I am in our room at the University Club of San Francisco. The University Club of San Francisco was founded in 1890 by a group of college graduates who wanted to create a social and cultural center for university alumni in the city. The club was originally located in several different downtown locations before moving to its current home at 800 Powell Street in 1909. The distinctive clubhouse building, designed by architects Bliss & Faville in the Italian Renaissance style, sits atop Nob Hill and offers panoramic views of San Francisco. The building sustained damage in the 1906 earthquake but was rebuilt and expanded. This place reeks of dusty intellectualism. Naturally, like most old clubs, it was initially restricted to male college graduates, and only started accepting women as members in 1976. The Club has reciprocal arrangements with lots of other university clubs around the world, including the Cornell Club, where I have been a member for 35 years. This is the first reciprocal arrangement I have ever availed myself of. The club website features notable details like its grand entrance (not really so grand, but serviceable), guest rooms (we are in Room 8 of nine on the main floor), supposed athletic facilities (somewhere in the building, I presume), and dining facilities that are not available to us since the O’Reilly Clan seems to be having some sort of grand party and is absorbing all dining capacity. We chose to stay here for two reasons, we love the Cornell Club of New York experience and the place was only three blocks from where my pal Frank lives and we are here to visit Frank.
So far we have ordered Grubhub for a late lunch yesterday and used Uber to go the three blocks to Frank’s place and back. As I had told Kim before we came, those three blocks are pretty vertical, which makes it hard to walk up and just as hard to walk down in the dark of a New Year’s Eve night. The room we are staying in is decidedly “old world”, which is fine, but the room window is a large sash window that must be from 1906 since it must have gotten jammed half-open by the Earthquake and never got back closed. The Club solved the problem not by fixing the sash, but by installing a storm window over it. Given that between here and Frank’s place there are three of the finest hotels in San Francisco, The Fairmont, The Stanford Court and The Mark Hopkins (now the Intercontinental), I’m not sure that on our next visit to the City on the Bay we won’t just choose one of those great hotels for just a snick more cost than this Club. I’m sure for local use as a gathering place, the Club is just fine, but I guess we’ve been spoiled by the Cornell Club, which always has dining services, has King-sized beds rather than Queen-sized beds, and is no more than ten vertical feet from anywhere in Midtown Manhattan. I know NYC and SF are different cities, but hilltop living is something I prefer when I am in gardening clothes.
The glorious part of this trip happened when we came to Frank’s front door and he answered the bell. It was a true surprise to him, so it was fun to sit with him before the party started and the forty or so people (mostly from their building) showed up. It is a little unusual to go to a party with everyone from the same building. There was lots of Co-op Board chatter and floor plan modification discussion. Once we got through all that there is no denying that Frank’s building at the very top of Nob Hill has a lot of interesting characters in residence. While politics was not really on anyone’s agenda, it was clear that the preponderance of people leaned left, with a few exceptions. It didn’t make any difference and there were interesting conversations to be had all around. The very first guy I met was the only guy at the party wearing a tie, so I suspect he may not have been the most liberal guy at the gathering. When he asked how I knew Frank (once we established that I didn’t live in the building), I told him we had known each other for many years. The very first thing he asked me was if I had gotten stuck with that Cockamamie giant Ferris wheel investment along with Frank. I had to say that I WAS the Cockamamie Observation Wheel guy. I then felt obliged to tell the guy, who was trying to back away from me by then, that Frank had gotten an 8X return on his Beehive Ventures investment with me. He still felt the need to go try the shrimp.
Based on Frank’s somewhat difficult post-chemo position, we determined that we would only be able to do lunch today, so we decided to advance our return flight home to leave this evening. We agreed to meet Frank at the Laurel Court at the next-door Fairmont Hotel. When I went to the front desk here at the Club this morning, I asked about getting a refund on our second reserved night at the Club since we had to leave early. The clerk seemed dubious, but he agreed to ask the manager. Then I asked how we could get to the lobby of the Fairmont through the garage across the street rather than climb the big hill with out suitcases. He told me how to do that and then I realized he was looking at me like someone who might be checking into the Fairmont for that extra night. I do not hold out much hope that I will be getting a refund from the University Club of San Francisco. It seems the lack of dining at the Club (thanks O’Reillys), the steep hills and Frank’s condition have conspired against me on this New Years Day.
I have never been a big New Years Resolutions guy, but I’m thinking about just that today. Lately I have not had much appetite. I know that sounds strange for someone my size, but ever since early November I have eaten very little and lost 25 pounds. I’ve had a little stomach distress during that time, but nothing that a few Pepto Bismol chewies can’t solve every once in a while. Ive gone from being a Pepto non-believer to a Pepto gotta-have-it-with-me-at-all-times kinda guy. And then this morning, I read up on Norovirus. It seems it is becoming a 2025 epidemic across country. Norovirus is the most common form of gastrointestinal distress. It tends to be characterized by unexpected vomiting, which is not a symptom that afflicts me, but otherwise the dehydrating affects seem somewhat familiar. I’m not sure there is a test for Norovirus so I am unlikely to ever find out if I’ve had this hit-an-run virus. I’m thinking that so long as they keep making Pepto Bismol chewies, I feel like I can handle Norovirus as my own personal version of Ozempic. I guess that all means that my leading 2025 resolution is to keep losing weight for as long as I can as long as I can reinfect myself with Norovirus. Maybe it would be better not to make happenstance New Years Resolutions based only on my bellyache of the moment.