“Journeys” Day Two..

 After arriving in San Francisco yesterday, I wandered through the downtown area taking it all in. I love the random conversations that happen through “wandering” with no agenda. 

First, I met a couple from Georgia (yes. Georgia.😂) who were somewhat frantic while looking for a particular route on the Muni. 

As I was taking in a large female statue in front of the Ferry Building ("R-Evolution") which is a 45-foot-tall sculpture by artist Marco Cochrane (she “breathes”, y’all! 😳), this couple starts asking me for directions. 

I said, “I’d love to help you, but I literally just landed, I’ve never been here before, and I’m just wandering.” 

They couldn’t believe I was from Georgia, and I couldn’t believe they were on a stressful mission to find one particular touristy site and they were missing all of the beauty along the way! 

After I smiled and told them to just trust their journey as they made it to their desired destination, the wife sighed and said, “Yes. Let’s just have fun, and we’ll get there at some point this week!” 

Trust the journey. Every encounter is meant for some reason. 

I ended up at the marketplace at the Ferry Building at the end of the Embarcadero and settled into a waterfront oyster bar called Hog Island Oyster Co. They required patrons to stand in line outside the restaurant to wait for a table. 

As the hostess asked the woman in front of me “How many?”, she replied, “One.” 

The hostess looked at me. I said, “One.” 

The hostess looked to the woman behind me. She replied, “One.” 

We all looked at each other and laughed, and the woman behind me said, “It sounds like it’s ‘solo night’ for women tonight!” 

There was a metal railing containing the seating area outside with two-person tables lining the inside of the railing (about 8 tables total.) I sat down around 6:30 p.m. at one of those tables, and I left around 8:30. 

I stayed there longer than most as I was in no hurry and wanted to experience the culture of the area. 

Here’s the thing….people watching is my favorite…so, as I’m sitting there taking it all in, it struck me that over and over, women showed up around me dining alone. 

At one point, as I glanced in front and behind me, every table on that railing was occupied by one woman, and we were all facing the same direction. I don’t know that there is any significance to that other than I had the thought that this looked like a “Life magazine shot.” 

I will say that I have been reading lately about the “trend” (I don’t know the frequency that it takes to become a “trend”, but it is certainly a topic that is being discussed in the “relationship research community” these days) of people….mostly women within the 40+ age group, who have sworn off romantic partnering as they have experienced negative experiences that have led to a “protect my peace at all costs” mentality. 

I don’t know. Part of that makes me proud that people are willing to enjoy experiences alone and part of that makes me sad for our culture of relationships. 

Anyway….I’m contemplative and reflective, so people watching always leads to me wondering about philosophical questions with a hanging, “We’ll see what happens…” conclusion. 

So, that was Day one yesterday. 

Oh, except, I also encouraged a lawyer that struck up a conversation with me to pursue playing the piano in a bar and joining a rowing team instead of practicing law since he loathes his job. 😂 

Expansion. ☺️