Utah Is Only a Few Blocks Away

After my wonderful weekend with Brandon (more on that later), I had the privilege of hearing my roommate's band play at a local bar. Getting there was no privilege. I was running super late. The show started at 9pm and it was 9:20 pm when I finally got off the phone with family and friends.

After spending another 10 min in a fruitless hunt for my house keys, I finally caved and asked our neighbors if I could borrow the spare key they have for our place. And off I went! But the bus was taking forever to arrive. I decided to walk it. It's in the SOMA, I figure totally doable.

I got totally lost, ran into a few leather bars, and had a rat as a traveling companion for about half a block. Can I just say how repulsed I am by rats??? Ugh!! This is one thing I hate about living in a city. I am sorry, but rats are foul, disease-ridden vermin. I do not want to see them, and I definitely don't want them running underfoot while I am trying to get re-oriented in a shady part of town. Thankfully, this rat quickly dashed into a grate almost as soon as I became aware of his presence. His speed was gratifying and unnerving.

I finally arrived at my destination on 4th and Bryant, though: The Utah!! Yes, this is the name of the bar. It's like this really old, saloon style bar. Peter and I used to pass by it on the way home from church and muse on being able to go to Utah while being in California.

Oh the irony. Here I was on the Sabbath, about to go into a bar called The Utah (or sometimes the Hotel Utah). After paying a surprising cover I nestled into the small lounge area to listen to my awesome roommate play bass.

I had no idea what kind of music to expect, but was very pleased. Some great acoustic, folk kind of music with witty remarks in between songs by the lead singer, who has a really great-soungding voice. Imagine my surprise when the lead singer, John, announced that his next song would be about Mormons!

So I sipped my ice cold Budweiser and listened to a song about a guy who quit his job on Labor Day and ran into an LDS on LSD who compared Jesus to Superman and declared the Bible to be the first comic book. In Utah. On Sunday.

Sometimes I think God keeps himself entertained merely through the ironies of our lives. :)