On vacation?

Is it just the summer or is everyone on vacation here? In San Francisco you can never tell as the summers tend to run cool and everyone dresses (as one yelper put it) "like they're five years old." Even the local newscasters talk about "hanging out"at seminal SF events like this weekend's "Outsidelands," a three-day rock concert at Golden Gate Park and "Bay to Breakers," a road race in May that's become the straight community's pride parade (pronounced Beta Breakers like it's a witty app for cocktail parties). It's so weird but I guess not as weird as Boston anchors' flashing to the Red Sox or the Catholic Church. Still, the hedonism here is constant and I suspect the real reason for the high cost of living. Here's my theory: cost of living is slightly higher than Boston but I feel that people here want to go out and spend money all the time on all the fun stuff within a one mile radius. This is the true engine behind all the financial griping. What do you expect us to do? Stay in? But it's Tuesday!






In many ways, I feel like I've never worked harder but the city sweat is of a pioneer/buccaneer ethic rather than a puritan one. You aren't supposed to get stressed-out here but you are expected to hustle. As someone who has made a big geographic move, the rockiness of the transition is knowing when to exit vacation mode and enter real-life mode. San Francisco, however, doesn't pave the way to responsibility. Every weekend there's some huge event that everyone flocks to or another party to attend. To add insult to injury a lot of the white hipsters really do seem independently wealthy or at least reliant on family money. In college, we called them Trustifarians. Here they're just another introduced species.



As a way to return to the Earth and entertain ourselves on the cheap, Mauricio and some friends and I are going blackberry-picking in Glen Canyon Park. Fennel grows wild here and I'm also curious about using the leaves of dandelions in salads. So if you see a crazy person with loads of green luggage on the MUNI, come say hello.


[The above are pics of my life and neighborhood.]


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