It's such a little thing, just one snapshot into the day to day realization that this is my life now. This is my home.

How am I doing? Really.

I've been asked recently if I know my way around San Francisco yet?

Let's see. I get lost constantly. Drives that should take me twenty minutes easily take me forty. The day that I took the bus to work, I got on the wrong bus home.

And yet...

I recognize street names. I get lost, but I easily find my way home. I'm discovering back roads, alternate routes, and how to bypass those dreaded one way streets. When I took the wrong bus, I still managed to find my way home with ease (albeit by walking more than a few blocks out of the way.)

Okay, so I can hardly pass for a native. But I'm learning.

I'll get there.

Landmarks

Growing up, there was a Southern California landmark that made me happy every time that I saw it. It was out of the way, so driving by it was a moment for excitement. A reminder of what was near. As I grew older, it became a part of my routine freeway driving. This didn't diminish my excitement. Some of my older friends may realize what I'm talking about.



The Matterhorn isn't the only landmark that makes me happy. The Hollywood sign still evokes images of the golden age of cinema. The Statue of Liberty always brings tears to my eyes. And of course, the Golden Gate Bridge.



It's no secret that a few weeks ago I wasn't emotionally in the best place. I felt isolated from the city. Leonard and I were both recovering from a flu, and had barely left the apartment. He wanted to cheer me up, so he took me on a surprise trip to Golden Gate Park. To see the buffalo. And we were driving on 19th street, the major street near our house. We'd been on the road for maybe five minutes, and we went over a minor hill and suddenly there it was.

Leonard turned to me with a smile. "Look at that." But I didn't reply. I felt my eyes filling up with tears. So many of my trips to San Francisco, the bridge has been ignored. I would drive across the lesser Bay Bridge, stay downtown, and never venture to the ocean side of the city. Now I live near the bridge. The Golden Gate is my bridge.

Within the week, I would begin my new job. Now every (not foggy) work day, I drive that same route. I drive toward Golden Gate park, and for a few blocks, I can see her. My bridge. And every morning I smile like the little girl who was obsessed with the Matterhorn.

This is my home.

5 most San Francisco things to happen to me this week

Well, really last week. But what can I say, I've been lagging.

1) I got a job working for a tech start up in a Victorian in the Haight.

2) I couldn't find my way home from said job, because my commute there consisted of a variety of one way streets, which resulted in a half hour drive taking nearly an hour as I tried to find a street that I recognized. (This has happened to me about four times in the past two weeks, though only twice was the drive home from work. I've since found an acceptable route, thanks to my bus adventure last week.)

3) My good friend Traci and I stumbled across an Occupy Oakland demonstration in downtown San Francisco.

4) A crazy guy befriended me on Muni, then happened to be on the same BART car as me, though I'm not sure that he saw me there. He got off the same BART station that I did, but I don't believe he followed me. He certainly wasn't at the restaurant where I had a lovely brunch.

5) I saw two naked guys walking through the Castro. They weren't completely naked; one had a kitty cat hat on. They may have worn shoes. Rumor has it, this is totally normal.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not in Orange County anymore.

Maile vs Muni

Here it is, the post that I promised weeks ago. That's right, I'm going to blog about a staple of living in San Francisco.

Muni, or the Municipal Railway is the bulk of what I've experienced. The M line isn't fancy, but it's a 5-10 minute walk from the apartment, and takes me right into the city.

Who am I kidding, I love the M line. I love sitting, or standing with all these people. This is one of the reasons that I was so excited to move here. Eventually I'm sure that I'll read while the train is going, but for now I just look out the window with wide eyes.

So how could I post Maile vs Muni when really it was Maile + Muni = <3?

Then last night's adventure happened.

The biggest problem that I've had thusfar isn't with Muni, but with my own two feet. The stops I generally wind up at are classic subway stops. I'm underground, and the only clues to my location are little signs telling me which stairs lead to which streets. Unfortunately, because I'm still learning, those signs never actually include the street that I'm looking for.

This happened yesterday. Google gave me these ridiculous directions, and I got so turned around that I didn't have a clue where I was. This wasn't a part of the city that I was horribly familiar with, and I don't have a smart phone. What was I to do? How was I going to get to the book signing? Using some sort of natural instinct, I turned around, found my way, and was at the bookstore with time to spare.

Getting back to my station was a piece of cake; I walked with some of my new friends and wound up at Civic Center. And thus began my most annoying Muni trip to date.

It started when my Clipper Card wouldn't scan. The attendant let me pass, but still frustrating. I went down the stairs, sat down, and patiently waited for my train. The digital sign informed me that an Outbound M was expected in about five minutes. That M never came. They skipped it. Instead Outbound N, L, J, K all came through. No M. The cycle continued.

Okay, if my train never came, I could take one of the other lines, maybe K, get to West Portal, or even St. Francis. I could wait for my connection there, and if it never came, I'd be close enough for Leonard to rescue me.





And then the crazy man came.

Don't give me that whatever Orange County Girl face. Everyone was on alert. Muni police were paged. He was talking to himself, in a very fierce determined voice. He talked about bullets, guns and shootings. Yes, I'd definitely get on K. But I sat. I waited. The crazy guy got on K. I stayed behind.

About fifteen minutes later, M finally showed up. Single car. Standing room only. Awesome.

Waited over half an hour for a train - check. Crazy guy - check. Standing the entire route - check.

You may have won this round Muni, but I'm not finished with you yet.