Here is what my life during the week is like now: struggle awake at seven thirty a.m., shower and dress, sit muzzily on the southbound train reading the San Francisco Chronicle, buy a double latte from the extremely cute owner of the corner deli, churn out travel arrangements for eight hours with a 45-minute break for lunch which I always take alone so I can read in peace, ask self why I went into retail, rush to catch the northbound train which is invariably delayed due to baseball games, track repair, or phase of the moon, read my book, emerge into fog and wind, drive home with John exchanging news of the day's work, feed livestock, check email, grab Diet Coke and rush to class twice a week, alternating with grabbing Diet Coke and sitting down to do homework twice a week, walk dog, visit John in his Snack Den to watch Daria together, retire to bedroom and read garden catalogs for 20 minutes, shove cats to the end of the bed, smooch John, fall asleep at midnight. Repeat Monday through Friday.
Trust me, you don't miss a thing when I don't update during the week.
Last night, being a Friday, was dedicated to fun. I met John, Bill, and Spike after work in Menlo Park for beer at the British Bankers Club. I know it's a sports bar-cum-alehouse but I don't understand why they never have any bitter; how can they call themselves British if all they offer is ale and lager? Bah. I drank my Beck's while Bill knocked back a vodka tonic and talked about the project his startup has to finish before the Olympics begin next weekend. Spike and I discussed pre-World War II Middle Eastern kingdoms and politics. We groaned and winced in horror as we watched Bryce Florie take a line drive in the face during the Red Sox-Yankees game showing on the televisions in each corner. I felt quite sick afterwards. It's so easy to forget how fast those balls are going, and baseball injuries aren't usually so violent.
We went out for Chinese food after drinks because I've been craving Su Hong's potstickers and walnut prawns. So far we haven't found any great Chinese food in our new neighborhood. Both places we tried disappointed us with bland, overcooked and underspiced dishes. We've tried dim sum at a recommended place a couple of miles down the road, but I haven't felt like going back. It's a drag to not have a decent restaurant nearby because we used to eat at Su Hong's at least once a week when we lived in Palo Alto. We love Chinese food.
I hate to be so contradictory and ungrateful but sometimes I really, really miss living in that part of the peninsula. The weather's better, the food choices were myriad, there were several bookstores nearby, a lot of my friends lived in the area, and the shopping was much better.
I remember the negatives, though. There was a pervasive sense of entitlement which set my teeth on edge, every conversation revolved around real estate or the high tech industry, we felt like poor sharecroppers compared to our neighbors, there were way too many SUVs so I could never see more than one car ahead of me, and the traffic in general was terrible. And that's not even addressing the issue of being totally unable to afford a house anywhere near there.
Eh, you know what they say. The Chinese food is always better on the other side.
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