A Bay Escape...
Yesterday morning I climbed into the backseat of a car; put headphones on, popped The Filthies cd into my walkman, stared out the window of the car at passing scenery and retreated into my thoughts as I rode away from Bakersfield towards a Bay and a much needed escape. As a friend said in an email Friday:

"Good for you for getting out. Life's more than work, blogging and annoying cat-sex, ya know."

Family and friends have been much on my mind of late. The delicacies and intricacies of relationships-- the etchings they leave on our hearts that change us forever. I listen to The Filthies sing "No body likes me, everybody hates me, guys beat me up, girls turn me down, I think I'm gonna blow up this town..." from The Donut Shop, it fit my mood, I understood the sentiment. At that moment a dear friend calls on my cell phone...

"Are you on the road yet?" He asks.

"Yeah, but we're about to stop for breakfast." I tell him.

"Have a great trip ok!" He says encouragingly.

"Thanks." I say. "Talk to you soon."

After breakfast I listen to The Filthies cd two more times before switching to Green Day's American Idiot cd. I zone out... I listen to words from their song An Extraordinary Girl, words like: "She's so sick of crying..." I empathize and know what it's like to weep for 'change'. I turn up the walkman and close my eyes and find sleep that eluded me the night before when sleepless time was spent packing a suitcase, writing on the computer, and talking to a friend until 4:30am. Sleep... I sleep for a couple hours uncomfortably in the back seat of the car. Waking up in time to see a sign that reads Oakland City Limits. I look around at the passing scenery, pop Robert Downey Jr's cd The Futurist into my walkman and listened to the heart felt honesty of the tortured soul of a man just as we started to cross over the Bay Bridge that would take us into San Francisco. He sings: "God give me the strength to accept the things I can't change." His words seep into my heart. I've known what it's like to love a man with a tortured soul... As we cross over into San Francisco and the sun shines upon the city-scape, Robert Downey Jr's rendition of Charlie Chaplin's Smile lifts my heart like a rainbow over a granite city and my heart opens to new experiences. Fisherman's warf and a Ghirardelli chocolate ice cream in a chocolate dipped waffle cone makes life a little bit lighter.

Today the sight seeing ensued. Sausilito, Union Square, and Chinatown were the main attractions. Dinner at Embarcadero Center and a walk in the night air to Fisherman's warf. It's been a fun day filled with phone calls and text messages from friends.

"When are you coming back?" A dear friend asked.

"Wednesday." I said.

"That's too long." My friend said.

And I smiled because it is nice to be missed. Later that night I was sitting in my hotel room writing this blog entry out in long-hand because I didn't have a computer, when I received a text message from my friend saying he was at Riley's about to listen to some music. I wrote him back saying: "I wish I was there." Suddenly my phone rang and I found myself listening to a song by Broken Record Gospel while sitting in my hotel room in San Francisco. The Bakersfield local music scene has really become a part of my life in a way I hadn't expected it to. I love music, and relate so many things in my life to music... it's only natural that the local music would permeate my heart too.  posted by Matildakay at 11:50 PM