the long road

well, i have finally recoverd from the california trip. physically. i may never recover my previous mental state, one of ignorance with regard to the spirituality of the pacific, and one of sanity.

the last day of the trip we went to san francisco by way of oakland. i can't describe how different the two cities are. oakland reminds me of cleveland before they started cleaning it up while san francisco appears to be some sort of gay utopia with a disproportionate population of deranged homeless. it was great. we walked almost the length of market street, pausing only on side streets occaisionally to walk up steep hills for the fun of it. as we passed 13th street we began to get a feeling. a kind of radiation, but also a notion of being watched. later we realized that it was just castro street, the heart of the gay district, exerting its pull upon us. while i got a few long stares, the thing that was most intriguing was the feeling of being out of place. chris, his wife, and i walked among the mostly gay population feeling as if we were wearing sandwich boards. we stopped in some stores and at one point i purchased a scissor sisters album in medium rare records, one of the gayest records stores ever.

the flight home was awful, including delays in some texas city i'd never heard of before and not being able to get off the plane for seven hours. as delightful as that was, i am certain that i will go back as soon as possible.