Dennis

On Folsom Street
SoMa
Tuesday morning

***

When I first moved here in the Fall of ’97, as typical with most new San Franciscans of that era, I spent about three months looking for a place to live.  I crashed at a friend’s studio in the Tenderloin, and perhaps time has weathered my memories of those months, but now that I think back, I vaguely recall that I slept in the closet.  My first weekends here were punctuated by Critical Mass and Folsom Street Fair.  I clearly wasn’t in Ohio anymore.

I spent the first few years commuting down to the south bay to my internet job, so honestly, my most vivid San Francisco memories from that era were of hazy nights at nightclubs on the weekends.  I could have easily been mistaken for someone that didn’t live in the City.  San Francisco was where I slept, so a move from the Richmond to Noe Valley mostly meant that I could get 30 minutes more sleep before my drive down to work.  It wasn’t really until 2001, when my company moved their office up to the City, that I really started living here.  Now, instead of hours on the 101, I was introduced to the magical concept of happy hour and a weekday social life.

And then I finally started living in San Francisco.

I regularly attended Qool, the Wednesday night happy hour at 111 Minna.  I bought a bike and learned how to DJ and started promoting parties every month.  I conducted four pilgrimages to Burning Man.  I moved to a fantastic apartment atop Dolores Park and invested in a restaurant & club, Supperclub.  I started blogging.  I woke up early and played golf at the Presidio before work.  I swam regularly at Aquatic Park and ran at Chrissy Field.  I finished the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon with a smug feeling that the race was on my “home turf.”

For the first time, when I went to visit family for Christmas, I called San Francisco home.  And when I was home in San Francisco, I had a thick family of friends.  Most of my high school friends back in Ohio were married, with kids on the way.

My brother and I moved into a place in SoMa, where he and his fiancé are my downstairs neighbors.  We share a dog, a Boston terrier named Bailey.  I started a company with four guys named Mike, and though we all work from home, we are all here in the Bay Area.  I Yelp.  I Facebook.  I Twitter.  I write code.  I write stories.  I make mixes.  I eat a lot of Asian food without really realizing it.  I shoot trap at PRGC.  I bike everywhere and shop at Rainbow and Trader Joe’s.  I am trying really hard to be a Giants fan.  Cleveland teams, for better or worse, still have my true loyalty, so it’s a little weird for me to root for teams that actually win.

My original plan was to live in San Francisco for awhile, and then move east to New York City (a common plan, I think).  My family had moved from Ohio to New Jersey after I graduated high school, so NYC seemed in the cards.  Then, one by one, they all moved out west.  First, my brother, then my parents and our dog, followed by a handful of cousins, aunts and uncles.

Now, not only is San Francisco home, I’m growing roots here.  And it continues to grow its roots into me.

***

You can see a slideshow of Dennis’ photo shoot here.

Dennis’ blog is http://www.dennisyang.com/
Follow him on twitter: http://twitter.com/sinned