When the Lights Go Down in the City

Hello to the few of you who may have wandered over here hoping that maybe I finally updated this thing. Today is your lucky day.

Other than a few spats of unemployment-induced boredom - things have been pretty damn good here on the other side of the bay. I have a wonderful new home here in Noe Valley with two great roomies in an affordable, historic, well-kept apartment building on a quiet street near the heart of the neighborhood.

I never really explored Noe Valley until I moved here a month ago. It's a neighborhood that doesn't really attract tour-busses or college students. It's a part of San Francisco dominated by people who actually *live* here. It's like a small-town within the City - and just a quick trolley ride away from Downtown. I love it.

I'm just a block from the neighborhood's main shopping drag - 24th Street. 24th Street has almost everything you need to survive: restaurants, hardware shops, supermarket, pharmacy, gift shops, clothing stores, coffee shops, banks, bars....all wrapped in a oh-so-San-Francisco Victorian village-like atmosphere. No doubt, it's the center of San Franciscan yuppy-dom, but if the stroller-set gets too overwhelming I'm a quick walk downhill to the Mission or the Castro.

This place, right now, just fits. I keep having those pinch-me-I'm-dreaming moments when I step foot out my apartment and walk along this neighborhood's pretty little streets. Quite the change from the Southside of Berkeley. Don't have to worry about tripping over a drugged out crazy People's Park resident here.

Of course, there are a few drawbacks: My room is about half the size of my old Berkeley place. The cheap and plentiful food of Southside is no longer outside my door (which means I'm eating-in more...who knows, maybe I'll start cooking....) And of course, the comforting presence of Dengrove is no longer down the hall. Hehe.

But overall, things are great.

It's quite late. Past 2:00am. I am still unemployed so this does not really concern me. That said, it is kind of a bummer to sleep in and let so much of the day slip away. I know...I know....I'll be regretting that once I become a working stiff. Please don't remind me of this, I'm acutely aware of the fact and very tired of hearing it :-P

Tomorrow, I resolve to actually enjoy the situation rather than putz around my apartment like I've been doing that past couple days. I'm going to go to a bookstore, buy the sequel to the Golden Compass, and take it with me after lunch to wherever my heart pleases.

The City beckons.