This week has been incredibly long. I feel as though two weeks may have passed, but alas, it’s only Friday. The lack of blog this week sums up quite sufficiently how my days have gone. Sometimes its just like that. I’ll be back for more later.
Yesterday I woke up early, per my usual, though I was glad. I was leaving for San Francisco and I wanted to be sure that I had enough time to pack, eat a nice breakfast and enjoy a nice cup of coffee. Well, I doddled around with the packing (which included reading the news, listening to NPR and generally enjoying the early morning hours), didn’t get such a nice breakfast and became to lazy to even make a cup of coffee making it quite difficult to enjoy drinking any. i was not to be deterred though. I was leaving for the Bay area, which I had never before been too. I took the train over to the airport, finding a nice seat in the corner where I could read. I had a nice hour or so of the wonderful CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) on my hands before I would reach the airport.
Arriving at Midway, I took a tour of the terminal to see which restaurant I wanted to sit in and eat. I had grabbed a snack while at home so that I could postpone breakfast til I got to the airport. I figured that I might as well sit at the airport for a few hours and engage in some always entertaining and sometimes adventurous people watching. There are two places where I find people watching to never grow dull; airports and big cities. There a slew of interesting characters to watch. After taking in some Power Rangers that was being broadcast on the big tv’s, it was finally time to board and start the second leg of my journey. I was to have a layover in Las Vegas before finally arriving at the Oakland airport.
The flight was relatively uneventful, except for the lady that was sitting next to the window. She was a nervous flyer and had the bladder control of a 2yr old. The better part of the flight involved me standing in the aisle, reading my book and waiting for her to return to her seat so that we could repeat the entire process again. As we flew into Oakland, it became quite apparent that the young lady sitting next to me was not fond of water. The point of realization for me came, after a few oooh’s and aww’s, when she looked at me and stated, “I’m scared of water.” I know that I was rather quick in this realization, but I figure it may have something to do with my ability to break down phrases, like the above quote, and get to the heart of the matter. The airport in Oakland is located on an island and you do fly over the bay and, like a few other airports, you feel like the only thing for the wheels to land on is the water. I had faith in Southwest that it had checked over my plane to make sure it was safe and that the pilot was coherent and skilled enough to land the plane on the desired runway. My belief that these things would come true was so realized.
Andriy picked me up from the airport and we were off for a quick bite of sushi before heading to the hotel so that I could check and then finally, heading of to San Francisco to meet up with Brian, a good friend from my days of yore in Arizona. The sushi was absolutely amazing. It was as if they had just come in from the daily catch and filleted them right there and oh so fresh and so very tasty. After purchasing a few necessary toiletry items, I checked in to the hotel and off to the city we went.
These being my first time to the Bay area, there many visits of sites and views to catch up on. The first I was able to see was the Bay Bridge. This is an incredibly massive structure that connects Oakland and San Francisco, with a nifty little island in the middle. (I believe it is Treasure Island, but welcome corrections if I am wrong) The view of San Francisco, sitting on the bay, from the bridge is absolutely amazing. Andriy was driving, so I was free to absorb the view and take pictures. We arrived in downtown, being welcomed by crowds of people. After picking up Brian, we managed to evade the people and find some nice free parking in the nearby financial district. After walking around a bit, we got back in the car and headed in search of Lombard St, which is the very famous and very curvy street.
Even after waking up early the previous day to travel and staying up late that night, I awoke with the sun. Not really any surprise for me, seeing that I am used to waking up early for work and that my internal clock was two hours ahead, thanks to the time change. This allowed me to get a good start on the sightseeing in store for me. Andriy and I decided to take Bart downtown, San Francisco’s public transportation system. It is not necessarily that extensive but it is extremely nice. The cars are large, spacious, clean and to top it off, there is cell phone reception down in the tunnel. What a concept! (and no, US Cellular doesn’t count as cell phone reception for those Chicago based CTA riding readers).
After getting some breakfast, we contemplated taking the trolley but after seeing the line of nearly a block long, we opted for walking. And then we walked and walked and walked and, you get the idea. It was really great though, because we were really able to take in a lot of sights. We walked from Union Square, on Powell down to Firsherman’s Wharf and from there, along the bay and past all of the piers. Got some good looks and pictures of Alcatraz along the way. After nearly arriving at the Bay Bridge, we turned and headed back towards downtown, passing all the bums sleeping under the overpass on the way. After arriving back at Union Square and taking in a few more sights, we decided that we were to tired to do more and so we headed back to the Oakland hills, where Andriy was staying with his aunt and uncle.
It is a really gorgeous view of the entire bay area from their house, but after eating some dinner, we left to take a drive down the hills and over through Berkeley. I wanted to see the campus and all, seeing that it is a very well known school and town. However, I will not lie to you and lead you astray. I was most curious about making a Mecca trip to the original Peet’s store. (see previous blog to understand my stance on Peet’s)
I would have to say that the streets of SF are one of the coolest things about the city. Where else can you visit where you have to drive up such steep inclines, stop at the top of them or hope that your brakes are still working good enough to stop you when you reach the bottom. The fact that people have to park on these things are amazing, but even more so when they have to park horizontal to the slope. When you are driving up the steep streets you already feel as though you might fall backwards and flip over. Just think how you would feel if you had to park horizontally to the incline? I would be afraid that my car would start rolling down the hill like a ball. So, we opted for the less adventuresome parking.
Literally, that is exactly what I am currently doing. I’m sitting here at my desk at home and it faces directly west. i got home a little while ago and I got to sit here at my computer and watch the sun set. I wouldn’t call it the most beautiful sunset that I have ever seen. But I have really learned to take these times and enjoy them. Before, they would just come and go as they chose. Now, I try to take note and enjoy the little things. Life just keeps getting busier and there just isn’t time for the little things anymore. (so it seems) The sun has gone beyond the horizon, but more times will come about.
Yesterday after I work, I went home ate some supper, gathered my dirty laundry and headed off for a peaceful weekend in Michigan. I love living in the city but there is definitely something about being able to get out and enjoy the solemness of country life. I was never really able to enjoy that as much before I had lived in such a metropolitan area. For me, the option of both is what makes living in one so exciting. It gives me the opportunity to have anything and everything I could need at my fingertips. But the options give me the opportunity to press the pause button, get away from the whole motion filled world, relax and recharge.
A lot of reading was finished this weekend. I finally polished off The Google Story. Which is essentially a biography on Google, it’s founders, inception and path to search/technological giant. It’s a very interesting fast read (though I took an extraordinarily long hiatus in the middle of reading it). If you are interested on the company at all then you should give it a shot. A nice overview. Then you can go and dig more in depth on a particular issue if you want. I’m in the middle of a few other books at the moment. Will let you in on those when I have finished. Don’t want any outside opinions influencing my reading until I’m finished. Once I have finished reading and talk about it, I welcome any and all thoughts and opinions.
Today I was reading that Hillary Clinton has said that she believes that the super delegates should vote for whomever they feel will make the best presidential candidate. I’ll get to my thoughts on this in a second. First, to even the playing field. While Barack Obama seems to not have taken a firm stance on this particular issue seems to be leaning more heavily towards the super delegates voting towards the people’s vote. Well, this makes sense for both campaigns to have their respective views on super delegate votes. Each view will benefit their campaign most. Obama has more delegates based on the popular vote than does Clinton so he would of course want the super delegates to follow the popular while Clinton would want them to go with the “best” candidate. This would give her the only chance to get them. I understand that the reason for the super delegates is so that they can vote for whichever person they want to no matter what. But if they follow the Clinton philosophy then you have to ask yourself what good the popular vote actually is. What’s the point? Then the people can vote in who they want and if it’s close, like it is, then the super delegates can negate the whole popular vote if they so choose. It’s going to be an interesting race.
