It's been a perfect San Francisco weekend - extended. The length isn't why it's been perfect, but it sure is nice! Last night Matt, Steve, Linz and I went out in North Beach, then over to Union Square, and finally wound up in China Town. A mini city tour if you will. Today mom and I made our way up to Healdsburg - the long way (through Napa, Gernseville, and Yountsville - basically everywhere with a funny name).
While there are a million isms and stories buried in the activities mentioned above, this is about nice gestures. After leaving Marin and aggressively driving back to SF (I live in the city, it's my nature, I can't help it) I was winding around looking for parking. First I passed the lineup on Lombard so wound the other way to cut the line. At the top of the hill was a smoking car with a burned out clutch - oofa. As I made my way down Lombard I struck gold - parking! And it was easy to pull into the 45degree angle spot - it seemed although there was a long line to get to the windy part of the hill, the line wasn't moving. After I parked I noticed another car was smoking - but this one was stuck halfway up the hill (unlucky day for a handful of tourists). A few cars back people were honking and looking quite perturbed. A moment later, a car pulled up onto the sidewalk and all the occupants hopped out - a group of 4 young men - they ran up to the stalled car and without too much hub-uh started pushing until they got the car to the top of the hill.
Above and beyond.
Great to see there are such good hearted people.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Thankful for family
It's Thanksgiving so in the spirit we celebrated with too much food and great family time. The morning started with Linz and I freezing our bums off while waiting for the Turkey Trot - a 5k race over in Polo Field. After the race Matt and I went on an adventure - a public transit adventure.
We decided to ... gasp ... take public transportation to Aunt Jean's for the feast.
The bus:
We started off on the bus from Chestnut and Van Ness to City Hall. Sitting in the front of a bus was a very articulate lunatic talking to everyone in the bus. He actually had a very clear and dignified voice, but only about half the sentences made sense. To ever minority who walked on the bus a hateful slur flew out. An Indian man sat in front of him and the bus talker asked, "Where in India are you from?" The man looked excited to talk about home and said, "The South." To this, the bus talker replied, "Why did your people kill Ghandi? Bad idea. You know, in the days of Nietzche..." and then went off into random tangent number 53.
5min into the bus ride, a man carrying a full garbage bag boarded. He walked on in the middle of the bus talker's rant and started mumbling "Crazy man. You're a crazy man. Be quiet your mouth crazy man." Bus talker stopped for a minute and then looked down the bus to where garbage bag carrier was standing. "Sh, wait your turn. You're crazy, not me. I'm talking." Garbage bag carrier mumbled, "bah." Finally, bus talker stopped - "OK, you're turn to talk," he said to garbage bag carrier. "Bah," was the reply.
Muni:
After the bus we made our way down to muni. We had to shimmy a bit to get to the stairs because two men were fighting over a flask at the top of the stairs. How nice. Muni wasn't terrible - just a bit smelly - then again, I think that was the brussel sprouts I made for Thanksgiving.
Bart:
The worst of the three. When we arrived at the Bart station I got in the wrong line - I got in line behind all the people who couldn't seem to figure out the ticket machine (which ultimately made us miss our train - no worries, the trains come every 20min).
Finally, ticket in hand, we made our way down to the train stop to wait. Matt went to sit and a man about our age looked at him and said - "oof, wait! Don't sit. You sat. Sorry dude I didn't think you were going to sit there." We looked down and Matt had sat straddling a used hypodermic needle. Terrible.
When the train finally arrived we sat in a 4-seat spot to have more space. Matt put the sprouts down and when he placed them on the floor both of us eyed an empty flask under his seat. What is it with public transportation and flasks?
After the train picked up, I learned I had sat in the wrong seat. A dirty man sat across from a dirty woman right behind us - the woman was inches from the back of my head. Throughout the train ride the two introduced each other to one another twice. Then, they started talking about friends who had passed. Then the man started talking about how he was "in the business." The woman seemed to whisper all her replies in the conversation in a childish voice - flirting? A few times throughout the ride the man said, "Girl, you're weird. I want to get to know you. You're strange."
Oofa.
We decided to ... gasp ... take public transportation to Aunt Jean's for the feast.
The bus:
We started off on the bus from Chestnut and Van Ness to City Hall. Sitting in the front of a bus was a very articulate lunatic talking to everyone in the bus. He actually had a very clear and dignified voice, but only about half the sentences made sense. To ever minority who walked on the bus a hateful slur flew out. An Indian man sat in front of him and the bus talker asked, "Where in India are you from?" The man looked excited to talk about home and said, "The South." To this, the bus talker replied, "Why did your people kill Ghandi? Bad idea. You know, in the days of Nietzche..." and then went off into random tangent number 53.
5min into the bus ride, a man carrying a full garbage bag boarded. He walked on in the middle of the bus talker's rant and started mumbling "Crazy man. You're a crazy man. Be quiet your mouth crazy man." Bus talker stopped for a minute and then looked down the bus to where garbage bag carrier was standing. "Sh, wait your turn. You're crazy, not me. I'm talking." Garbage bag carrier mumbled, "bah." Finally, bus talker stopped - "OK, you're turn to talk," he said to garbage bag carrier. "Bah," was the reply.
Muni:
After the bus we made our way down to muni. We had to shimmy a bit to get to the stairs because two men were fighting over a flask at the top of the stairs. How nice. Muni wasn't terrible - just a bit smelly - then again, I think that was the brussel sprouts I made for Thanksgiving.
Bart:
The worst of the three. When we arrived at the Bart station I got in the wrong line - I got in line behind all the people who couldn't seem to figure out the ticket machine (which ultimately made us miss our train - no worries, the trains come every 20min).
Finally, ticket in hand, we made our way down to the train stop to wait. Matt went to sit and a man about our age looked at him and said - "oof, wait! Don't sit. You sat. Sorry dude I didn't think you were going to sit there." We looked down and Matt had sat straddling a used hypodermic needle. Terrible.
When the train finally arrived we sat in a 4-seat spot to have more space. Matt put the sprouts down and when he placed them on the floor both of us eyed an empty flask under his seat. What is it with public transportation and flasks?
After the train picked up, I learned I had sat in the wrong seat. A dirty man sat across from a dirty woman right behind us - the woman was inches from the back of my head. Throughout the train ride the two introduced each other to one another twice. Then, they started talking about friends who had passed. Then the man started talking about how he was "in the business." The woman seemed to whisper all her replies in the conversation in a childish voice - flirting? A few times throughout the ride the man said, "Girl, you're weird. I want to get to know you. You're strange."
Oofa.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Early Christmas?
In typical fashion, San Francisco is moving in fast forward ... the city is already decorated for Christmas. Union Square hosts the giant Christmas tree (it's now been up a week), skaters can cut the ice across from the Ferry Building, and all the meter posts are adorned with red and green ribbon greeting meter feeders. Yep, we're blazing trails alright - pretty soon the 4th of July decorations will be going on.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Look at me, look at me!
We all know San Francisco is filled with characters - there are the richies, the not so richies (and probably will never hit that stratosphere due to SF prices), the loonies, and everything in between.
Driving home from work Friday I made it to the T-loin (after 2-hours on the road ... ugh). The stretch between the freeway and Taylor is always an obstacle course - people jump in front of the cars, deals 'go down' on the sidewalk, and folks set up shop on all corners.
One T-loiner caught my eye above all the rest - he had an orange cone on his head and was rocking out on the corner. He may not have known what exactly he was doing - his eyes didn't seem to be registering much - but somewhere deep down I think he was screaming "look at me, look at me!"
The last time I saw this same kind of behavior was at a frat party in college. The good 'ol days.
Driving home from work Friday I made it to the T-loin (after 2-hours on the road ... ugh). The stretch between the freeway and Taylor is always an obstacle course - people jump in front of the cars, deals 'go down' on the sidewalk, and folks set up shop on all corners.
One T-loiner caught my eye above all the rest - he had an orange cone on his head and was rocking out on the corner. He may not have known what exactly he was doing - his eyes didn't seem to be registering much - but somewhere deep down I think he was screaming "look at me, look at me!"
The last time I saw this same kind of behavior was at a frat party in college. The good 'ol days.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Summer in November
San Francisco always seems to have the best weather in October and November, and this year is no exception. After the gloom last week brought (literally with the weather and figuratively with the new visitors to our front doorstep), this weekend was a welcome sun kissed one.
The roundup:
Saturday was nails and then walking and drinks with Lisa. We enjoyed our jaunt on Union and then made our way up to Sushi Groove. Every dinner at the Groove is excellent - great food, fun atmosphere, and free stuff (somehow we've befriended the head chef and he always surprises us with something amazing). This Saturday I experienced live uni - and it was quite an experience. One I don't need again - been there done that.
Sunday (today) was kayaking with Rob and Emily in Sausalito. It's been a while so it was great getting out on the water with them. The ride was calm at first, but (in standard fashion) the tides picked up just as we were heading back. After exhausting our arms, we went to a local "hole in the wall(ish)" Mexican dive. The atmosphere was great, and food looked amazing, but it felt like a used car salesman's restaurant where at every turn the waitress was trying to up-sell us. "Guac?" "Yes please." "Hot beans or just the normal ones?" "Hot please." "Chips?" "Yes, of course, please." Bill ... bam! Our extras cost more than the meal.
And now it's winding down. Boo.
The roundup:
Saturday was nails and then walking and drinks with Lisa. We enjoyed our jaunt on Union and then made our way up to Sushi Groove. Every dinner at the Groove is excellent - great food, fun atmosphere, and free stuff (somehow we've befriended the head chef and he always surprises us with something amazing). This Saturday I experienced live uni - and it was quite an experience. One I don't need again - been there done that.
Sunday (today) was kayaking with Rob and Emily in Sausalito. It's been a while so it was great getting out on the water with them. The ride was calm at first, but (in standard fashion) the tides picked up just as we were heading back. After exhausting our arms, we went to a local "hole in the wall(ish)" Mexican dive. The atmosphere was great, and food looked amazing, but it felt like a used car salesman's restaurant where at every turn the waitress was trying to up-sell us. "Guac?" "Yes please." "Hot beans or just the normal ones?" "Hot please." "Chips?" "Yes, of course, please." Bill ... bam! Our extras cost more than the meal.
And now it's winding down. Boo.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
I'm ready to move
I never thought I'd write that. This morning I woke up though and nearly stepped in something that makes me want to go running for the burbs. The "something" was a homeless woman doing her business on my front door step!
You may think that's enough detail, but no, I'm going to go there.
When I got to the bottom of the steps, I saw a pile of rags out front. At first I didn't think anything - it's the day after Halloween so maybe at the end of the night someone changed their costume to that of a streaker. Nope, wrong, it was a bum pile.
Opening the door I was horrified to see a woman shishi'ing right on the steps! Nast!! I quickly tried to run out and get away while closing the door behind me, but my computer bag got stuck so as the woman finished up I had to un-twine myself from my house.
It's so sad that now I sit in a heated office musing on this morning's occurrence and writing about it like a thing rather than a person in this comical manner. But what can you do? I don't want to go into the politics of it all. Thinking about where she came from and how she got there is an ongoing brain battle.
I just want that image out of my head.
You may think that's enough detail, but no, I'm going to go there.
When I got to the bottom of the steps, I saw a pile of rags out front. At first I didn't think anything - it's the day after Halloween so maybe at the end of the night someone changed their costume to that of a streaker. Nope, wrong, it was a bum pile.
Opening the door I was horrified to see a woman shishi'ing right on the steps! Nast!! I quickly tried to run out and get away while closing the door behind me, but my computer bag got stuck so as the woman finished up I had to un-twine myself from my house.
It's so sad that now I sit in a heated office musing on this morning's occurrence and writing about it like a thing rather than a person in this comical manner. But what can you do? I don't want to go into the politics of it all. Thinking about where she came from and how she got there is an ongoing brain battle.
I just want that image out of my head.
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