Funny thing has been happening to me lately: I’ve forgot to eat. No, seriously. It’s not because I don’t much of an appetite, I kind of do but the real reason is that I’ve been receiving other kind of nourishment that has been enthralling me: after spending a few days in San Francisco, I’ve found myself soaking up the remarkable energy of the bay area. San Francisco has world-class dining and I’ve been nibbling on many sumptuous treats. I had to run out at 11pm last night to Chinatown to feed my craving for a hearty (spicy!) bowl of hot-and-sour soup; not the bland kind you’re used to getting in Americanized Chinese restaurants but the real deal! This soup was actually red from peppers so you could tell how hot it is. The egg and tofu were great in it!
I don’t know what it is but people seem more aware in the bay area than they do where I’m originally from, L.A. — in fact, the impressions, the sights, the sounds, the touches, tastes, etc. have all been a nice display of sensory pleasures. Don’t get me wrong, I mean, I’ve been here before but never for this long and never just to chill, I’d usually have a lot of activities and stuff to do with friends but lately I’ve just played it all by ear. I took the BART train to Oakland last night to where I stayed one summer with family two decades ago. It still looks the same, even the little market where my uncle used to work. I can see us in my mind’s eye jumping on the BART going down to the Bayfair Mall to get my little boombox. Hard to believe that it’s been so long when it seems like only yesterday. The area hasn’t changed very much but our lives have changed immensely. Two of the people who I was closest to, my uncle Larry and my sweet, loving grandmother Mary have both passed on since our journey to and from Oakland. There’s something strangely interesting about the passage of time and how our memories can remain vivid, down to the very minute detail. I’m waiting for Apple to come out with a MemoryTV, you know, something phenomenally amazing that taps into the deep well of the subconscious mind to tune in and display our dreams, our visions and our many visual notions. That, my friends, would be the greatest invention known to humankind. Well, that and the transporter beam but I’m still waiting for some modern-day Scotty out there to come up with a way to make commuting as instantaneous as texting. Beam me up, Scotty!
