The San Francisco Chapter: New beginnings.

I arrived to San Francisco a little over a week ago...Thanksgiving day to be exact.  My friend living here left Wednesday morning and has gone to Thailand for about 11 weeks and needed someone to take care of his cat while he is gone exploring the world.   The  6 days I got to spend with him were amazing.   He showed me all of his favorite spots in the city.
He's taught me a few good lessons since I've been here.

Lesson #1: Get out as much as you can to places you find magical.

I got to experience the beautiful, magical Marine Highlands and a few other parks around here.   Because he rents a studio apartment with no kitchen...just the bed, closet, and bathroom, he decided to make up different names for bars and restaurants he goes near where he lives.  He has a restaurant/bar he calls the living room, one he calls the study, another one he calls the coat closet..etc.

Lesson #2. Don't talk to homeless people here.
 Now despite him teaching me this lesson, I relearned it the other day after he set off to his adventure in Thailand.  While I was waiting at a bus stop, a homeless woman (possibly drugged up on Meth) came up to me.  She apologized for bothering me. I stood there staring down at my phone while she continued stating how her purse got stolen etc. etc., in which case I looked up and noticed she had a beautiful purse hidden behind a black plastic bag she was holding.  When I confronted her and told her that her purse was right there..she started screaming at me telling me it was a different purse etc.  In which case, I removed myself as quickly as I could from that situation.



Lesson #3: Always look at the ground.  There could be poop...animal or human.
Great lesson.  The one time I was walking with him, I wasn't paying attention to what was on the ground in front of me and felt myself step on something. Luckily it was just a rolled up sock, but I quickly remembered to always look down and I'm grateful I do, because there were many close encounters.


Lesson #4: close caps
I never realized that I had a problem closing lids, but I do.  I think there is a lot of symbolism behind this.  It could be the fact that I don't like things to be confined...or it could just be an awful habit that I'm now trying to overcome.

Lesson #5: Keep room neat
Since my friend has been gone, which is only 2.5 days, I've been doing my best to keep the area neat and tidy.  It's amazing what a difference it makes when your area is clean and free of clutter.  Although it's been hard work doing so, I'm hoping in no time it will be second nature and that I can be free from chaos...or at least external chaos.

Lesson #6:  Just be..just live.
In the short few days we hung out, my friend reminded me to appreciate being me and to not feel the need  to be like someone else etc.  I think for the longest time I've just wanted to be someone else and not accept who I am.  For the longest time, I just never saw the true beauty I possessed. I knew there were people smarter, prettier, sexier, etc than me and I wanted to be those people.  I couldn't learn to accept the fact that I couldn't be them...I couldn't just say that you know what..I'm not them and it's okay.   I'm grateful for the friends I have because they all remind me of this.  I'm grateful for the fact that I have true, beautiful people in my life that cherish me, want to help me grow, want to see me happy and want to be around me because I am me.



I think living here in San Francisco is helping me to learn to accept myself a lot.  I notice that people don't judge here.  Everybody just seem to be in their own world and I like that.  I don't feel out of place like I did back home in NJ.   There is a lot of uniqueness here and a lot of beauty as well as a lot of misery.  However, I'm teaching myself and practicing everyday to find the beauty here.  There are the very wealthy and there are the very poor. It's just nice to see a different perspective of life..especially being around the homeless people here.  I have never in my life seen so many homeless.  The sad part about it, is that a majority of them that I see are all doped up on something and some make it known.  I saw a man the other day making some mixture of some sort to inject into him.  All in all, I'm just grateful for this opportunity to be here. I'm grateful to be in a warm climate and away from the miserable winters I've endured for the last 30 years of my life.  So here here to new beginnings..to a new chapter in my life.  And here here to lessons that I continue to learn each and every day.

Thank you for reading! .