What can I say, it's been great. We've had an amazing 12 year relationship, but I just feel I'm in a different place now and need a change. It's not you, it's me.
When I first came to San Francisco, you were there with your cheap rent, larger apartments, and close proximity to the beach and the park. That is what allowed me to stay in this fantastic city, but it also made me complacent and reluctant to try new things. You made it all possible, but now you are holding me back. It has taken me a while to realize that.
Close enough.
Also, some of your friends are just plain annoying with their loud music upstairs, yelling, honking, and stumbling home drunk and waking the entire neighborhood.
I still remember the good times eating at Bill's Place, Tommy's, Drunken Sushi, movies at The Four Star, the great produce at 25th and Clement, the friendly guys at Tiger Liquors (whom I may have gotten too acquainted with in the last couple of years), and walking into Royal Ground where everyone greets you with a smile, and they always know what I want and how to make it. I think they order Amaretto syrup just for me.
There were also some odd times, like when I locked myself out of my apartment, and in broad daylight got a ladder out of the garage and climbed into my second story apartment through the kitchen window...without anyone blinking an eye! And then there was the time nearly every pair of pants I owned was stolen from the laundromat across the street. Awkward.
And then there were the bad times. The closing of the Alexandria theater and the Coronet (ok not in the Richmond but I went there a a lot) cars flipping over and plowing into one another at the intersection below my window at 2 am, the 3 year old kid who knocked on my door asking me dial 911 because of the fight his Mom was in and having to explain it to the cops before they led the boyfriend off in handcuffs. Also unpleasant was the time immediately after that when I wondered if the guy would come back and beat the crap out of me.
-sniff-
This move was a long time coming. I will be closer to work and downtown, and best of all I will be able to almost completely eliminate MUNI from my life! Long have I suffered the evil, sweaty, stinky, slow, unpredictable grip of San Francisco's mismanaged public bus system. There will be new sights, new sounds (hopefully quieter ones), new stores, new people, and new experiences. I'm hoping friends may even want to come over to my place to hang out. I'm sorry Richmond, but you were isolating me from the world.
I'll miss you and won't forget you. I hope someday you'll be able to forgive me.
No, I don't understand why it says "goodbye" on his stomach either.
