It's 10:07 am on Sunday, November 1, 2020, and my son is due to land in San Francisco at 11:30 am.
After being sure I'd see him in the summer here in SF, and then finding out that the pandemic wouldn't be gone right after we spent Easter at Puerto Backyarda, I knew at least I'd see him in NYC in September. Nope. I started to doubt that I'd see him at all this year.
I knew he was looking for a job that required the same skills but didn't have the same responsibilities as the one he had in NYC, but I didn't know he'd gotten a job offer in the Bay Area until early October, when he let me know. After living in NYC for more than eleven years, he accepted the job, gave notice at his place of work and on his apartment, looked at about a thousand Bay Area places online and then got the one he wanted the most, arranged for movers, and got airlines ticket that's bringing him here today!
I first found out that he'd be moving to San Francisco when a new book by Gary Kamiya (with illustrations by Paul Madonna) was coming out, Spirits of San Francisco. Jonathan and I had read Gary Kamiya's book Cool, Grey City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco in 2013, when we first discovered Grandview Park and other wonders of the city described in the book. So I let him know when I heard that Gary Kamiya and Paul Madonna were appearing online at the Commonwealth Club. He said it sounded interesting, but he wanted to spend the last couple of days with Diana, the girlfriend he'd be leaving behind for now.
By this time, I'd made two pilgrimages to his place--one by myself from 555 California Street, where we had a rally for Prop 15, and another from the Ferry Building, where Erika joined me. We met a charming young woman who took us to a higher point where we could see the balconies overlooking the Bay. She mentioned what I'd already heard from Jonathan: Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo lived in his building briefly in 1940. .
So that was the question I put in the chat box: Do you have anything in your book about places where Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo lived?
They didn't get to my question.
I bought the book this past Thursday, at Bookshop West Portal. On Friday morning, when I sat down to start it, I looked more closely at the cover picture, which looked so much like Calhoun Street--the extension of Union Street where Jonathan would be living. So I looked at the index and found 9 pages about the history of that street. Sure enough, it was the one on the cover of Spirits of San Francisco.
The "spirits" include "the haunted balcony" and a character from the Gold Rush days, Doc Robinson. There have also been movies made there at the intersection.
What a welcoming gift for Jonathan! I wrote an inscription to him, underlined key passages (because we know from the book Marginalia that that increases the value of a book), and got it in the mail on Friday. I hope he'll receive it on Monday, but maybe he'll get it on Tuesday, Election Day!
We're hoping for good things to come! I just this moment got a message that Jonathan has safely landed. (It's his wish that I not be at the airport and that he have the chance to settle in before we meet tomorrow.)
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