I decided to ride the bus to go downtown today. When I got aboard the bus, I asked the bus driver how much the fare was? He said with a smirk in his voice, "it's only $2.25."
I said, "pretty soon you guys will be asking for five bucks a ride, " and proceeded to sit on one of the empty seats. Then, an automatic announcement came on in English, Chinese, then in Spanish. After a transfer to ride the light rail train and a few minutes, I eventually made it downtown. I was thinking this was the real life version of the movie, "The Blade Runner", without the eeriness and strange quality of the Hollywood version. Then, I decided to eat dinner at Lefty O'doul's, which is about 50 yards away from the cable car tracks on Powell and Geary street. The bar/restaurant is mostly staffed by Hispanic people with Irish Americans working at the bar. There's a life-size statue of Marilyn Monroe, with her billowing skirt, below the big screen TV screens which were showing the Oscars presentation. I ate and drank a cola with my roast beef dinner, but was not paying attention to the show. When I finished, I walked out of the bar and a black guy asked me what was my nationality. I said, Filipino. Then he asked half-joking, "say, I hear Marcos' son is going to win the the election in your country?" "It's a crazy ass country!" I replied with disgust and without explaining why the deceased dictator's son is predicted to win. I believe it's a form of protest by the people against the present administration of the Philippines which is still mired in poverty and government corruption. But then again, maybe not. I eventually made it home soon after, and opened a bottle of Sierra Nevada beer which I bought at the corner grocery store. I sat down to write this note with the KDFC classical radio station playing the song "Asturias", by Albaniz.
