After two weeks of NEVER having stepped outside the Castro (minus one trip to the Haight for dinner), I finally spent many hours exploring different parts of the city.

I started my day off in Union Square downtown where I did some shopping solo. This city is too small - I ran into a boy at Macy's that I had made out with just the night at the Bar. Oy vey. After a few hours and $200 evaporated on cologne and t-shirts, I caught up with my friend Gino and we ventured to Chinatown for dinner. This was interesting - we spent quite a bit of time just walking around trying to figure out what a good restaurant was and what it wasn't. Most of the restaurants were panhandling - and while I wasn't sure if this was a sign of good or bad things, we finally found a place we felt comfortable with. We made a good choice - dinner was pretty good and satisfied my crazy cravings for Chinese food that I've had since I've been in the city.

Post-dinner, I waddled back down to the Castro where I met up with Troy and Hunter at the Bar on Castro. We had a drink or two there and then sped away towards the Cinch, a relic of a club up on Polk Street. It was very chill, with maybe 15 people at the place during its busiest moment that night. The most spectacular event of the day had to of been the moment I enthusiastically agreed to play pool with Hunter and Troy. I haven't played pool in some time, and after two pitchers of Margharitas it was all the more difficult. Needless to say, I lost every game (and believe me, we played more than a handful of rounds).

In any case, it was exciting to step outside of this bubble we've landed in called the Castro. It's surprisingly easy to get sucked in and spend every waking moment here. Thank goodness school starts soon!