have we met? is that seat taken? do you mind if i write this down?

“I’m so glad we decided to take our shoes off,” I tell Elizabeth as we sit on the beach, having just done cartwheels in the sand. We’ve been discussing many important topics, how to navigate the muddy spots in the trail, how to navigate the muddy parts of our lives. We had just completed my favorite hike in San Francisco. It’s fun when your friend visits because you get to decide how they are going to experience a city. I like to write all my favorite spots down in a note on my phone, starting with the normie things like coit tower and the big red bridge, and then peppering in important landmarks for me personally, like my favorite street to look at houses and the corner where a man once threw a pebble at me.    

There is a place in San Francisco where you can wait 45 minutes to buy a croissant and it is so awesome for that. It is next to my favorite farmers market in the whole city, and I go there every Sunday. It is my routine, and I love it. Frequent readers will know I buy two pomegranates a week when they are in season. I love the pluots and peaches during stone fruit season, and I love the olives all of the time. Say that five times fast!

Another thing I love about San Francisco is that everyone lets you pet their dog and near my house there is an okay sushi restaurant that projects a video of a beach on a wall. I like to take photos of that beach wall like it’s a local celebrity.  

There is also a place in San Francisco called the Tonga Room with more lore than I have the time to share with you at this time. But my small contribution to the TRL (Tonga Room Lore) is this. A couple of months ago, I was there for my friend’s birthday party. I brought tiny cowboy hats and birthday tiaras. We were having an amazing time. After the initial jubilee had settled, my friend named Tree and I were looking around the bar and spotted a man with a notepad. We made a few initial guesses as to why someone might be jotting down various phrases and words in a notepad at the Tonga Room at 9pm. FBI Agent. Romantic. Party Planner. Eventually, I was tired of guessing and just wanted the truth. (If I had a nickel) I walk up to this man’s table, and I ask if he would be okay sharing with me what he’s documenting. He tells me he is a writer for the Minnesota Star Tribune. I ask who he has interviewed and he asks me who I like. I tell him the usual suspects. The Beatles. Beach Boys. Bob Dylan. He tells me he has interviewed most of them. I ask if the seat across from him is taken.

Picture this, you’re on a date at the Tonga Room enjoying your 29 dollar cocktail (that has a comically large banana leaf stuck in it as a garnish). To your left, a three piece band is on a boat in a small body of water and rain is pouring from the ceiling as they play yacht rock and to your right a 24 year old screaming “HAVE YOU MET JAMES TAYLOR?” I certainly know how to match the ambiance. We talk for over an hour and I throw every name at him I can think of. He tells me about Led Zeppelin and Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney and I’m reeling and I’m laughing and I’m thinking I must have fallen asleep, dreamt up this scenario, and will soon wake up in the uber with a large banana leaf imprint on my face.

Cut to now, and I’m emailing my new friend Jon a photo of me at Disneyland clutching my phone and pointing to my quote in the article he wrote about that night. I love this life and the way strangers have the most incredible stories to tell and when they are generous enough to say yes please have a seat let’s talk. He was at the Last Waltz. Paul McCartney offered him a bar of chocolate. He’s written books on Zeppelin and met up with Bob Dylan at a hotel bar. So many strangers have lived parts of life that I likely never will (don’t jinx me, I’m still holding out hope for my chocolate bar), but in a way, I am living them now. As I write this, as I fall asleep, as I drive to work. Because I’m talking to Jon and I’m reading his articles and it feels like I’m walking down the streets in his mind, meeting my favorite singers, bands, artists. They invite me in, because it’s raining and I’m lost, and Neil Young offers me directions, Prince gives me his raincoat.

And it’s funny because Jon was in San Francisco doing that very same thing. Reliving all of Tony Bennett’s favorite spots in the city and writing an article about them. Talking to people who knew him. Learning what it was like to eat breakfast in North Beach like Tony Bennett. What it was like to have a drink at the Tonga Room like Tony Bennett. I wonder if a 24 year old girl ever approached Tony Bennet while it was raining inside and the band was playing and asked if he’d met The Beatles. I wonder if I wrote an article about Natalie’s favorite spots in the city, what I would include. Who I would mention. Who would get a quote. And who might sidetrack me on my journey, asking me questions about where I’ve been and who I’ve met. Please tell me, who or what would be on your list? I think stop number one on mine would be where that guy threw a pebble at me.