When I began writing this blog I had discovered that all of my devices had failed and I did not know the reasonAll of my devices have failed, leaving me helpless and hopeless. all were stagnant. Later I found the culprit – it was Verizon, as soon you will see,
The end of my Marin days occurred three days ago. – it went out with a bang (not exactly. On the way to breakfast I ran into a large collection of men hanging out and drinking beer. It was a sight to behold. They were all California State employees working on the freeway, an overnight gig. They had gotten off work and were celebrating the birthday of one of their colleagues. Of course it became mandatory that I join them. Slowly the majority drifted off leaving me in the company of two men. One became Number 62 – a thirty-year-old hailing from the Ukraine. He was quite smitten promising everything – including the offer to clean my apartment in the nude. He promised to fill all positions in my life – my doctor, my financial advisor, my masseurs, my dishwasher. He called me the cutest girl he had every met. He HAD to be drunk – his kind offers were tactfully and graciously refused. But he has a certain distinction, he was the youngest.
Of to breakfast where I had a GERD attack, choking with great enthusiasm without one person offering to help. It was a bit of a downer, to say the very least. But back to my room to finish packing. My personal driver efficiently arrived on time, next to the storage facility to pick up some stuff and then to my new abode. Everything went amazingly well – J, was there to greet me, loaded the stuff into a cart and off to the apartment. The building is like a rat’s maze in many ways with strange and different entrances but I am home – finally. And I love it and the neighbourhood.
I reflect, as I look out my window, that this could be back in 1967, the year I first came to San Francisco. The buildings are old and most eclectic. Certainly not one architectural style – but many. But this is not a sight for sore eyes – it is San Francisco at its best, at its very finest.
It was off to dinner – although there is a kitchen here – incredibly well equipped – but there was no such thing as food.
The following morning it was breakfast time and the best thing in the world happened. I rather accidentally stopped at Stacks and what a find. I had the best of times, joking with people and eating the best omelette I have ever tasted. It shall be pictured below, it was all over Instagram immediately. I complemented the chef and told him and the owner that he should get a raise. Apparently he shall, I do hope that he thinks that I am responsible. Then I worked my way homeward to unpack – a rather Herculean task. The word for the day meaning arduous. grueling, laborious, back-breaking, onerous, strenuous, difficult, formidable, hard, tough, huge, massive, uphill; demanding, exhausting, taxing; archaic toilsome. ANTONYMS easy.
But what made this onerous, grueling, formidable task almost easy was the television set which is equipped wit Netflix – I unpacked to tens of episodes of Grace and Frankie . I had read about this phenomena but never before indulged – it is called binging. You watch EVERY episode for hours at a time – get the whole series in one sitting. It was actually totally overwhelming. I am not done yet but I am getting there. It is written by a woman called Alexa so it makes me feel right at home. Jane and Lily are my age but I do not strongly identify with them – I have no kids and my husband did not go gay on me. They still frantically look for love but with men who are age appropriate. That is not my tendency as paragraph two of this blog will attest.
But the next morning catastrophe struck OK catastrophe will be the other word of the day. The origin of the word is mid 16th century (in the sense ‘denouement’): from Latin catastropha, from Greek katastrophē ‘overturning, sudden turn’, from kata- ‘down’ + strophē ‘turning’ (from strephein ‘to turn’). This is what thesauruses says: disaster, calamity, cataclysm, holocaust, havoc, ruin, ruination, tragedy; adversity, blight, trouble, trial, tribulation.
None of my devices were working and I have many – two computers, an IPad, three phones. The reason for this was suddenly revealed. For the third time in my thee month relationship with Verizon my service was shut down and it is IMPOSSIBLE to deal with, quite simply because they also shut down ALL on line support. I went into a Verizon store on the other two occasions but this time the store was either on Market Street or nowhere to be found. To say the least I am furious – absolutely furious. The day’s plans were ruined, necessary appointments had to be shelved and a feeling of utter and extreme helplessness ensued. I have portable WiFi – well did – it no longer works. One of my Apple computers is frozen and the Union Square Apple Store is too far away. I questioned myself, my whole existence. At the end of the day J. came to my rescue supplying me router information for my apartment. But before help came I looked at my existence and actually decided to give up blogging and social media presence – instead and existence where i would live in the moment and in the neighbourhood.
My old computer seems to be working and so does my apartment WiFi so I am writing this. But in the midst of the shutdown , when at Stacks, my new favorite restaurant and speaking with staff, I enthused:
Me: I love this place!
She: We love you!
I am good at human interaction, perhaps I should just stick with that.
Pictured are Stack’s crab omelette and a residence in my new neighbourhood that I love. .
