San Francisco 1 : the Flight

Haven’t been able to update as much since I haven’t been able to find wireless internet access anywhere in this city for less than ten bucks.

We’re in San Francisco for the weekend. Rebecca decided to celebrate her birthday here and since Renee’s brother already lives in the city (and we’ve never been by to visit) we figured it was the perfect opportunity.

I met Renee in the terminal after taking the new air train to JFK. I was used to the grubby old Howard Beach station. It was concrete, offered no protection from the elements and you could see the bar you stumbled out of from the platform. This new one is trying to be like the airport, all glass and polished steel that’s way taller than it needs to be. A little off putting actually.

The old station used to have a back door where you’d wait for a bus to take you to the airport. Now there’s a monorail. It makes you feel like you’re going to an airport, well, in any city but this one. And it costs five bucks. You use a Metrocard but it still costs five bucks. It won’t even take your unlimited pass. It wants its five bucks and it wants them right goddamn now. Two rails cost two dollars. One? Five goddamn bucks.

The ride is ten minutes at most. That’s a dollar every two minutes. And I’m convinced the voice on the train is Brent Spiner. Please somebody do some research and tell me who that is. Cause I really think it’s Brent Spiner.

The flight itself was fine. We took Delta Song which is a big airline trying to be Jet Blue. Not bad though. Left when it should and stayed in the air the entire time. I was in the aisle seat so everyone got to know my right arm on their way to the bathroom. Renee went to sleep early and I spent the six-hour flight shoving dvds into the laptop. Learned lots about the Batmobile (still going through that Batman box set).

The flight landed at midnight. Which for us meant it landed at 3 a.m. so we weren’t in any shape for sight seeing. Renee’s brother Richie picked us up and picked the seediest way to the hotel. He made it a point to tell us so. The hotel was a nice old building but we didn’t trust it, knowing what it took to get there. We listened to every creak and assumed it was a dishonest staff rifling through our belongings. We were pretty disoriented.