29th of October 2007: A Delayed Update
So, it's been a little while since my last update. Frankly, I just haven't had much to talk about, and more than that I've felt that I needed a bit of a break from thinking about the blog - all part of my rest and recovery period. Just a few brief things to report.
Had another great acrobatics lesson last week, I've definitely made progress on my flexibility, balance, and I'm nearly managing the cartwheels now! I'd had a bit of pain in my upper back and neck after I slipped on a metal plate during that week (for a city with so much rain, San Francisco has a dangerous number of smooth metal plates, gratings and manhole covers in every stretch of pavement), so I had to leave off headstands, but everything else was great and really satisfying to be making progress.
I'm still doing basically the same work cleaning here at the hostel, and it's still fine by me - not particularly interesting but just enough variation to not drive me up the wall. I've made a bunch of good friends here among the longtimers and always find interesting people arriving to talk to. It's a very different atmosphere than India House, people are a lot more focussed, but equally friendly when you get to know them.
I'm doing pretty well moderating my spending, cooking a few simple things (lots of pasta) and avoiding cash drains like eating out much (apart from the odd Subway or Jack in the Box, both good cheap lunch options). I'm also still doing well moderating my drinking, I haven't had more than three drinks in an evening in as long as I can remember and I've gotten right out of the habit of drinking in the evenings after dinner.
The city's winding up for Halloween right now, and there were a bunch of events over the weekend. I went to Mighty on Utah Street and 15th on Saturday night for their Night of the Living Bass costume dance party. The bill was loaded with DJs from Opulent Temple, Black Rock City's premiere dance location, so I reckoned it'd be a pretty awesome night, and I put together a great inexpensive devil costume - black suit, shirt and dark red tie ($20 at Goodwill), red body paint and horns and black nail varnish. Half a dozen other hostel dwellers had planned to come but they all ended up dropping out at the last minute.
The party was good but I may have just been off my game due to tiredness - after a couple of hours I felt my energy flagging and the music just couldn't keep me up. I stayed about three hours all told and wandered back absolutely exhausted but reasonably satisfied. When I got back in a bunch of folks were gathered in the dining room chatting and watching videos, and I ended up sitting up with the group till dawn as various other bizarrely-costumed hostel denizens wandered in and out, returning from other parties.
Nothing major going on at the moment - I've spent a couple of satisfying days exploring the art galleries along Geary and Post, which are all free to look, and there's some fantastic work on display (as well as quite a lot of awful cheesy stuff). There's going to be a party here at the hostel on Wednesday for Halloween itself. If I stay in for it I'll probably dress up again, although I don't think I'll be putting the body paint on this time - I'm still washing it out of my ears and other corners and I had to change all my bed linen yesterday.
Had another great acrobatics lesson last week, I've definitely made progress on my flexibility, balance, and I'm nearly managing the cartwheels now! I'd had a bit of pain in my upper back and neck after I slipped on a metal plate during that week (for a city with so much rain, San Francisco has a dangerous number of smooth metal plates, gratings and manhole covers in every stretch of pavement), so I had to leave off headstands, but everything else was great and really satisfying to be making progress.
I'm still doing basically the same work cleaning here at the hostel, and it's still fine by me - not particularly interesting but just enough variation to not drive me up the wall. I've made a bunch of good friends here among the longtimers and always find interesting people arriving to talk to. It's a very different atmosphere than India House, people are a lot more focussed, but equally friendly when you get to know them.
I'm doing pretty well moderating my spending, cooking a few simple things (lots of pasta) and avoiding cash drains like eating out much (apart from the odd Subway or Jack in the Box, both good cheap lunch options). I'm also still doing well moderating my drinking, I haven't had more than three drinks in an evening in as long as I can remember and I've gotten right out of the habit of drinking in the evenings after dinner.
The city's winding up for Halloween right now, and there were a bunch of events over the weekend. I went to Mighty on Utah Street and 15th on Saturday night for their Night of the Living Bass costume dance party. The bill was loaded with DJs from Opulent Temple, Black Rock City's premiere dance location, so I reckoned it'd be a pretty awesome night, and I put together a great inexpensive devil costume - black suit, shirt and dark red tie ($20 at Goodwill), red body paint and horns and black nail varnish. Half a dozen other hostel dwellers had planned to come but they all ended up dropping out at the last minute.
The party was good but I may have just been off my game due to tiredness - after a couple of hours I felt my energy flagging and the music just couldn't keep me up. I stayed about three hours all told and wandered back absolutely exhausted but reasonably satisfied. When I got back in a bunch of folks were gathered in the dining room chatting and watching videos, and I ended up sitting up with the group till dawn as various other bizarrely-costumed hostel denizens wandered in and out, returning from other parties.
Nothing major going on at the moment - I've spent a couple of satisfying days exploring the art galleries along Geary and Post, which are all free to look, and there's some fantastic work on display (as well as quite a lot of awful cheesy stuff). There's going to be a party here at the hostel on Wednesday for Halloween itself. If I stay in for it I'll probably dress up again, although I don't think I'll be putting the body paint on this time - I'm still washing it out of my ears and other corners and I had to change all my bed linen yesterday.
Labels: adelaide hostel, halloween, San Francisco
posted by Mark at
20:00
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