Another Day in San Francisco

I began reading a book yesterday afternoon while we waited to go out with friends in the evening. I have never read a Grisham novel before. This one was given to me. I figured I would read it first, because it should be a rather fast read--allowing me to get rid of the wait of it. The book is The Last Jurer. I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy the first 75 pages which I read yesterday. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of it.

Cort and I met 4 of his friends at a nearby bar--Mecca--at 7:00 p.m. We had a drink there. Then we walked a few blocks away for dinner at Pauline's. It's a pizza place. We ordered 3 large pizzas and a couple of bottles of wine. The pizzas were very flavorfull. We got one with goat cheese and artichokes, since Cort is lactose intolerant. The other two were a peperoni with garlic and artichokes, and a proscuito with vegetables. We were there until 10:30 or so. It was an interesting group. There was a young married couple who live two doors down from Cort. He is from South Africa and she is a 5th generation San Franciscan. The other two are a couple of guys, an Indonesian and a Pennsylvanian who live here now. All of them are coming here tonight for a dinner Cort is cooking.

Cort and I were up a while talking, but we were both very tired. We intended to get up this morning to go to a market at 8:00. Instead, he forgot to set the alarm and we slept until 8:30. It was 9:00 by the time we got away to go to the market at the Ferry Building downtown at the end of Market Street. He shopped for items for the dinner tonight--peaches, grapes, leeks, salad, tomatoes, squash, bread, etc.

I wanted to explore town some, and Cort was going to the gym and dealing with other matters, so we split at 10:30 after shopping at the market. I walked down to see a large sculpture of a bow and arrow (which Cort says is to represent "I left my heart in San Francisco"). I returned to the market and bought a coconut cherry ginger scone as a snack. Then I walked toward the shopping district around Union Square. I stopped in Gumps, a store I have visited every time I have come to San Francisco, and saw an excellent exhibit of glasswork. I walked by the area where there was an underground explosion yesterday that blew off sidewalk covers and the front of the Ralph Lauren Polo Shop. I sat on Union Square for a while and watched people and rested. Then I headed back down to Market Street. I walked the rest of its distance down to Castro Street. I explored Castro, then I walked over to Haight Street and found a Mediteranean restaurant for lunch.

I bought a lamb shawerma sandwhich which surprised me with its size. It was a wrap sandwhich which was 12 inches long. It was enough for two persons! I ate most of it and then dug the goodies (chunks of lamb, cucumber, fried potatoes, sauce and herbs) out of the rest of the wrap and ate them.

There was some excitement when I returned to Cort's apartment. He wasn't here, and he had set the alarm out of habit. Once I had opened the door, there was nothing to do but wait for the alarm to go off. It was LOUD. After about 10 minutes, it stopped. I assumed that the alarm company had called Cort and they had turned it off. A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. I opened it, and the neighbor Leslie who had gone to dinner last night was there. Cort had called her. Opening the door for her had activated the alarm again, but she had a remote control to cancel it. About 20 minutes later as I was reading the paper, someone tried to open the door. I looked around, and a policeman was trying to peek in and to open a window. I went to the door and explained what happened. He asked for my ID and asked me to show him the key I have for the door. There were two of them and they were very nice. They were impressed with Cort's home.

Tomorrow I leave for Seoul. My flight is about 2:00 p.m., but I will have to be at the airport at noon. I don't know if Cort has anything planned, but there won't really be much time. It would be best just to eat a snack around 10:00 and head to the airport. I will spend 12 hours flying to Seoul, never see a sunset, and arrive there on Monday because of passing the International Date Line. I should be very tired by the time I get a bus into town and get checked into my hotel. This may be my last entry until I am there in Seoul. I'll see if I have time for another entry tomorrow morning.