5 years

it's been 5 years to the day that i moved to california. not that that's a big deal to anybody, but i just remembered it during lunch.
when i came to san francisco 5 years ago i showed up too early to my sort of hotel where i lived for the first month i was here, and so i had to hang around for two hours before my room was ready. so i walked up to this park on top of nob hill and read the paper. there was an add for a play staring joan collins and george hamilton. and i remember thinking "this is where it's at. living in a city where i can go see theater with big leaugers like george hamilton and joan collins. interestingly enough, years and years ago my aunt joan dated george hamilton when she was a young vixen living in europe. or at least they went out once. anyways, her name was joan, joan collins, etc.
and so i was reading the paper and then a woman walked up to me and asked me directions to someplace. and i thought "wow, i already give off the impression that i live here." which was odd considering that i was sitting in a park with a bunch of luggage. as it happened i had no idea how to tell her where to go because i had no idea where i was, or what direction north was for that matter. that was a strange thing. the first week i was here it was cloudy everyday and i could never figure out which way north and south and stuff was.
time passed, some of my paper blew away, and i went to try and check into my hotel again. this time it worked. i hopped in the elevator which was covered in these enormous red padded things for loading furniture i guess. to make matters more delightful the famous san francisco twins were in the elevator, also decked out in all red. i had never heard of these two gals before and so was understandably amazed/scared too be sharing my first california elevator ride with the senior cast of twin peaks. but they kept their hands to themselves so it was an uneventful ride to the third floor. or fourth or wherever i was living. all i remember was that i shared the floor for at least a week with i think a teenage soccer team from a country where people scream all the time and throw anything they can find against the nearest wall. all i know is that they were always in gym clothes and screamed and threw things against the other side of my walls.
i lived in this sort of hotel for a month. then i moved to the marina and that's where things really got exciting. but it's 65 and sunny out now so i'm going to go celebrate my quintcenteniall and hit some golf balls.