San Francisco Friday

Yesterday evening, I went into San Francisco to meet up with my old buddy Sanjay, who is in town visiting from Puerto Rico, where he teaches at Princeton Review and speaks no Spanish ("I can order food REALLY well though!"). I've known him for almost 10 years, so it's nice to reunite every once in a while.

However, we have very different styles of plan-making. He is more along the lines of the rest of the population, whereas I am fairly psychotic when it comes to organizing get-togethers. I prefer to specify a time and a location, and meet up there and then. I am trying to be more open and spontaneous though, so I tried to keep my cool (and *mostly* succeeded) when plans kept changing, and things felt like they were never going to come together. But you know what? Everything worked out fine, and while it wasn't my ideal or preferred way of scheduling a night out on the town, it was fun. Yeah, I spent over an hour sitting alone at Dolores Park, but I had brought a book, and I actually enjoyed just hanging out alone, people-watching (hippies and hipsters galore! puppies! babies! hula hoops!) and reading and taking in the fresh air. Until it got cold; then I was all, "hey Sanjay, where the hell are you!??" For Reals.

For the whole evening, I was just along for the ride - a position I'm not used to being in. I am usually the planner, and I stress out (or whatever) about getting everyone coordinated, in the same place at the same time, on schedule, etc. It was kind of nice to just get in a car and follow along with wherever we were going. At one point, we were on the corner of 14th and Valencia, not sure where this restaurant was where we were supposedly meeting people (people I didn't know, mind you. check me out!). And until we walked into the restaurant, I was convinced we were going for sushi. Turns out, we were going for gourmet (aka: organic shmancy hippie) pizza. Go figure. But it was delicious (albeit overpriced), and it was even kind of fun sitting at a table with 8 strangers making semi-awkward conversation. And oh-my-god, the bathroom at this restaurant (downstairs; the upstairs one wasn't much to talk about). Worth a trip out there just to see the craziness (see below).

All in all, I really enjoyed the evening. I had a great time walking from BART to Dolores Park, taking pictures of the funky shops and interesting San Francisco architecture. Photos below: