Not all lists are made or shared exclusively. A good many of them are written and carried out collaboratively. And some lists come from another source and are shared. Today is indicative of this.

The lists, again, I didn’t have one. I was packed and ready to go last night. I just went with the program. Eleanor, when asked by a mutual friend who took us to the airport, said that her travel concerns centered around the weather and toiletries.

Neither she nor I considered that we were going by external lists, composed by someone else. There was the arrival and departure list at the Portland airport. And there was the subway route list (Bart, Bay area rapid transit) in San Francisco. Going by both lists enabled us to eventually get where we were to stay, the Fitzgerald Hotel in downtown San Francisco.

Once here, we again studied the map, and then set out for Chinatown. El had left the Lonely Planet Guide in our room, so the map was our guide. We followed streets and avenues to China Town, and there looked at the food listings, finally going for Dim Sum. We then consulted the map before heading over to City Lights bookstore. And we again consulted the map before attempting to find the Diego Rivera fresco, which turned out to be impossible to find.

This evening, we went out for Mexican food and again consulted yet another listing, that is a menu.

Tomorrow it will be much the same although we’ll have a better familiarity with the town’s layout. And we will have the Lonely Planet Guide in hand.

I remember being in Amsterdam a few years ago. I was alone – it wasn’t near as much fun, conferring about what listings to check. I did all this by myself. Being with El is way more fun. Conferring over listed items is way more fun.

The odd thing is that now when I hear someone say “make a list” I automatically begin making a long list of mental inferences, inferences based upon what I have been thinking about in writing about listing. Lists, really, they are everywhere.
There are, for example, all over, lists of dos and don’ts, the best place to find such things are in laundromats. There are lists in guide books of places to eat, things to see, places to go.

Tomorrow we will get up early and start to deliberate as to what we might do – I might suggest that we even make a list. Since we have the map and book we might not feel the need to do this. If the weather permits, we will go and walk across the Golden Gate bridge. And on the way back to where we are staying, we will cruise along Fisherman’s wharf. Most definitely, this will continue to be a joint effort.

Slowly, ever so slowly, I am elaborating on my a to z list. It’s like being in quicksand.

Next: 109. 4/19/18: The ABC’s of Listing: K, Knock it Out