Dec. 13th, 2009
(no subject)
Dec. 13th, 2009 05:18 pmI'm in the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco, coming to you via the AGU wireless. It's very odd to be in the middle of a big city -- a real one with shops and public transport and Christmas lights and everything. Tucson isn't; it's just a collection of sprawly suburbs with a few small token office blocks in the middle, the whole downtown occupying less space than the University.
My hotel room has a view over Union Square, complete with skating rink and giant tree -- though I think the one inside Neiman Marcus may actually be bigger.
My hotel room has a view over Union Square, complete with skating rink and giant tree -- though I think the one inside Neiman Marcus may actually be bigger.
Union Square
Dec. 13th, 2009 09:40 pmThe skaters go around and around, always widdershins; the colored lights from the corners of the rink make shifting Saint Andrew's cross of their shadows. Some of them skate holding hands; sometimes one stumbles, is righted by a companion; sometimes one tries a daring flourish.
Behind them, almost every window of the huge store is filled with a wreath, twinkling with tiny lights. The light from the top-floor windows is dimmer, warmer; is it a restaurant up there, or a maze of desks and cubicles? On the floor below that, people are moving about. Party-goers, or just employees tidying up? They don't move like shoppers.
Beyond the store, the hillside twinkles with tiny lights too, but those are just distant streetlights, golden, shimmering in the winter night.
Behind them, almost every window of the huge store is filled with a wreath, twinkling with tiny lights. The light from the top-floor windows is dimmer, warmer; is it a restaurant up there, or a maze of desks and cubicles? On the floor below that, people are moving about. Party-goers, or just employees tidying up? They don't move like shoppers.
Beyond the store, the hillside twinkles with tiny lights too, but those are just distant streetlights, golden, shimmering in the winter night.
