Passing notes on BART / Exploring the Castro

My day started out wonderfully. My alarm went off at 7 and I started to get up. Then I realized it was Saturday, smiled, and went back to sleep. I wish that happened more often. After finally waking up around 10 and cooking a decent breakfast (and I'm proud to say I didn't burn the eggs this time), I decided to go ahead and buy those glasses I found when Amanda and I were roaming the city last weekend.

I drove up to the North Berkeley BART station, parked my car, and waited for an SF train to come through. As I was waiting, a girl waiting for the same train caught my eye. I can't describe her in very much detail now, but something about her really grabbed me. She was about my age, wearing headphones, had her blonde hair pinned up behind her head, and occasionally mouthed the lyrics playing in her head while she nodded slightly. It stuck me as quite adorable. We boarded the same train and set on opposite sides, one row apart. As the train bumped along into the Transbay Tunnel and out the other side, I couldn't stop looking at her and wondering what would happen if I said hello to her.

I came to a realization recently that I don't take enough risks in life. I stayed on the straight and narrow through childhood, high school, and most of college. I dated the girls I knew would be good relationships, took the classes I knew I could do well in, and always paid off my credit card in full each month. I enjoy being spontaneous, but it's not something that comes naturally. I'm entirely too safe, and that needs to change.

So it was with this mindset that I moved out of the Midwest and to San Francisco, way out of my comfort zone. It's the same concept that's causing me to want to become a pilot, or at the very least go skydiving. And today it caused me to take out an old bus pass, scribble a short note on it, and drop it in her hands on my way out of the train. I walked up the exit with my heart beating out of my chest. I didn't look back to see her expression. I'm not sure what I expected, or what she was thinking for the rest of the ride. But I hope what I wrote made her day. I'm such a romantic sap.

Hands still shaking from the exhilaration of forced spontaneity, I took my eye exam and headed to the glasses place. I was fumbling around trying to find the pair I liked despite my blurry vision and sunglasses when I heard somebody behind me say, "Elliot?" Somehow Amanda and I had ended up in the same store at the same time. Very strange. She was with her parents, showing them around the city.

After chatting for a bit, I bought the glasses (and spent way more than I thought I would on them, so let's hope they last another three years), and found myself without much else to do in the city. So I set off across Union Square wearing a large black filter under my glasses to protect my dilated eyes from the glaring sun. Walking among the pretty people wearing their designer outfits, I felt like I should be holding a can and asking for change outside Macy's.

I trekked down to Market Street and decided to check out a part of San Francisco that I haven't explored yet — the Castro. I'm perfectly happy being heterosexual (and it seems that I have to explain that to everybody after telling them I went to the Castro), but I feel like I should visit every part of town at least once, just to see what it's like. So I hopped on the F line and took it all the way to the end, then got off and walked around. It was very obvious that I was in the gay and lesbian capital of the world. If the couples on the street or the rainbow flags didn't give it away, the names of the shops did. My personal favorite was the Sit and Spin Laundromat.

The homes were picturesque painted Victorian row-houses, kept very tidy in most cases. It was every bit as postcard-worthy as Alamo Square. The streets were alive with activity as moms and dads (or dads and dads, or moms and moms) pushed strollers down the sidewalk and groups of well-dressed men gathered outside coffee shops. It felt very much like a community.

I looked to the southwest and saw the ever-visible Sutro Tower in the distance. Having nothing much else to do, and with my spirit of exploration pushing me forward, I walked in its general direction. After negotiating a maze of winding one-way streets and steep climbs on foot, I finally found my way to the top of the hill nearly an hour later. Well, almost to the top of the hill. As far as I could tell, there was no pedestrian access to the tower itself. At least, I didn't feel like climbing up a solid rock face, wading through a forest, and potentially jumping a fence, just to say I had touched the tower. I took some pictures from a nearby street and started back down.

On my way down, I passed some amazing houses on Clarendon Ave. Many of them had large windows overlooking panoramic views of the rest of San Francisco. I thought it was interesting that many had telescopes too. Bunch of rich voyeurs.

A few blocks down, an unmarked gate with steps caught my attention. I had seen a few of these already, but many had gates at the end, indicating private property. This one had no such gate. If I've learned anything from exploring the city, it's that you always want to follow unmarked steps upward. At the top, I found a beautiful little park built into the side of a rocky hill overlooking most of the city. I took some great pictures from there.

Feeling like my feet were on fire from all the walking, I finally wandered back down to Market, grabbed the F to BART, and hopped back home. It was a good day.