Eccentric Flower:199904/field report part one
From Eccentric Flower
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april twenty-fifth field report (part one) OAKLAND - Did you ever read that Calvin and Hobbes strip about how Calvin was suddenly able to see all sides of an issue? Suddenly the world shifted into this horrendous Cubist mishmash, until he was able to exclude other points of view and get back to his own reality. It's not that bad, but I feel a little cursed by my own tendency to endless self-analysis. I adore San Francisco. In anyone else, that would make them happy. It makes me sad. Or at least a little wistful. I adore my hostess. That, too, makes me sad. It is an odd trait of mine that I appear most cheerful in adversity. When it's three a.m. and I'm trapped by the freeway in the middle of nowhere with a broken car, that's when I'm most likely to start giggling with the sheer absurdity of it. But ... despite the fact that I may not be smiling a lot, and despite the fact that I nearly cried myself to sleep the first night with the realization that this was a Beautiful Place and I, as an Ugly Thing, didn't belong there ... as I say, despite all that, I am having a lovely time, thanks very much. On Thursday we survived the six hour plane ride (I managed to get an exit row) only to find that we'd made an error in our foolishness. Next time we stay in Oakland, we're landing at the Oakland airport. We were on the exact opposite side of the bay from where we needed to be. If I take anything away from this trip, it will be memories of public transit. I have had some of the best public transit experiences of my life on this trip. I have ridden a bus more in the last three days than I have in Boston in five years. Public transit in the greater SF area is very good, but it's not centralized. It's a bunch of little independent systems, each with its own rules and schedules, and they don't necessarily connect to each other well. It took us three hours to get from SFO to our destination in Oakland. On the way back to the airport, we're getting a ride. (more) © columbine |
