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Friday, 06-30-00
<morning> I got to work relatively early, for me. I'm trying to be a good and dutiful employee. I need to start taking better care of myself, too, I keep getting stressed out and my immune system suffers. I'm so sensitive! It was really cold and drizzly this morning, and I drank my entire latte before my second bus arrived at HAMSTOP. There is a weird shrine up on a tree in the median strip of Geary near Divisadero. I'm guessing that it's there because someone died in an accident there, but I really don't know. I watched people notice it, and judge whether or not they should risk running out in to traffic to get a closer look at it. I wrote something cheesy and self-indulgent while on the bus, as follows: "The character of a city is not static. It is a living, shifting organic thing, as fickle, moody and inconstant as any person. The city amplifies and distorts both the positive and negative qualities of humanity. The beauty of the city lay somewhere within these shifts, the surprise of an unexpected juxtaposition of elements, a chance intersection of wholly disparate notions. Even the buildings and streets are given to sudden changes. There is a challenge in trying to capture the changing character of the city in any moment. The beauty is in the details." Lay off the cheese! I used a weird setting on my camera which inexplicably cast a sepia tint over all of my images. Weird!

Thursday, 06-29-00
<morning> Yeah I missed a few days of the kommute. Woe be unto you. pff. I'm still feeling really crappy and should by all rights still be home in bed nursing myself on to solid foods, but I felt too weird about missing so much work. Guilty or something. So here I am. And so it goes. I watched a lot of bad movies over the past 2 days, and did little else. I passed up the usual double latte this morning, opting instead for a big bottle of spring water. Muni came late, packed full of humanity. I almost didn't get on board, but then I was running late, so I crammed my butt in along with everyone else. I got off one stop early and went to the drug store and jogged to HAMSTOP just in time to catch my connecting bus. There was a weird orange-haired guy on the bus, he was really hyper and fidgety like some kind of tweaker. Maybe he was just a nervous spaz or something. I don't know. It's weird and cloudy today. By the way, SFGate has a live camera on the Golden Gate bridge now, so go take a look. You could be a big stalker and try to see when my bus goes by! Yay! Ok, back to work.

Monday, 06-26-00
<morning> Bleah. I feel terrible. What the hell am I doing at work? It's only because I kind of had to come in to submit some forms. And because I thought I was feeling alright this morning. I couldn't finish my coffee or anything. Waaaah. Pity me. I did take photos though, a reasonable number of them, too. I don't have anything else to add, I'll just put up the photos. Again, pity me.

Friday, 06-23-00
<morning> Got up early! Very early, in fact, far earlier than i'd planned to... The upstairs neighbors' smoke alarm went off just after 6am, and the house wasn't even on fire. Lame! My shower has been working oddly ever since my mildly retarded landlord decided to try to fix some leaks. Thing is, there's hardly any hot water, and the tub leaks worse than ever now. Gee thanks! So, I went to the cafe and found that the girl I met yesterday, the one who said "Shall we Dance?!" works there now. She took my order carefully, and I had to actually articulate my needs. I went for a bagel (onion) to accompany my doublenonfatlatte. Thrill to my mundane details! Woo! Uh. So, like, I made it out of there with my coffee and bagel just as the bus pulled up. There weren't really any seats, so I stood near the back door. After a minute or two, a guy tapped my elbow and asked if I wanted a seat, and got up to let me sit by the window. He got off after a few stops and as he was leaving he kind of bowed to me and said "Now you have a nice day, young lady." and I told him where to stick it. No, not really. I was nice and wished him well, and waved. Then I told him where to stick it. Ha. I kid. It just kind of surprises me when people, especially people on muni, are nice. It was a pretty damned cold morning, and here it is officially summer. Weather is Stupid! I wonder what the details are surrounding the pending sale of Santa's House. It bothers me. I feel kind of crappy today, so I didn't take too many photos, and the windows of the Sausalito bus were particularily awful, so the ones I did take came out kind of weirdly.

Thursday, 06-22-00
<morning> Difficult morning. Woke up late, moved slowly, realized that I needed cash for the bus at the last possible moment, missed my bus. Tsk, tsk. For what it's worth, nobody seems to have noticed or cared that I showed up so late. My whole morning routine was all screwed up because I sat around listening to this SFGate thing about Woody Guthrie, this long RealAudio deal, and I wanted to hear the whole thing. You can check it out, if you're in to that sort of thing... here. I'm turning in to my mother! Don't mock me. So, I strapped on my boring mary janes and went to the store. I love it when I end up walking towards someone and we both take a step in each direction, back and forth, back and forth, that happened this morning, this woman was walking towards me and it made me crack up laughing and she said "Shall we dance?!" and it was cool. I loitered around a while at HAMSTOP, reading my smutty cyberpunk novel, watching people and wondering when the hell my bus would arrive, and nothing much of note occurred throughout the remainder of my commute. Sorry! Jeez! Here's some pictures.

Wednesday, 06-21-00
<morning> It's another one of those indecisive weather days, it's drizzly and foggy in San Francisco, sunny and warm in Sausalito. I wore my jacket just the same. The cafe was really pretty crowded, but I got my latte within a few minutes and as I was leaving, two guys walked out ahead of me, and the first held the door for the second, but not for me, and I didn't mind, I just pushed the door open, but the first guy was all apologetic and stuff, saying "Whoa oh man, sorry, I didn't see you there, sorry" but it was really no big deal. People are goofy. At MEATSTOP, a man and an older woman were waiting with their station wagon parked, the rear door open, Cameo's "Word Up" blasting on the stereo. They were picking up about 50 pounds of meat, possibly more. Meaty! I like it when a parent and child prepare to cross a street and they reach for each other's hands without even looking, it's a totally unconscious, simple, sweet gesture. I got to HAMSTOP without a moment to spare before my connecting bus pulled up. The driver was someone i'd never seen before, and he started to give me a hard time about my coffee cup, saying something about usually not allowing people on with that type of container, but I smiled and promised I would take the empty cup off with me, and he said he would allow it "just this once". Sheesh. The fog was really intense on the bridge, but there were still hordes of tourists looking somewhat miserable in their light summer clothes. Heeheehee. So, it turns out that, sadly, Santa's House is being sold. I hope Santa is okay. I got the bus driver to let me off at the corner closest to my office because I am so charming and stuff.

Tuesday, 06-20-00
<morning> I got my latte as usual, and took a few photos at MEATSTOP and on muni, and then my batteries crapped out on me. I got off one stop before Geary and went in to heroically purchase a bulk pack of new batteries at the risk of missing my connection at HAMSTOP. Now that's what I call devotion. Uhm. As I was walking and fumbling with the old batteries and my coffee and the new batteries, I saw many photographic opportunities passing me by. Buh! So, anyhow, no big thing, there were many more fine images to be made once my camera was up and running again. I've gotten very familiar with the stretch of Geary Boulevard between Divisadero and Park Presidio over the past months, and it strikes me as one of the shabbier areas in San Francisco. I mean, there are some beautiful spots, sure, but the buildings are all sort of falling in to disrepair. The wood buildings desperately need painting, and signs are faded, things are just sort of neglected and worn. There were a bunch of schoolchildren on the Golden Gate bridge, and a bunch of them were waving at all the passing cars. I got a couple of creepy images of tourists, who are surprisingly difficult to photograph. 16 kwality images for you to have.

Monday, 06-19-00
<morning> I've been posting my kommute entries later and later, and I'm guessing this trend will continue as I get more and more actual work to do. These people actually want me to work on their stuff! Shocking! So, today is another day of weird european plumbers stomping around and ripping up my bathroom. I greeted them as I was heading out the door, and then I had a momentary panic, because I couldn't find my keys. Buh. Eventually I did find them, but it made me a couple of minutes late, just late enough to walk out the door just as my bus was pulling away. Huh...If i'm not actually on the bus, it isn't really my bus, is it... Anyhow, I got my latte without having to ask for it, and some cheesewad yuppies were sitting at a table in the little patio area and they were blatantly staring at me for the entire time I was in there, what's up with that? There was a really cute baby on the bus, and I watched her check out the people sitting behind her, a young woman and an old man. The man had his hand up on the back of the seat, and the baby kept touching the man's hand very carefully, and sort of half-smiling at him, and then looking very concerned. It was kind of sweet to see this little slice of interaction. There was a new driver on the Sausalito bus, sort of a strange woman who said "If you should finish your drink before the end of your trip, could you please be sure to keep the cup with you when you exit?" when she saw that I was carrying coffee, and it confused me briefly. There were loads of tourists on the bus. When we passed by Santa's House, I saw a man (possibly SANTA) sitting out in front amidst a bunch of furniture and things. I didn't get too close a look, but it looked to me like it was either someone moving, or a yard sale or something. We shall see!

Friday, 06-16-00
<morning> It's chilly and foggy enough that I ended up wearing my leather jacket, so I look "dangerous" and "tough". I left the house about 4 minutes later than I usually do, and I needed a coffee both for the caffeine, and the exact change necessary for the Sausalito bus. As I stepped outside, a bus was approaching, and I had this moment of dazed indecision where I took 2 steps towards the curb, 2 steps towards the cafe, back and forth, and eventually ended up heading in to the cafe. Like it's some big life-changing decision. Pff. So the guy there started making my order before I'd even walked in the place, and the girl who took my order didn't even have to ask, she just punched in the numbers and said that my drink was already in the process of being made, and she said that my consistency makes everyone feel "safe and secure". I got to witness a dizzying array of meat-related activities and products at MEATSTOP, where I had to wait a full 20 minutes for a bus. I like the cloudy foggy skies for photographic purposes, the light is a lot more steady. Man, am I tired.

Thursday, 06-15-00
<morning> Lawdy it shore was hot lasterday. Today is much more comfortable. Windy with a thick layer of fog collecting in the bay. I dressed far more appropriately for the predicted heat, and though it is warm, there is a cushion of fog clinging to the hills here in Sausalito. It's the kind of day that's perfect for drinking margaritas pool- or ocean-side. Not the sort of day I'd like to spend cooped up in a stuffy office. I'm struggling to get inspired about work. So, this morning, I was super-groggy, and I had to go to the market to stock up on batteries for my camera. There were some interesting characters in there, and this one guy was buying many many cans of Old English 800 malt liquor and a couple of bananas. Tasty breakfast, sir! I sat next to a curmudgeonly old man on Muni, and the driver kept blaring the horn for no apparent reason, and the man kept muttering "Sheesh, this guy, with the leaning on the horn!" At HAMSTOP, I took a whole heap-o-pictures, and I snapped one of this SF Water dept. truck, and the passenger waved at me and smiled. People in trucks seem to enjoy being randomly photographed. None of the usual cast of characters was present on either bus, sadly, and I didn't even recognize the driver! Yesterday, the plastic surgery lady told me that they cycle drivers and routes on a 3-month schedule, so maybe all my drivers are working other routes. I feel betrayed!

Wednesday, 06-14-00
<morning> Gaaaahhh! I'm melting! It's really miserably hot out, so of course I wore my heaviest longsleeved black shirt and long black skirt. Once again, I have woefully underestimated mother nature's ability to kick my ass. So, alright, it's hot. On with the show! I decided on an iced latte today, thankyouverymuch. The only trouble with iced coffee drinks is that it cuts down on the sipping factor. Usually, with a hot coffee drink, there's a longterm commitment, and I can nurse a double latte for a good 45 minutes, but not so with an iced latte. I got the bus with the happiest, nicest muni driver ever. A weird older man was sitting up by the front of the bus and he kept looking at me and shaking his head. What a curmudgeon! So I took his picture. That'll show him, huh? Yeah so the plastic surgery woman was waiting at HAMSTOP with me, and she really seemed to want to talk to me. Trouble is, I couldn't be arsed. She eventually just walked up and started yammering about her friend the bus driver (actually using the phrase "my friend, the bus driver") and the weather and stuff, but I had no real interest in it. I was friendly, sure, but uninspired. There was a new driver on the 50, but she was nice enough, and the bus was nice and cool. Someone had left a copy of today's paper, so I worked on the crossword a little, and read about Korea. It's flag day.

Monday, 06-12-00
<morning> Got moving pretty late, but then that's never such a big surprise anymore... Ambled in to the cafe for my usual, and watched a bus pass by as my drink was being assembled. I did not fear, however, sort of hoping that another muni would be coming along shortly after that one, and surely enough, there was. It was empty, only 2 other passengers and myself. See the other passengers' photos below. I've become so accustomed to not ringing the bell as the bus approaches Geary because invariably someone else does the job for me, so of course I totally spaced out and missed my stop. Doi! So I doubled back towards the appropriate stop. It's getting really hot in San Francisco, and of course I don't own any appropriate summerlike clothing, so I am in for a world of hurt in my all-black wardrobe. I should deal with this issue since a heatwave is predicted for the coming week. DOI. So let's see, what happened on the kommute. I keep seeing this one big lug of a guy on the Sausalito bus, and today I learned his name and place of employment since he thoughtfully wore his ID on his pants, though his name is one of those ones with two first names, so I don't know if his name is first-last, or last-first. I saw a man with a gnarly cancerous growth the size of a baseball in his forehead at the corner of Geary and Arguello. It shook me up a bit, it's not the sort of thing one sees all that oftenly. I tried to take a photo, but failed miserably, and that's probably a good thing. Yeek! Cancer is bizarre. There were a lot of tourists posing for snapshots on the bridge.

Friday, 06-09-00
<morning> Got in to work a full hour and a half earlier than usual. APPLAUSE. I left early enough to wait for a toasted croissant to enjoy with my coffee, and watched as 2 buses roared past, worrying briefly that I might be stuck at HAMSTOP for an additional 30 minutes, but luckily, another muni came along just in time. Phew! Nonstop adventure! Buh. There was a weird couple on the bus, they were all clingy and they had that air of chemical dependance about them which suggests junkiehood. I took a photo of the woman grasping the man's back like some kind of drunken koala. At HAMSTOP, a cute little redheaded girl showed up wearing the exact same glasses as me! I was shocked, and I guess I stared a little too obviously, so she was also suddenly very aware of me, and so I missed my chance to photograph her. I almost approached her to ask about the glasses, but then, it seemed too weird. Lately, when I'm photographing weird stuff and people are around, they tend to act as though they're the subject of my photos, and after I take a picture, they sort of gaze expectantly at me or something. Get real. As if. So vain. Actually, most of the time, I would be taking photos of them. Go figure! On the Sausalito bus, I listened in on an amusing conversation. A highlight: "The history of American Music is all about Corporate Sponsorship, but as an actor, I would never endorse cigarettes. Booze, yeah. But not cigarettes. It's just one of my things." You know, being at work early is kind of blissful.

Thursday, 06-08-00
<morning> It's kind of rainy and grey today, which doesn't really bother me all that much, but it makes everyone act weird. I left a little earlier than I have been lately, and it totally threw me off! I wore my big boots again, and they make me walk a lot more carefully and awkwardly. I managed to make it to both of my buses on time, however. There's this building I pass every day on muni, it's a radio station with the call letters KPOO. I've no real insight to add, aside from snickering and saying poo a lot. They play soul and funk. funky soulful poo. The sausalito bus driver was some new woman, so I smiled at her and she sort of ignored it. Pfff! All the other bus drivers are pretty nice. There was a huge crowd of adorably clueless German tourists on board, and as I walked towards the back seat, these two middle aged German ladies were smiling and clucking about me, gawking even. How weird! Anyhow, the bus was kind of crowded, what with all the Germans, and I spent the rest of the trip watching the tourists notice things. Weird stuff most locals just sort of ignore. This one guy was standing up to look out the window at the bridge, and he was like a little kid, all full of wonder. His girlfriend was embarrassed. I think it's cool to be full of wonder. And gummi! Uhm. ok. Picture time!

Wednesday, 06-07-00
<morning> Ah, fragrant victory. Or something. I did indeed leave my camera in my slamp's (slampiece's) car, and I fetched it back from him late last night. All is well with the world. I had really horrible nightmares last night, and I'm left with this weird creepy feeling. I can't shake it at all. Yick. My housemate attempted to offer me a cup of tea, but I was heading out the door so I had to decline. I went to the cafe and once again, I didn't even have to open my mouth to order my double nonfat latte. Freaky habitual me. Ran out the door and across the street just in time to catch muni. Yeehaw! It was nice having my camera again. I snapped all sorts of photos for you... Ran in to my commute buddy at HAMSTOP, and we talked about scary health stuff and almost didn't see the bus coming. We jumped up and fumbled for our fares and stuff, and the bus driver laughed at me, saying that he knows me, and that he knows all the regulars on his bus, and he watches for them. I kept spilling my latte all over the place because I was carrying a poster to put up in my quasi-cube, and it threw off my natural commuter's equilibrium. I told my commute buddy about my awful nightmare, and we spent some time trying to analyze it. We failed to come up with any real meaning.

Tuesday, 06-06-00
<morning> Yes, astute reader(s?), there was no commute update for Monday. I was remiss in my commute-related duties. I felt all crappy and stayed in my pajamas all day. I still feel crappy today but I decided that there wasn't much point in staying home again, since it didn't really do much good in the first place. Waking up was a trying ordeal this morning, and worst of all, I couldn't find my camera anywhere. Not in the usual places I keep it, close to my heart and all that. Damn. Double Damn. I must have left it in my slamp's car on Sunday. Sigh. So, off I went, in my brand new ginormous raver boots (4 inch platforms, frightfully futuristic- looking) and atomic pink hair to brave the commute without the joys a digital camera can provide. I got my standard beverage and rode some buses. Nothing terribly interesting happened, but my shoes were impressive throughout. I was terribly aware of them the entire time, as I am now, and felt certain that everyone else would be as well, but nobody really even glanced at them, as far as I know. Tsk! A grisly old prospector guy on the Sausalito bus commented on my hair: "Geez, that shore is a perty color. I like that color." No commute buddy today! Ohyeah. In case you didn't know, it's June.

Friday, 06-02-00
<morning> Late as usual... Nobody seems to notice or care that I keep showing up so damned late, but I still feel kind of sheepish rolling in to the office at 11:00, grinning and blushing. Strangely, I've been getting all sorts of people coming up to me, commenting on my hair color, wanting to know how I do it. It's odd because my hair looks awful to me, it's faded to white at the tips, there are 3 different shades of purple and fuchsia, orangey strips in my bangs... But everyone else seems to think it's some expensive intentional process. Bizarre! Anyhow, back to the commute. I managed to get my latte just in time to catch my bus, and I hollered something at my housemate pippilina, who left just after I did, asking her a question, but she couldn't understand me. She hollered that I was a whore, and then my bus came. The electric Muni buses sometimes make beautiful music. They hum and hiss and sing, and it's a really odd sound, I've never heard anything like it anywhere else. There was this really cool cute girl at HAMSTOP, and I took a couple of pictures of her before she approached me and asked me all kinds of questions about my hair. She wanted to know the brands of dye and bleach I use, and how long I leave it in... Weird. The funny thing was that a number of other people gathered around to surreptitiously listen in. Huh! people be weird. It was kind of overcast and cold this morning, but, as usual, Sausalito is balmy and clear.

Thursday, 06-01-00
<morning> I can't believe it's June. Ah, summer. It used to mean freedom, it used to mean hours and hours of free time within which almost anything could happen... Now it just means it's hotter when I go in to work, and brighter when I leave. I miss summer vacations. Today I bought my latte and stepped outside just as my bus was pulling up, and I ended up running up alongside it as it pulled away, smacking the damn thing until it stopped again and let me on. I am some kind of commuting warrior goddess! I keep reading about all these nasty things that keep happening to pedestrians in the news. I am concerned because I spend part of my commute as a pedestrian. Damnit. So after all that effort, I got to HAMSTOP kind of early, and so I decided to take advantage of the time and procure myself some vittles. Tasty cole slaw there. The woman at the ham store said "Hey, you never come in here, I always see you waiting out there!" and we talked about Sausalito for a while. My commute buddy showed up at the last minute and we spent the rest of the commute talking. Today we spent some time discussing relationships, boyfriends, astrology, accessories, weather and natural disasters. We have this great repartee going, and our conversations tend to kind of run all over the place in a very fluid sort of way. It's cool. Slim pickings for photos today, and they're mostly populated by the elderly.

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