Kommute Archives for November, 2000
Archival Kwality Kommute Entries. Read through these to catch up, or waste time, or whatever!
And for the kommute, we give thanks.

[ May 01 ] - [ April 01 ] - [ March 01 ] - [ February 01 ] - [ January 01 ]
[ December 00 ] - [ November 00 ] - [ October 00 ] - [ August 00 ]
[ July 00 ] - [ June 00 ] - [ May 00 ] - [ April 00 ] - [ Feb/March 00 ]

--- email for kamio ---
[ present ]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ map ]

Thursday, 11-30-00
<morning> I left the house plenty early, and I headed in to the cafe. Christian was working with the super-effervescent guy were working together and Christian took my order (large coffee and a croissant) and happy guy came rolling out of the kitchen clapping his hands and saying "Mighty Mouse Girl! Yay! Mighty Mouse Girl!" and I laughed and clapped along with him until he asked "So, like, What's your real name, so I don't have to call you Mighty Mouse Girl forever?" and I told him, and he hollered "Kaaamioooo!" and clapped some more. It was sort of bizarre! I tried taking a photo of happy guy and Christian, and it came out all blurry and scary. See below. Ah so it's a very cold, very wintry kind of grey foggy day. It's kind of moody and beautiful. The bus was on time today, and everything went swimmingly. I spent most of the journey reading All Tomorrow's Parties by William Gibson, which I am enjoying a lot. Gotta wrap this up, today is a day of workworkwork meetingmeetingmeeting.

Wednesday, 11-29-00
<morning> Bagel day. O glorious free bagels. Uh. I left early and even remembered to bring an umbrella and the videos I had to return! Super me! I went in to the cafe, and was served by the same smiling eager guy who was so pleasant on Monday. He said "Hi! Hi! Yay! It's the Mighty Mouse girl!" and I looked at him kind of weird, and he continued, "You're never going to live that one down, huh, you'll always be 'the Mighty Mouse girl' in my mind! Ha hahaha!" I came back with "Well, I guess there are worse things to be known for, huh?" - I am the World's Greatest Wit. I need a smaller umbrella, one I can tuck in to my bag. My huge golfsize umbrella is difficult to juggle with coffee, my camera and a bus pass. I suffer for my art! I missed a bus while I was waiting for some elderly chucklehead to dispense his Sumatra, and I was feeling disheartened when I went to cross the street but luckily there was another bus coming. I got to HAMSTOP with plenty of time to spare before the 50 came, so I finished my coffee and counted out my change and photographed some commuters while I waited. And waited. AND WAITED. Just when I thought that the bus wasn't coming along at all and I was cursing and fuming, it came trundling along. Pffff. One of my cow orkers got on a few stops after me, and we didn't even wave at each other or otherwise acknowledge each other until we reached Sausalito and he started bapping me in the back of the head with his umbrella. I responded by not moving or looking at him, just kind of whining "Quiddit, ow, hey, knock it off" and making all the people around me giggle. I decided to take a connecting bus from the depot in San Rafael to a slightly closer bus stop to spare my poor, blistered foot. The driver of the connecting bus was a real hoot, and when I asked to get off at the next stop, he said "Aw, damn, you mean I can't keep you? That's a shame."

Tuesday, 11-28-00
<morning> I got out the door at just about the right time today. I went in to the cafe and Christian had this totally astonishing oldschool-looking star wars shirt on, and so I voiced my approval, and he told me that it was a new shirt but he washed it with a little bit of bleach to make it look old, and I had to admit that I was impressed. He looked at my shirt and I could tell that he was expecting something interesting, but I'm just wearing my boring old defcon hand-me-down shirt. It says "I miss crime" on the back, but the front is pretty dull. Oh well. I've got to find some new shirts to impress Christian with, post-haste. I think I might start taking a different bus to work, one that drops me off a little bit closer to the office. I wore new boots lasterday and now I have this huge blister on my right heel that's totally driving me to distraction. The walk from the bus stop isn't too long, but it's long enough to cause me to consider different footwear. I love my clunky boots though! I brought in a bunch of magnetic poetry words, a random smattering from different sets, and I immediately started making little phrases all over my metal office furniture. On one of my shelves, it says "you are so fired". I keep getting admonitions for using that phrase too much around work, so I figure i'll make it part of my cube-sonality. I got a free Krispey Kreme donut since I came in early! woo! In a couple of minutes, my department is taking a prospective new hire out to breakfast, too. My body is going to freak out from all this 'nutrition' early in the day.

Monday, 11-27-00
<morning> O I am so late. Tsk, tsk. I was beset by insomnia last night, so I only managed to sleep for about 2 hours. I call a personal holiday! Oops, none for me. I called up my boss and let her know i'd be late, so at least i'm not a terrible slacker. This new longer kommute is kind of hard on me. I ran in to the cafe to satisfy my need for caffeine, and a new guy was working there, he was eager and smiling and complimented my shirt, but I wasn't entirely up to speed and found conversation difficult. It's a grey hazy day, the kind I like. It actually feels like autumn, the leaves are changing colors and everything. Glee! I chugged my coffee pretty quickly while waiting around at MEATSTOP, which woke me up enough to be able to handle Muni. Muni wasn't such a big deal, it wasn't even crowded or anything. I've been spending less and less time at Glorious HAMSTOP lately, so I have to be really photographically aggressive while I am there. When my bus pulled up, it was completely empty! Just me, the driver, and this goofy old hippy who got on with me. Nobody else got on until we got to the bridge, either. There was a little speck of sunshine just over the bridge, but once we descended in to Sausalito, it was pea soup fog all the way to San Rafael. I'm barely awake. Poor me!

Tuesday, 11-21-00
<morning> Holy mother of cheese! I got up way too early. 6:20 a.m.! Before my alarm went off, even. Wow. It was still pretty dark when I got up. One hitch in today's kommute: I left my digital camera here at work, hooked up to my computer. I'm so sorry! Oh well, it's okay, I don't really have time to deal with processing all those darned images anyhow. Everything is still kind of crazy with the move and everything. When I went to buy my coffee and a deviant muffin, Christian took my order and he was wearing this stunning D.A.R.E. shirt. When I complimented him on it, he looked at my shirt for a moment and said "Your shirt is... kind of cool, too." Heh. I guess I'll need to try harder to impress the folks at the cafe. When I was leaving, one of the girls who works there said "Hey! Have a great day, okay?" and I was kind of surprised, she's the one who always seems so spiteful and surly. Heh. I wished her a nice day and headed over to MEATSTOP. It just isn't quite the same when the Meat Market is closed. Muni was timely and not terribly crowded. There was a group of schoolkids on the bus arguing about one of their classmates, trying to determine whether his name was Oscar, or Roscoe. It got kind of heated, until one of the kids said "Well, whatever, he's short! Short and chunky!" - Go figure. When I got to HAMSTOP at about a quarter after 8, I was surprised to see that the HAMSTORE was open and doing brisk business. They're not supposed to open until 10! WTF! Oh, and my ear is much better. I headed straight from work to the piercists at Gotham and they strapped me down and horked out the too-small rings which were strangulating my ear and stuck in some nice roomy 1/2" titanium rings with loverly Amethyst beads. It was a painful process but totally worth it, I feel much better today! I spent most of my kommute reading today, and scribbling in my journal. Some graffiti I saw today: ANTi YOU! FUNK.

Monday, 11-20-00
<morning> Day 1 of the New Kommute. It takes about an extra 20-30 minutes to get here in the morning, as I had suspected it might. Not a terrible kommute at all. I take the same bus, as a matter of fact, so I don't have to think real hard about the first half of the trip. I got up and out of the house plenty early and I got my tasty coffee right quick and stuff. I left extra early after all of the brouhaha last week with Muni being all the time late and everything. The bus came along after only about 20 MEATSTOP minutes. I got to see some new scenery past Sausalito, though it really gets a lot uglier after that. I did get to see San Quentin, an imposing structure out in the water a pretty good distance. I got off about 4-5 blocks away from the new office, crossed the street and heard someone hollering my name. I spun around and saw one of my cow orkers waving at me, asking if I wanted a ride! Go figure! So I didn't really even have to walk like, at all. Buh! I don't have much to add, really, my ear is all screwed up from some piercing-related complications, and it's making me miserable. I have a bunch of work to do, too, and i'm trying to adjust to working in a CUBICLE. aie!

Wednesday, 11-15-00
<morning> Today is apparently the day when everyone wants to talk to me. I must seem ultra-approachable or something, because people were chatting with me at every turn. While I was getting ready this morning, happily singing along with the Magnetic Fields, a cat (Bela) came scrambling in my window, squirming around on top of my monitor, which was mighty startling. Screwed up my eyeliner, it did! I pet Bela for a while and I got out the door. I got my coffee without much difficulty. While I was trying to surreptitiously photograph some folks at MEATSTOP, this woman I was photographing (see below) said something, and I totally thought I was busted for taking her picture. I looked up sheepishly, and she repeated herself, "They were waving at you. The people in that van, the black van, they were waving at you." I just looked confused, which I genuinely was, and she smiled and laughed. Weird! So I have no idea whether someone was waving at me or not. Ha-ha! When muni showed up, it was insanely crowded. I was more interested in getting to HAMSTOP in time to catch my connecting bus than being comfortable, so I jumped on, since there was no second bus coming along behind it. It was madness. At least all the people I was mashed up against smelled really nice. Once I got to HAMSTOP, this one girl I see all the time on the Sausalito bus came up and asked if I had change for a dollar. I rummaged around and produced 3 quarters and 3 nickels and some pennies. I told her I still needed some change for myself, and just gave her the 35 cents she needed. She introduced herself as Tiffany, and said "I see you like, everyday, but we've never spoken before. We talked a little more about buses and commuting and stuff, and then I sort of wandered off. I was busily trying to get photos of folks when another woman from the Sausalito bus came up and started talking to me! What is up with that! She wanted to talk about work and life and getting new eyeglasses... Sheesh! When I was getting off of the bus at my stop in Sausalito, the driver said "Well, here we are again!" and I kind of smiled and said something like "Yeah, back in to the fray, heh-heh" and he said something about the weather and how cold it is, and stuff. The other day, he started asking all kinds of questions, asking where I work, how long i've worked there, etc. Getting mighty personal there, pal!

Tuesday, 11-14-00
<morning> It's totally polar and freezing and cold today. Yick. I got up early and left the house in time to catch the early bus and everything but then, I made the mistake of depending on Muni. Bastards. I have to say that there are times I wish I didn't have to rely on buses. There were several visually interesting people hanging around with me at MEATSTOP, so I had something to look at while I waited twenty-five(25) minutes for Muni to come along. 25!? Sheesh. When the bus did finally come along, there was one overfull bus in front, and a less full bus following about a block behind. The first one wouldn't even let us anywhere near it, stopping about halfway up the block. It was getting pretty late, but I figured I would be able to make my connection. So, since there were two buses so close together, the one I was on lingered at the stoplight at Geary while the first bus expelled its passengers, and sure enough, the light changed and I watched my bus come and go, powerless to alter my fate. A fate of 30 freaking minutes of sitting at HAMSTOP, freezing my ass off. Grrrr! Damn you Muni! The Golden Gate Transit people switched drivers on me again, damn their black hearts. I sat in the gimp seats way up in the front of the bus for a change, and I got some decent photos from that vantage point. Sausalito is even colder than San Francisco, which is a switch. So yeah. It's a cold, yucky day and I'm feeling overwhelmed and pissed off. Definitely time for more coffee! My boss keeps saying "If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten. Hahaha. I like that! Have them beaten! How applicable is that! Hahaha!" That about sums it all up, for me.

Monday, 11-13-00
<morning> Feeling a little less crummy after a totally un-spectacular weekend of tv, sleep and beverages. I slept in a little bit late today, an hour later than I wanted to, but it was a calculated risk. I still got in by 10, and that's plenty early. I'm trying to gear up for the big new long kommute which begins next Monday, when i'll be riding all the way up to San Rafael. Sigh. It's super cold out, and there's a serious threat of rain. I left the house totally clueless to the possibility of rain, and will probably end up damp and grumpy at some point later today. I barely got to spend any time at my beloved HAMSTOP today because the Sausalito bus was early. Early buses both please and worry me. As a Nader voter, I have to point and laugh at the whole election process thing, and this is pretty funny. Meanwhile, don't look at this picture if you are under 18 or at work, on account of it's got naughty bits in it. I'm getting all geared up for November 24th, Buy Nothing Day, reading articles and brewing discontent. Glee. I just want to be a big freaky anarchist so badly! Raaaar. Too bad I am so lazy and american. Well, it's started to rain. I am going to be drumpy and gamp if I go get lunch now, huh! I think I will wait until it is less rainy to go get lunch. Funny Graffiti from the bus today: "Qu is gay - Sucking cok is his 4-tay." Just, like, keep that in mind.

Friday, 11-10-00
<morning> I feel awful awful today. Still. I didn't come in yesterday. NoKommute. Sorry about that, kids! I'm feeling all crappy and there are all these things I should be doing but damnit, you guys need the kommute. By the way, go download the new, swanky November Desktop Calendar I designed for you. A little late, but better late than never, huh? It's freezingly cold out, and I feel like I'm getting sicker. I had better just give you some pictures and get the hell out of here, do some 'real work', or something. I came in early early. I might also leave early early. Dizzy and confused is not good for work! When I got up this morning, I wasn't sure I was going to make it. When I got up out of bed, I lost my balance and stuff. I've been unbalanced all day, too. I went to the cafe and bought myself a nice big coffee, thinking maybe my insane headache was maybe caffeine-related and when I was trying to buy my coffee, the girl serving me got really friendly and wanted to examine all of the pins on my leather jacket (currently: Lenin, Mile-High club wings, negativland Is Stupid, exclamation mark, vote Nader & LaDuke, a creepy grinning clown face, Hello Kitty, a Butthole from the Butthole Surfers and finally Che Guevara) and that confused me in my weakened, overwrought condition. All they were doing was being really nice and my reaction must have seemed kind of retarded, I just sort of stared back and boggled. Haw! I am goofy when I feel sickly. Fun for the whole family!

Wednesday, 11-08-00 (post-erection day)
<morning> Oh, man. It's looking like we're faced with 4 years of the greater of the two evils. Sigh. Don't blame me, baby, I'm not from Florida! I was almost swayed by my lifelong liberal guilt to vote for Gore, but I am proud of myself for sticking to my principles and voting for Nader. In happier news, the local and state elections went well. I made it to the polls at the very last possible minute and I had to stand in line for about 30 minutes once I got there. It was great to see so many people voting. There are tons of really good looking voters living in my neighborhood, too. Voting always makes me feel so upstanding. This morning seemed a little bleak. The kommute went relatively well, no surprises or upsets. I played about 20 minutes of Monster Rancher, and that soothed me somewhat before I headed out in to the cold, cruel world. I got my coffee, a tasty Hazelbut/Sumatra blend, yumyum, and I wore my Nader pin and I froze my butt in the freezing fog, but I was only out in the elements for a few minutes at MEATSTOP, long enough to wonder about the weird smell around there and photograph some old people. HAMSTOP was even colder, so I huddled in the doorway of the HAMSTORE for some HAMWARMTH until the bus came along. The driver made some kind of comment about "hump-day," but I interrupted him to ask about the aftermath of Monday's exciting accident. He seemed kind of flustered about it, and I made some kind of joke to try to lighten the mood. For some reason, Golden Gate Transit changes their drivers around every 3 months or something, so just when I'm starting to really develop a familiarity with my driver, they switch them out! Damn! The thick, gooey fog that covered San Francisco disappeared around mid-span on the Golden Gate Bridge. Sausalito is too sunny.

Tuesday, 11-07-00 (erection day) VOTE NADER
<morning> I got up late and missed the shower train. I had to wait for the young marrieds to get finished with their unwholesome business in there before I could tend to my hygiene-type duties. I had the foresight to realize that I wasn't going to be able to get in to work at my usual time, so I wrote email to my boss letting her know I would probably be late. I eventually went off to be a good citizen, got my coffee, dropped off my late videos, and headed off in the direction of the polling place. I was surprised to find that the polling place was not there! I mean, what the hell! There was a little sign and a note saying that it had moved about 4 blocks away, and I decided that I didn't really have a whole lot of time to wander around so I didn't vote yet. I'll vote after work. I really really will. I am trying not to hear my yuppie co workers calling Nader a "pot smoking hippy". Politics piss me off. I can't wait to vote! It's a beautiful, sunny, clear day. Everyone is talking politics, and a woman here keeps spouting "A vote for Nader is a vote for Bush!" grrrr. I'm exercising my temperance. At least they vote! I actually have to get to work, chitlins! Oh, and in the headlines: Man Bites Dog.

Monday, 11-06-00
<morning> Monday, monday. I don't really hate mondays. I'm not Garfield-esque. Mondays are just weird because I have a hard time adjusting to a 'normal' schedule again. Last night I had weird dreams about being in a plane crash, or a boat accident, it was kind of unclear which. After the accident, I was teaching people how to read and loaning out books. Most of the books were really old encyclopedias. I am a librarian survivalist! Hmm. San Francisco was under siege yesterday by a buncha no good punks (humor). Can't our elected officials do something about this? I have a couple of important links for you. dancy pants, and icky poo. It's another beautiful day. It's election-day-eve! Stand up, be counted! So, the kommute. I was going to head in to work early, but instead I got interrupted by three things: Laziness(mine), UPS bearing packages(mine) and Monster Rancher. My latest monster was created from Portishead's album "Dummy". Somehow I think that's really amusing. I forgot to drop my Kozmo.com videos in the drop box while I got my coffee. Oops! I *luv* late fees. So I went out to MEATSTOP and I barely had a chance to be a voyeur before three(3) muni buses came pulling up. I chose the second bus. There was a girl sitting near the back of the bus with a stack of christmas presents. I mean, WTF! It's November SIXTH. Pff. I should be kinder, maybe she was retarded. So, HAMSTOP wasn't terribly interesting. I wandered around restlessly for about 10 minutes until the 50 rolled by. We were making pretty good time until we got to this big construction zone just as we entered Sausalito, we rounded this big curve and WHAMMO!, the bus got broadsided by something. It was alarming, and noisy, and inconvenient, but nobody was hurt. The bus was thrashed a bit on the left-hand side, and all the passengers had to get off and get on the 20 heading in the same direction. The driver on the 20 was really goofy and chatty and made bad jokes which reminded me of my uncle, who was also a bus driver! MEIN GOTT! The people who ride the 20 to Sausalito are much more attractive than the average ridership on thr 50. I feel cheated, and sad.

Friday, 11-03-00
<morning> I got really busy the minute I walked in to work today, so this is a late-day kommute entry, just as a warning to you whiners out there, I wasn't being lazy or forgetful, I was working like a maniac. Buh! I kind of got a quasi-promotion of sorts today. They're going to make me work more, basically. I mean, I told them I had to devote much more time to my kommute journal but, for some reason they just didn't understand. Haha! I barely even remember this morning. I put some nader propaganda up around HAMSTOP. Yay! It's been a long day. Enjoy these loverly pictures.

Thursday, 11-02-00
<morning> Dia de los Muertas! For real this time. Also Thursday! Yay! I like Thursdays. I've decided to come in later for the next couple of days, since work is kind of lax for now. No huge looming deadlines, just the usual grind. I went kind of nuts yesterday and bought myself some weirdo hair extensions so I can be a freak. Well, a bigger freak, anyhow. Slow work days are dangerous. Today is shaping up to be pretty slow, too. Uh-oH! The kommute was copacetic, a little dull. I have blisters from wearing my new Doctor Marten's yesterday, so I'm wearing my crappy old boots today. Wow, while I was downloading the photos from today's kommute, I ran out of drive space! Augh! I had 32 k left on a 7 gig drive. What a maroon. I don't have any real insights for today. I do have this amusing story about Halloween candy to pass along. I remember a big scare in my childhood, everyone being warned about freaks putting razorblades in Apples and such, but never anything like this! It's a pretty nice day. Sunshiney. Christian, in the cafe, kept asking if it was summer. He said it was so bright and sunny and everyone was smiling and friendly, and he thought that was weird. I kind of agree! Maybe I'll leave early today. If I can sneak away. I'm not terribly inspired about work. Even more so than usual.

Wednesday, 11-01-00
<morning> A nice clean empty page for a nice clean empty month, I guess. I got up a little bit later than usual, but only about 20 minutes later. Big deal! Even when I slack off, I am still thoroughly responsible! Uh. I dragged my butt out of bed and got ready in time to play a half hour of Monster Rancher. I keep killing off my monsters, it's kind of a demoralizing way to start the day. I grieve for my virtual monsters. So, I went in to my living room and found a crashed out milkypal on our couch. I spent a few minutes talking to him and then headed out to the cafe. When I approached the girl to order my coffee, she looked at me really oddly and unceremoniously handed me a cup before I even had a chance to open my mouth to ask for it, took my money, and stared intently at me as she counted out my change. It was kind of bizarre, the look she gave me was totally unfriendly. I tipped her anyway, haha! That'll teach her! A really friendly woman was ahead of me, and she called me "Baby" and when someone asked how she was, she responded "I'm truly blessed, truly and greatly blessed." - Interesting response! I generally lean towards "Fine", or "I'm ok, thanks". I'm wearing new boots today, brand new Doctor Marten's. They're kind of weird, but they're not uncomfortable or anything, i'm just unfamiliar with them. They have punkrock streetcred. Alexei Sayle sang about them on the Young Ones, that's how cool they are. Damn cool. Uh so, yeah. November is here. Today is All Saints' Day, as well as the Celtic New Year, apparently. It's absolutely starting to feel all crisp and fall-like. Leaves are turning colors. My manager and my director aren't in the office today. Boy do I feel useful! There's like, no work right now. We're in a lull. I hate feeling like I have to look busy. Right now, for instance, I'm not doing a lick of work but I totally look like i'm kicking *ass*.

[ latest entries ]