08/05/2004 Entry: "The Beauty Of Her, Under Electric Light."

I climbed onto the bus, clutching my bag; I'd fought with a man who had a cell phone attached to his massive sideburns over the last of the garlic green beans at the hot food counter, had a six pack of sparkling water poked in my back during check-out, and narrowly avoided getting run over by the bus, which stopped hard and long of the bus stop.

I fussed with my bag and it wasn't until we jolted to the next stop that I caught a glimpse of downtown between buildings. The light was beautiful. The sky was pink and orange, electric curls on midnight blue velvet clouds. Buildings off in the distance were aglow, though our street remained bathed in shadow. A strange tower I didn't recognize stood brilliantly white, with small blue-white lights, against the dimming sky. Suddenly I was disoriented, seeing the City as though it were new, as though I was seeing the San Francisco of the future. And just as quickly the bus plunged between two rows of warehouses and the view was gone.

It peeked through at each intersection, the scene growing dimmer and at the same time, more familiar as I recognized landmarks near and far. I had hoped to get a photo before it faded, but by the time we reached my neighborhood, the light was gone, the spell ended. I walked home and ate dinner alone at my desk.

I hope I'm not being metaphoric.

Replies: 2 comments

hey....I love this site and have been reading your journals for quite sometime...I like the way you write.
I got the web address from drowning.com....the writing on that site is brilliant...but I was wondering, why haven't you updated it in years? Did you just abandon it or not really have any other writing to post on it?
if you could email me back that would be awesome, you seem like a really cool person.
claire

Posted by Claire @ 08/09/2004 11:15 AM PST

Wait. Is this a new look for the site or am I imagining things?

I love that awesome city of yours! Great post.

And, by the way, I should avoid Kingdom Hearts, huh? I disappeared for about a month after FFX-2 came out.

Posted by hot toddy @ 08/09/2004 02:32 PM PST