Silly things we do

When I was in University I decided to fly to San Fransisco for a cup of coffee. I wanted to do something fun and spontaneous so I found a cheap flight, put it on my credit card (what was a little more debt anyway) and headed for the airport.
The only preparations I made was calling a youth hostel to make sure they had room for me for the weekend.

I packed up my back pack with my canada flag sewn on it, my toothbrush, change of undies and off I went. All went quite smoothly untill I got to US customs. For some reason they thought it was strange that a student could fly to another country for a cup of coffee. Yes that is what I wrote down as my purpose for going. Let's just say I got searched quite thoroughly and we will leave it at that. Hey I could have lied but I really did have a dream of sitting down in a coffee shop in a foreign country to write in my journal.

I arrived safely and found my way to the hostel. Little did I know that it was located near the tenderloin district which is probably the worst area in San.Fran. I kind of clued into that when I saw only sketchy people walking the streets and when I asked the ambulance parked on the corner for directions he looked at me and told me to turn around, walk in the other direction and not look back for fear of my life. I felt safe. I was tough. After all I was an army medic at the time. I was perfectly qualified to pull the heroin needle out of my arm if I was attacked.

Anyhoo other than that I played the tourist. I walk everywhere until my feel hurt, took the trolley up the hill and sang Rice a Roni...the San.Fransisco treat!!.....Yes out loud.

I avoided a couple of cheesy pick up lines and found my way to the hippy area and found my coffee shop. To my dismay however I remembered the drinking law was 21 and was under age and so going to the club with my Argentinian hostel room mates was out of the question. Oh well. I most likely would have just got myself into trouble anyway. Besides there is only so much fun you can have with people that don't speak a word of english.

One of the highlights was finding the park with the row houses that line it that you see on the beginning of the t.v show FULL HOUSE. You know the one...where they are having a pic nic and DJ's hair is blowing in the wind. Yes I said it. I loved that show and I wanted to BE DJ Tanner....come on you know you did too.

Anyhoo the weekend ended and back home I came. Canadian customs was much easier on me.

Today I get to go out for lunch to my special coffee shop with a friend. I have to admit that I would rather do that than spend a weekend by myself in a foreign land. Much better conversation and company. There is just so much journal writing a person can do before becoming lonely.

Here's to fond memories and crazy times...Thank God I'm not as stupid anymore.