Greetings from San Francisco!

Hey there, everybody! It seems like a long time since I've talked to any of you, even though it's only been six days. So much has happened in the past week.

The plane ride was pretty uneventful. I sat next to a business fella who was trying to take up three seats for the price of one. His elbows were all up in my shit. Then I got a sammidge. It was pretty good, but not worth nine bucks. I thought about the possibility of bringing a parachute in my carry-on luggage. They'd probably think I was planning something. I bet it'd be worth it.

Landed safely at SFO, met Perry who now has a MASSIVE LUMBERJACK BEARD, and his sister Jess. We ate Wendy's (F yeah, buffa chikkins). Did I mention that it was 65 degrees? Yeah. Eat it.

We ended up staying the night at an apartment on Tehama St., which was just a block away from the WORST STREET IN SAN FRANCISCO. Sixth St. is like Pine Street in Lewiston plus Knox Street, and then square it. Some cool graffiti though. So. This place was disgusting. Just really nasty. The folks that lived there were friends of Perry's sister, and had only just gotten their big furniture and stuff out of the joint. They hadn't bothered to sweep or clean their bathroom or get rid of the smell of urine. We ended up sleeping on the floor (albeit on an air mattress). Fun.

The next morning I woke up to the sound of somebody opening the front door. Perry had gone to work at that point, and there was no reason that I knew of for anyone to come in. I was pretty much shitting a brick. Turns out it was their landlord, coming in to look into what sort of repairs and renovations needed to be made. So... I didn't die.

Then, stuff happened. We walked all over everywhere. Perry showed me Chinatown and Little Italy. Then we headed toward the piers for some grub. At Pier 40 there was a restaurant called Pier Market where I had the best fish and chips I've ever eaten. At that point I was pretty well blistered, so I limped my way to the cable car station and hopped a ride back to Jess' place.

We did a lot of packing. I was a little upset that they had barely even started packing their crap by the time I got there. That gave us three days to help them get all of their shit packed, on to trucks and over to their new apartment in the Presidio, about twenty minutes away. I missed the Chinese New Year parade that I wanted to go to, because I was moving their junk. That kinda sucked, but my priority was more to get them moved out so we could be done with them and move in.

After a matter of days the heavy lifting was over and we were able to settle into our new place. It still looked like crap, and nothing was organized, but we were so exhausted that we just kind of collapsed on the closest soft-looking spot and slept it off. Yesterday, we went out to the bank to get some cashiers checks printed up so we could pay our lease office an exorbitant sum of money for rent and security deposit. Got it printed up and everything. Then we went to Staples to pick up a router so's we could internet. We decided that we need to go to Staples more often so we could talk to the cute cashier named Olivia as frequently as possible.

Later, we found out that Perry's account had been debited twice for his $1400 check, so he was $700 in the red. After sorting out that pain in the ass, we headed toward the BART so we could go to IKEA and pick up some furniture. Now, the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) is a subway system that runs from the city to all of the surrounding areas. Now bear in mind that this is a subway in San Francisco. Few things are more terrifying. This train goes directly under the ocean in the bay. If there were a big enough earthquake, we'd be toast. You kind of have to push that into the back of your mind, the same way you do with the possibility of a crash when you fly on a plane.

If there's anything that's more terrifying than the BART, it's Oakland. For those of you that don't know, when the hippie movement flooded San Francisco in the 60's and 70's, it kind of pushed a large number of African Americans and gangs out of the city. And there they stayed, and flourished. Oakland is one of the most violent cities in the country, and we walked through one of the sketchiest neighborhoods I've ever been in. Granted, it was mostly houses, but they were all overgrown and grungy-looking. There were no cars driving down the road I was on, and it was almost silent. Spooky shit.

So the IKEA turned out to be at least a hundred miles away from the BART station, and it took us almost an hour to walk there. It was a magical place though. So many awesome furnitures. It's kinda weird because everything there is in Swedish. We ate Swedish meatballs and bought desks that were apparently named Mikhael. Shelves also. Fortunately we got a ride back to the BART from Perry's sister.

Today was pretty uneventful. I woke up around 11 and looked online for jobs in the area. It's a pain in the butt. Maybe if I'm lucky, the company will take off in the next couple of months and I'll be able to earn enough from that to live on. When Perry got home we built our furniture like men and got crap organized. I started working on a wiki for the Dungeons and Dragons world I've been building over the past couple of years, and kinda chilled out.

Overall, I am in love with this city already. There's so much to do, no matter what part you're in. No matter what you want to do, you'll find it here. Folks aren't really spiteful like they are in Boston or New York. Even the homeless folks are nice. I chatted with one guy named Charles for ten or fifteen minutes the other day. He asked about Maine. I told him all there was to tell in a couple of minutes. Then he asked me for spare change.

I miss most of you already. I don't really miss Maine so much. The only thing that's lacking is the sense of familiarity. I'm still getting used to the fact that everyone I know and everything I've ever seen is thousands of miles away. I know I'll meet new people and find new landmarks to get accustomed to here, but it seems like I left a little too soon to take it all in one last time.

I'll try to write at least something on here every day or two to keep all y'all informed. I'll eventually be posting videos of stuff when I get over my irrational fear that every touristy-looking person that's holding a camera will get mugged.

Until next time!