A Hair Grows in San Francisco

Another haircut so soon? Man-Yan says it's the good weather in San Francisco.

As I find myself thinking more and more about certain things, I've started to transition back into writing more very personal, introspective thoughts in my journal, and less in the public domain. Regardless, there are some things that I wanted to share, including my disinterest in Tortilla Flats, the current Steinbeck book I am reading. It chronicles the lives of a motley crew near Monterey in a district known as Tortilla Flats. Populated by paisanos, "a mixture of Spanish, Indian, Mexican, and assorted Caucasian bloods" (I'm assuming he means American Indian), Tortilla Flats is a modest area that, thus far in the novel, has very little going on. This is a novel about the characters, not their environment, and the focus is on their internal conflicts, with the usual Steinbeck motifs of good versus evil, economic and social status, and a now annoying male-centric voice. Once my favourite author, Steinbeck is beginning to irritate me for his lack of attempts at even interpreting the views of the gender that is not his own. It intrigues me when women write from the male perspective and vice versa because, whether the final product is salient or ignorant, it offers insight into how the gender is perceived by its opposite, for better or for worse. Granted this blog is written from my perspective alone, so some might say I am not in a position to say that Steinbeck should do otherwise, but his role as an author of fiction is to write characters both female and male that are believable and insightful.

Anyway, back to life as I know it. Over this past weekend, I got to visit my cousin in Fairfield, California, which is quite a hike from the city. It's the first time I've seen him in some time span that can be measured in years, and it was pretty fun to be able to catch up. Thanks to him (him being my cousin Leo), I ate at in-n-out for the first time. I was quite impressed at the difference in quality compared with McDonald's and the way they had a man walking around with a device to take orders at the drive-through when the line backed up too much.

What a crazy fourth it was. Driving on the highway, we witnessed some guy hanging on the roof-rack of an suv and then dancing hanging onto the roofrack before finally crawling through the window into the car. Walking to a spot to watch the fireworks later, someone set off fireworks in their backyard that...exploded about 100 feet above our heads in a deafening crackle. Terrifying. And it happened again about an hour later near where we were watching the show. And again (but less violently) as some crazed maniac lit of firecrackers in the parking lot of in-n-out. Those firecrackers at in-n-out went up and down, and just had to go off at the wrong time on the right day. I'm still impressed by how hot it can get in the day, yet cold it gets at night.

Song of the moment: Remedy by Little Boots