I've spent the last week back in San Francisco and I feel like this is the end of my connection to the place.
Every day has been filled with visiting friends. We've been able to stay up to date on our comings and goings because of email. Each meeting feels like we're picking up on having seen each other just yesterday.
But the place, I'm pretty much done with it. Yes, it is beautiful and this weekend the weather has been amazing, yet I don't feel like I'm part of it any more. Now I'm here as a visitor, a tourist. I am staying on Union Square and living the hustle and bustle of people, cars, noise, sounds, smells, and the cable car chattering.
I don't have the desire to go to any old favorite haunting grounds or hiking special trails in the hills. Today I went to Macy's, got some sinful cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory, walked through North Beach and Chinatown and now I'm in a cafe across from the cable car museum. Yes, I am here as a tourist.
Tony Bennett's Heart on Union Square, a project that I coordinated, has lines of people waiting to get their picture taken next to it. I watch and the history of that Heart doesn't even really come to mind. It is just another object four tourists. Tony left his heart but I have taken mine to Houston and now London.
