Frisco

I’ve been to San Francisco before, but never on my own, always with company to wander the tourist sites with…so this time things were a bit different. This time I feel like I can now say I’ve been to SF – went to a great show, wandered the streets, saw great views and gardens, and said a prayer of thanks at every stop sign that I learned to drive in a stick shift in Seattle. And all things have to be right with my karma as I had no problems finding street parking wherever I went. I would just pull up and there would be a spot right in front, across the street, or just down the block. So now that I have written that, it’s probably a good thing I’m leaving as my karma is now broken.


So as highlights go, my stop at City Lights bookstore filled some space in me that needed to be inspired. As the hangout and haunt of the beat generation, it is everything that an independent bookstore should be. It’s a place where guttural thoughts waft off the shelves and the history in the floorboards creak, where the books stand upright among each other in equality not laid out in glorified glossy pyramids. There was just something about walking through the door that stripped the air of chaos, yet left me totally blank and entirely humbled. So, are there words? Not really, but as someone who loves to stand in front of a bookshelf just to pet the covers, it is a stop that will carry me.