03 December 2008

You Can Never Go Home

I recently bought my ticket to go back to San Francisco for the holidays. It's been a year since I've been and although I miss my friends and family I have to say that I am not that homesick. Dare I say it, am I becoming a New Yorker? I promise I will never be one of those New York people who rattles on about "the energy" or lists off a bunch of stupid advantages (deli's! subways!) that betray the fact that they have obviously never lived anywhere besides their suburban home town and their small liberal arts college.
I think the main thing I don't miss about SF is the weather. The persistent cold. The damp dark cold that chills you to the bone. Cold that cannot be escaped by going indoors, "central heating, are you kidding this is
California!"
I hate California its cold and it's damp.
At least I am going in the winter when cold can be expected, it is even sadder when its July and it's just as cold.
Growing up in the unglamorous southern extremes of the city my impression of it was mostly like the photo above. When I last lived in SF in 2006 I lived in a really nice sunny part of the Mission, but my mom and siblings still live in the house I lived in in high school in the not so lovely
Excelsior District. Oh the Excelsior, if you don't live there you've probably never been though I can brag that it was the childhood home of Jerry Garcia. District 11 (for those of you who may have recently seen Milk) the District represented by Dan White he of the famous 'twinkie defense'.

I did some flickr searches and I found some great images though none of them really capture how dreary and boring the EX is normally (people usually post pretty photos on the internet).


My cross streets! Russia and Moscow, I KNOW hilarious.
via Octoferret
Yup that's us
via Marcin Wichary
This not my street but that is totally what my house looks like, but not as slanty.
via Dizzy Atomosphere
That's the post office, are we living in the first world or what.
via Gary Soup
I think maybe this was cute in the 50s
via rigamarole
This bus goes right in front of my house, its loud, and it doesn't go anywhere you want to go.
via dannyman
Some times I walk up to that water tower with my brother and sister, it's cute.
via a_sorense
This is what the view looks like from my mother's bedroom. That is Daly City.
via pbo31
Abandoned Pandas are an issue.
I used to want to go to this bar when I was a teen. Some band used a drawing of this sign for an album cover but I don't remember who.
This place is still fully operational.
This is the corner of Mission St. and Russia Ave. There used to be a mural of Che Guevara here by Spy, it wasn't that good though and they built this in front of it.
Does this make me seem bratty? Sorry I love my roots! EX-MOB 4EVA. Really in a lot of ways the Excelsior is a lot like my current neighborhood off the Graham stop in Brooklyn.
Next I will do a post on my true childhood home, the Dimond District of Oakland. Get Ready!

6 comments:

melaniebee said...

you know surprisingly we had a summer this year. in fact, it is STILL kind of summer. global warming, huh.

Unknown said...

"Abandoned Pandas are an issue."
So are abandoned Erins- come back!

Anonymous said...

loved the blog... then i read this comment...

"...one of those New York people who rattles on about "the energy" or lists off a bunch of stupid advantages (deli's! subways!) that betray the fact that they have obviously never lived anywhere besides their suburban home town and their small liberal arts college"

i love new york. i've lived in new york for years, among other places -- including international cities, my suburban home town and a small liberal arts college -- and although i've never rattled on about the energy and i don't think delis or subways are great by any stretch of the imagination... i do take offense.

Joanna Goddard said...

haha, this was an awesome post.

ps. oh please. anonymous has no sense of humor! your new york comments were hilarious. (i live in new york and love the energy and delis :)

I ♥ NY said...

haha i second joanna. funny post. super cute blog.

and why does 'anonymous' have her panties in a twist anyway? what you said is so true! in fact i think i may qualify as one of those new york people... but shhh don't tell!

justbrad said...

"anonymous," why get offended? even though you do not rave about delis or subways, a lot of people do. me being one of them, his words could have been taken as a direct insult by me, but its one's opinion that's relatively fair. i'm only 20, and I do not live in new york currently, but i used to spend my summers there growing up, and have lived in europe for a year, but now reside in a smalltown liberal arts college, and grew up in a surburban hometown.. i think he nailed it haha