Covering SF: Friday April 10th: Lots of Walking

When I last left you, I was telling you about my first day in San Francisco. After the baseball game, I went back to the hotel and because I went out the wrong exit, I got a little turned around and ended up having to walk a lot further than I expected to walk. I caught a bus and went back toward the hotel.

At Walgreens

I did stop off at Walgreens to pick up some travel size toiletries because I didn’t bring any with me. I don’t like having to pack my liquid/gel items in Ziploc bag to present separately to the TSA agent. I’d rather buy the travel items out there and then throw them away when I’m ready to leave.

The Walgreens was dominated by Asians and they were all very small. The biggest thing that surprised me initially about San Francisco was that there were a lot more Asians than I’d expected. I assumed there’d be a large gay population (though I didn’t really see anything that yelled ‘We’re here, we’re queer’ in most of the city) but I was a little surprised about the strong Asian population.

While walking through Walgreens, I was wearing my red jacket and my side-bag, and an employee told another one to ‘watch the one in the red jacket for shoplifting.’

I couldn’t find travel sized items. I couldn’t find a separate section for travel items nor any travel items alongside larger/normal sized things. I asked an employee (not the one following me around) and he pointed toward one of the store’s four corners. I went to that corner, went up and down the aisle until I finally saw a small grouping of travel size items. The selection was horribly poor but I picked out a couple things and checked out.

Watching TV

I was going to watch ‘The Office,’ which was airing at 8 and 9pm, with ‘Parks and Recreation’ in between. I watched the first episode of ‘The Office’ but I cut off the second show half-way through because I was too tired to stay up. Looking back, I’d walked just over two and a half miles Thursday, a mile longer than I’d estimated I’d walk.

I thought I’d set my DVR to tape the debut of ‘Parks and Recreation’ but I didn’t. Thankfully it re-aired on Bravo the following Thursday and I was able to see the rest of it.

Sleeping

One thing that was weird about the hotel room is that I could hear everything outside. Horns were constantly honking, even at night. There was a lot more horn honking than I’d expected. I viewed California to be all laid back and I wouldn’t’ve expected to have so many horns honking.

The other difficulty with sleeping is that the bed faced the door directly. This might not sound strange but if you think about it, most hotels have a little hallway where the closet is on one side and the bathroom’s on the other and then the bed/beds are on the other side of the bathroom. This means that for the most part, you can’t see the door from the bed. I guess all hotels have the hallway lights on but I’ve never thought about it much because it doesn’t bother me.

Well, the light was coming through the door and it bothered me a little bit, not so much on the first night but later nights. And it wasn’t just from beneath the door but it was all around it. It was really annoying.

Friday Begins

I woke up at 4:30am, which was fortunate because my cell phone alarm never went off. I got ready to go and went to Denny’s, where I’d planned to have breakfast at least two times while I was out there.

On the way to the restaurant, I was walking and I didn’t realize that the sidewalk came to a curb, so I missed the step kinda and sorta twisted my knee. I didn’t think it was too bad and kept walking.

A guy behind me was also walking and suddenly began running. I panicked a little because I didn’t know why he’d started running and it was dark still. I kept walking and the guy just ran past me and nothing happened. But I did feel a bit of panic for a moment, wondering if I was about to be attacked.

Denny’s

I entered Denny’s at about 5:30am and there were no customers there. There were probably about eight employees milling around, none of them cleaning or anything, just wandering about.

One waiter led me to the table, another took my drink order, still another took the food order and the original waiter brought out the drink and a different waiter brought out the food. This led me not to really know who my waiter was.

I ordered a Coke but I was told they didn’t have Coke and that I’d have to choose between orange juice and coffee. I chose orange juice.

My food was very rubbery and no waiter came by to refill the drink. The service really sucked overall.

When the check was brought over, it was a lot more expensive than I expected. That’s one thing I saw over and over again: Things cost more out there than they do in Atlanta.

My experience at Denny’s was bad enough that I decided I wouldn’t try to eat breakfast there again while in town.

On the Subway

After breakfast, I went to Powell Station to use my MUNI pass for the subway for the first time. I couldn’t picture how exactly to use it. When I first got there, I swear I saw a police officer around the entrance. No one was in the MUNI booth, so I didn’t know who to show my pass to.

I walked around the station, which isn’t all that large but I couldn’t find anyone. There was someone in the BART booth. The BART shares the station with the MUNI but that’s it. I needed a MUNI employee.

This strange looking guy was staring at me as I searched for a MUNI representative. He yelled out to me, ‘Hey!’ as he began moving toward me. It freaked me out a little and I couldn’t see that police officer I thought I’d seen earlier. I left the station and waited for a little bit before going back in and at that point, a woman was in the booth and I simply showed her my pass and she let me in.

Twin Peaks

The first place I was visiting was Twin Peaks. It supposedly has one of the best views of the city but I knew there’d be a good amount of walking. I was estimating that I’d have to walk just over 5.5 miles during the day.

When I got off the subway, I was turned around and started walking in the direction I thought I was supposed to go. It was hard to tell directions because it was cloudy and I couldn’t see the sun. I walked for almost a half mile, uphill, before realizing that I was headed in the opposite direction. I turned around, retracing my steps downhill, before heading uphill in the correct direction.

I could tell my knee was bothering me but I still felt it was relatively manageable. My side, the big concern for the trip was feeling fine.

I couldn’t find the trail that was a shortcut to the top and instead had to rely on the street way, which is longer. I could see a bit of an overlook toward the city and it wasn’t tremendously impressive. I came up to a sign that warned of a curvy road ahead for the next mile and a half.

So at this point, I’d seen a preview of the shot that I’d get, I was going to have to walk an additional mile and a half, and I still might have to walk more to get to the top. With so much walking still left in the day, I was concerned that I’d do serious damage to get a pointless picture and be unable to finish out the day, which I was hoping would end with a visit to the Golden Gate Bridge.

I decided to pack it in and head back to the MUNI station after having walked just over 2 miles (I found a bus stop and took the bus back to the station). This was the first planned event that I didn’t go to and I felt a bit free from the schedule in a way.

Looking back at it, I would’ve gotten to the top if I’d walked an additional .7 miles (as well as the .7 miles on the way back. Whether the shots I’d’ve gotten would’ve been any good is unclear.

To Castro Street

I took the subway to Castro Street and it’s stereotypical but when I passed the subway exit for that stop going toward Twin Peaks, I assumed that everyone who got off at the stop was gay. Is that wrong? Probably but anyway…

When I got off at the stop, my bag apparently was a little open and one of the two bottles of pain pills I had on me fell out and I didn’t realize it. A guy behind me on the escalator yelled out to me that I’d dropped something and he, thankfully, picked it up and brought it to me. I thanked him several times.

The first impression of Castro Street: There were gay pride flags on every light pole and a massive rainbow flag on this one building. When I’d gotten out of the Powell Street station, there were homeless people and beggars everywhere and here, it was much nicer and less packed.

I saw the famous Castro Theater, which had a sign announcing the end of the ‘Mamma Mia’ sing along. There were several sex shops on the street and on one post, there was a flyer for ‘Cock Wars.’ It featured two men and they both were facing away from the camera, but their faces were turned around so you could see them both. You could see the one guy’s ass and you could tell what he was doing to the other guy’s ass and from the smiles on their faces, they were both loving every minute of it. It freaked me out a lot and I wish that I’d taken a picture of it.

I basically just walked up and down the street, taking pictures of the Castro Theater. I saw a couple record stores but one didn’t open until 10 and the other 11. It wasn’t worth hanging around so I tried to find a bus stop. I couldn’t find the stop that I was looking for, so instead I just took the only bus I could find to Haight street.

Buena Vista Park

My knee wasn’t feeling great at this point and so when I came to Buena Vista Park, my next stop, I wasn’t sure I could walk the trails, which were uphill all the way, to get to the top of the peak. I really didn’t want to cancel two of my first three planned events, so I went ahead and started up the trails.

The trail was only about .3 miles but it was steep and it was mostly steps, which made it more difficult. I got to the top, took a handful of shots, one or two worth taking and after resting for a bit, I started back down the trails.

On the way down, my knee REALLY started hurting. I couldn’t really bend my knee and every time I put any weight on it, it really hurt. As I was walking, I could hear these people screaming and howling and it freaked me out a little bit. I tried to speed up but it just made my knee hurt worse.

I looked through the trees and I could see the Golden Gate Bridge, the first time on the trip I could see it. I took two pictures of it and kept walking until I got to the bottom. I rested on a bench, one of three that were around. This woman came up and sat next to me and immediately lit up a cigarette.

While in San Francisco, I noticed a lot more smoking than I’m used to seeing here. I didn’t expect that. Throughout the city, there are warnings that state: It is known to the State of California that cigarettes cause cancer. Call me crazy but I thought the warnings were funny. It’s as if California has some inside information and they’re sharing it with us.

This was the first time I started using the pain pills but they were for my knee, not my side, which is why I had them on me. I got up off the bench and began walking, my next stop being Haight-Ashbury.

A Picture of a Sign Post

Generally, I don’t like taking pictures of signs but I couldn’t visit San Francisco and not take a picture of the Haight-Ashbury sign.

On the way to the sign, I noticed that all the stores opened late. One record store only opened on the weekends, another didn’t open until 12pm. I was really expecting to see some great record stores and it was clear that I wouldn’t get that chance.

I did see a store called ‘Cannabis Company.’ I would’ve gone in to see what they sold but they wasn’t open either. There was one store front that had a giant pair of female legs (I assume but it could’ve been a guy wearing stockings and a skirt) sticking out of a window.

While taking the picture of the Haight-Ashbury intersection, a girl walked by and I took a few steps toward the intersection (for the angle on the picture, not because she walked by). She said that I didn’t have to move and that “this is Haight-Ashbury and we should share everything.” She then asked what I was doing later in the day. She was very strange.

Lost Around Kezar Stadium

I knew I could take Haight to Golden Gate Park but I didn’t bother pulling out a map. Instead, I just walked west on Haight, figuring I’d run into the park and there’d be a sign pointing me to the Conservatory of Flowers.

It was a good plan…except I should’ve taken a right on Stanyan instead of a left.

While on Stanyan, I passed by this store and a three guys came out and before the door was even closed, they asked if I had any money to give them. As always, I avoided eye contact and kept walking. They yelled at me again and I just kept walking, trying very hard not limp.

I thought about what it must be like to be them. When I exit a store, I don’t think about asking the first person I see for money. He didn’t know anyone would be outside when he came out the door. His first instinct when he saw someone pass by was to ask for money. I can’t really imagine asking strangers for money. There’s a certain hurdle you have to cross to beg random people for money.

I realized at some point that I wasn’t heading in the right direction. I saw a McDonald’s and I thought about stopping to eat but there were five or six guys blocking the exit with signs begging for money, so I just kept walking.

I came to Kezar Stadium, which I didn’t think anything of. It was like a high school field, you know, with a lot of space in the middle and a track around the outside. I later found out that it was at Kezar Stadium where that scene was shot in ‘Dirty Harry,’ the one where Callahan shoots Scorpio in the leg and starts rubbing his foot in the wound. Had I known that, I would’ve taken a picture.

The stadium also marked 5.7 miles of walking during the day (not that I knew that at the time, I just knew I’d been walking a lot). That was more than I’d expected for the entire day and it wasn’t even half over yet. In addition to getting lost multiple times, I also was walking from stop to stop without getting on a bus. I had used the bus less than expected up to that point.

I consulted my map and finally got going in the right direction.

Conservatory of Flowers (or Plants)

I felt like I was going to fall over, so I stopped at this bench in front of a large patch of grass dedicated to ‘lawn bowling.’ I have no idea what lawn bowling is but I thought it sounded funny.

I must’ve sat at that bench for 30-40 minutes. I was hungry, thirsty and I just didn’t feel like walking anymore. I got up after the long period of sitting and my knee still wasn’t feeling any better. In fact, it felt a little worse.

I got to the Conservatory of Flowers, and the building was pretty cool looking. In front of the building, there were three sets of flowers and it looked nice. I took several pictures, purchased a ticket and went in. The first few exhibits contained virtually nothing but plants. There’d be a flower here or there but that was it.

Not just that but the humidity was so high that the lens kept fogging up and I couldn’t get any pictures.

Overall, it was a disappointment. I’d planned to spend an hour and a half there but I spent just about 30 minutes, most of which were in the final exhibit, which also had nothing to do with flowers. They built a mini-version of San Francisco with trains and trolleys running around famous city landmarks.

Skipping Academy of Sciences

There were some places that were scheduled because City Pass had coupons to get in free and Academy of Sciences was one of them. I was okay with going but I wasn’t really excited. And when I saw the line, which was just short of forever long (like it was Space Mountain), I didn’t feel too bad about passing on this one.

Instead, I went to a bench across from the Academy and in front of the De Young museum, which I was about to visit. While I sat, I could feel my knee tightening up. I took another pain pill and tried walking but it was hurting unbelievably painful and I kept feeling like I was going to fall over. I sat back down on a different bench before going into the De Young.

Inside the De Young

I still wasn’t used to how I was supposed to present my City Pass to gain admission into places. The Modern Art Museum had me go to the ticket window and exchange the coupon for a ticket. The line to the ticket window was really long and I was concerned that what if I stood in line, got to the front and it turned out that I just needed to get the coupon ripped by the admissions person?

I asked an employee walking around but he told me he didn’t handle those issues. I asked another person and they said that I needed to stand in line. She told me that there was another ticket line downstairs that didn’t usually have a line.

I walked down the stairs and it hurt really bad. I couldn’t walk normally down the stairs, instead I had to put my right foot on a step and then my left foot on that same step. Pause. Then do the same thing for the next step, so I was always standing on each step.

Sure enough, there was no line downstairs. There were also no exhibits and so when I got my actual ticket, I had to turn right back around and walk upstairs.

And literally, there was nothing interesting in the museum. They were going to have King Tut there in a few weeks. But I’m not sure that’s all that interesting either.

Skipping Another Thing

Despite getting lost, walking slow and resting on benches a lot more than planned, I was still making great time, primarily because I skipped Twin Peaks and the Academy of Sciences and spent far less time than expected at the Conservatory of Flowers and the De Young Museum. This is important because if I had enough time, I wanted to be able to go by the Golden Gate Bridge.

Physically, my knee was hurting and it obviously wasn’t something I’d planned on but my side was feeling good. It had seized up on the plane twice and once at Buena Vista Park but that was it. The pain pills I’d taken were for the knee. During the rest of my time out there, my side would never seize up again and was never an issue despite that being my number one concern.

I passed by the Japanese Tea Garden but because I didn’t want to pay $5, I didn’t go in. First of all, I hadn’t seen anywhere that the Tea Garden cost anything. Second, I was disappointed by the Conservatory of Flowers and the Cartoon Museum (both charging around the same amount) and for some reason I had linked the three.

The Botanical Garden

So I went straight to the Botanical Gardens. This didn’t speed anything up, time-wise because I had assumed that I would walk through the Tea Garden, take a couple pictures and keep moving. I didn’t expect to spend more than five minutes there

At first, the Botanical Gardens were disappointing. The lake was okay but mostly it was a collection of plants, uninteresting plants at that. As I went through though, there were some nice flowers and more interesting looking plants. I was enjoying everything until I realized that I didn’t know how to get out. There were no signs that indicated where you were or how to get out.

I didn’t think it was a big deal (yet) because I still was taking pictures and just wandering around. I saw a blue jay and a couple squirrels that were very close and being surprisingly still. I liked the pictures I was getting of the plants but at some point, I did want to leave.

I was so turned around, I didn’t even know what direction I should start heading in. Every time I saw what appeared to be a way out, there was a fence keeping me in. I felt completely trapped. I asked an employee but she said that she didn’t know where the exit was and said she thought I might be able to go out that way (as she pointed off to the side). So I walked that way. Did I get out?

No.

I did find another employee…two of them. So I asked and the guy said that he didn’t know the official exits but that there were holes in some fences and if I went through the hole, I could get out. The woman didn’t say anything. And where were these holes? Of course, he pointed.

And I followed the direction he pointed. It was bizarre because here were three employees and none of them seemed to know how to get out. I wondered if maybe they weren’t employees at all. Maybe they were former visitors and they couldn’t get out so they just began working, planting stuff in the ground. Maybe this would happen to me. I don’t leave but I learn that I have quite the green thumb.

I didn’t find any holes in the fence but after nearly a half hour of walking around with the sole purpose being to find an exit, I finally got out. Looking back on it, there are just two exit points. The way I got in and the way I got out. That’s it and there are no signs. Looking back on it, I’m amazed I didn’t become an employee there. In total, I managed to cover 1.6 miles in the Botanical Garden with the help of another pain pill.

Stow Lake

I saw an entrance to get into Stow Lake, the next place on my list but it was straight up hill and it looked like on the map there was another way in, so I continued further before realizing that there wasn’t another way in on that side and so after walking all the way out of Golden Gate Park, I turned around, retracing my steps, went to Stow Lake.

The purpose of Stow Lake was to get some water shots and, most importantly, a picture of the waterfall. But see, I didn’t exactly know where the waterfall was. The entire route around Stow Lake is 1.1 miles. I didn’t realize that then and for some reason, in the plan, it seems that I assumed that I would be able to go straight to the waterfall and then leave without having to circle the entire place. But I couldn’t.

I got two pictures of the waterfall, some duck shots and photos of a few turtles. There was also an interesting gazebo that I kept trying to frame with some shots in the foreground that didn’t turn out quite as good as they appeared in my head when I took the pictures.

Streetcar Adventures

Because of the time I’d spent walking around Stow Lake and Botanical Gardens, I was no longer doing as good on time as I was earlier. Still good but just not as good. I’d walked 10.9 miles so far during the day, just under twice what I’d planned for.

I thought about stopping for lunch/dinner but I really wanted to make sure I got clear day light pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge. The sky was starting to get a little brighter and instead of the cloudy/rainy pictures I feared, I thought my Bridge shots might come out okay.

To get to the streetcar to take me to Queen Wilhelmina’s Windmill, I had to retrace the steps that I’d already walked twice after having left the Botanical Garden.

I saw the street car stop and I crossed the street to get to the stop, which was in the middle of the median. I didn’t know if the streetcar would be going east or west for this stop but I was betting west.

It was going east.

I decided to take it anyway figuring that this streetcar going east would get me closer to the one that was going west. Looking back, this logic makes no sense. Why didn’t I just get out at the next stop and wait for the one going my direction? I don’t know. If I said I was delirious because of the pain or maybe because of the pain pills, would that make sense? I don’t know.

I continued through several stops, watching the west bound car pass by at one point before getting out. And again I thought about getting something to eat but now I was doing just about even with my time expectations.

For some reason, I decided that instead of standing at a streetcar stop, I’d walk east to get closer to an oncoming westbound streetcar. Again, I realize this makes no sense. But then I couldn’t find another stop, so I turned around and started walking back to the last stop I knew I’d seen. As I did that, a streetcar arrived. People were getting on and there was no way I’d be able to get to the stop on time the way I was walking.

So I attempted to run, a hobbled run, and even then, I knew I couldn’t make it to the front of the car. The back exit was open, so I jumped into it just before it took off toward the next stop. While my knee was hurting, it was a dulled pain but my knee was extremely swollen. I was able to put both hands around my right knee but when I tried that on my left knee, my thumbs were about two inches from meeting.

The next two miles were spent on the bus and when it came to the last stop and everyone was ordered off, I didn’t feel like moving but I got off anyway because that’s what I do. I leave when I’m told to get off the bus.

In Search of Windmills

The next thing I was looking for was Murphy’s Windmill. I had printed out nothing on the place, partly because I thought a windmill would kind of stick out and if I walked on the road by the windmill, I’d see it.

Well, I didn’t.

I searched up and down the road, went down paths and trails and I couldn’t find the damn thing. I finally found windmill but it was Queen Wilhelmina’s Windmill, which meant I’d crossed the entire width of the park, in a circuitous fashion and completely missed Murphy’s Windmill and found the other one I was looking for. Rather than turn around and search for Murphy, I decided to forget about, take pictures of Queen Wilhelmina and move on.

The thing about the windmill is that I realized my first few shots weren’t really showing how gigantic this structure was. Finally, I found a shot that had some cars in the picture that really showed how gi-normous this thing is.

The Beach

Across from the windmill, was a beach and it was the first time I’d ever seen the Pacific Ocean. I walked along the beach taking pictures. It was very difficult to walk on the sand with my knee and I was glad to get back on the sidewalk again.

How to Get to the Bridge

The plan here was sketchy. I wasn’t sure if my side would be up to going any further from here when I was first making the plan, so everything at this point was optional. It was about 4:30pm and I was a bit ahead of schedule. The other thing I didn’t know when putting the plan together was how easy the bus situation would be.

As it turned out, my side was fine to go further but my knee wasn’t. So instead of going to Baker Beach and Seal Rocks and then on to the Bridge, I decided to go straight to the Bridge. The problem was that I didn’t have a scenario for that.

So I looked at the bus routes, found the closest one that would get me to a connecting bus that would go by the Bridge.

The Bridge

As much as I was hurting, I was excited to see the Golden Gate Bridge. It really had cleared out and while not perfect, it was good enough to get some decent pictures. The problem was that for some reason, the camera was set on medium. The plan was for all the pictures to be shot in large/super fine mode. Instead all the Bridge pictures from Friday were medium/fine. This means that while the pictures will look fine 4x6 and passable at 8x10, there’s no way they can be blown up past that.

Keep in mind that I’d eaten breakfast at 5:30am. I had one glass of orange juice because they wouldn’t refill it. I never at lunch and now it’s just before 5pm. I never ate or drank anything during this period of time and had now walked just under 15 miles during the day.

There was a little café near the Bridge and a gift shop. I figured that the gift shop would close at 5pm, so I decided to go there first before it closed and then I’d eat. I left the gift shop and got to the café right at 5pm and it had just closed. A café that closes at 5pm? How weird is that?

I thought about walking on the Bridge but my knee was hurting too bad and I decided to go back to the hotel, eating dinner around the corner at Mel’s Drive-In. I never did end up walking on the Bridge, which I would’ve loved to have done but I just wasn’t up for it. I felt like I was about to collapse at this point and just wanted to eat, drink and go to bed.

At Mel’s

In ‘American Graffiti,’ the big restaurant was Mel’s Drive-In. I wish this had been the one they filmed it at but apparently that one’s gone. Still, it was cool to have been at this one. They had a bunch of pictures of the movie everywhere.

The waitress came by and I made sure they had free refills and I probably should’ve just ordered water but you know when you haven’t had a Coke and you really, really want one? Well, that’s what I felt like. Another waiter brought me a small cup of water and I drank Coke after Coke after Coke. If a waiter passed by and saw I was getting low again, they’d get me another one, even though they weren’t my waiter.

The whole staff was extremely friendly and very quick and attentive. I ordered a cheeseburger and fries and I ate as quickly as possible.

But then I started feeling a little sick halfway through the hamburger. I almost felt like I was going to throw up. I asked for some more water and tried to focus on not vomiting. My head started hurting and I began feeling a little dizzy. I decided to stop eating and get back to the hotel.

With my receipt, they gave me a ‘Use it or lose it’ coupon for 15% off my next order for the next day. I was going to have breakfast there on Saturday morning, so I made sure to hang on to the coupon.

Back to the Hotel

I got back to my room at 7:30pm I had brought some prescription-strength ibuprofen with me on the trip but I didn’t carry it in my bag because I didn’t want to have three bottles on me. I took a couple pills and iced my knee. The top of my knee was ghostly white with a dark red ring around it and a little purple mixed in there too. It was very swollen.

I looked through the pictures I had taken and was disappointed there were no ‘money shots,’ pictures that I could say, ‘This is why I came here.’

I looked through my plan for the next day, which thankfully called for a lot less walking. I didn’t realize it then but looking back, I walked 15.1 miles on Friday, almost 10 miles more than I’d expected to walk. I’d planned to walk about 12 miles for the entire trip and in my first two days, I was already over 17 and a half miles.

The Next Day Plans

Saturday, I was planning to go to Lombard Street, ride the cable cars for the first time, tour Alcatraz, AT&T Park and the Cable Car Museum, as well as visit Coit Tower, Grace Cathedral, China Town and Pacific Heights. I expected about 3 miles of walking.

One Last SF Trip Note for the Day

I sent in five pictures to the AJC’s Weekend Away and they posted all five. Mine are pictures 27-31 and can be found here.

To be honest, most of the other people’s pictures suck. The South African ones are good but some of them could’ve been taken anywhere. A couple of them were pictures of people in what appears to be a restaurant. It makes me wonder if AJC just posts whatever you send them. I’ve never had a picture rejected that I’ve sent in. Am I that good or are standards that low?

In Current News

My lease is up with my apartment complex and I was notified that on April 21st, there’d be a pizza party renewal thing. I’d expected my lease to go up at least $20, maybe up to $40 more than what I was currently paying. But the notification advised that if I signed by Tuesday, it would be at the same rate, plus I’d have my choice of a $200 gift.

The three gifts were: a $200 coffee maker, a $200 carpet cleaning or $200 off the first month’s rent. The coffee maker wouldn’t be worth it unless it spit out two $100 bills on its first use. I’m okay with my carpet how it is. I could always go for $200 off rent. So that’s the one I went with.

After signing everything, I saw that my next door neighbor’s renewal is also up. And because I’m nosy/curious, I looked to see what their rate was and they were paying almost $100 less per month for the same size apartment and everything.

Final Thoughts

I’m going to Talladega on Sunday. I’m looking forward to what kinds of pictures I’ll get but I’m concerned what I’m going to do for the next two and half hours of cars racing around a circle. I’m thinking about pretending I’m deaf for an hour and going up to people saying, “What time is it?” in that crazy deaf person’s voice and when they answer, I’ll reply, “I can’t hear you. I’m deaf.”

I saw a Chevron sign that read: Now we open 24 hour. I thought about going inside the store to see if it was run by Asians.

I saw ‘Crank 2: High Voltage’ and while it’s not going to be confused with a great movie, I had a lot of fun during it. I was funny. It’s good when you can say funny stuff to someone and not be shushed. I also enjoyed the drive home and trying to think of any demographic groups the movie didn’t offend. It pretty much went out of its way to offend most groups.

I’ve decided I’m not going to become a song-writer, which means anyone’s free to use the following line: You don’t know what you say when you say what you say. It might well come from a real song but if it doesn’t, feel free to use it. If you could just mention the blog in the liner notes.

Is there a way to make these San Francisco recap posts less boring?