Things are getting a little hectic upstairs. I've been thinking about moving for a while now but still have no clear ideas or plans. First it was NYC. Then Seattle came into the picture. Now Tim is trying to convince me to cast my hopes and dreams towards San Francisco. Well, ok; to be fair, he mainly wants to move there himself, and he's not exactly bullying me into anything, but he's been talking about it more lately and dropping these little seeds in my mind. His technique seems to be working.
I lived in the SF area for two years when I was younger. I loved it and I miss it, still. I was very happy when I lived there, and when my family moved I was pretty upset. In fact, the way I figure it, I haven't really been the same since. Maybe it was just that particular time or a set of circumstances, or—more likely—my young age, but there seemed to be so many possibilities. There were neat and shiny things that swirled around my head back then.
I have fond memories from that time in my life. It's when I really started to know myself. My tastes in music and culture were expanding, for once independently from my older brother's. I went to my first few memorable concerts there. And it was then, in some shop on Haight St. that I bought my first (and only) pair of Doc Martens. I made music videos with my parents' camcorder and watched 120 Minutes (recorded the night before) on Monday afternoons after school. I went to coffee houses and watched Ren & Stimpy, became fascinated with lucid dreaming, started building a decent home stereo, and dialed into the BBSs and studied the lost art of phone phreaking. And I was happy.
So anyway, I have no idea what to do yet. I know it's time to move on——at least that much is clear. There's much research to be done. I should get going on that, huh?
In the meantime, I guess I'll have a beer or something. If you're in the DC area and looking for something to do tonight, consider checking out Hump Nite at Galaxy Hut. My friend is DJing and I can tell you from personal experience that it will be good.
7 comments:
Your teenage years sound very similiar to mine, except that I don't connect them with a place. I just remember having bright, shiny thoughts and connecting them with getting the hell out of dodge (The Eastern Shore at the time). However, SF does hold a bright spot for me since I visited a few years back, and I've always wanted to move out there. It has a certain antiquated appeal, look, and culture to me (I can still see hints of Hitchcock's SF in "Vertigo" in SF today, I guess because it hasn't fallen victim to the box stores and megaplexes). I was just reading a short story last night that took place in SF, and now I pine all the more for it. What part of SF did you live?
We actually lived north of the city in Marin County most of the time we were there. First in a town called Novato, and then on an inactive Air Force base a few miles away. Then, just before we moved, we stayed a short while on the Presidio right near the Golden Gate bridge.
Then it was off to hell (aka Chesapeake, VA) after my father retired from the Army.
Only one pair of doctor martens? Ha. It might be sad but I have had a lifelong love affair with those shoes. Embarrassing but true. But they're so damn comfortable and give the impression that my feet don't look like Wilma Flintstone's.
I haven't done extensive traveling, but my one trip to SF and I fell in love with it. I really did. It is just beautiful and damn that weather is perfect. It was one place I thought I would consider moving to if I didn't live here... well now New Orleans got moved onto the list as well. I would imagine I would have more of a sense of overall well-being in SF though.
You have to understand that when i bought my pair of Docs (in the early 90s), it was just before they began to get very popular. Then, we moved to hicksville, va where I couldn't find them if I wanted to. A few more years pass and then suddenly nearly everyone at Lollapalooza 4 or whatever has 'em. It just kinda turned me off. Not like I was the first one to have Docs, of course. You're a few years older came up in a slightly different time. Just different enough that you didn't see all the poseurs wearing those shoes. To you, they're just classic. (And they are, if you forget all the people who co-opted them as part of their "alternative" style). Am I rambling? Wilma Flintstone feet? Really? :)
SF is great. DC is just way too conservative for me. And many other things I do not like, but that's for some other time.
Oh, I have two good ideas for your mix CD. I'm leaning toward one of them more recently, so I might get started on it soon.
Hee hee, yes, really, I have Wilma Flintstone feet! They're ridiculously narrow!
Yeah, it's true -- I am a few years older so when I first started wearing Docs, they were only shoes enjoyed by the subculture. It was weird in later years where they got adopted by the masses... I remember being disgusted and appalled when the characters on 90210 were wearing them. Definite poseurville!
So I can understand your subsequent disgust. I am sometimes disgusted even now with them... now that they're not even made in Britain anymore and so forth. Unfortunately, it has not stopped my habit! And I know another girl who has a similar fixation. Ha.
Thank you soooo much for thinking about the mix CD! I've been wracking my brains trying to think of something to send to you. Maybe something really obscure that is out of print now. :) I have some stuff like that. Thought that it couldn't hurt and at the very least, it might be interesting as something that you wouldn't necessarily run across now!
I don't know if you can picture this on me Jeff, but before I had docs I had a pair of actual army issue combat boots that I wore all the time, even with shorts. For some reason tho, they were slippery as fuck in the snow, which sorta defeats the purpose, right?
I never understood that about combat boots. They give you virtually no traction. What gives?
But yes, I can totally picture that. My friend in CA used to wear his Doc boots with shorts all the time. Then again, he also wore long johns under those shorts, so who knows what was going on there.
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