Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Covering SF: Monday April 13th: In the End

Now, for the semi-exciting conclusion to the coverage of: San Francisco 2009

Getting Up

Once again, decided to wake up without an alarm clock since I didn’t have anything concrete planned for the morning. I had toyed with going to the Cable Car Museum, which is something I really wanted to do but it didn’t open until 10am and I needed to leave for the airport at about 10:40.

Instead, I went to Mel’s Drive-in for the final time. The experience was horrible. They never refilled my drink and were fairly rude in general. The food was still good but it sucked that the last two times I went, the service was poor.

I hung out in the hotel, watching television. Storms were going through Atlanta and I was concerned that it might cause airport delays.

Getting Out

I left for the airport at 10:45 and I thought I could get to Powell Station but my knee was hurting so bad, I had to keep taking breaks on the way down the steps. I missed the train, though it didn’t end up mattering. I still got to the airport in plenty of time. I checked in, went through security and got to my gate.

My flight was delayed 10-15 minutes but I was concerned that this was only an initial delay and that more delays might be on the way. My girlfriend was supposed to pick me up from the airport at around 8:45. She was going to have to get up at 4:30 to go to work the next morning and I was concerned that the we wouldn’t get back to my place until 9:30-9:45 (and we’d planned to watch ‘24’ on DVR that night), meaning she probably wouldn’t get but about five and a half hours of sleep or so…and it could be worse if the delay was any more than 10-15 minutes.

Mom suggested having my dad pick me up from the airport since he was going to be downtown late. I called Michelle at work to see whether the delay (and potential for more delays) made her want to change plans but she was really set on picking me up.

(Side note: Michelle sounds completely different at work. Her tone of voice, everything. Not bad, just different. Completely different.)

Getting Home

It turned out that the plane wasn’t delayed any more than the originally stated 10 minutes. Aboard the plane, I bought a sandwich for lunch, listened to podcasts, watched onboard television and, of course, played trivia.

I was kicking everyone’s ass until JAAACK showed up. It was the same guy who was so great on the flight out to San Francisco. We shared the flight to and from San Francisco, which is a crazy coincidence. JAAACK wasn’t quite as strong on the flight back though. San Francisco must’ve really tired him out or something.

While up in the plane, I was able to watch the vast majority of ‘Pardon the Interruption,’ which was really cool.

As for landing, we made up a good amount of time in the air and landed at 8:45pm as expected. The plan was for Michelle to hang out in a bookstore on Camp Creek Parkway until I landed. I figured that I’d text her that I’d landed and the time it would take me to get off the plane and to the front entrance would be the same time it’d take her to leave the bookstore and arrive at the south gate.

And it worked perfectly. We got back to my apartment without any problems and were able to watch the parts of ‘PTI’ that I had missed on the plane and the episode of ‘24’ that had aired.

Thoughts on the Trip

Looking back at the planning of the trip, I clearly had three concerns. First, I wasn’t sure whether my side would be 100% by April and when it became clear that it wouldn’t be, I was concerned about how it would affect the trip.

Second, I felt that I would probably never get the chance to go to San Francisco again, so I wanted to do as many things as possible as quickly as possible so that I didn’t leave anything out. This issue was made more difficult by concern number one.

Finally, I hadn’t been on a major trip like this in a long time and I wasn’t sure when I’d be able to go on a trip like this again. I had this feeling that ‘I better make this count.’

As a result of these three concerns, I created a massive plan designed to both fit in as much as possible with the understanding that my side might prevent me from completing the plan in full. What ended up happening is that the plan became a job and the things I wanted to do became tasks.

While the plan was extremely flexible and the flexibility was needed, not because my side but because my knee, there was too much information. The list of alternate bus schedules was a waste and never used. The listing of all bus routes was barely used and kind of unnecessary.

But it wasn’t that the plan was too big, it was that the creation of the plan was bigger than the trip. When I was younger, I remember how going from one event to another to another limited the fun. I always wanted a vacation where we could just hang out and not feel like we were running from place to place to complete ‘a plan.’ What’s the purpose of a vacation when it’s just a different kind of work?

On my trip to Colorado, my plan consisted of things I wanted to do and addresses. I used my GPS to get from place to place but most things weren’t really nailed down. I felt like I really was able to get away and just have a good time. The fun factor was missing on my trip to San Francisco because I was too caught up in the details.

I think adding to that a little was my purchase of the City Pass, which at $59 is still a great deal. The Pass gave me free use of cable cars, buses and street cars and it saved me an estimated $43 in fare. It allowed me to take part in the Blue and Gold Cruise ($24 regular price), the Aquarium ($16 regular price), the Modern Art Museum ($12.50 regular price) and the de Young Museum ($10 regular price). That’s usage worth about $105.50 for the cost of $59, a savings of at least $46.50.

But here’s the thing: Would I normally go to the museums and an aquarium? Probably not. I felt like I couldn’t cancel those things because they were already paid for and it put added pressure to ‘have’ to do those things. I mean, the City Pass still worked out overall because I would’ve done the cruise anyway and the transit stuff, so it would’ve paid for itself but I wasn’t impressed with either art museum.

Writing the coverage of the trip has been extremely tedious and tough to slog through but it captures the trip pretty well. It was a series of ‘turn here, turn there, get here, get there’ rather than enjoying the experience.

I wonder how much of an effect my knee getting hurt Friday morning played on the trip. Obviously, there were some things that were cancelled because I just couldn’t keep going. If my knee wasn’t hurting the way it was, would I have been so focused on the minutiae of the trip? Or was I focused on the minutiae because of the way the trip was planned?

I’d like to think that once I got out there, the plan would’ve become a guideline and less task oriented if my knee wasn’t hurt. I began viewing the plan as something to get through. ‘Will I be able to get through X, Y and Z before having to stop?’

I don’t know the answer to that. What I do know is that my side only seized up three times. Twice on the plane flight out there and once at Buena Vista Park on Friday. My side was completely a non-issue. I think in part because of the trip, I have greater confidence in my side and haven’t worried about it as much since I’ve gotten back. It’s not been a problem overall since I’ve gotten back and I’m very thankful for that.

I had planned for about 12 miles and I thought that was a lot. But because of getting lost, not counting the amount of walking I would incur during events and forgoing the bus because I thought walking would be easier (since the two points just seemed so close on the map or because I couldn’t find the bus stop), I wound up walking almost 28 miles in five days, 15 miles on Friday alone.

As for traveling while out there, I was glad that I didn’t rent a car. Parking was so bad out there, that it wouldn’t’ve done me any good anyway. The transit system is the city’s strongest asset, especially important given that it was insanely hilly, much worse than I could’ve pictured.

The weather was much better than I’d expected. Thursday was overcast and dreary but by late Friday afternoon, it began to clear up so that my Golden Gate pictures were shot against a mainly blue sky.

I ended up talking on the phone more than I'd expecting, running up a bill of $210. Since a good portion of my trip took place during a weekend, I either racked up a bunch of minutes on Friday (when I was walking everywhere an taking knee breaks) or I was in a roaming area and didn't realize it. I knew my bill would be higher but not that much higher.

The biggest victory to me though was the way I was able to always stay on East Coast time. While I was always aware of Pacific time, I kept waking up and going to sleep on an East Coast schedule, meaning I was in bed by 7 or 8pm PDT and awake by around 5am PDT. This made adjusting to my home schedule fairly easy.

Final Thought on the Trip

In the end, I’m certainly glad that I went. I’ve never been to a place like San Francisco but I think that I over-planned it because I was putting too much pressure on the trip, turning it into a job and robbing it of the fun that I could’ve had.

Upcoming Entries

The goal is to write my NASCAR experience and post it on Thursday and post my best and worst movies on Saturday. Then I’ll see where I’m at after that and hopefully the blog can get back to being something less boring and a little more funny.

Obituaries

I saw that Dom DiMaggio died on May 8th. Obviously it’s impossible to mention Dom without mentioning that he was the younger brother of Joe DiMaggio. What gets forgotten is that Dom was one of the best centerfielders of his era who finished his career with a .298 batting average. And while his brother had the famous 56 game hitting streak, Dom hit in 34 straight in 1949. The streak ended against the Yankees in a game in which Joe made a great catch to rob his brother of a hit.

But what I remember most about Dom is his book ‘Real Grass, Real Heroes,’ a story of the 1941 season in which his brother had the 56 game hit streak and Dom’s teammate, Ted Williams, batted .406. (Also in described in the book: Lou Gehrig’s farewell address, the first televised baseball game, the Mickey Owen World Series and Lefty Grove’s 300th win).

The book shows current fans what the game was like back then. The travel. The camaraderie between teammates. What it was like to play baseball as America’s involvement in World War II grew near. As a backdrop, the book also portrays what America was like during that time.

‘Real Grass, Real Heroes’ is an incredible book about an amazing season in a transformational year in our country and is definitely worth reading.

Dom passed away at the age of 92 of pneumonia.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad that you got home safely and that for the most part everything went smoothly.
It is interesting that you worried so much about your side and yet it would be your knee that would make everything you did more of a challenge.
It sounds like you didn't have much fun, and that is really crummy. But, wasn't seeing the Atlanta skyline when you came home the absolute best?? Yep, I bet it was!
plutomom