Californication

So, I spent the morning exploring San Fransisco, and me likey.

<--(The conference that I'm attending is in Oakland. This is the view from my hotel room). Did you know that Oakland and San Fransisco are, like, across the street from each other? That's a fun little geography fact that I learned when I got here. So, I crossed the bay this 9 o'clock this morning (that's noon in DC). And I found myself on a cable car riding through the stunning city of San Fran. It was like riding through a movie set: ridiculously hilly streets, and row houses in pastel colors with bay windows. It was awesome. In a divine act, my iPod went kaput (no more battery juice). As a result, I had no security blanket. I had to hear the sounds of the city and - gasp - talk to people. It was great. I felt more open and at the same time more vulnerable (not in the rape-y way). I felt like I was experiencing the city more fully that I would have if I had pumped my brain with all things familiar.

Sans security blanket, I traveled alone today. I could not have been more pleased with how I spent my day. I met a woman on the cable car who was shocked and a little befuddled by my traveling alone. She made a face after I told her that I was by myself (she asked, I didn't just give up this information). The face she made was part pity, part shock and part jealousy.

It's that last part that I was most amused by. She was with her husband of however many years, and looked perfectly happy. But when I said, "I'm a wanderer. I like to explore on my own," she looked at me like an alien, an alien from a planet that she regretted not visiting.

I resisted every urge to look her dead in the eye and say, "Ooga booga!" and snap her picture.