No. 211 - Half-Ass Writing on a Patio in San Francisco with a Runny Nose and Sam Shepard

I’m sitting beneath a cornice on the fourth floor patio at the University Club in San Francisco.

The sky is pillowy blue. There’s a gentle wind high atop California and Powell Street.

The TransAmerica Pyramid sits at eleven o’clock. The Salesforce Tower at one. Tiny American flags wave on the buildings below. A red and green Japanese pagoda sticks out like a sore thumb.

My nose is running. I wipe it with a white napkin and wonder why I don’t carry a cloth handkerchief like my father.

I find his idiosyncrasies popping up in my life — from the noise I make when I stretch my arms, to the click of my tongue when I’m thinking.

The truth is I can’t believe where I am. I’ve long dreamed of living this exact life: writing from a private club, with this view of the Bay and tiny sailboats. Enjoying a Mediterranean climate in a blue oxford and rep tie. The quietness — the ability to think, and not be bothered. The sound of trolley bells and nothing else.

My nose is still running.

I walked past the billiard room to the gentlemen’s bathroom to relieve myself. My nose opened like a leaky faucet. A clear liquid fell into the urinal. I found a sturdier napkin — bigger than the one from the diner in Nob Hill where I’d had a club sandwich for lunch.

I started reading Motel Chronicles by Sam Shepard again.

The smell in the air is like my grandparents’ house. San Francisco is old — mothball old — but with a mix of tobacco smoke and aromas from hundreds of foreign restaurants. Yet I’m surrounded by modern skyscrapers.

A short man walked by in a black suit, white shirt, and large frames — Cary Grant style but with an eighties twist. The soles of his oxfords are cork. His ears are bulbous, but not out of character for a man his age.

A fern blows in the wind. The ashtray is full of stilt-like ladies’ cigarettes. A trolley clanks past below.

My nose appears to have stopped running.

I’m twenty-eight pages into Motel Chronicles.

*Composed, Edited, and Published in San Francisco, CA