Kommute Archives for July, 2000
Archival Kwality Kommute Entries. Read through these to catch up, or waste time, or whatever!

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Monday, 07-31-00
<morning> I spent a long time this morning playing with Dozer. Dozer Inertia Devices® kept me from getting out the door in time to catch my usual bus. Damn Damnity damn cat! It is a pretty warm day today, certainly too warm for a long-sleeved black t-shirt, but I wore one anyhow. Quel idiot! Crap. I can't really think of anything much to say about today's kommute... While I was sitting at HAMSTOP, reading and sipping my coffee, some nasty old creep was sneezing without covering his mouth, and i got sprayed with his juices. Old Man Juice. NASTY. I survived, but maybe i'll become old and crotchety before the day is out. I took a lot of pictures of this one girl who was sitting across from me on the Sausalito bus because she kept squirreling around into different amusing postures. And she was reading Vonnegut. That's pretty cool. The bridge was very foggy, but there were oodles of tourists from many lands. Of course it's warm and sunny here in Sausalito... Also, there was a woman at HAMSTOP who took the bus with me and got off at the same stop and then walked behind me, which seemed odd, and it turns out that she works somewhere in this Very Building! Creepy!!

Friday, 07-28-00
<morning> I swear I turned my alarm clock on when I set it last night, I swear, but instead I lay in bed wondering how it felt like I was getting so much sleep when the alarm was surely about to go off and then I opened my eyes and noticed that it was nearly 9am! Crap! Crappy crap. So, like, I got in late, which isn't anything new, but I had meant to come in early like yesterday. Dumb headed me. They were playing Alison by Elvis Costello in the cafe, and I couldn't resist singing along. I've been known to say that I hate all the Elvis Costello "girl" songs, but I take it back. I like Alison a lot. In fact, I am listening to it right now! i know this world is killin' you... So, muni was chock fulla kids, and I sat way up near the front of the bus. I wrote a page of self-absorbed introspective gabba gabba hey while I was sitting at HAMSTOP, drank my coffee and glowered at the normals who stared at me. I got to be helpful, offering some of my unique, hard-earned kommuter knowledge to a newbie. I mean, uh, I told her when the bus usually showed up. There's this one guy I see a lot on the bus who I'd really like to talk to or know more about. Not in a like, biblical sense, necessarily, but you know. He looks like a cool person. Geeky, too. I'm really kind of nervous when it comes to randomly conversing with strangers, though I'm all over it if someone approaches me. What a wallflower! What I wonder is, will I ever catch up on all the sleep i'm missing?

Thursday, 07-27-00
<morning> Wow. I got in to work at exactly 9am. The time I'm like, supposed to get here. My lovely housemate pippilina was also up and about as I was heading for the door, so we arranged to meet at the fabulous cafe next door, which was recently profiled in the "neighborhoods" section of the Bay Guardian's 2000 Best of the Bay thing. They came up with a cutesy little name for my stomping grounds, calling it NoPa, meaning "North of the Panhandle". Buh? Pretty stupid name, charlie. Plus, it's already got like, 7 other names. People call it Lower Haight, Western Addition, Park District, etc. Damn them for adding a stupider, yuppier name to the bunch. Ok! So, I got my coffee and kind of wandered around aimlessly looking for pippilina, and she showed up just as I was giving up. She forced me to take a photo of her, saying "Hey i'm part of your kommute, take my picture!" and then we did this thing where we shake our fists menacingly at one another from across the street. I got a bus just in time to make it down to HAMSTOP, which is always a good thing, though there weren't any seats, so I got to stand. Thankfully, there were no coffee-related incidents today. PHEW, HUH? I saw my cow orker on the Sausalito bus again, and halfway considered taking a photo of him just to cheese him off, but eh. It was foggy and grey all over, even in Sausalito, though it was burning off in some spots. The parking lot at work was nearly empty as I trundled through, making me feel like a total tool for being so early. Sucks about Napster. Sigh. Almost time for my meeting! Ok! Augh! The picture of pippilina didn't come out, shucky darn.

Wednesday, 07-26-00
<morning> What a screwed up morning. I woke up late after having a really deeply troubling nightmare, and then I had the extra stress of rushing to get ready to deal with. Yuck. I only had two dollars, enough to buy a large coffee at the cafe. After I filled it with scorchingly hot coffee and was adding sugar and cream, I managed to half-drop the cup, pouring about half of the coffee all over my hand, burning myself rather a lot. Being rushed and nervous makes me a danger to myself and others! Take note! So, though I refilled and had a nice, full coffee, I decided that it was probably too dangerous to bother with the damned cup on the bus and everything, so No Coffee For Me! Damnit! I still can't shake the nightmare I had. When I woke up to KUSF, there was some guy blathering about the "deadly orgone radiation emanating from the san francisco bay area". Huh! On muni, a big group of loud, goofy kids, no doubt hepped up on goofballs® or Sugarcrack^TM, ran on to the bus and clustered around my seat. One kid sitting behind me was crazy or something, he kept singing "You guh-guh-guh glup guh GUH g-g-g- Gotta guh-guh GUH guHhHHhHh" and all these people had amused little grins on their amused little faces. When I got to HAMSTOP, I went in to the HAMSTORE to see if they would sell me a HAMCOFFEE but they didn't have any coffee, so I was about to get a coke or something when I realized i'd spent the last of my cash on that damned evil injurous coffee, so I left the place like a big dumb chucklehead. There was thick, lovely fog all over the city and especially on the bridge, but of course, Sausalito is a balmy, sunshiney little nugget of joy. Pff.

Tuesday, 07-25-00
<morning> Waking up was torturous! Damn my comfy bed! Damn, Damn! Double damn my bed! Yeah, alright, i'll settle down. I was pretty pokey this morning, playing video games and putting on extra makeup for extra loveliness. Pff. I had new makeuppy things to test out. Not that it made any real discernable difference, I look essentially the same as I did lasterday. Hyuk! Guess what! The cosmetics industry thrives on people like me! It's all a big, over-packaged lie! Garsh! I feel like such a rube! Today is definitely a big clompity boots kind of day. I'm wearing my ludicrous futuristic platform boots. I love being 4 inches taller. Woo! The cafe was pretty crowded, and it took some effort to get to the sugar and cream, but I made it out of there in time to catch the bus. thank GOD. Uh. So, I finished my coffee at HAMSTOP, chugalug, and watched the people going by. It's a nice day, almost like Summer. The Sausalito bus wasn't too terribly crowded, I got a nice window seat. Glee. A cow orker of mine got on a couple stops after mine, and said "No pictures!" like, relax, man. I guess that's what I get for telling people about the kommute. I bought an iMac for my mom (tangerine) and now she's reading the kommute as well. So I guess that makes 4 readers. I should go public! AD BANNER AD BANNER AD BANANA.. Just kidding. I spent a while reading quippy bits of nonsense in the New Yorker, just like a grownup! pictures.

Monday, 07-24-00
<morning> There was no kommute for Friday, though I did a fair amount of kommuting, as it turns out, since I took off down to Santa Cruz for the weekend. I've been missing buses and trains left and right. Yesterday took the cake, however, with me being stuck for an unprecedented 3 hours at the San Jose train station. I was stuck there, so I decided to waste some time in a bar right near the station. Oh, did I say bar? I really meant to say SPORTS BAR. So I drank many bottles of beer and watched the barflies play liar's dice, or whatever that loud, dice slamming game is called. It was kind of surreal. Then the train was slow and late getting in to the city, and so I got home far too late and slept far too little. This morning's delay was a mere 30 minutes, but I am ridiculously impatient, so any amount of inconvenience is deeply felt. Pff pff pff. It's a beautiful day, however. Sunny and bright, though there was a slice of thick fog across the middle of the bridge, crawling back over the headlands. I ate a scone for breakfast, a Strawberry scone. It was pretty tasty, dag nabbit! I didn't take a lot of photos today, though I gathered up many over the weekend. Here's some of those.

Thursday, 07-20-00
<morning> Oh, bother. I took a great whopping pile of really cool photos on my evening kommute last night, and through my own stupidity, I managed to delete them all. D'oh d'oh d'oh. So, I took some new pictures today! As I would have anyhow! Hooray for progress. I left late, willfully late, even allowing time to eat some tasty soba noodles for breakfast. Soba makes a surprisingly good breakfast. The fog was so heavy it was drizzling and everything was damp while I waited for my buses. A weird, tense guy kept staring at me on Muni. He was staring intently at everyone, but it made me a little nervous, a little less apt to take photos. When the bus pulled in to Sausalito, there was the strong smell of skunk juice in the air, and instead of thinking "ugh, skunk", I thought "Whoa, someone on the bus is smoking pot!" So my conclusion is that I am a dirty hippy. The driver commented that the weather was really different in Sausalito than in San Francisco, and I said "Ah, it's the same every day, I wear this heavy jacket and get all bundled up, and then I get to work and it's like 'Oh yeah, it's the middle of Summer!', doi, doi doi!" and we laughed. The fog is still hovering ominously over the mountains to the west as I write this, but there's a nice window of sunshine so I can get a sunburn. Yay!

Wednesday, 07-19-00
<morning> A late kommute today. I came in to work and immediately started working on the web pages they pay me to make, so I didn't get a chance to work on the kommute for a couple of hours. But, rest assured, I attacked the task ferociously the first chance I got. Hooray! So, another slow morning. I thought I wasn't going to be able to make it on to the 9:30 bus to Sausalito because I didn't even start getting dressed until 9, and it takes some time to catch muni, but I managed to get out the door pretty quickly, and a bus was a couple of blocks away, so I just had time to drop off my videos, no coffee for me. Christian was cheerful and friendly, though. There was a weird, white-trashy woman with her 3 kids on Muni, and all she seemed capable of saying was "Stop that, git up here. You settle down. Knock it off", but her kids were surprisingly cool. She kept trying to distract them, but they kept finding new ways to bug her. She had an infant in her arms, and she kept calling the baby "Porker." She said "Oh hey watch out, Porker's trying to sit up. Watch out, don't bug him, it's been a whole half hour since he ate anything!" and then her kids started saying "Ahh, very good, Grasshoppa" and they all started saying it. She pointed out a house that was painted a sort of lilac color, and she said "Purple House!" and her son said "Hawt Peeeenk" and she said "No. Look, it's purple. Lavender. See?" and then her daughter pointed at me and said "that's Hot Pink". Kids are really weird. The Sausalito bus was crowded but nothing interesting happened. Sorry.

Tuesday, 07-18-00
<morning> I'm eating oreos for breakfast. Healthy! Today's commute was all about good intentions, mislaid plans, all that. While I wanted to wake up early, I was too tempted by the prospect of another blissful 45 minutes' sleep to jump out of bed at 6:30. Even after the 45 minutes' blissful slumber, I had a remarkably difficult time not just laying there, listening to the radio. So, finally, the cat (dozer) started mewling at my door, and that got me moving. Motivational Dozer^TM! I once again opted for the large house coffee (Sumatra) and a short stroll to the next muni stop, just for the novelty of it. My muni driver was the sweetest, most positive woman, she kept saying "Hold on please" before pulling out in to traffic, and she announced every stop. The nice ones are so rare. When I was getting off at HAMSTOP, I sort of bumped in to this weirdo guy, and he turned to look at me and he said "WOW your hair is such a BEAUTIFUL COLOR, Woo!" like, he actually said "woo". So then everyone was suddenly staring at me, and I was flustered and blushing like a big feeb. So, I took a late bus, and there were lots of traffic snarls, so I got to work even later than I should. Tsk, tsk. ¿Quién va a perder su trabajo? ¡Sí, correcto! ¡Soy! Muh! Not really. So, ok! Fotokamera!

Monday, 07-17-00
<morning> It's been cloudy and cold for the past several days, but I'm not exactly complaining, I kind of like it like this. It reminds me of summer day camp, and taking field trips and those little cartons of milk. Anyhow... I've had too much caffeine. I woke up at 6:30. Decided I should be a morning person for a while. It's not likely that it will last, though. I just like to have some time to slack off in the morning before I take off, which is probably just a big dumb waste of time, but I feel better about the world if I have this little slice of time for myself. I spent some time on Napster, played some video games, put on lipstick. I got a large coffee (millennium blend) instead of a double etc. and had enough time on my hands to take a little stroll, photographing some of the crap in my 'hood. One troubling upset is that "Hair Jordan's Steve-O Styles" has changed its name (and possibly ownership) to "Westside Cuts and Styles", but they didn't repaint the building after removing the old letters, so you can still see remnants of the glorious past. Everything in my neighborhood is changing around. Some good, some bad. There was a stalled car on the bridge this morning, and I thought perhaps it was another jumper, but it really was just a stalled car. Aight, here's your pictures. Peace out.

Friday, 07-14-00
<morning> Friday! Payday! Two great tastes that taste great together. I had some difficulty getting the hell out of bed this morning, when my clock radio clicked on, KUSF was playing something really gentle and soothing. So I lay in bed until the end of the song, trying to remember my weird dreams. I haven't been able to remember my dreams as well since I started working. That's a shame. I got up and out the door a little bit later than I was kind of hoping to, so I got in to work at 10 rather than 9:30, but it ain't no thang. I had to get some cash, so I went to the disreputable "swipe ATM" set in to the wall around the corner from the cafe, and it only charged me $1.75 for the convenience. Pff. I bought myself a croissant and a doublenonfatlatte and it was poifect. Not too hot, not cold and clammy. Tasty goodness. Muni was kind of crowded, so I stood. I had enough time at HAMSTOP to finish my latte and wolf down my croissant. There are these two women I see all the time on the bus, both mornings and evenings. I keep thinking of talking to them, but I get kind of shy and have no idea how to open up a conversation based on simply seeing them all the time... But one of the women made eye contact with me and sort of did a little "what's up" head nod at me and I reciprocated. They both get off the bus one stop before mine, too. So we have proximity, femininity and familiarity. BING BING BING BING! Uh? One of my cow orkers got on the bus too. It was really foggy and grey out, as San Francisco summer mornings generally are. Like Mark Twain said, "The coldest winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco." Woo-hoo.

Thursday, 07-13-00
<morning> There was no kommute for yesterday, since I was in an offsite meeting thing for most of the day. I rode up there with a co-worker, and didn't have access to a computer most of the day. Woke up insanely early, though. Before 6 am. It wasn't that bad, it's just that it's totally thrown off my internal clock. I thought about posting an evening kommute entry, and I took photos and everything, but I was too tired to be bothered once I got home. I'll just stick the photos up today. I came in to work very very late. Because I am the worst employee in the world. As if. Aaaas IF. I was feeling kind of crummy so I stayed home a little late until I felt better. Muni showed up just at the last possible moment, and dropped me off not a moment too soon, but luckily the Sausalito bus was a little bit late. The plastic surgery lady was at HAMSTOP, and she saw me looking stressed out and reassured me that I hadn't missed it, and she said "Oh, but you're so Late!" and we actually chatted for a bit. She has a very amusing british accent, it's kind of syrupy. I have been purposefully sitting in seats where the windows are scratched up and damaged because I like the abstractions in my photos taken through the scratches. The Sausalito bus smelled really strongly of some kind of artificial air freshener type smell, sort of like fake cherry smell, something fruity. It gave me a pretty bad headache. There was a lot of traffic on the bridge, and a lot of cameras, as well as a few helicopters, but nobody looked concerned about it, so I doubt that anyone jumped. Anyhow, check it:

Tuesday, 07-11-00
<morning> I tried to wake up early today, but I had a lot of trouble getting settled down last night for bed, so I slept an extra hour or so, and got in when I usually do. The real drag will be tomorrow, when I have to go to some kind of "Team Building" meeting in some hotel in Mill Valley at 8am, meaning that I'll probably have to wake up at 5am. Joy! And when I say Joy, I'm being facetious! So I went in to the cafe and Christian looked at me expectantly and then I ordered my usual, and he seemed relieved. He complimented my shirt again, as I am wearing my dukes of hazzard shirt once more. I told him that I thought it might be losing its impact with each subsequent wearing, but he waved his hand dismissively and told me to keep wearing it. The creepy "jesuslovesyou" lady was at MEATSTOP, and she did indeed say "jesuslovesyou" to me, but only when I was turned away from her. Muni was packed full, so I ended up standing, trying to juggle my painfully hot latte and my camera while hanging on to a pole. My one consolation was that everyone smelled really good. Like coconuts and sandalwood. The whole bus experience was made that much nicer by the olfactory goodness. Usually there are only unpleasant acrid unwashed clothing morning breath smells, but not today. Kudos, muni-heads! A weird guy at HAMSTOP was staring at me something fierce, and I wanted to take his photo but he was *way* too aware of me. Damnit why am I cursed with such astonishing BEAUTY and INTRIGUE? Everyone stares at me all the time! Oh wait, it's not beauty or intrigue, it's because i'm a big FREAK! It's been foggy mornings and evenings, but apparently really sunshiney and nice during the day, but I wouldn't know anything about that, just what I've been told. I've been listening to a lot of the Magnetic Fields. Too much, probably.

Monday, 07-10-00
<morning> I got to work at a normal time. Normal by everyone else's standards, not my own, naturally! I'm listening to melodramatic syrupy music as I quaff my third caffeinated beverage of the morning and it's only 9:45. Oh dear. So, I inadvertently woke up just after 6 am, and decided it was pointless to try to get any more sleep, so I got the hell up and got the hell showered and stuff. My hair is freshly dyed and kind of intense. When I went to the cafe, Christian was calling out the order for my 'usual', nonfat double latte, but I stopped him and asked for a large house coffee and he said "It's okay, it's okay, there's room to grow in our relationship, room for change" and I said "People change, you gotta let people grow, baby, it's all about change," and then I almost walked away without taking my 3 dollarsomething in change, and I thought that was a real laugh riot. Change. Get it? Ok. So, Muni wasn't terribly crowded until we got to Eddy, where another bus had broken down, leaving a full busload of pissed off passengers to file on to my bus. Just the same, I got to HAMSTOP just in time to catch my second bus. The driver said he'd let me bring the coffee on board if I promised to bring him a cup next time I see him. We passed by one of those roach coaches, and he said "Actually, get out here and get me one" and I was about to go for it, and then he said "Nah not from there, that guy was picking his nose, man, sick!" I doubt I'll see that driver again to give him a coffee, so nanny neener neener. I'm a big liar! It's cold and drizzly and foggy, even here in Sausalito.

Friday, 07-07-00
<morning> I have all this stuff I need to mail off. I keep telling myself, as I fall asleep, "Tomorrow, i'll wake up early and i'll go to the mailbox etc. place and get this stuff in the mail." But, well, reality doesn't always follow my groggy, quasi-lucid midnight planning. So, again, I didn't get to the mailbox place, but I did get shaken from a weird dream by my alarm, so waking up became kind of a struggle. I think I do better when I get slightly less sleep than I want. I tend to wake up more energized, but I suspect it's really only a deep, bubbling rage which keeps me motivated on days like that. I decided that I needed a bagel to go with my latte, so I got one. "Everyseed with Sprouts" - I'm such a hippy girl at heart. So I got my Latte and sipped at the tasty foam a bit, added some sugar and everything was great until I put the little plastic sipper top on the cup and took a swig of BLISTERINGLY HOT ESPRESSO. So now my tongue and the roof of my mouth are all raw and burnt. I hate that! Everything else went fairly well, I got to take loads of pictures of the girl-who-has-my-glasses and the chipped-black-nailpolish-to-go-with-the- chip-on-her-shoulder-girl and this other girl, flash-art-ankle-tattoo-girl. I'm in to the challenge of photographing people on the sly. It's a fun game.

Wednesday, 07-05-00
<morning> Wow. I think somebody put a freaky gypsy curse on me or something. Life has been kind of fucked up for me lately. When it rains, it pours. Yesterday was a big holiday of some sort, and the only real hoopla I experienced was when some freak tried to blow up a payphone directly in front of my flat by shoving an M-80 in to the coinslot. Yes, I took pictures of the aftermath. Both of my buses were on time and heinously crowded. A woman on muni was coughing her lungs out, and it made me wonder if you could contract tuberculosis from a busride. There was a kid who had some kind of cheap plastic flute which he periodically blew with all his might, totally setting everyone's teeth on edge. Yay for kids! I almost talked to this woman I keep seeing on the Sausalito bus, she sat next to me and I noticed that she'd dyed her hair fire-engine red, and thought briefly of commenting, but I got all shy and felt stupid once the window of conversational opportunity had passed. I have this totally irrational fear of awkward moments, and I should just get the hell over it. Yeah! I'm so fucking empowered. picturetime picturetime!

Thursday, 07-06-00
<morning> My friend (and faithful kommute reader) Traci pointed out another webcam pointed at the Golden Gate bridge. It's important to view my commute from as many angles as is humanly possible, n'est pas? Quel alésage! Quel perdant! Um. Okay, I admit that I don't really know french. I'm just trying to class it up around this joint. Is that so wrong? July already? Jeez. Time just seems to be slipping by, now that i'm busy all the time. So, today I wound up leaving a little later than I would have liked, and so I got in to work 23 minutes late. I am so Fired. Not really. Though seriously, I would totally fire me, if I were in a position to do so, and if I had my druthers. That's probably a Bad Sign, huh! I love it when a frighteningly crowded bus arrives late, and everyone who's been waiting bumbles aboard that one when only a half block behind is a spacious, gods- country uncrowded coach, just for me! I am so smart! Uh. I got to spend some quality time at HAMSTOP reading my New Yorker and drinking my coffee. The plastic surgery lady was looming around, looking towards me like she was my pal or something, but I was reading about Haiti and couldn't be bothered. Neener neener. When I got on to the Sausalito bus, someone had left behind one of those trashy fashion magazines which is largely devoted to cosmetics, and found out that I am officially a "fashion victim" because I am wearing black nailpolish! GASP! If only I had known, o woe is me.

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