adventures in transit

[sistawendy]

Yesterday's adventure was to get from my hotel to Amoeba Music, just steps from Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, without any taxi or other car. So, that meant taking SamTrans (i.e. San Mateo county's buses) to CalTrain to BART to Muni to get there.

I got on the Muni 71 going the wrong way at first and ended up waiting forever for the one going in the right direction. I didn't mind too much, though, because it was a beautiful, sunny day and I was on Market St. in San Francisco. I got to check out what people were wearing. Trends: crazy tight pants, lots of leggings, chunky-shafted boots, sweater dresses. I saw one woman (?) older than I am ride a bicycle helmetless down the double yellow line in a red velvet miniskirt and heels. That's what I love about San Francisco.

What I don't love about San Francisco is aggressive panhandlers and other two-legged nuisances. They didn't bother me personally, but that was a matter of luck. I can tell they're a problem that a tourist town like San Francisco can ill afford.

Public transit has a last-mile problem, definitely in the Bay area, and everywhere else in my opinion. CalTrain & BART are dreams of spaciousness, frequency, and swiftness, but if you're at all off the beaten track (even Haight Street in San Francisco?!) then frequency of service will be far too poor for anybody but a fanatical tourist like me. Never mind the sardine scene that is Muni.

What to do about it? A quick look at my beloved King County Metro's expenses seems to indicate that automating driving & maintenance would be the biggest win.

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Why am I sleepy right now? Because Mom texted me from her BlackBerry at 0645 this morning Pacific time, thinking she was emailing me. And who taught her how to text from her BlackBerry? Need you ask? In all fairness to Mom, by default BlackBerry unifies all text & email messages in one view, and unlike Windows Phone 7 it doesn't have an obvious way to get to the separate kinds of messages. That's more convenient in some senses, but it could (and did) confuse somebody who was new to the technology.

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I just washed a bunch of undies & socks. I brought more than one pair of undies per day of my (non-hospital) stay, but I was bleeding so much when I got out of the hospital that it wasn't enough.

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Tomorrow I'll be visiting N, who was the best man at my wedding, in dowtown San Mateo; trystbat, whom I met at a wedding, in Palo Alto; and college chum H and her hubby D back here in Foster City. I'll be getting a CalTrain day pass and flogging the hell out of it. Mmu hu hwaugh huh hah ha!

ETA: Picked up at Amoeba: The Knife, Neon Indian, and the KLF.

Comments

[hestiaschild.livejournal.com]

So for being all day out in the world, how are you feeling?

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

Really well! I'm not feeling any ill effects now. Right after I got back, I could tell that my pelvic area wasn't happy with all the standing & walking, but my feet were complaining the loudest.

[hestiaschild.livejournal.com]

That's great! So glad to hear that you're feeling good enough to go out and enjoy the beautiful day!

Was it advised to keep the neovagina elevated to keep swelling down? Should you be doing so now after so many hours of walking/standing?

Sorry I sound like a nag...this is all so really cool and I'm delighted for you, but I worry about complications. Cause I worry. That's what I do. :)

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

I never got any instructions about elevating, but I've been napping enough today that I effectively have been keeping my pelvis elevated. :)

[arjache.livejournal.com]

ISTR one solution to the last-mile problem is to go to the Amoeba Music in Berkeley instead :-) Though even that's not all that close to BART - about 0.6 miles according to Google.

Nice choices of music, btw.

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

But... but... San Francisco! Flaily hands!

[cow.livejournal.com]

I'm actually many times fonder of Berkeley than SF, but .. that's just me.

(I actually kind of loathe the city of SF itself...)

Glad to hear you're up and about and doing well! The healing sounds as if it's right on pace. :D

[staxxy.livejournal.com]

that's a whole lot of adventure for someone who was in surgery not terribly long ago.

did you get pads or napkins to help absorb any excess bleeding?

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

Not to worry. Dr. Bowers put maxi pads on her list of things for patients to bring to surgery. I wear one all the time, and I had a spare in my bag.

[staxxy.livejournal.com]

check you out with your blood stained panties. just like a natural girl

[imp-of-satan.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad I checked in to lj to see how you're doing! You're doing awesome! I'm so excited for you!!

Squee!

[wormtorturer.livejournal.com]

Hey, I haven't been on LJ much at all for ages, but I live in the Bay Area. I'm selling Steampunk stuff on Etsy and would love to give you a tour of TechShop. Just give me a holler at 408-634-2246.

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

Aw, shoot! I flew back to Seattle yesterday.

[wormtorturer.livejournal.com]

Well, that's what I get for ignoring folks online.

I'm being fairly random and considering going to FaerieCon for the Abney Park concert in February. It's going to be expensive, though, so I may change my mind. Been thinking of visiting Seattle for a while, and never got around to it while I was within driving distance, of course.

I hope you're doing well, though.