Adventures in San Francisco

I am not sure whether it is possible to leave San Francisco without some sort of story to back up the trip. Though some stories tend to be funnier and more random than others. Last Saturday was not to disappoint. For a fun, no specific plans day, my good friend Stephanie and I journeyed to the City by the Bay to do a little shopping and to visit Natalie. After scoring some 80% off shoes at DSW that shocked even the clerk, we hit up Forever 21, H&M and Ross. Yes, Ross. In the shopping mecca of San Francisco, we still took the time to go to Ross. Don't judge.

After walking off a week of Easter candy and filling our tummies with the cheapest, best sushi in the Richmond district, Natalie left us to visit Green Apple on our own. (Best used bookstore ever by the way) However, we encountered a problem when super creeper man started staring and following us around. When he clearly wasn't going to stop, we knew it was time to head on out of there. A few minutes of freezing SF wind later and we thought we had made it safely to the muni stop that would take us to BART and lead us toward home.

We were huddling under a doorway waiting for the muni when this shorter man in black comes running jaywalking across Geary heading for us. He was almost skipping and had his hair pulled back into a ponytail, native American feathers hanging from the side of his head, and wait for it... his face covered in black and white paint, which we took to be some sort of skull face paint...

He comes uncomfortably close holds out his hand and says "I'm (mumbles something unintelligible)."

Steph awkwardly takes his hand and says, "I'm Stephanie."

Guy:"What are you doing?"

Steph: "We're going home."

Guy: "Well I'm celebrating my panda birthday!"   (Duh, panda birthdays, we should've known?) WHAT?

Steph: "Oh wow, your panda birthday?" - (See we were both in too much shock to come up with a witty retort after the green apple creeper encounter)

Guy: smiling crazy "Okay, bye!"

Then our new panda friend proceeds to go in at Steph for a hug and kisses her quickly on the cheek before we even knew what was happening, and then skips merrily down Geary in the opposite direction. 

It was one of those moments where you don't know what else to do but just laugh. So we laughed and  - after hand santizing both Stephanie's hands and cheek - we laughed some more.

So San Francisco, thanks as always, for the laughs and the stories - and I hope everyone else can enjoy a panda birthday once in a while. :)