Slept through Christmas...

It's Christmas. I just got back to my new apartment and realized that this was the only place that I've wanted to be all day. I wake up every morning in my amazing new bed, roll over and look out the window to Twin Peaks and The Sutro Tower.















It's a stunning view that I have come to expect from my new windows. If they ever let me down there will be hell to pay.















Jamie was a sport and let me crash a his place for a few months while he was out of town. I have promised to repay him by dragging him to The Flaming Lips show this week. I am pretty glad, though, to have my own place and especially my own shower. Jamie's was quite literally an optical illusion. I had repeated bouts of vertigo and nausea and often preferred to be dirty rather than get lost in the shower curtain. God help you if you drop the soap.















Christmas has really just blown by me. This is the second year that I've spent without family (or, I should say without my family). I can't say that I'd like it to be any different, although I wouldn't mind taking a year or two off and going some place where no one knows about the baby jesus, fruit cake, stockings or big sales at Target.













I am complaining for no good reason, as is my nature. I managed to do almost all of my shopping in the one day before Christmas, and all within about a five block radius of my apartment. Aces. I did pretty well, I think. After all, it's not Christmas without a few bags of what appear to be high-grade cocaine under the tree. I was bath salt. I tasted it.















Aside from three fairly mild earthquakes this week San Francisco has been pretty mild.















Last week it was a bit on the rain and misery side of things. I drove across the Golden Gate Bridge to check the status of the Marin weather (it's usually nicer), but no dice. Apparently it was gloomy through Portland.














Instead I went out to Ocean Beach and walked around in the rain for a few hours.








































And went to the Botanic gardens which were totally deserted and pretty ominous due to the rain and fog.


















It really is an amazing thing to have a park like this in the middle of a city. It seems so far removed from the chaos of downtown. There is nowhere else like it. Central Park is alright if you don't mind the occasional rape and stabbing, but Golden Gate Park is a keeper.














I mean, I was three blocks from Starbucks and it looks like I'm in Khe San. I'm sure the hat doesn't help.

















Sometimes the female form perplexes me...



















And sometimes not.....
















I need a coffee table. Seriously. Also a wok. If anyone has any leads then pass 'em on.
But I digress, as I have been known to do. Tomorrow I am off to Tahoe, a place where I have little business being as I neither ski nor enjoy the cold and snow. I could, however, really use a few days in a cabin in the mountains. Leading a productive life can be a rather taxing venture sometimes.