Kevin and I have been friends for going on seven years now. We met when I lived in New Jersey and he was "doing time" in the state of Florida. Since then, I have moved from New Jersey to California, remaining a teacher, and he has moved from Florida back to his home state of Ohio, remaining a reporter. When I first picked him up at the airport last week, the first question I asked was "what is it like to live in a state where you actually see and hear from presidential candidates?" Kevin being a political reporter for The Cincinnati Post has actually covered visits by George Bush and John Kerry. What a concept for anyone here in the state of California!! Kevin's specialty is hounding local politicians who don't live up the the expectations we hold for them, here's a story he wrote for the Post.
He arrived Wednesday night and on Thursday night, we went out to the bars in the Castro. I guess it took a while for me to get used to what Kevin calls the "Midwestern politeness" but I kept wanting Kevin to tell me what he wanted to do, instead of him deferring to what I wanted to do. I told him that he needed to be "bitchy" about what he wanted and so it happened and things went fine from there. Not being a real bar hopper myself, I did manage to stay out for more than three hours, which is probably a record for me.
On Saturday afternoon, after I proctored the PSAT's at school in the morning, he and I hit the road and toured San Francisco. I took him to my favorite little set of hideaway steps (Harry steps) and a walk around the top of Buena Vista Park. We had a bite to eat in the Haight and then wandered around Amoeba records. I managed to remember that the band that Natalie Portman's character was listening to when she met Zach Braff's character in the movie Garden State was called The Shins and I bought a used copy of this album:
I burned it onto my iTunes and then gave it to Kevin as a memory of San Francisco. That evening, Kevin and I dined at a restaurant called Foreign Cinema. Arriving without reservations at 9PM is not advisable if one is truly hungry and wants to eat right away. Kevin and I finished dessert and coffee at 11:45PM.
Kevin is now back in Cincinnati, and I hope that the candidates are making him work!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment