Cultural notes from the trip

First up is food. I tell you, being Southern really does affect how you view food. This is not the first time I’ve looked at a party buffet and thought “Where’s the food?” but this time was the most extreme. At the family cookout, there were 13 people in attendance and they grilled only 4# of beef and 2 chickens. Which would be barely OK if everyone hadn’t wanted the beef. To top that off, the “buffet” was one small bowl (I’m talking SOUP bowl here, folks) of baked beans and one of potato salad. Everyone was taking about 2 oz of beef and about a tablespoon of beans and salad. !! I was about to panic! How can you make 4# of beef for 13 people??!! In ANY cookbook they’ll tell you about a half pound for each person, which puts us at twice that amount real quick. It’s always odd to me to attend any sort of function where there is not enough food for an army. I know it’s a Southern thang, but DAMN, it just seems, well, chintzy to scrimp on the chow. There’s always time for doggie bags! That’s MY motto!

The second cultural note is that there are very few black people in San Diego and San Francisco. The last cabbie we had in San Francisco gave us a long diatribe about how ‘They’ (San Fran gov’t?) had forced out the black people a few years ago. Well, me being me, my first thought was: “Hello? San Francisco? We found your black people!! They are ALL here in Atlanta! You can come get them anytime or we’ll be happy to ship them overnight!” I know I’m bad, but that really is the first thing that went through my head! LOL The only time we were exposed to thugs was on the trip to the airport on Monday (S San Fran and Daly City are horrible areas that you go through on the way to SFO). We were reading during our hour long trek via BART when the door opened behind us and 2 guys came in rapping some horrid thug rap complete with bitches, hos, AK 47s, killin’ da niggaz and fuck every other word. Imagine my surprise when I looked up to see two little boys around 8 or 9 rapping this filth. They sat behind us, rapping loudly and thumping the seat. Eventually I heard something about redhead blah, blah, so I turned around to them and told them, “I’m from Atlanta, I understand every word of what they are saying and furthermore you are too young to even understand what you are talking about.” They talked back a little but I can’t hear them due to the noisiness of BART in a tunnel – but whatever it was, I’m sure it was in Ebonics so the Cracker wouldn’t understand. They got off at the next stop and tried to be intimidating so I laughed at them and blew them a kiss. I believe that means something bad to thugs. I hope it does.  There these boys were, immersed in thug culture at 9. What a waste. It was just the warm up to coming back here, I suppose.Third is the overall hippy-dippy attitudes of CA. It does rot your brain. I think small doses are OK, but longterm exposure will definitely cause harm – much like lead does (Andy = Exhibit A). Southern CA is pretty laid back and the inhabitants are completely unaware that 20 miles away is NOT “close” to downtown. Central CA is lovely and the people seem pretty normal for CA. The Bay area is more urban and not as laid back as So Cal, but it is very liberal and all about Peace & Love. The people seem to be very concerned with the Scene and identifying oneself as part of a particular Scene. Eh, whatever. Getting around via public transport is awesome around the Bay area. There’s also lots of walking. LOTS.

Fourth and finally, the weather. OMG. It was in the mid 70s the whole time we were in San Diego. No humidity. Blue, blue skies. No pollution. I could really get used to that. In San Francisco it was low 70s with no humidity and got down into the 50s at night. We were actually COLD!

I tell you, getting off the plane here in Atlanta with the stifling heat, the stink of pollution, crappy transit and being the ONLY white people on the train was really disappointing.

Atlanta does seem much, much smaller after being away. I really want to move. We are just marking time here until we can escape – to where I don’t know, but it’s clear that we’re sick of HERE. The bay area would be SO awesome if we could afford it. ::sigh::