I love San Francisco.
Let me reiterate: I am in-love with San Francisco.
I was reading a post the other day where my favorite Fraulein, Viviane, described her year living abroad in Oklahoma and it was so interesting and even endearing to read about her fascination with all things Americana. Football, grocery store shopping, college life, flip flops from Old Navy, french fries and drive-thru burgers, Mexican food. Hearing her wax poetic about things that are so familiar to me was both refreshing and surprising. I hadn’t ever thought of football (Touchdown! football, not Goal! football), or Old Navy as poetic subjects, but to hear Viv describe it, I got all sentimental about America.
I kind of feel about San Francisco the way Viviane feels about Oklahoma; it is romanticized in my head–and my heart–and can do no wrong. The lights, the sights, the street-vendors, the smells and even the crazies are dear to me in a way my own hometown has never been and may never be. My sentiments about San Francisco are certifiably irrational and quite possibly illogical, as I’m sure disillusioned locals would tell me. I am aware. The thing is, I just don’t care that I am acting irrational or illogical–and those of you in-love with something or someone will understand.
I am not a Hemingway, or Longfellow, or Neruda–laws, I have such a big crush on Neruda right now–I am not naturally poetic. I am more snarky. Or sarcastic. Eh, maybe I’m a bit poetic about shoes, but that’s a very specific type of poetry that is generally small in scope. Describing a pair of velvety black stilettos can be accomplished in a paragraph, to describe a whole city will take volumes and volumes. I believe it has been attempted, although I’m not sure of the success.
What do you love? What experience, or person, or thing absolutely takes your breath away? It is a sound? Or a breath-taking view? Or someone who inspires you? How do you describe that feeling?
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Funny, I just dreamed about San Francisco last night! And I was just bursting with joy to be back there again.
Comment by Janssen 2009 February 3 @ 8:26 amI love Denver, which is why right now, when I have the option to live anywhere, that’s where I’m going. I can totally understand how you feel.
Comment by Jess 2009 February 3 @ 8:30 amMiami! There’s something about that city that will always be home. I love walking into 90 degree humidity and being soaked in my own sweat after 5 minutes. There’s something comforting about never having to check the weather report.
Comment by Margarita 2009 February 3 @ 9:19 amThere are a couple trips that I talk about all the time: (1) my experience abroad in Kiel, Germany (for some reason I don’t wax as poetic about Berlin), (2) my post-college cross-country roadtrip to Boston, NY, and DC. I am in love with these experiences. I feel like my recent mounting of Mt. Olympus is reaching this status as well.
I am also in love with Southern Utah and my experiences with the Shakespeare Festival and the beautiful wilderness down there during every summer of my life so far.
Finally, I am in love with the way I used to feel when I played guitar for a couple hours every day. It was so healing to me to do that. Now that I’m not very good anymore, it’s just kind of depressing, but the memories give me reason to try again.
Comment by Sra 2009 February 3 @ 11:02 am[...] the way, Heidi over from heidikins.com wrote a post a place she loves [hint: it is a place I love too and it is not Oklahoma] that was inspired by my [...]
Pingback by Earth to Bella » A non-event 2009 February 3 @ 2:33 pmAwww, I feel so special, I am not sure anyone has ever written a post after reading one of mine. <3
Comment by Viviane 2009 February 3 @ 2:37 pmYou know, I actually love SF as well, and I could totally picture myself living there. I only spent a week there almost four years ago, but it felt like the perfect mixture of Europe (public transport) and the United States (hi American food and life style) as well as awesome other things (like the ocean).
You know, while I lived in the US, all these things I miss got kind of normal for me, which, I guess, was also why I noticed their lack once I came back to Germany. (Not to say that I am sitting around crying for Hot Tamales every time I smell a hint of cinnamon, but I do get excited whenever I get a chance to eat them or see / eat / ‘insert fitting verb’ a product / thing we don’t have here.
I left my heart, in San Clemente. Or at least what I used to always sing.
The most amazing sight and experience I have ever had, occurred in a marsh. I was sitting, watching the world wake up, hoping to surprise a lost duck. Right before the sun came up the temperature dipped a couple of degrees. On this day, it was just cold enough to create frost. Frost doesn’t just happen here a little, or there a little. It rolls out like a blanket of dusty white. It was like one place started it and infected the rest and suddenly, in less than a breath, it was everywhere- even on me. If you would have blinked you’d have missed it. One second nothing, the next- Frost.
Comment by Frank 2009 February 3 @ 5:15 pmI’m with You. I love San Francisco! Let comedians and late-night talk show hosts put her down, with innuendo about the Gay population, ’cause that’s one of the chief sources for her creativity and individuality. I lived out on “the peninsula” for several years, in what is now “Silicon Valley”.
Comment by Herman Morgan 2009 February 3 @ 9:19 pmBack in those days, our circle of friends would anxiously await visitors from back-east, or even Southern Ca.,..we would have an excuse to take them to “The City”. The way we looked forward to those trips was sorta childlike, and very stoner-like, kind of our own “Magical Mystery Tour”. After taking them through Haight-Ashbury, showing them the Fillmore, and maybe Winterland too, we would take the ride up Nob Hill, show them the museums in Golden Gate park, them down to Fisherman’s wharf for some crab and sourdough. But, my favorite part of the tour, was dining in Chinatown ! WoW.
Having made four trips to Vietnam, and spending considerable time around southeast Asia, we were all about some good “Oriental” food. (BTW When did Oriental fall into disfavor? and why are they all just Asians now ?)
O.K., got a little carried away there, I apologize, but even after 30 some years back in the Midwest, I have no qualms at all about saying the San Francisco will always be “The City” to me.
I have strong feelings for SF, my birthplace. Every time I’ve been there, people are very friendly and welcoming. It makes me feel like I’m going home. It’s also an interesting city. Seattle has a similar feeling to it with bookstores and coffee, and places for people to chat and sit, and interesting venues.
I’ll never forget the time I drove to Jackson Hole in the middle of the night and arrived at dawn. The whole valley was filled with steam and fog, and lit up like it was on fire when we arrived, almost on cue. We could hardly see a few feet in front of us, then every once in a while the fog would open up and you could see the valley, or trees, or streams, with the bright orange, sunset-looking oranges, whites and coral colors. It jolted me awake. It was a gift to see it.
Comment by Jen 2009 February 4 @ 12:37 pmsan francisco is absolutely amazing. i love that place so much too. as for another place i love, all of germany. i hope to go back one day, it’s amazing.
Comment by katelin 2009 February 4 @ 2:12 pmI love sitting on top of a mountain. My head gets so full that I can’t think, if that makes sense, and I just want to sit there for hours.
Comment by Allie 2009 February 4 @ 6:38 pmI have several:
**Autumn in New England, at the peak of foliage.
Comment by Dawn 2009 February 5 @ 12:28 pm**Sunrise over pristine snow that fell overnight.
**A night sky filled with stars out in the country where nothing interferes with their light. The only thing that tops this in when you see an actual falling star.
if you’re looking for snarky poetry, seek out dorothy parker.
i’ve got to go read the link to someone waxing philosophical about oklahoma. THAT sounds amazing.
i think all of us are illogical about the places we love. i can see no wrong whatsoever in cape town, tho’ i’m sure there are maybe things there that aren’t so good. i just love it unconditionally anyway.
BTW–thanks for stopping by and telling me that you too knit like a retarded monkey. it actually makes me feel a lot better! i thought i was the only one.
Comment by julochka 2009 February 6 @ 12:17 amAs far as places go, I love Santa Barbara (CA) during all seasons except for most summers. The reason being that summers are usually socked in with fog for weeks on end. But then, the other 10 months of the year are drop dead gorgeous. I lived there for 5 years and it wasn’t enough. I want to go back in some ways.
The other place I love is the Columbia Gorge (Oregon & Washington) in the summer time. I understand that for about 8 or 9 months of the year they get a lot of rain and it is overcast and depressing. But man, during the summers? It is warm, humid, there are thunder & lightning storms, hiking and waterfalls galore, all surrounded by green fir trees, ferns, grass, plants, ponds, lakes, rivers, and creeks. I grew up visiting there almost every summer to see my grandparents and I love it there so much.
Comment by Chiada 2009 February 6 @ 10:37 am