Back in the Land of Broken Dreams

Two weeks in San Francisco on a weird trip where I never really got in the groove.

I did get a new cellphone and after 6 months operating my computer from the external hard drive and always having to plug in, I actually got a new internal drive, making the thing a true portable again. Unfortunately, ten minutes before I left for NOLA, the old external drive power cord broke and now I have to go fishing around to find a way to fix that under the less than efficient conditions back home... but that's another story.

Mostly... I spent my time in San Francisco working on stuff for my clients in NOLA which meant that much of my time in SF was really quite poorly spent. At the same time, out of 14 days on the west coast, I actually ran into two days (well, actually two and a half) days of sunshine. One was the first Saturday I was in town when I got to go see the Giants beat the pants off the Braves at Willie Mays Field (I refuse to call it "Telecom Company Du Jour Park") with my friend Mike. The other was the day before I left when I really needed the sunshine in order to easily move around the city and get last minute things done. That day I got to sit outside at the Yank Sing restaurant and have Dim Sum with my kid (my 24 year old kid!).

I got to bend a few elbows and drink too much at Dempsey's with friends in Petaluma. I walked the labyrinth at Grace Cathedral several times, wept during the Palm Sunday service and had a blast of emotion, resurrection and recharge during the Easter Sunday celebration, despite the fact that I was feeling a bit under the weather. Before the Easter service, I walked the Labyrinth outside the cathedral in the rain... when I reached the center and turned to head back out, the raining stopped and it never rained again before I left. I choose to accept that as a sign... a sign of what I don't know... perhaps one that says, "This End Up."

I even picked up a good gig doing some webwork on the site for Bruce Gordon Cycles... work that I've been wanting to do on his website for at least a couple of years. The irony of that is that I am now going to be working on work for San Francisco clients while in New Orleans.

It was a good, if odd, trip, but I'm glad to be back in the Crescent City with music tonight in the park with friends and three weeks of festivals just rolling over the horizon. Just flying in last night, I could already feel the magic. New Orleans really is the Land of Dreams... still... even if some of them are a bit smudged, and some of them are broken.