It was Saturday night. I was in a car with a friend. She gave me a ride. We were heading downtown San Francisco. She was going home, and I was going to a farewell party of another friend.

The traffic during that long weekend was quite smooth, but we did not have much luck with the traffic light so we had to stop almost at every intersection. We were not in any rush so it was not bad. Besides, she’s a very nice person and I always like to spend time with her. Aside of her good feature, her attitude is one thing that I find interesting. I like to talk to her. Actually, I like to listen to her talking. This time, she was updating me about thing that had happened while I was away from the city for couple of weeks. She was telling me about a guy she’s seeing recently.

Her story sound movie-like to me, and here is its synopsis. A girl met a guy at the bar. He did not seem to notice her at the beginning, but somehow, after a while, they started a conversation. Then, she made him laugh and he probably realized that this girl was not just another pretty girl from some third world country who cared only about the colour of her make up. Before he left, he handed her a business card and asked if she could email him sometime. She accepted a card. His name was on it. The card showed that he worked for a very popular San Francisco based website which has sub domain in almost every big city around the world, and his job was probably to make some sort of big decisions for the corporate as his title was written in as a very short word as ‘CEO’. She emailed him a week later and somehow he got her number. Afterward, they talked on the phone. They met up again later on. He took her to fancy restaurants and told her that he had had a hotel room as a house for a few months. He impressed her not by a luxury lifestyle but by how simple he had lived his life. And she amazed him by…I don’t know, I guess I need to learn that part from his point of view not her. And that is all I can tell about this story so far. It’s still happening and, even she or he, still have to wait and see.

I have no idea what does he think about this. But according to my friend’s word, she did not think that this relationship is for real.

That does not mean she does not like him. She just does not believe that this could really happen to her. There was one sentence she told me just before she dropped me off in front of the Thai karaoke bar that makes me think. She said ‘Life is just a dream here’. I was stunned. I had never thought about it that way before. I do now.

Am I just living my life in a fantasy? If it is so, to me, that is terrifying. I always love to put my feet on a solid ground not something as fragile and ready to tumble as a dream. I really want her to be wrong. But what if she was right?

My friend cannot speak for every body, neither can I. But I think that there are a lot of people agree with her. My another-friend whose party I attended on that night is among those a lot of people. At the party, she told me her story here in San Francisco. She told me how much she loved it. And she told me it’s time to leave it behind and get back to her real life. She had 4 days left in San Francisco. She was saying good bye to her fantasy world.

Living in the land across the world far from home give us new rule, which, I think, is there is no such thing as a rule exist. There is no extent about what we could do. Each of us has our own discipline. Some of which may not coordinate with the other, but still we have to live together. May be that is why we start to feel insecure and tend to see everything as a dream. May be that is why we think that we can not believe in anything that happen here. May be that is why we give up our hope that it might be real somehow. May be that is why we lose our faith. May be that is why someone do not take thing that have happened here seriously. May be that is why someone started something here, then left and never think of finishing it. May be if everybody does, may be so should I.

It is Tuesday night. I am in my bed alone. I was about to sleep and now I am writing this. I am in a pleasant mood tonight. I had a nice time today. I played tennis. It was good even I was defeated 2 sets in a row. I enjoyed nice Vietnamese food after the match. I saw two very funny movies in the evening. I had a good time. Actually, I’m having a good time now. A little bit hungry though. (I have a pack of baby carrot and my favourite dressing in the kitchen and I will have some before I go back to bed.) I’m thinking of one sentence I learned from one of the movies I saw today. It was when the Kung Fu Turtle said to the Kung Fu Panda that ‘Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is mystery. Only today is a gift. That is why we call it Present’. I may not remember it exactly word by word but I think that this is pretty much what it was. I think of that sentence by my friend once again -- that sentence about living in a dream, Comparing to the quote from that movie, I would rather believe what that Kung Fu Turtle spoke better. I don’t think that I’m living in a dream. I’m living in a present.