I'm wondering if there's a sense of materialism that comes from being on the west coast. This is somthing I don't see as much within the anti-wealth, poor social worker, community based, urban tribe culture of my church in Cambridge. There's a contrast of lifestyles, between my life on the east coast, and the life I might have lived if I had stayed in the west.

So in my two day layover here in San Francisco, I arrived, and then proceeded to go shopping at A/X, Macys and Banana Republic. My sister is still insisting that I purchase more clothes than I'm going to immediatley wear. She's trying to change the way I dress, make me cooler, and less geeky. Essentially "more stylish" I wanted to walk to the store, my sister wanted to drive, we comprimised and took the bus. I wanted to buy one shirt, we ended up with four. I wanted to spend about $15 dollars, we ended up spending $100.

On Sunday instead of going to church I went to a beginning yoga class out here in Piedmont. In fact it was at the yoga studio of the famous Rodney Yee. He supposedly is a superstar of the yoga field, not to mention having a hot body. He gives classes around the country, people flock for miles around to be in his presence. The yoga class was both strenuous and relaxing. In the end it was almost a spiritual experience. Yoga allows one to focus their mind, to clear it from the mental noise which clutters our lives. We finished the yoga, with a relaxation exercise - also known as the 'corpse' pose. So; given that I'd been traveling and was quite exhaused, but now relaxed; I fell asleep in the 'corpse' position. My cousin said I started snoring.

Afterwards we ate brunch, I ordered plate of chorizon and scrambled eggs, with fried potatoes. This place happens to serve their hashed browns with beets and onions. Chorizo and eggs, are pretty standard breakfast fare, and not unusual for brunch at a cafe. However beets with hash browns? Only in California.

After brunch we headed back to his house, he surfed the web on match.com looking for women. Later on we cruised around in his convertible, played some golf. We went back to his house, I took a shower,

As we prepared to go out to dinner. His his brother-in-law pulls up in his Lexus with his somewhat spoiled 2 year old son, just as we are leaving. I look a little perplexed and surprised to see them, he mentions that he was coming over for dinner, while his wife is out on a weekend retreat. We decide to all go out together.

We chose to eat at well known Mediterranean cafe. We ate outside in the cool breeze (under a propane heater) looking out on one of those quaint little streets with cafe's, small shops, latte vendors, an independant theatre, and unique socially responsible businesses.

After dinner my cousin dropped me off at the airport. I checked in, got a first class seat for the flight home, synchronized my mail in the private club, then got on the plane, after the flight attendant attempted to card me, I was trying to figure out if he was flirting with me, (he was pretty cute) then sat down had a glass of wine and leaned back and relaxed on my flight home to Boston.

All in all it was a quite relaxing weekend, starkly different from what I'd typically do in Cambridge. In Boston, I'd have friends over, and I know people who golf, but I probably wouldn't go with them. I'd be too busy at community boating sailing, or just putzing around my house. I'd be at church on a Sunday, instead of taking a yoga class. Although there are similarities, they both can be spiritual activities, the motions of yoga and the pews of a church force you to maintain good posture, not to mention that people have tendancy to fall asleep in both church and yoga.

I can't help but think about how my life would be different, yet similar if I were back in California. My cousin fixes up old houses and then sells them. I could imagine myself in a similar role. What better way of getting to know the community than as a realtor. He was involved in selling a piece of land to a church which wanted to build a co-housing community next to a housing project.

By the simple fact that he buys houses and resells them for profit, it makes him a developer. Thus he is directly responsible for the gentrification of neighborhoods. Yet he's involved in the community. What better way of practicing the idea of improving the community that becoming involved with it. What better way of making a profit on housing than improving the community.

This is a photo of him. My cousin, as the chairman of the schoolboard, is also a politician with a knack for extracting favors from local businesses. His latest triumph is getting a local company to sponsor a private screening of their unreleased movie at their headquarters, complete with sushi. It was, in fact, a fund raiser, in which he raised twenty five thousand dollars for the local schools. In exchange, the company was able to create goodwill within the community. What better way to increase property values than to improve the quality of the schools.

Alhough he can be called a gentrifier, he's not ungodly, shallow, materialistic, or the scourge of evil. I often wondered why people villanize real estate developers, politicians, and Californians that way.