10/18- A Day of Visiting

The room Rachel had was perfect for me. It was a tiny closet side room that held all of her stuff, since she didn't quite live there officially, but had a patch in the middle where I could bed down. I slept so well I rose before anyone else in the house and set to sorting things out. The night before I'd asked if there was a buzzer I could use to straighten out my head a bit more, so I did some work on that, took a shower, and packed up some before I ran into Rachel.

She and I had decided to go out to breakfast to get a good visit in before I went off to meet my aunt again. There was a place around the corner that had big fat burritos and good coffee with back patio seating that we went to. The reason Rachel doesn't officially live in the apartment I stayed at was because she's in transition from having come back from Nicaragua recently. She was crashing with Rich until she could move into a place in November. Pretty much our entire visit was me pumping her for stories about being down there for a month and running the vague notions of a plan I have had about being there. I also ran Leann's suggestions by her to see if she'd validate them a bit more.

It was a good time, and really nice to be able to talk about current things in each other's lives, rather than crutch on the good old days of high school together. Not to mention that we were in our good old days now, and that high school was something of a faint vague memory to us both. You could see the old person in either of us, but we were clearly different people now, and actually much more similar than we had been then.

I made my way back to North Beach and to my aunt's apartment after that. I've always liked her boyfriend, David, and was happy to find him home when I eventually arrived. His apartment is completely amazing for a San Fran place. Two stories with a little tea garden in the back and an old timey feel through out the place. We sat up in the living room all three of us chatting for a good while before he had to go off and run some chores. My plan at this point was to have lunch with Hea and catch up some more, before heading out that evening either by hitch, train, or bus. As things went on that was seeming like a dumber and dumber plan. One might say... rushed.

As David was leaving he invited me to dinner and to stay, as my aunt had been all along. Later, she and I left the house to wander around the neighborhood and look for a book I'd been telling her about. Eventually we landed ourselves in a coffee shop again, after meeting some of the neighborhood characters, and I finally took them up on their offer to put me up for the night. I had tried both of my trucker contacts and neither were looking promising. To take a train out at night seemed stupid too, since I'd be getting out somewhere in the dark and most likely a city. On top of it, I did want to visit more with Hea. I rarely get to see or hear from her and I really enjoy her company and insights.

That night we all went out to a nice place around the corner for some San Francisco seafood. It was a good, long over due visit before we retired back at the house for the evening.