I start my first day for the midterm election by taking a cab filled with a Powermac to the Financial District. After introductions, I work for 11 hours. Yow. I’ve never done that before. They weren’t kidding, and remind me that the next six weeks of my life is basically theirs. I don’t mind, oddly. Apart from the studies at New College, I have no other distractions. The situation has an almost meditative quality to it.After work, I meet Ernesto. He’s kind of a quiet guy and shows me the room at the residence at 18th and Capp. Definitely a guy’s place – it has that sweat smell, but it’ll be fine for the time I’m here. The neighborhood is a bit sketchy, and it has that sewage smell that seems to permeate SF’s streets. What’s nice is that this apartment is only two blocks from New College. The lines of gentrification have been drawn, and it’s a much different world at 19th and Valencia than it is at 18th and Capp.
Mortie, Mortie: He's no shorty, Mortie.