The $20 quesadilla

I went up to the City again today. Three times in two weeks! Unheard of! I went up to meet up with Kragen, who was in town briefly with his girlfriend. They're on a around-the-world journey, with originally no plans on coming back to the United States once they started. I'm not sure why they were in town, but I wasn't going
to miss the opportunity to say hello and talk to them, hear how their adventures were going.

I took {the} Caltrain up to Millbrae, and took the BART to the 24th Mission station. I hadn't realized how far around the City the BART goes. I wanted to arrive by seven, when everyone was going out to dinner, and wasn't exactly sure how far away the house was from the station.

Tragically, my bladder was full before the train even arrived at the station, so finding out the plans had changed, and everyone was meeting at a restaurant down the street from the station. On my way back to the restaurant, I received a call back from the friend who was hosting the gathering, to let me know one of Kragen's friends, Kitt, was going to be at the restaurant, I should meet up with him. I laughed, and said, "Will do."

When I went back to the restaurant, I expected to see a group of people, some of whom I also expected to recognize.

Nope. Didn't recognize anyone. I ordered a tasty, grilled vegetable quesadilla, sat in the back of the restaurant and watched people coming and going. I hoped to find someone to meet up with, but struck out there, too.

I wandered back to the meeting house, and sat on the door step waiting for the host to come home. I managed to people watch for a while, seeing a woman walking her dog around the block, a few joggers and an old man across the street that fascinated me. He would walk two steps up the Dolores St. hill near 24th, and stop, take two more steps, and stop. Watching him, I could see the determination: he was heading somewhere up that hill, and he was going to get there.

I waited until just after 8 before I decided to head back home. The host wasn't home yet, and I had to choose between catching the 8:17 BART back to the 8:47 Caltrain, or waiting for the 10 something train, and not getting home until near midnight.

I left.

The whole evening was a bust in terms of seeing Kragen again, saying hello and catching up, but it wasn't a complete bust.

The whole evening was a step outside of my comfort zone. Heading out to hang out with a group of people I've never met before, in an area relatively unfamiliar, definitely not an area I'm comfortable with.

I did okay.