Saturday, March 17, 2007
Oh NO!!! Not More Fun!!!!
...and so goes the plaint of the stranded tourist, hemmed in by ice and snow in the East! Yes, because of lousy weather back on the East Coast yesterday, Paul, Steve and i were unable to fly back to New York City/Newark today because our Continental flight was canceled, as were over 2000 other flights from all over the country! We found out last night that the flight was cancelled, and were not able to re-book a return flight until some phone lines cleared up this morning and we were able to at last connect to operators at the airlines....who all must be going insane from all the irate travelers....and we were not even able to book a flight back on Continental until Wednesday night, so we found one on United and are taking the "red eye" back Monday night, getting us back to Newark (God willing) at 6:30 Tuesday morning.....I will have to miss teaching my Monday morning class, but have already arranged with James C. to take over the class and work with the students on their new batch of scenes....i feel kinds funny about missing but there is literally nothing I can do about it, since I have no wings of my own growing out of my tanned arms! Like I have said: if God had meant us to fly...
So, here we are, in San Francisco, with the sun battling a foggy sky, but warm and lovely nonetheless, instead of mid-air and almost home as we originally planned to be...I miss Peter even more , as a result of this delay...but he has encouraged me to relax and enjoy this time-out-of-time, this granted extension of fun...I am trying to do so...
Paul and Stephen are at their local gym, and I almost went with them, but decided i could use the time more valuably writing, and have established myself in a local coffee roastery house, using their wi-fi connection...I wanted the San Francisco Coffee House writer thing, and am taking full advantage of it, even though I am sipping a sweetened iced coffee, not the usual dark roast sludge usually associated with serious writers of poetry!
It is a Saturday afternoon on Union Street, a couple of blocks from Paul and Steve's Pierce Street apartment, and if this were NYC, there would be crowds around me and not a seat to be had, but as it is, even for a leisurely afternoon on a very popular shopping street, this coffee house is barely inhabited and not noisy at all....local lesbians sit nearby, clearly habituated to their normal tables, and I find myself flashing my wedding ring sort of nonchalantly to let them know where I stand about starting a conversation...what look like a few shopping tourists chatter nearby...and for my $5.00 wi-fi fee, I feel totally entitled to taking all the time I want to take here at my wobbly table to watch and write and watch and write some more.... I am seated near the enormous coffee roasting machine, which currently not in operation, otherwise it certainly would not be so quiet...but there are bags and bags of beans waiting to be roasted and ground...I am just one of the bags...
It is St.Patrick's Day here , and everywhere else (thank God I am not in NYC where it is the worst time of all for the drunken teenagers to desecrate the best parts of the City)...and every now and then, handsome San Franciscans of the male persuasion, (ones that seem straight,by God) walk by wearing green shirts, green shorts, green shoes, green whatever, and seem to be jolly with drink.. this morning , when Steve and I came down here for our morning coffee and a few errands, we encountered the Official Little League Opening Day Parade, which was noisy and full of exuberant cars-full of kids in various team colors...they were not drunk,at least not on liquor, but they were noisy and unashamedly so! So were their proud parents....
And now things have calmed down a bit on Union Street, though I suspect it will get a bit more raucous tonight, as the proud Irish of San Francisco come out and play!
I look around me and I wonder what I would do if we moved here....would I work int he theater community? Feel the need to establish myself here as an actor? Flash my credentials around and get a teaching job? Would I want to do that? The part of me that needs to establish my identity tells me that of course I would do what I have always done: make myself known through my theater skills...use who I already know here to only extend my circle of effectiveness....and this would not be a bad thing to do or a bad life to start here...BUT...BUT...BUT...
What if there were other things to do? Other ways to contribute to the planet? Other ways to live? What if....?
So, here we are, in San Francisco, with the sun battling a foggy sky, but warm and lovely nonetheless, instead of mid-air and almost home as we originally planned to be...I miss Peter even more , as a result of this delay...but he has encouraged me to relax and enjoy this time-out-of-time, this granted extension of fun...I am trying to do so...
Paul and Stephen are at their local gym, and I almost went with them, but decided i could use the time more valuably writing, and have established myself in a local coffee roastery house, using their wi-fi connection...I wanted the San Francisco Coffee House writer thing, and am taking full advantage of it, even though I am sipping a sweetened iced coffee, not the usual dark roast sludge usually associated with serious writers of poetry!
It is a Saturday afternoon on Union Street, a couple of blocks from Paul and Steve's Pierce Street apartment, and if this were NYC, there would be crowds around me and not a seat to be had, but as it is, even for a leisurely afternoon on a very popular shopping street, this coffee house is barely inhabited and not noisy at all....local lesbians sit nearby, clearly habituated to their normal tables, and I find myself flashing my wedding ring sort of nonchalantly to let them know where I stand about starting a conversation...what look like a few shopping tourists chatter nearby...and for my $5.00 wi-fi fee, I feel totally entitled to taking all the time I want to take here at my wobbly table to watch and write and watch and write some more.... I am seated near the enormous coffee roasting machine, which currently not in operation, otherwise it certainly would not be so quiet...but there are bags and bags of beans waiting to be roasted and ground...I am just one of the bags...
It is St.Patrick's Day here , and everywhere else (thank God I am not in NYC where it is the worst time of all for the drunken teenagers to desecrate the best parts of the City)...and every now and then, handsome San Franciscans of the male persuasion, (ones that seem straight,by God) walk by wearing green shirts, green shorts, green shoes, green whatever, and seem to be jolly with drink.. this morning , when Steve and I came down here for our morning coffee and a few errands, we encountered the Official Little League Opening Day Parade, which was noisy and full of exuberant cars-full of kids in various team colors...they were not drunk,at least not on liquor, but they were noisy and unashamedly so! So were their proud parents....
And now things have calmed down a bit on Union Street, though I suspect it will get a bit more raucous tonight, as the proud Irish of San Francisco come out and play!
I look around me and I wonder what I would do if we moved here....would I work int he theater community? Feel the need to establish myself here as an actor? Flash my credentials around and get a teaching job? Would I want to do that? The part of me that needs to establish my identity tells me that of course I would do what I have always done: make myself known through my theater skills...use who I already know here to only extend my circle of effectiveness....and this would not be a bad thing to do or a bad life to start here...BUT...BUT...BUT...
What if there were other things to do? Other ways to contribute to the planet? Other ways to live? What if....?
Labels: Spring Break 2007
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