SOMA

With South of Market (SoMa), I connect dear memories. I have stayed there during the whole summer of 1998. And in 2005, I have spent my 31st birthday breakfast in the Harvest Urban market, an organic supermarket.

Today, I returned because I searched for a laptop doctor. Last night, the apartment's wi-fi stopped working and threw me into a deep crisis of unconnectedness. No data back-up, no world news, no friends. Also: how to find any computer store or repair service without the internet? How to get there by public transport? For the first time in years, I flipped – not clicked – through the yellow pages that I had found beneath the TV set. And I was happy to have brought along my tattered old city map. Not zoomable, not 3D, but spread out on my queen size bed and to be read by the index finger. It even showed the Muni lines! I had found the address of a laptop doctor on Folsom Street. So, I travelled there, with the N Judah street car. During the ride I asked myself how much a computer problem could irritate me.

I got off at Civic Center. Walking Market Street was a thrill. I had forgotten about the racing wheel-chairs and people aggressively shouting prayers. The feeling of uncertainty about what to answer an old woman without teeth when she approaches and says: 'Hi Beauty'. On Folsom Street, another blond lady with a black hairnet asked me whether I had lost my car keys. She pointed to a bunch of keys in a window sill and kept walking by my side. I said all the nice words: "sorry", "thank you", smiled – and I was surprised when she did not ask for money but turned into a side street where she had spotted another homeless: "oh, she must have lost it, poor soul" - she said and walked away into little Moss Street.

I walked along Folsom street, between 6th and 8th, and found it very different from my memories. Less vivid and the feeling of a Saturday afternoon. Has it lost some spirit?

The laptop doctor at no. 1068 was never found. Actually, house no. 1068 does not exist. The neighbor, 1066, an Asian man owning a little mailbox store, has about no. 1071 as his next neighbor, no house in between! He said the business had been closed three years ago. This, in the best case, must be the date of the yellow pages which I found under the TV set. Good cache!

The wifi-problem is still not fixed, some incompatibility between the router and the laptop. Let's see how long I will be able to post here…