I left my heart in...

San Francisco (hereinafter "SF").

I love SF.
So when my job asked if I could fly up to SF for a 10 minute appearance I said sure thing. Spend the morning/afternoon in a city that I love, meeting strangers in the airport, maybe even sneak in a little shopping in Union Square.
4am I'm up and at them, headed to the off airport parking, I make my flight since I have no bags to check, my flight is on time, and at 7am I am in the lovely city of SF. Preparing to get on the BART I speak to a nice young gentleman waiting for the train, we strike up a conversation, chat all the way to my stop. He gets off at my stop with me, walks me to the courthouse, I still have an hour or so before my hearing so he suggests we grab some breakfast. I say sure! We walk Several, and I do mean Several blocks into his neighborhood to his favorite breakfast place. His neighborhood is known as the Tenderloin district. It is everything that the name connotates. It is a neighborhood that I know not to be walking around in alone. Even walking with him I thought, as we passed many of the cities transients, I sure hope he can fight. Thankfully that wasn't necessary. And as we walked I determined that either he was walking me out of that neighborhood or I was cabbing it back to the courthouse.
We arrive at the breakfast place, sit down and the TV is on Fox News...they have found the body of some young woman who had been missing, they believed her death was caused by her boyfriend.
Hmmm, I just followed some strange man that I have never met before several blocks into a neighborhood that I know to be dangerous, to have breakfast at a place that he is familiar with that I am not. Ok. Alright. I agree, not one of my brightest moments. And while yeah i didn't feel at all in danger, Ted Bundy was notoriously charming and non-threatening and he killed several "smart" women.
But then I realized how sad it is that in this day and age two people who have a good conversation can't have breakfast, or meet up, or take their conversation from a happenstance meeting to further deliberations over some eggs, and pancakes? I mean isn't that the basis for most old love stories? Isn't that how Sidney Poitier met all his leading ladies?
My how times have changed.
As an aside, breakfast was great, we had wonderful conversation, we will likely keep in touch.

So after breakfast I head to the hearing, and guess what...its not until the next day. So yeah I went all the way up there, for a 10 minute hearing that wasn't going to take place until the next day. So after meeting and confering with my job, turns out I was going to be spending the night in SF. I got to get up with some good friends, had a good dinner, bought a new outfit, stayed in a nice hotel, and attended the 10 minute hearing the next day.

On the airplane ride home I realized that I hate people on airplanes. In the terminal ppl are fine, in fact generally I am very tolerant of ppl. However on a plane, ppl make me sick. I think its just the proximity and the fact that I have nowhere to go to escape them. The couple next to me were talking and laughing incessantly, the guy next to me kept touching me, and he had to get up to go to the bathroom. Its a 53 minute flight. 53 minutes!!! What adult can't hold it for 53 minutes?? Apparently lots of them. The guy with the window seat in front of me got up twice...twice in 53 minutes.
So yeah I hate ppl on planes, love SF, and like my new friend.