Season Two, Episode Four: “Single in the City” Invades San Antonio!

 

The Academy of Manage Care Pharmacy's Educational Conference was at San Antonio this past week. I was excited and scared at the same time; excited because of the conference, excited and scared because it's in San Antonio. I didn't really know what to expect, though the one thing that I did know beforehand was that it's quite humid and hot.

Sure enough, right when I got off the airplane, the humid 85-degree weather greeted me (my flight got in from LA a few minutes before MIDNIGHT); it reminded me a lot of the Philippines. I thought, "Oh, no! If it's going to be like this, I'm going to melt." The very next day provided no relief. Our hotel was about a half-mile distance away from the Convention Center, and we elected to walk to the conference. The walk itself wasn't that bad; it allowed us to enjoy the San Antonio Riverwalk scenery. We walked past the Alamo and strolled past quaint store fronts and interesting museums (Texas Ranger Hall of Museum being one of them).

One thing that is amusingly admirable about San Antonio and Texas in general, is their unabashed self-love for their state; that and their propensity to make everything BIG. Everywhere, I saw manifestations of Texas in every manner; Texan flags adorn light posts, we were even served Texas-shaped chocolate covered cookies for crying out loud!

The conference itself was quite exciting. I've been to other pharmacy-related conferences before, so I had some preconceived notions on how things were going to run. The AMCP conference, in a nutshell, was anything unlike the other conferences that I've been to. They actually have coffee and tea services every morning; they serve lunch and have afternoon beverage services. Most importantly, their sessions were quite informative and relevant to me and what I want to do; the overarching theme was the impending healthcare reform. The residency showcase actually made me contemplate about completing a residency program; before this conference, I was about 0.001% wanting to do a residency period; now that's about 51%.

After the conference, after dilly-dallying about where we wanted to go for dinner, we ended up choosing to go to Rudy's, a well-known Texan Barbeque restaurant chain. With the help (?) GoogleMaps, we were able to get directions to find this elusive restaurant, and so off we drive. We drove for what felt like eternity, only to come up empty handed! The directions were a bit confusing, and we tried to call the restaurant (from the number that we got from Google), and all three numbers were not picking up. We just ended up going to the County Line, which was two blocks away from our hotel.

Afterwards, our small UCSF contingent met up with other conference goers at Pat O Brien's. From the outside, it was unassuming enough; I didn't know what to expect. It looked pretty small from the outside; after paying our $5 cover, I was quite surprised by the size of the place. There were a few rooms, offering different vibes; there's a piano bar, an outdoor patio playing blues/country, and upstairs was a dance floor playing hip-hop music. Who knew that Texas caters to all tastes?

Will I come back to San Antonio? Perhaps, but I can definitely live without the humidity, so I'll probably visit again in the winter if I ever go.

Season Two, Episode Three: Staycation in the City

Now, as you're probably perusing the pages of Synapse, you'll see pictures of people's vacation this past summer. A few of my friends went all over the place; some of them went to Asia (Thailand was a very popular destination among my friends this past summer), while others wandered through Europe (jealous!) and South America (double jealous!!). I didn't have such luck. I had similar intentions (I was planning a last-minute South American excursion: Bogota, Inca Trail, Mendoza, Buenos Aires, Iguazu Falls, and Rio), but since this whole condo thing worked out, I placed my vacation plans on hold for a bit.

At first, I was a bit bummed; ever since my semester abroad at Paris, I've been bitten by the travel bug. My mom tells me that since I have a mole in my left foot, it means that I love going places and that I can't stay in one place for too long (She also tells me that my mole near my mouth means that I like talking, so maybe there's some credence in her old wives' tales). It gave me a chance to get to know the city that I call home a bit more. There's a lot more to San Francisco than the areas tourists frequent.

This past summer, I was a bit of a nomad. For a while, I was crashing at my friends' place all over the city. One of my friends that I stayed with (Kat) lives in the Presidio, a few steps from Baker Beach (yes, THAT beach…). I've visited her a few times in her place before, but I've never spent an appreciable amount of time there. It's definitely a different side of San Francisco. The difference is strikingly obvious and actually, at times, it felt like I was worlds away; nary a bumbling bum in sight, no syringes in the pavement. It was a very peaceful place to call home, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, but yet not too far away from civilization; there's a bus that infrequently services Presidio and its surrounding areas, but it's best to have a car when you're up there. It's a very outdoorsy kind of place, and the people that live here reflect that; I saw a bunch of Campershells and bike-racks on people's vehicles.

This is when I met Jonathan and Vannida, a twenty-something couple that lives above Kat and her boyfriend Mark. One night, after a long day at work, Kat and I decided to make drinks to wind down. As I was looking around her cupboard and her fridge, I noticed that we were a bit short on mixers (we had the alcohol part covered), and the bottles of tonic water that she had were flat, so I went around her neighbors to ask for some juice or tonic water. Jonathan and Vannida had just moved in a few weeks prior, and Kat hasn't formally met them. Just like Kat and I, Jonathan and Vannida are SoCal transplants, and right away, we were chatting away as if we've known each other for years. Vannida just graduated as a Business major from Humboldt State and Jonathan is an avid surfer, and he's gone all over the world pursuing his exhilarating but increasingly expensive hobby; last March, he was assigned to work in Bali for a few weeks (he work as an environmental engineer) and ended up staying a few months to surf. When I told him that I've lived in San Diego for almost eight years, and I can count on one hand how many times I've surfed, he was flabbergasted and offered to take me surfing whenever I want; he had tons of boards from me to choose from, all I had to do is get a wet suit (and yes, I definitely would be needing one, knowing how frigid the waters here are). I've yet to take him up on his offer, but when I do get some free time (I wonder when that would be), I'll get right on that.

Afterwards, I lived in a sublet apartment a block away from 24^th and Mission for a little bit. The Mission is one of those places that induce strong feelings in either direction; you either absolutely love it or loathe it. You can count me on the love side, that's for sure. Whenever I have friends or CouchSurfers visiting, I always show them around here. When I think of the quintessential San Francisco, one of the images that come in my head is an afternoon spent in the Mission. If I were artistically-inclined, the Mission is that kind of place that would inspire me to paint or write songs. What does it for me is the cultural vibrancy that is a hallmark of the Mission district. I loved meandering down Mission Street, perusing through the different shops, and eating street food.

My Sundays were leisurely spent taking in what the Mission offers the best: food! I must've gained 10 pounds living in the Mission for a month, but my tummy was quite happy! There are so much different kinds of cuisine to satisfy discerning palates. A few of my favorite restaurants in the city are actually found in the Mission: Foreign Cinema (French Brunch place), Red Café (Mexican Diner), Dosa (Indian), and El Farolito (Mexican). I actually had some Chinese food and it wasn't half bad!

Next post, Single in the City goes to San Antonio! My fierce cowboy boots will fit right in!

Season Two, Episode Two: Alice in Leather – Sights and Sounds of Folsom Street Fair and Alice 97.3’s Now and Zen concert at Golden Gate Park

Where else can you enjoy an incredibly toasty afternoon drinking Jamba Juice while perusing through an assortment of leather cuffs and then afterwards heading over to a top-40 concert? Only in San Francisco. Reason #3915 of why I love San Francisco: there's a variety of things to do, catering to a wide range of interests and predilections. Case-in-point: My fun-filled weekend.

Right off the bat, things got interesting at the Folsom Street Fair. As we were walking in, one of my totally straight friends (who, like me, is a Folsom Street Fair virgin) got a cupful and overly-friendly greeting from the doorman. I guess that was a preview of what was to come.

It was tamer than I thought it was going to be, but some of the imageries were not for the faint-hearted. You had your garden variety of leather-clad citizens milling about, their choice of beverage on hand. Some were wearing weather-appropriate amount of leather while others had full-body leather suits. It was swelteringly hot that day, and I could've only imagined how much hotter those people felt with the leather on. There were a few "display" booths, and the first one that we stumbled upon was quite "captivating", to say the least. It was a pay-for-an-S&M-experience booth offering bondage, spanking, mild strangulation and the like, with a la carte pricing ranging from $5-$25. Further along was a freakishly life-like sex doll exhibit booth offering assorted models; for $6000 + shipping, they could be yours! There was also a game of half-naked Twister sponsored by Steamworks.

Titanmen, a gay adult film company, also had a booth and they were giving away calendars featuring their film actors. At first, I wasn't sure what the commotion was all about; I saw a Jeep in the tent, so I figured it was a drawing of some sort. I ended up getting an autographed calendar from JR Matthews, a Titanmen exclusive actor. I'm not familiar with him or his work, but he seemed to be a pleasant young man.

Like other street fairs in San Francisco, there were live music and a dance stage. My favorite image of Folsom was of this dancer performing in a cage hoisted up by a crane next to a church! Talk about sacrilegious! I was half-expecting the ground to part and swallow all the debauchery that is defiling the face of the earth.

After the Folsom Street Fair, I met up with my friends at Golden Gate Park for Alice 97.3's Now and Zen concert. Talk about a change in venue. My friend who went with me to Folsom saw a runner running without a shirt on, and she was half-expecting him to have been naked.

As we were circling the parking lot, my friend was texting our other friend to tell them that we were just looking for parking (which took what seemed forever). She told us that the last act, Train, was about to perform. At first, I was a bit disappointed because I missed Dashboard, but apparently, they only performed 3 songs. Coming into the show, they were the only ones that I've heard of, aside from Colbie Caillat who was apparently really awesome too!

I had no idea who Train was in the beginning; apparently they're from the Bay Area. But song after song, I found myself singing along to some of their songs (Drops of Jupiter, Calling All the Angels, When I Look to the Sky, Ordinary). Patrick Monahan, the lead singer from Train, was really good live, plus he's quite entertaining to boot. At one time during the concert, he actually went into the crowd and took a few pictures with the crowd.

It was a really nice day at Golden Gate Park to enjoy good music and excellent company. Next week is Lovefest, which is going to knock my socks off! I'm hoping for similar weather next weekend, but I'm not going to hold my breath.