So here it is–the long-delayed Post About San Francisco(tm).

I love San Francisco, and every time I’m out there, it’s harder to leave. If it weren’t for the outrageous cost of living, the crushing unemployment, and the fact that the economic landscape is a shambles, I’d be very tempted to live out there.

For me, it’s not really the city that has the appeal; when it comes down tobrass tacks, San Francisco is an inconvenient city. The location is inconvenient, the terrain is inconvenient, Nob Hill is possibly the developed world’s most inconvenient feature… No, it’s the people and the thriving, vibrant, electric culture and sense of community in San Francisco.

And I have Lena (altenra to thank in no small measure for my awareness of what San Francisco has to offer.

This particular trip was all about new people. We met Jay and Lynn, both notworthy figures in the BDSM community (and both, just for the record, absolutely awesome people in real life). We met dawnd, who has mad pizza modding skillz; punzel (sunyata__, I think you’d quite like her–she’s very cool), and their families and cat. We hooked up with Lena and her partner David (and got to introduce them to the violet wand!), with feorlen and roadknight…am I forgetting anybody?

What we didn’t get to do is spend enough time with any of these people. Next time we’re out there, we’ll make that second trip to PE with Lena and David, and get to do more than eat at dawnd‘s place and make a mad dash for the door.

Perhaps I’ll even remember the phone I left at feorlen‘s place.

There are a lot of things about San Francisco I wish I could import to Tampa. Whatever else you can say about San Francisco, good or bad, that place understands community. I don’t care who you are, or what your relationship to the world is–if you’re a masochistic redheaded lesbian Elvis impersonator who reads Kurt Vonnegut, there’s a community in San Francisco where you belong.

And just for fun, here’s Lena, me, and Shelly atop a cliff where Lena’s lab is located:

Maybe next time I’ll get more pictures of people.