Category: San Francisco

i finally own a ticket to thailand! i picked it up from the travel agency today. i’m taking off on dec 23rd and wont be back till february 1st. a month and a half!! i can’t wait. i’ve been wanting to do some serious traveling for a long time now… wanting to get out of the daily grind and do something totally new and crazy that is unlike anything i’ve done before. now i finally get my chance. Also this couldn’t have come at a better time. Being broken up w/ stephanie (as of last week) has been totally wearing me down and especially now i really feel like i need to get away from it all. Spend some time enjoying life, and also doing a lot of thinking about life and everything else. Coming out of a 6 year relationship is never easy, and i really feel like my world here has been turned upside down.. what better time to rebuild from scratch?

-v

Parking in sf is a major pain. everywhere you go there’s a flurry of red curbs, meters, 2 hour zones, and hardly any spots are available. i’ve only been living here since march yet i’ve already received countless tickets. i’ve gotten tickets for parking in red zones, double parking, parking in driveways, parking over the allotted time limit, etc etc. i *think* i’ve paid almost a thousand dollars in fines so far. *sigh*. the only thing worse than walking up to your car and seeing a ticket on the windshield… is walking up to your car.. and realizing that it’s no longer there. yes, my car got towed yesterday. i parked it in a tow-away from 4-6pm zone, and forgot to move it by 4. so i had to get a ride to the Hall of Justice and 200$ later i got my car back. and the saddest part is… i did the exact same thing a few months ago. same parking spot and everything. dammit!

-v

the weather tonight is the worst it’s been in a long time and the rain is pouring down in buckets. standing outside in the yard, it’s hard not to shiver while i hold the shovel in my hand. right now, i’d rather be doing practically anything than this.. but my parents had called me, and now i’m out here digging. i scoop huge clumps of soil up with the shovel and try to place them in a nice little pile next to the hole i’m making. unfortunately, the rain is coming down so hard that digging is hardly possible. the hole is filling with rain and the mass of water tugs at the walls of my hole. minutes later i’m drenched and on the verge of giving up. i really dont want to dig this hole right now.. or later… or ever. finally i decide that i can dig no more and go in to tell my parents. i guess i’ll just have to leave the plastic bag outside for now….

Rewind 2 hours back. i’m sitting comfortably at work, typing away at my computer, still completely unaware of the cold weather that i would soon endure. the phone rings and i lift the receiver to be greeted by the crying of my mother. wtf? through the sobs i can barely make out what she’s saying. what is she saying? i’m trying to decipher it.. and… and… she’s telling me that… that… huh? what?…. oh. my kitty just died. the cat that i’ve had for 9 years now. the cat that i’ve loved dearly for so long. the cat that i’ve had since high school that continued to live at my parent’s house after i moved out. the cat that’s been sick for a year now… slowly withering away to just fur and bones. that cat that just collapsed today and died. i can’t believe that this happened. i mean, sure, i knew that this would have to happen sometime. but why? why does everything that we love so dearly have to be wrenched from us *like this*… with a gasp… and a shudder.

-vlad

so here’s the other problem w/ my friends having babies. i cant stand babies. no really. i am just so not down. they look really weird, like little alien creatures and are constantly projecting bodily fluids everywhere. unfortunately, this poses a huge problem when i go see people that have babies. see, there is no easy way (in fact no way at all) to tell someone that you find their kid gross. it just cant be done. no matter what, when dealing with parents you have to ogle their child like it’s god’s gift to mankind. and that’s really difficult for me to do. so, the parents show off their child to me and i pretend to be all excited about it and say how adorable it is blah blah blah… when really i just want to talk about anything else.

oh, and then, often they’ll try to get me to hold it. even after i tell them that i wont do it, they often try to insist and it takes a lot of persuasion on my part to get them to stop. the thing is, other than fear of being pooped on, spit on, or god knows what else, i’m also totally terrified of dropping the baby. i mean, shit, i drop stuff all the time… cups, phones, keys, whatever…. and luckily with all those things you can either buy a new one or just fix it. now, if i somehow managed to drop someone’s *baby*, somehow i dont think that it would go over very well. actually, i really wonder if that ever happens. i mean, people drop things. it’s a fact. people trip, fall, and drop things all the damn time. do people ever drop babies?? how often does this happen? would a baby survive this kind of disaster?

i dunno. i’m sure some day i’ll have one of my own, and i’ll finally understand what all the hype is about… but until then i’ll just have to keep smiling and keep my thoughts to myself.

my friend yana had a baby girl the other day. Yet another one of my friends to have a baby. so weird. i still am definitely at the point where i feel too young for my friends to be having kids. aren’t we still kind of kids ourselves? sheez. i guess not. not even close. we’re all adults now.. and everyone has to do adult things. work a career job, get married, pay for car insurance, what have you. i feel so unprepared for this and i’m not sure why. i mean, it’s not like growing up is something that happens all of a sudden over night. it’s not something dramatic that can catch you by surprise. no, it’s gradual… and slow. you have plenty of time to prepare for it, to ponder what’s going to happen, to get in the right mindset…. and yet, somehow it always still ends up being shocking. one day you look around you at what all of your friends are doing, and even at what you’re doing… and it just baffles you how everyone got to that point. someone must have hit the fastforward button on the video tape of your life, cause you shouldnt have gotten to this part yet. right??

-v

i didn’t vote today.

-v

halloween this year was tons of fun. we went to the castro as usual, but managed to get way more drunk than ever before. it was a fairly large group that we went with: sharon, chearon, mattie, nikki, kevin, erica, joey, veanne, robert, andrea, jamie, and tom but within minutes of leaving our house pretty much everyone got separated from everyone else. we spent the rest of the night running around, looking for friends, and being lost in all the chaos. we took the n-judah down there which was cool cause it was totally packed and everyone was hella partying, singing, and going nuts. as for what happened at the castro…. umm.. i really hardly even remember. somehow i managed to polish off a .75 liter bottle of smirnoff pretty much all by myself, and so the rest of the night was pretty hazy. i do remember at one point, after finally running into kevin who had missing all night, me and him slapping each other in the face over and over. errr, not sure why that happened… but he said that the next morning when he woke up his face still hurt! doh! then somehow he got separated from all of us again and spent the rest of the night alone and ended up passing out on the n-judah line later in the night. randomly, yan called me at like 5 in the morning, totally drunk, slurring, and hiccuping over and over.

anyways, all in all (i think) everyone had a good time. i guess on the news it said that there were over 300,000 people there that night!!

-v

For a long time i’ve really wanted to try out Critical Mass. it’s this crazy bike ride that happens the last friday of every month in downtown sf. they gather a huge crowd of thousands of people on bicycles and everyone rides their bikes downtown during rush hour traffic. in a way it’s a protest against so many people driving cars. finally, last friday i got to try it.

It was so dope! people totally go all out and attach huge speakers to their bikes so they can blast music, others dress in wacky costumes, and everyone just basically goes totally crazy. it was just so nuts to be biking through the city and taking over all the streets. people had no regard for red lights, traffic, or anything. there were just so many people that the cars had no choice but to give bikers the right of way. we would take over all the lanes in the whole street.. and it was such a trip to see the street of downtown sf filled w/ nothing but bikes. we even biked through several tunnels. anyone who’s honked their horn in a tunnel knows how crazy it sounds due to the acoustics…. well, imagine a tunnel filled w/ screaming people , clanging bells, hectic drum beats! so dope!

the whole time i just kept thinking… dayum, how dope is it to be living here in sf. san francisco is so damn cool cause all the time you get to try out new experiences that are very out of the ordinary. Experiences that make you think “this is so random! does this kind of stuff happen anywhere else?” it has something for everyone and the cool stuff is never-ending.

-v

this weekend i went to club icon, the club that used to be the edge in palo alto. It has been so long since i have been at any mainstream club type of event, and after this weekend i can definitely remember why i dont go anymore. yeah, i did overall actually have a good time, hung out w/ friends, got to listen to veanne spin a good set but the place itself was just so damn cheesy.

first off, the place had a dress code. of course, as usual, i came there wearing shorts and as soon as i saw the dress code sign, i knew there would be problems. while in line i saw the two guys at the door grumbling to each other, but in the end they decided to let me in… of course they had to throw in the snide remark of “hey guy, next time you come back here, try to wear some pants”. uh, yeah, thanks. there wont be a next time. the idea of someone else deciding what they think i should be wearing is just fucking ridiculous. who the hell do they think they are? how shallow can a place to be to decide whether or not people can come in based on what kind of clothes they have on. sheez.

once inside, it becomes fairly obvious that everyone there is probably just as shallow as the people working the door. everyone is dressed to impress and is out on the prowl. people are dancing, but really it looks like they’re going through motions to make themselves look cool. *sigh*. everything just seems like a high school dance.. and they’re even playing the old cheezy hits from those days to make it even more so. so, i didnt talk to anyone there that i didnt know, but i did overhear this great conversation when i was in the restroom… “yo man, wasssssup wit’ your girl???” “yeah, you know, i’m gonna hit that shit, then make her swallow that shit, and then wear her panties on my head! yeahhhhh”. wtf?? what is wrong w/ these people? and as i walk out of the restroom, i see him give his girlfriend a big sweet hug. awwww.

anyways, all of it was pretty weak. really confirmed just how whack a lot of these mainstream places are. makes me glad that i never went in that direction…

-v

this weekend was actually really cool. usually there’s some cool stuff going on here and there w/ breaks in between… but this time it was pretty much nonstop fun.

i got the 800$ check from the guy who hit my car! so i can finally afford to actually spend some money!

friday: steph and i went down to brian and kare’s house to hang out w/ them, jamie, tom, aaron, and joey. we saw the movie “red dragon” and then all hung out for a bit and drank beers. it was cool to hang out w/ some of the south bay folks that i dont get to see very often. joey, of course, comes to sf pretty frequently so i get to see him quite a bit.. but the other are incredibly lazy and rarely are down to make the trek up to SF. it really sucks cause i feel like i was really starting to get close to these people before i moved northwards.. but now the longer i live up here.. i end up seeing them less and less and i totally feel like we’re starting to drift.

saturday: steph and i took the N judah today and went to go see the blue angels. it was way funner than i expected it to be. i hadn’t had too much of a desire to see the blue angels.. but when we got there, they turned out to be totally amazing. the roar of the jets sounded so damn cool! after that we went to Litquake. it was this event where a bunch of authors read excerpts of their stuff. We went cause dave eggers was gonna read there. it was dope to see him read cause he’s totally my favorite author right now. Next we cruised down to san jo and had indian food w/ elena and patrick. afterwards we watched some tv back at elena’s. just like yesterday… it was cool to be able to just hang out w/ friends and not have an agenda. i’m totally down for bars/clubs/etc.. but it’s definitely nice sometimes to be able to just kick it.

sunday: in the morning i got my copy of “you shall know us by our velocity” signed by dave eggers. dude.. he’s so dope!! next erica, robert, and i went down to santa cruz to hang out w/ sharon. we spent the day hiking around, skipping rocks, checking out the mysterious building at 519 fair ave, and then eating at saturn cafe. sharon is another person who lately i dont get to see too often./ she’s always too busy w/ school. sigh. so it was really cool to get to hang out.

ok.. i’m kinda rushing all this cause i need to leave the computer.. but that pretty much sums up my weekend

-v