Convert #1

I moved out here a bit on my own. I had a few people I knew from Ad School. People I'd shared a beer and a few classes with but that's about it. No one who understands my need to watch all things Carolina athletics. No one who finds my car obsession "cute" rather than wholly neurotic.

And that's not to say Joel finds me any more sane, but we have mutual experiences which puts him more firmly into the tolerant friend category. Murphy's Lunch Fried Chicken. Late night games of Quake. Trips to the caves that I bailed on. (Thank goodness, it poured rain.) Screaming at the TV during the Carolina / dook game. And now one more experience we share. He just moved to San Francisco.

It's also been a bit interesting to watch him go through some of the same moments I first had. Starting with, "Holy Crap I'm actually here. I really did this. What was I thinking?" All the way to, "This is a pretty cool place to live."

I'm hoping today was more of the latter for him. It certainly was for me. My new friend and Art Director Jessica ran a marathon today. Let me go ahead and get this out of the way: I'm a lazy-ass. Moving on. Some of the other creatives in the office, Joel and I went down to the marathon route to cheer her on. We actually managed to find a spot close to the finish that she would pass by twice so we could get in twice the cheering. And thus, twice the good karma.

She ran by the first time (mile 16) and we were appropriately loud and obnoxious. And as serendipity would have it, we were also feet away from the beach. On a cloudless, fogless, perfect day. We walked down to the beach and popped open snacks. Mimosas. Little Debbie Snack cakes. Chips and salsa. Threw a football around. Attempted to catch it. Sometimes.

There were also moments where all we could do was stand around and look up and down the beach. It was incredible. Rock formations jutting out into the water. To the North, a gorgeous view of Marin and the few houses lucky enough to see both the Pacific and have a view of downtown SF. To the South, an area appropriately called Pacifica. After a good solid two hours of drinking, eating, throwing, catching, finger jamming, and ogling at nature, we headed back up to cheer Jessica to the finish.

We also cheered for an awful lot of other people. Probably because we had just spent two hours on a beach indulging ourselves. These people had just spent 4.5-5 hours running and raising 18.5 Million dollars to fight Leukemia. So we clapped and yelled for strangers. They certainly deserved it.

Then we clapped and cheered for Jess and her friend Colleen. They looked unhappy, happy, and loony all at the same time. We made a walk down to the finish line but it was slammed with people, DJs, guys in tuxes handing out Tiffany jewelry boxes (it was the SF Women's Marathon) and enough well wishers that we were none too sure we'd actually find Jess. But we were sure she would be well congratulated.

On the way home she called to thank us. She said she cried like a 12 year old. If I'd run that far all just to get a necklace from a guy in a tux, I probably would have too.

So now I've got an old friend here from back East. And it seems like I've got a couple new old friends as well.