Santa Maria (ohhhh…)
In a fit of nostalgia, I packed a sippy drink and took the California Train to San Mateo on Saturday. When I first moved to the San Francisco/Bay Area in October ‘99, I stayed with friends for a month before renting a room from a wicked old witch in San Mateo. I awoke every weekday morning around 5:00 am to get ready and get into the city by 8:00 am when I first started working as a receptionist. It was certainly not the best of times, but I hadn’t been back since I’d moved in mid-2000.
So, once again on board the newly renovated and much more stylish Cal Train (the garish ’70s-styled seat covers had been replaced with a slick, silver style), I rode the train past all the industrial sites and suburb-type cities into San Mateo. Firstly, the Cal Train station there looked fabulous, like some old time railroad station, but cuter. Better than the brick wall with a door that it used to be.
And I never realized just how cute San Mateo is, with its Spanish style building and quiet charm. The library had also been renovated, and looked fabulous, like some university library. I walked along the streets wondering how I could have had such racing horse blinders on while I lived there, but knew only to harken back tn memories of Mrs. Swan (no, not from "Mad TV"), the vile old woman who rented me the room, and watched me like a hawk, not allowing me to have visitors and coming up with a list of ridiculous rules that included no alcohol in the house. The one Christmas I was there, she asked semi-politely if I wouldn’t mind not being around since she was celebrating it at home with her family. I remember going to Drager’s the upscale grocery store in the neighborhood, and just being among the bustling holiday crowds all on my own.
Anyways, I bought some glow-in-the-dark stars for my room at a toy store that had once been a Walgreens (who would have ever thought a Walgreens store could be bought out??), then took the next train home. I couldn’t stand to live there now, being so damn far away from civilization. But it was good to just revisit the past, and realize that I’m past it.
