29 July, 2007

My day today after Travis dropped me off

Cats real hungry. I fed them, gave them milk treat, then found that one of them had thrown up on my biking jacket. I was going to wash it tomorrow anyway when I did laundry, but still, yuck. I'm just glad I left the window open so it didn't smell like cat vomit when I got home. Called Tim and updated him on the cats' status, and then dragged out my bed and tried to get some sleeps in before work. Almost immediately after dragging out my bed, my neighbourhood exploded in a sea of loudness. I think the secret to why I can always take a nap on my makeshift window seat is that people outside don't realize I am trying to sleep, so they stay real quiet.
Braararar
So anyway, I had locked up my bike downstairs for the weekend, and when I left, there was this guy (at least I'm assuming it is a guy due to how it is locked and the fact that it is a big fat heavy fucking ugly ass mountain bike) who had his bike like OVER the rack in an amusing fashion but in such a way that it was not in the way of anything; in fact, I would park my bike like this if I had the upper body strength by the time I got home to be able to muster it up there, but I'm usually winded and full of asthma by the time I get my bike down there, so I don't have the energy to do it. Yeah, well, he decided it would be good to basically pile his bike on top of my bike and the bike next to mine and then kind of loop his U lock around my handlebars. I had to wrestle my bike out for 10 minutes, and my hands and handlebars got all greased up from his chain. I tried to put his bike back as well as I could, but his front steering got turned sideways while I was wrestling my wheel from next to his---no small task since this other bike was, as mentioned, some giant heavy fuckin mountain bike with big fat nobby tires---and I couldn't get it to go back to straight. I'm pretty sure I put quite a few good gouges in his frame's finish too considering I had to scrape it around on the rack.
I almost want to feel bad, but I really don't. I would never pull bullshit like this. If I went down there, and there wasn't space for my bike, I'd just schlep my bike back up to my apartment with me. I've had to do this about 3 or 4 times already. Sure it sucks to have to carry your bike up an extra flight of steps than if you went through the front doors, but it is a lot more considerate of your fucking neighbours than piling your bike on top of theirs.
Also, while I was trying to nap, I'm pretty sure I heard gunshots outside on my block, but I'm not too sure, because I don't think any police showed up that I could hear. Also, when I was riding to work down Haight, some dicks thought it'd be funny to throw a water balloon at me. They missed, but I was still somewhat angry about this. I had seen marks on the pavement from the other balloons, and they looked fresh, and I'm glad I steered myself in such a fashion as to be mostly out of their range.
Raaaaar is not good day for Jen. Also, Hugh is here, and I thought he was off for the month starting this week :(
I'm also tired and have a slight headache that felt migrainy before, but I don't feel nauseous or too sensitive to light anymore.
At least the cats were pleasantly needy and not obnoxious while I was trying to sleep. They actually both came over and piled on me which was most delightful. :3

23 July, 2007

What I did instead of sleeping today.

This route took me about 3 hours. The largest climb was in Park Presidio and was about 350 feet over the course of a mile or less (I walked the bike for most of this). Other lesser notable climbs were around 100 feet or so over a somewhat longer distance (these ones I did on the bike). There were a couple 200s in there too, and I walked parts or most of those. I was very saddle sore when I got on my bike for work tonight, but the soreness went away after about 5 minutes of pedal pushing.

First Leg Second Leg Third Leg

Total Approximate Distance: 18.1 mi
Total Approximate Time: 3 hrs

Notable Events:
  1. Being sprayed by sprinklers while finishing the ride through Fort Mason Park (along with a number of other cyclists and joggers). I commend the city for their dedication toward watering the sidewalks and trails
  2. Realising I was grevously offcourse and would have to go through the hills of Presidio
  3. Finding the Safeway that Travis couldn't remember where it was by Ocean Beach
  4. Buying an artichoke, some fruit and some liquid beverages at said Safeway
  5. More or less successfully navigating Golden Gate Park the long way
  6. Almost getting hit by two cars in rapid succession who did not understand that I do get to take a full lane, especially when I need to be taking the left leg of said road---especially when I had already been taking the full lane before they were even behind me
  7. Flipping off said drivers
  8. Not getting hit by cars
  9. Getting down to Lower Haight via Haight St. faster than both a truck and a moped
  10. Getting home rather than ending up somewhere completely unexpected (Potrero, Noe Valley, UCSF, etc.)

I got home and everything situated at about 10:30 this morning, and then, despite being horrendously tired, I could not fall asleep for at least 40 minutes.

20 July, 2007

This is the face of LA?


LAFace
Originally uploaded by Saphirra.

Apparently everyone in LA is really ugly.

05 July, 2007

I am the tiredest girl. Or: How I spent my 4th of July

Unlike most of you, I had to work today. In fact, I am presently at work after spending my day walking around town and signing my lease and seeing fireworks. I was woken up by Tim calling me at about 1 in the afternoon (woo a whole five and a half hours of sleep!) to say that they would be in the city in about an hour. So I got up, got dressed, walked the dog, drank some caffeine, and just generally prepared myself for the day. About 45 minutes after he called, I took my time in exiting the house and went to wait for the bus. I was on my way to meet Tim, Zac and Alex at my new digs (and Travis as I would find out a little later). It takes, usually, about 25 minutes to get over there on the bus. So when I got there, I called Tim to see what their progress was. They had not yet gotten off bart. I told him which station to get off from and which bus to take and in what direction. about 10 minutes later, he calls me back: they'd gotten on the bus in the wrong direction and were going to be another half hour or so. So I walked up and down Haight street about two blocks in both directions around my apartment and then called the land lady to be buzzed in when I got sick of waiting.

In the meantime, I had also gone to walgreens to get lip balm, cortizone cream (for my very itchy shoulder) and a measuring tape.

I went in, filled out and signed the necessary parts of my lease and took measurements of the walls for fabric application. Almost as soon as I'd finished doing this, Travis called saying he was on the corner of Fillmore and Haight and inquiring as to where my apartment was. I told him it was above walgreens and waved at him from my street-facing window. I let Tarv in, and we discussed various things that I can't really remember.

About 10 minutes later the rest of the boys showed up. Everyone remarked on how large the studio is, how much storage it has and how dirty the street-facing windows are (very dirty). We generally stood around and talked and hung out as much as people really would want to in an empty apartment. We had left the door open, and my landlady type person came by because she heard voices, saw a bunch of boys and not me and asked if I was there. I popped out, and she said I could leave the lease or whatever I need to do and we'd arrange for key pickup on Friday.

After deciding that people were hungry and establishing that we were, in fact, meeting Joe and Monica later, we went out in search of food and ended up at a taqueria about a block away. Delicious nachos and burritos were shared, and we slowly made our way (largely due to no one really knowing what to do with ourselves up until fireworks were to start) back to the bus stop to take the bus out to the Marina district and walk over to the wharf where fireworks were being held.

There was the worst cover band ever playing much of the afternoon. We settled on a spot that was relatively uncrowded for our fireworks viewing and then went in search of beers and other acoutrements. Red Stripe was on sale at Safeway, as was tequila and M&Ms. These are the things we bought. Tim and I also got soft pretzels and many of the boys got pizza. When Monica's friends, Andrea and Jenna, showed up, they and Joe went to get dinner and were gone for an exceptionally long time.

Sidenote: MonicA, AndreA, JennA; this makes me think of JennIE (what I went by when I first became friends with B), BethanY, MarI (Mar-ee). Just something I noticed.

Darkness was falling, and it was getting colder. David eventually showed up and he and Zac went to go get food. Travis and Tim went for a "run" to get their blood flowing and warm up some. Alex and I sat around and basically held on to our seating area until everyone started to come back.

Beers were drank, tequila imbibed, food eaten, fireworks watched. It was a good time had by all. I then hiked the 2 miles to work from the wharf in about a half hour which is amazing considering I went up a street I didn't need to and considering the amount of foot traffic about tonight.

After riding the elevator up to the office, the sleepiness set in. I went to get some soda out of the machine after punching in, but the one up here had no Dr. Peppers. So I went downstairs and got some tasty snack as well and walked around looking for something to do. I think there were maybe 6 or 7, tops, bankers down there---probably fewer now---and one of them gave me a project to do. I am probably going to not walk the dog until I wake up tomorrow considering David was going to walk him when he got home tonight cos I am tiiired.

<3 <3

edit: I took a lot of pictures of fireworks and a few of the people around me today; I will likely post tomorrow at some point on my flickr.