a moment i savored.

so tonight, i walked down grant street to the s&s grocery store to get a firelog (love a little fire burning in my fireplace when i do yoga in the living room), some frozen juice, a frozen pot pie, and some ice cream. s&s is the only place in north beach that sells ben & jerry's chunky monkey, and i had a taste for some. oh, i also got some sun chips and some lemon yogurt. okay, and a swanson hungry man mexican fiesta tv dinner. sue me...it looked good and i was hungry. good thing i'm sleeping alone tonight, i guess.

anyway.

whilst gaily traipsing down grant street (well, it was more like unenthusiastic shuffling while glowering at nothing in particular with a glazed expression on my face), i heard a strange clip-clopping noise behind me, in the distance, slowly growing louder and louder.

i turned around.

slowing making its way up the street was a dirty white horse attached to a small open carriage. it was driven by a man who looked like he had just stepped out of 1907, and there were some tourists in the back of the carriage with big smiles on their faces, just taking in the whole north beach experience. the air was filled with the aroma of fresh bread, garlic, and tomato sauce from sodini's around the corner on green street, which was mingling quite nicely with the sapid redolence of north beach pizza right on the corner of grant and union there. i squinted my eyes and mentally removed the cars parked up and down the street and imagined what this particular block of grant (between union and green) must have looked like 100 years ago when it was known as dupont avenue, and there were horses tethered everywhere.

i was standing across the street from the festive, wildly-painted savoy tivoli in all its edwardian glory, and the carriage passed me. i watched it lumber away into the night towards coit tower. the whole scene looked quite similar to this actually, and for some reason, a lump appeared in my throat.

i realized i was savoring the moment the exact same way i would savor a glass of velvety shiraz, or a painting by amedeo modigliani in a museum. i made a mental note to myself to never, ever forget that moment as long as i live.

i probably never will.