First night in the city

woowee. don't we look goofy.

Last night I hauled myself to San Francisco for the night to meet up with Jason (above) for dinner. I got confused and took 280 instead of "the" 101 (those of you who live around here know how truly dopey this is, and the reference to local terminology) but ended up having a nice drive around the perimeter of Golden Gate park and through downtown.

Jason lives in a highly secured apartment building that edges a very sketchy (read: I think I could score something there) neighborhood. While I was waiting for him to come down from his apartment, a man who looked like D'Angelo arrested after his second cocaine possession (here is a photo of his first, so you get an idea of what I'm talking about) yelled at me, dancing in a very bouncy sort of way, and pulled down his pants to his knees, displaying extra-large blue boxer shorts. (thank god). Another man walked by trying to start a lighter repeatedly, in a slow methodical rhythm. I think it was his personal soundtrack. We smiled at eachother. Ho hum, just another early evening in the city.

The funny thing is that 3 blocks away from this scene resides the Hilton and prime tourist real estate. We took the cable car to Chinatown and hopped off and walked a bit. Smelled the sweet sticky savory aromas of dumplings in Chinatown, and headed to North Beach, apparently one of the places to be on a Saturday night.

We went to an excellent Afghani restaurant called Helmand, and besides the rude hostess seating us late (we had a reservation) everything was superb and worth every penny. We shared a bottle of Rock Rabbit Shiraz (2003), the rack of lamb and Aushuk (Afghani ravioli filled with leeks and scallions with a ground beef + tomato and mint yogurt sauce on top). We also had some lovely spiced rice pudding that wasn't too aromatic but still was nicely nutmegged and pistachioed, if you know what I mean.

After dinner we trekked up many hills (I think my butt was looking better by the second) to a get together where we knew no one. Jason wanted to meet the folks he was getting together with for Bay to Breakers. We met some cool Michigan Business School alums there and I displayed my sharpie skillz.


We caught a cable car back to Jason's neighborhood. There was a quite a scene, and luckily, my car is the closest one on the right, so I was able to drive away. I think there were about 20 cops there and a lot of flashing lights. Hugged goodbye and headed back to my hamlet in the south: San Jose. I had a great night.

[PS Speaking of D'Angelo, I have heard on the wire that he is releasing a new album entitled James River. Can't wait.]