flashback, part 23 of n

October 2004 was more than just Black October at work. It was the real beginning of the Cal football experience – didn’t lose a single game at Memorial that year, so gameday was an endless sea of marching up with the band and off to Zachary’s after the game, with a high-powered offense whoopin’ that ass in the meantime. It was also the last time I was really paying serious attention to baseball, with the Red Sox falling apart in the ALCS against the Yanks only to complete the single biggest comeback since Our Lord rose from the dead on the third day – something I’ve been reminded of by the Ken Burns series lately.

October was also when I first really started the practice of walking around downtown, since it was only a couple blocks from the apartment. Part of that was necessity – I was still getting regular shipments of cigars from back East, and the layout of the building and the prevailing winds meant that most of my fug would get blown back into the apartment unless I set up shop a safe distance away. And although I would frequently park down the street and set up my camp chair where I could prop my feet on the back of the Saturn, it was often easier just to meander up and down Castro.

I had swiped a whole pile of 80s music, both from the wife and from a collection offered up by a co-worker. It was the first time I’d ever heard “Being Boring” by the Pet Shop Boys, which was particularly evocative – not only because of the bit where you find yourself a world away from where you thought, but because that was ten years since fall of 1994 at Vandy. The notion that in a decade, I had flunked out and built a completely new career – and was now on the other side of the country from it – really brought home how things were, especially with the prospect of a wedding and an international trip impending. And there was all the uncertainty associated with being a contractor in time of flux, and the uncertainty of an upcoming election, and…

Maybe it was just because it was new, but 2004 remains for me the signature California autumn. Although I get the sense that this year could be one too.

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