Day: January 1, 2004

Kat called bright and early this morning for our breakfast plans. We were still sleeping, and my brain was still a bit muddled from the booze of last night. We got things worked out, and they came to our hotel to pick us up. We wanted to go to a little breakfast place called Mama's, but the lineup was just silly. We ended up going to the little place on the wharf we'd tried a few days ago. The food was good, and we picked up the conversations where we left them last night. Those two are really fun to talk to, as they're rather anti-Bush and quite liberal in their views. The suicide camel story was the best one so far…

We drank too much coffee, at the breakfast place and then at Buena Vista cafe, the birthplace of the Irish Coffee. Dear lord, I'm wired right now. Today is our day to do sweet fuck all, so that's good. The weather is fairly bleh, and we're both tired, so we're staying in the hotel and doing nothing. Besides, most places will be closed today, so we're going to catch up on our R&R and watch a movie or something.

We just got back from the boat trip. I've spent many a new years eve night that wasn't as fun. We got on the boat, the Butchie B, with time to spare and just sat around, looking at the different people who were getting on. We left the pier at 10:30, and headed towards Alcatraz. The rain that had been forecasted was keeping away so far, and the night was quite comfortable. Once on the bay, I headed towards the front of the boat and started to mingle with the people there. I started talking to a couple of people, and we basically just spent the night together. Kat, a California valley girl, was an Arabic interpreter for the marine corps who now studies physics and women's studies and Aaron is a cartographer. We had a blast talking to them. They're thinking of becoming American political refugees in Canada. I gave them my coordinates and invited them to Montreal. The Bay cruise was really fun, the conversation was interesting, but the fireworks were a letdown. No biggie though, Mg, Kat and I shared the bottle of rose, and though I didn't get a New Year's kiss, I got a New Years hug, so that's something :) Just after midnight, the rain started coming down, but nothing too bad.

I found out that my new coat is nicely water-resistant, but a drainage hose from the boat's top got unhooked and poured down my back, which wasn't as fun. When we got back to port, I had to rescue my backpack from a drunken reveller (“It's my backpack. This is my flashlight, my checkbook and my passport. No, I don't know how your purse ended up in there.”) and we ended up going to Jack's for a beer with Kat, her parents and Aaron. We swapped a few stories and called it a night. We walked back to the hotel, called them a cab, and made plans for breakfast.

Good night all. Happy new year to all the people I care for, you all know who you are.

Today was another walking day, and another park day. We started the day late, after a bit of sleeping in. After a bit of breakfast/lunch in the wharf, we took the bus to Golden Gate park, where we walked around the japanese tea garden. It was very serene and i imagine it looks awesome in the summertime, when everything is in full bloom. It was still quite nice, and I managed to take some nice pictures, including a shrine, a buddha and the Zen garden, among others. That's one thing that struck me of San Francisco, it has an abundance of green spaces and parks. We took another bus and headed over to Alamo Park, where we saw lots of doggies and the postcard row, the most photographed Victorian houses in all of San Francisco.

It was still early, so we decided to walk a bit more, and headed off towards the wrong side of the tracks, as it were. We saw City Hall, and then did a bit of a walk on Market Street. Hooah… Run down shops, panhandlers galore, and the smell of urine in the air. It's amazing the difference a few blocks makes. After that, we headed over to the trolley terminus, and waited in line with a nice couple from Philly. The cable car ride was really fun. We did the whole Powell-Hyde line. Mg and I were right in front of the trolley, hanging out of the car. I had to give my backpack to a nice couple that had driven up from Tijuana for some holidays. You know that SF is hilly, and from walking up Hyde street yesterday, it's steep as well. Going down that hill on the cable car was something else though. Looking down the hill is something you have to see to believe. When you're on top of the hill looking straight ahead, you don't even see the down slopes. That's how steep they are.

After that, we came back to the hotel to freshen up a bit, let the blisters on our feet cool off, and get ready for dinner. We wanted to go to the Moose, so we headed up to little Italy. Reservations would have been a good idea, as our first two restaurant trials were booked solid. We ended up on the wharf again, and managed to find what turned out to be an excellent Sicilian restaurant that was superbly attentive to my allergies. I love it when I'm put at ease like I was tonight, and I usually show it through a good tip. I had a great piece of swordfish, a bleh espresso and a very good port.

I talked to Mg over dinner. We came to the following conclusion: good riddance 2003, may you burn in hell. Job worries, family worries, health worries, lack of female companionship, 2003 sucked. On the plus side, I've made many new friends, like Strychnin, Black_tulip and Hyde_grrl and met Sparrow for the first time. There were some good moments to be had, but overall, 2003 goes down as a bleh year and I'm glad it's over.

So as I'm writing this, I'm busy working on getting tipsy, listening to some tunes on my laptop, talking to a little bird, and getting ready for our evening on the Bay. We reserved seats on a boat tour of the Bay at night, and we're going to watch the fireworks by the Bay Bridge.