Postcards from San Francisco

Choosing the right postcard. It truly in an art form.

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Photo by Mykhaylo Kopyt on Unsplash

October 2018, 12:18 PM. Big Sur, CA.

Dear John,

So I find myself in Big Sur after having been offered a scholarship to attend the annual writers’ retreat. This photo, obviously taken on a bad day, does not do justice to the wonderful natural hot springs atop the cliffs hugging the Pacific that were one of the non-literary highlights of my stay. ~ xoxo, Wednesday.

October 22, 2018, 1:45 PM, San Francisco, CA

Dear John & Jane,

There is so much to tell you both as to the choice of this postcard and your hand in it. I know life has gotten in the way of us being able to meet up or talk. In the meantime, I hope you both are staying safe. Je pense très fort à vous.

October 23, 2018, 9:54 PM. San Francisco, CA

Postcard of a sun that I painted.

Dear Jane,

The picture on the front is of a sun. I painted it. With my left hand. Or at least that’s what I’m going to say. I’ll explain the meaning at some point. Greetings from San Francisco! xoxo.

October 24, 2018, 12:14 PM. San Francisco, CA.

Dear John,

Greetings from San Francisco! I appended a week-long stay to the end of the retreat that I attended given that I would already happen to be on the west coast. I have no plans, no people to meet, nothing to do other than process the weekend and see where every wrong turn leads me. ~ xoxo, Wednesday.

October 26, 2018, 10:35 AM. San Francisco, CA

Dear John,

Greetings from San Francisco! Perhaps you remember me writing in my little notebook while sitting at your bar and shooting the shit with you and other patrons. Well, the retreat I was preparing for was over this past weekend. It was AMAZING. And I have a bit of you to thank for that. :) Obvi, I’ll swing by for a martini or two when I’m back. :) ~ xoxo, Wednesday.

October 26, 2018, 11:23 AM. San Francisco, CA.

Dear John,

Greetings from San Francisco! Flew out here to attend a writers’ retreat in and figured I’d add a week on to my trip in order to process the experience. But now I’m going to need to process the processing — and hopefully before my birthday! So many novel experiences! Hope you’re doing well! ~ xoxo, Wednesday.

October 26, 2018, 10:15 AM (via email rather than postcards make the majority of the post). San Francisco, CA.

Dear Jane,

I really don’t want to write this email, but at the same time I have to be fair to myself by speaking up. It kind of reminds me of the conversation we had in which you said, people expect you to just shut up and go with the flow, and if you don’t, even when you’re right, you unfairly get characterized as the “angry black woman.”

I don’t know if it was official or just said in passing, but John’s suggestion to comp me for the night as compensation for the “inconvenience” I suffered because of the bed bugs was actually more offensive that the bites themselves. I had slept in an infested bed Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights.

Being that bites occurred on all three of my first nights, I would expect that my room would be compensated for the entirety of the duration of suffering. Know that I only complained about it to John once it became clear that this wasn’t some kind of crazy San Francisco mosquito, however, it’s certainly in my right to complain to a more authoritative source. By the way, I have two new bites on my legs even after having moved rooms. They could be from before I moved rooms and are just manifesting now or they decided to move rooms as well, which means they were brought into a new room. And now I run the risk of bringing this whole problem back to my hometown.

Regardless, the reason I’m reaching out to you is because I like you and I know you have a better grip on what is fair. The motto here at the hostel exclaims its excellence. But has it been excellent to me? I’m sure if you spend some time thinking of my experience by yourself, you will know that the answer to that question is no. The public health situation and the legal requirement to report this situation is an entirely different situation. Let me know what you think is fair and I will respond likewise. :) I’ve been physically hurt by being here. ~ Wednesday

October 28, 2018, 10:40 PM. San Francisco, CA(via WhatsApp).

John was a French guy I became friends with at the hostel.

John to me: “Thanks a looooot for sharing all of that. It’s so precious to me. I’m so happy that you came to talk to me 2 days ago in the hostel. You are one of those rare people that naturaly insufflate happiness around you. It’s thanks to your interest to people, your kindness, generosity and sense of humour if people felt so confortable and friendly the other night at the hostel. Moreover, it was so great to spend the night with you yesterday. I really appreciated this so simple moment, and felt out of space and time. I came here to live that and you put so much trust and confidence on me for the rest of my road trip. I’m here for 3 days and I already spent my first night in the van with a new friend. I’m so lucky and grateful to you. I will follow all your precious advices, and be sure that I will visite you in Chicago if I plan to have an experience in this amazing city. I hope you a safe flight back to CH and really hope that we will see each other again!

The dozens of postcards ended (not all were mentioned) as it was time for me to head back to the Midwest. 😊

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This is a work of nonfiction. I made alterations to names due to privacy (part of the publication guidelines), and locations, social media references, and other revealing information have been left vague for the same purpose.

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