A Little List of Tall Places

sometimes when i wear my fancy clothes i feel like a little tiny kid wearing his dad's suit and pretending he has a very important meeting that involves a briefcase. and sometimes i'm actually wearing my dad's suit. and it probably doesn't help that i do own two briefcases but one is actually a barbecue in disguise and the other is full of sock-puppet materials.

but i can tie and tie and that's pretty adulty.

and no matter the environment, i don't think i'll ever outgrow my childish love for skyscrapers. i can't get enough. i really can't. some of you have probably even gotten a text or five with words like, "i am totally on the 33rd floor of 345 california center: the third tallest building in san francisco. it's kind of a big deal." and most of you have not responded. but that's okay, i think i only took my phone out to look more serious about my business and to distract other business men from noticing my ridiculous grin and hop-scotchy step.

that's probably why i shelled out so much cash to eat at the carnelian room on the top of bank of america. a lot of people do-- but i was the only one there to have fun and not a business meeting.

i'm not even kidding. i put on my DEAD SERIOUS face during the elevator ride, but the minute those doors open i may as well be that dog in the commercial about those treats that aren't actually bacon but taste a lot like it.

on tuesday, my assistant manager returned from his whooping-cough and two-week absence-- which meant a lot less invoicing for me, and a whole lot more delivering. a whole lot more skyscrapers and elevators.

i visited 345 california center again-- four times actually-- and every time i took my cell phone out to steal a shot of the view, the elevator dinged that it was time for me to go back down. but it was still rad. the security guards know me and aren't threatened by my hair, and i got to talk about SERIOUS ADULT THINGS on the elevator-- things like why the price of tomatoes is sky-rocketing.


on my little list of tall places, i've now been to the top of not just 345 california, but the bank of america building, the 16th floor of 580 california, the 39th floor of the marriott marquis-- which made me feel like a total alcoholic supervillain, the fairmont's rooftop garden, the 23rd floor of the westin st. francis during a time i had too much money and made ridiculous purchases (like hotel rooms a block from my apartment) while intoxicated and online, and the roof of the hotel triton.

but it was taking a delivering to the 10th floor of the phelan building that reminded me how much i love climbing through these buildings. they're not always so formal and businessy. the phelan felt like someone had spat inner richmond shops into a historic flat-iron, and no one was thinking twice about it. there were offices dedicated to watch batteries next to tax return companies and diamond-buyers. nothing about the place made sense and it felt haunted.

i'm going to have to go back on my own time.

i've always been a fan of seeing what costume will get me into what building, and how high up said building i can travel-- but i had never put together the power of a print-package. and this job is re-birthing my insatiable and mostly unexplainable love of building-tops.

i do believe i'll to need to start an actual list-- a LIST even-- of buildings i'd like to top before i die or grow so increasingly claustrophobic that the concept of an elevator is just impossible. or go to jail trying.

my next goal is anywhere in the transamerica pyramid, or the top of 101 california (my favorite to look at.)

so, if any security guards, members of the press, or elevator technicians want to help, i could really use a hand.

or your costumes.