I’m sitting here enjoying the free WiFi and come-and-go sun in Union Square, waiting for 3:00PM to roll around so that I can check into the lovely Sir Francis Drake Hotel. I mistakenly thought that I was to be staying at the Courtyard in Pleasant Hill on Wednesday night, so at the last minute, I had to book a room at a different hotel, as the Drake was booked for Wednesday. I ended up at The Cartwright, which is conveniently around the corner. It was a nice little hotel, with a small room and a very comfortable bed. I got me some good sleep.

This is Day 2 in the city. I had meant to post last night, but I took a trip down to Haight St. and the Golden Gate Park and ended up taking a nice nap afterwards. This much I know: I <3 San Francisco. Walking up the stairs from the BART up to Powell Street was like some sort of rebirth. There I was, in the middle of a new city, a new start, with the bare essentials packed in three bags. Around me where several other newborns and their luggage, as fresh and wide-eyed as me.

As I mentioned in my last post, I feel somewhat detached from my usual self, being out here all alone in the unknown. The best description that I can think of is that the world seems like the way it seems when one is ill, with a cold or a flu; the way reality seems glossed over, unreal, like a dream. At times it feels like I'm watching myself talking and walking and interacting (with wait staff and hotel staff and the like, although I did say “Hi” to a girl at Golden Gate Park). I only hope that maybe I can find away to detach myself further, mainly from my neurosis, my negativity, my self-doubt. Maybe I truly can be reborn.

I’m realizing a few things here, being so far away from Michigan. One, I realize how much I truly despise The Great Lakes State. Two, I realize that I deal somewhat better in unfamiliar surroundings among strangers, which seems totally assbackwards from how one would expect a shy introvert would act. I think it mostly has to do with how I think others perceive me, how people have this set perception of me that can never change. Being around strangers gives me the opportunity to change, to be someone else. Third, I love travel, and I need to do it a lot more. And finally, I have a goal in life: to get myself out West.

That’s about it for now for my personal introspection. Today I have reservations at 6:10PM to do the Alcatraz tour. I found out yesterday that Bob Saget is performing tonight at 8:00PM, so as long as the tour is out by then and the show isn’t sold out, I’m definitely there. With all the extra time I have before then, I may check out the Museum of Modern Art, or I might just crash in my hotel room. I’ll be sure to keep the world posted as my life out West develops.