A Tale of a Two-Faced City

Yesterday I had a 2nd interview with another company that I'm very interested in. Decided to go straight there in the morning so I could be fresh and alert. Therefore, I made up a teensy excuse that I had to stay home yesterday morning to let the landlord in for a plumbing problem! Glad I decided to do it that way, as trying to get to the interview during my 45 minute lunch hour would have been absurd and almost impossible since the interview was at the bottom end of Market Street and I work at the upper end of Market Street. Would have been rushed, out of breath and not in the best of form for an interview.

I took a bus from where I live all the way down our picturesque Embarcadero along the waterfront. What a beautiful day and a beautiful sight! The blue sky and blue waters of the San Francisco Bay looked like a postcard. The company I was interviewing at was right at the foot of Market Street where I got off the bus. How convenient, I pondered. Certainly not like the current hassle of a commute I have to make clear across town on buses filled with Quaalude-Valiumed-drooling people with scruffy clothes. I even had time to stop at a Starbucks and fell in love with their new Green Tea Frappaccino!

Upper and lower Market Street are like night and day, black and white, like two different cities. As I walk toward the interview on Lower Market, a man is outside a cafe singing perfect pitch opera while people in business suits and attire are peacefully having their ciapatta sandwiches and mocha lattes.

Upper Market translation?... Welfare recipient dressed in Grateful Dead sweatshirt embellished with mustard stains and safety pin is entertaining the masses with his blaring boombox throbbing with Rastafarian music!

Lower Market: Businessmen in Ermenegildo Zegna designer ties multitasking as they power walk down the sidewalk while closing a deal ON their CELL phones.

Upper Market translation?.... Shifty-looking dudes wearing the finest in doo-rags and gold chains and fresh OUT of a CELL closing drug deals from one pocket to another!

Lower Market: The traditional clang-clang sounds of our historical California Street cable cars and the Ferry Building clock chiming on the hour.

Upper Market translation?.... The sounds of police sirens responding to hysterical 911 calls and chorus-like raspy voices all warbling the same tune of "Can you spare any change?" from every street corner and alley!

Ambled slowly back to work on the wrong side of town from the interview on the right side of town, dreaming of that company making me an offer I can't refuse!