Ecstatic About The Butterflies

On April twenty-seventh I wrote that the preceding Saturday I tried to type while flying to SFO but only got a few paragraphs in.  There was an open seat next to me and I was keeping our food boxes in it.  I wrote a little but eventually I got the computer out.  We looked at photos for quite a while.  I also spent a lot of time looking at the coast.

When we arrived at Terminal 1 I got the bags and we ascended to the Airtrain.  We got on BART and then off at 16th.  My companion’s friends from New York were waiting for us in the Mission after visiting the Ferry building.  We walked Valencia and found them at her house.  We made arrangements for a bit and then caught a cab to Mission and Valencia to have a bite at Emmy’s.  There was a wait so we tried some local flavor at the Cuckoo first.

At Emmy’s one of them—the designer—had a bunch of favorites and we followed her lead.  My companion and I shared a spaghetti and meatballs.  Later we took photos in the booth and then walked back towards Duboce.  The other New Yorker—the engineer—followed a bit behind the girls with me because it was clear that they had some catching up to do.  He and I got to know each other.  He noted as we passed it that Ritual had changed a lot since he had last seen it.

I got up really early the next morning and when I interacted with my friend and the New Yorkers we agreed to get on the F and go to Blue Bottle to have their waffles.  A couple of us grabbed a table while the rest stood were in line.  We had eggs and waffles and siphon coffee and the conversation was about authenticity in coffee production.

Later we walked up Market and up Grant to Broadway and the girls looked at stuff.  The engineer told me about start up culture and his new intern.  He said that his work week entails office work, a trip to Connecticut and working from home.  My friend showed me a jacket at Al’s attire and the designer and I looked at some fabric books.  The engineer looked at buying a pair of shoes and then we went to another store.

They were looking at jewelry I think but I got bored so went to Shein and Shein to look at maps.  The shop’s dog somehow knew that the group was with me when they found me there.  We then climbed to Coit Tower and sat in the shade.  My friend was ecstatic about the butterflies and hummingbirds.  The engineer told me about NY’s turgid bike culture.

We walked down to Rose Pistole at that point and had what amounted to tapas though it was all Italian.  My friend and I had prosecco.  I had Potatoes Aioli and she had the asparagus.  After that we went to City Lights but I also talked to the bartender at Visuvio about Capp’s closing.  I ended up looking at an Earth First! Magazine at City Lights for a bit.

We walked down Columbus then and over to Clay.  They went into Starbucks alone and we all went to the Embarcadero and sat down to eat the macaroons purchased from Miette the day before.  After that we hopped an F and headed to the Marriot to take in the view of the city form above.  My friend and I had a bit more prosecco and we agreed to go to a South Asian place that the New Yorkers knew.  After we ordered they noted that the menu had changed.  There was South Asian music on the TV.

We took the F to Market and Guererro and had tea at my friend’s house.  When we discovered that the movie they wanted to watch was not available we spent some time chatting and eventually I said good bye.

In the morning of the day that I wrote this I had no trouble with traffic but I didn’t have a cup and that made getting into Caltrain difficult.  I read the paper and the train was behind.  I took the TVA.  I noted that my commute was expensive.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.