![\"\"](\"http:\/\/foundsf.org\/images\/6\/6a\/WA_Lee%27s_Liquor_Store-1656-58_Fillmore_St.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I used to live in a three-story brownstone in the Western Addition district of San Francisco.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Back in \u201cthe day\u201d, as the saying goes, our brownstone was separated from our neighbors by two thin walls that would vibrate whenever the 5 MacAllister MUNI bus would rumble down the block or when the corner bar would start playing the Blues too loud.\u00a0 All the other homes on the block were flush against each other, with nothing but iron railing, cracked steps and sidewalk weeds as our front lawns.<\/p>\n
I now live in the American suburb, complete with a front and back yard.\u00a0 We have two air condition units for our home, a nice sized fireplace that requires no logs and four large screen TV sets for two people.\u00a0 Our yard has an avocado tree that is of great interest to our neighbor, who uses binoculars to check our yield.\u00a0\u00a0 Every so often, I am asked by my husband and our gardener for my opinion on new trees.\u00a0 So far, I\u2019ve asked for two Cherry Blossom trees, along with pomelo and Japanese tangerine trees.<\/p>\n
Our other neighbors do not speak to us.\u00a0 I once made the mistake of speaking in Japanese to my gardener, and now my new neighbor believes that I do not speak English.\u00a0 The guy across the street waves at me before running into the house.\u00a0 He is gay, but the neighbors keep setting him up with women.\u00a0 And why wouldn\u2019t they?\u00a0 When I had two gay men come to my house one year, I ended up with Bible videos in the mailbox.<\/p>\n
I dislike this suburban life.<\/p>\n
I have no children, which is comparable to having no toilet to suburban people. There is something inherently wrong with us to our neighbors, because we hole ourselves up in a home meant for four people, several dogs and a sprawling swimming pool.\u00a0 Maybe they pray for my womb, and feel sorry for my ovaries whenever I drive past their house.<\/p>\n
I am also the only Asian in my neighborhood.\u00a0 No lie.\u00a0 I grew up in Asian central back in San Francisco.\u00a0 Now the only Asian grocer closest to me carries all their frozen goods with freezer burns. It is run by a Korean man who bootlegs Asian videos and keeps fifteen-year-old kim chee in the refrigerator sections.<\/p>\n
I can see all the stars at night, though.\u00a0 I\u2019ve stayed up late to watch meteor showers from my balcony.\u00a0 That is always a nice touch.<\/p>\n
Image: Corner liquor store on Fillmore.\u00a0 Western Addition.<\/p>\n
(c)2013 Slow Suburban Death.\u00a0 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I used to live in a three-story brownstone in the Western Addition district of San Francisco.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,43],"tags":[82,283,350],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/annapirhana.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/annapirhana.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/annapirhana.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annapirhana.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annapirhana.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/annapirhana.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/annapirhana.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annapirhana.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/annapirhana.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}