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

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Thursday, 12-28-00
<morning> This morning has been kind of serendipitous... I woke up late, and I was pretty much convinced that I would miss the bus, but I got ready in time to make it out the door by about a quarter after eight. I almost took a panic-taxi again, but I've had to do a lot of that lately, and I can't justify the expense. The bus actually came along just in time, and despite my lateness, I made it to HAMSTOP in time to catch the 8:30 bus. Woo, woo. I started feeling really self-satisfied and even did a little "Yesss!" move when I saw the bus heading my way. Booya! How you like me now! Anyhow, the bus was very nearly empty. I sat near the front, in one of the elderly/disabled seats. It afforded the best possible view of the passing scenery and the freakish passengers. Just about the only hitch in my commute this morning was a desperate need for coffee due to the cafe next door to my house being closed for the holidays. I peeked in, and it looks like they're doing some renovations. I have to assume that my coffee buying experience will be further enhanced by these improvements, and that makes this inconvenience worthwhile. Just the same, when I got to San Rafael, I was craving caffeination. I walk past an evil Starbuck's when I head in to work, and I was proudly passing it up to head to the less evil cafe about a block down when I stumbled across Caffe Valeska. It's a very cool place, and it's totally convenient. And it's independent. Kick ass! The sun seems remarkably bright today.

Wednesday, 12-27-00
<morning> Ok, so I went ahead and registered www.kommute.com. I am now a dot commer! Aie! Ok, first of all, the world is a cold, bleak place when the cafe is closed. Stupid holiday! Ruining my caffeination! Oh well. I'm still waking up. It took some effort to get out of bed this morning, my body did not want to sleep at a reasonable hour last night, plus it's freezing. Bjork's voice hassled me out from under my pile of blankets, though, and in to the shower. I think I have to just bite the bullet and get out the door by 8, because lately, when I leave around 8:30, I always miss the bus. Muni never comes, or if it does, it comes late. I wound up walking part of the way to Geary and then grabbing a cab lest I be a half hour late for work. Pff! And here I am, at work, I got in just about on time, and the office is almost empty. Nobody cares! Oh well. I wore a nice warm scarf today, which was wise. Oy vey. I am too tired to try to be witty. Enjoy some photos while I get my coffee.

Friday, 12-22-00
<morning> ho-ho-ho! Etcetera! I woke up from a dream that I had fallen back asleep after my alarm went off, and in that dream, I was observing myself having another dream. Very postmodern. So when the alarm went off and this trip-hop weirdness started up, I woke up feeling guilty and late, but really, I was getting up at the appointed time. Strange beginning to a strange morning. I went and did a bunch of shopping last night because I am a capitalist pig, plagued with consumer guilt. I got up and got ready relatively quickly, listening to the swinging, hepcat sounds of Ursula 1000. I tromped over to the cafe, and everyone was smiling and friendly. I have sort of begun to depend on that warmth and positivity to begin my day on a good note. I will be sad and under-caffeinated next week while they're closed for the holidays. As I was getting my coffee, a guy next to me asked the owner of the cafe whether he was looking forward to a break, and he said "Oh yeah, I'm so ready!" I made a pouty face and said that I didn't know how I would survive next week without them, and he said "Oh, it's ok, i'll just give you the keys and you can do it all self-service!" We joked about automating the whole process, but I said that I thought it wouldn't be any fun, and the guy next to me said that we enjoy their bright shining faces and their charm and personality more than the coffee. Heh. I caught a bus the instant I walked across the street. On the bus I saw my friend Archie riding his bike, I waved but he didn't see me. HAMSTOP was doing some serious business, all these choads were in there buying up many, many HAMS. A mildly retarded guy got on the bus and he started talking to everyone and got really excited when he saw CHP had pulled someone over. He clapped and bounced and said "OH-OH, looks like they caught a SPEEEDERRR!" Everyone got somewhat uncomfortable around him. I hate that. There's a Kennel in San Rafael called "PARK-A-PUP Kennels" and that just strikes me as an ugly name.

Thursday, 12-21-00
<morning> Welcome to the shortest day of the year! I'm listening to a really bizarre, brilliant CD by Terbo Ted, and nursing my aching jaw. I was out yesterday, groaning and drooling, because of further dental anguish. I'll spare you the details, but trust me, i'm suffering. I got a bunch of new shirts to try to impress Christian, and I think I succeeded with this little number. He looked at it and started going on and on about "I was young, I needed the money!" again. The UltrA Happy Guy was all friendly, as usual. I got my coffee and felt kind of self-satisfied about my shirt. When I headed out to MEATSTOP, the skies were dark and gloomy and it was amazingly chilly out. For some reason, cold weather always makes my eyes water, so it looks like i'm crying. I hate that! I try to duck out of the wind but my eyes tear up nonetheless. Muni took a while coming, so I froze a bit. I was sorting through photos on my digital camera when I heard a familiar, hoarse voice holler "KAAAMIO!!!" and I looked up to see Archie riding past on his bike, which is an unusual sight! I ache. My jaw is so sore. Ow ow ow ow. Everybody is slacking in preparation for the holidays, Including me!

Tuesday, 12-19-00
<morning> ×Ö×õ This article , while emotionally manipulative and a little trite, kind of got to me this morning. Those kinds of stories always do. Eccentricity is not rewarded. Anyhow, waking up was a long, drawn out process, thanks to the peaceful, ambient beautiful environmental sounds coming from KUSF this morning. It started with a sort of far-off foghorn combined with crickets and didn't get much more motivational after that. I slept right through about 30 minutes of the stuff. I still haven't completely woken up yet. I headed in to the cafe, and Christian took my order. I took the opportunity to mention having seen him in a magazine (XLR8R) and his response was to shriek and exclaim "I was young, I needed the money, that's all i'm gonna say!" and I cracked up. He's a strange one. I prepared my coffee and turned around to see my bus speeding away, so I trudged over to MEATSTOP and sipped my coffee awhile. My commute pal who tends to jinx my bus-fu with her worry about late buses showed up, and immediately began stressing out about missing the bus - even though there was plenty of time. We always talk exhaustively about lame muni drivers, bad commute experiences and co workers. Pretty shallow conversation. Ain't no thang. I keep seeing this weird, squirrelly little guy on my kommute, and I think he might have tourette's syndrome. He tends to blurt out total nonsense all the time on the bus, today, for instance, he just kind of hollered "YEAH! 2 Dollar BILL! Lost ALL MY money but a 2 dollar BILL!" and fell silent. Umm. And he was carrying a Banjo. There were fishing boats trolling out in the water off of Sausalito, and all these multitudes of pelicans and gulls were getting a free meal. I spotted no less than 9 seals bobbing around, taking advantage of the situation. There are usually very few seals around there, which is strange, since there's a sculpture depicting a big fat patinated harbor seal plopped right there in the water... Curious.

Monday, 12-18-00
<morning> Jeez, late start on the kommute today, it's past 2pm! I woke up to some creepy Scottish music on KUSF, and that was a fairly jarring experience, so my day started off kind of strangely. I felt all warm and happy after my positive interactions with the folks who work in the cafe, they were all smiling at me and being ultra-nice. It's kind of a blustery, crystal-clear day, sunny but kind of cold. I didn't have to spend much time at either MEAT- or HAM-stops, my timing being fairly good for once. My hair is freshly dyed and it's the hot topic of conversations no matter where I am. On the bus in San Rafael, a little kid asked her dad "Why is her hair dyed, WHY would somebody dye their hair?" and his response was "Well maybe because the real color was ugly!" haha! Bus graffiti: Killa HOE 415. When I got in to work, first thing I had to deal with was the fact that my computer had died sometime over the weekend. Somehow, it has been resurrected. Creepy voodoo!

Friday, 12-15-00
<morning> I had excellent kommute-luck this morning! I left pretty early and I was kind of low on cash, dig, but then when I groped around in my bag, I found enough change to buy myself my morning kommute coffee. Phew. Crisis averted! I headed over to MEATSTOP, and was relieved to see Muni heading towards me. I was feeling pretty good, drinking my coffee and taking photos, when a big black SUV pulls up, with a smiling, waving woman in the driver's seat. It was yet another cow orker offering me a ride! WORD! So... I got in to work at eight-freaking-thirty today. It's remarkably peaceful at that hour, and it makes me envy people with cars. 20 minutes! twenty! as opposed to an hour and a half. Again, I am weeping. So I rode in the back of this big old SUV with this woman I work with and her mom, trying to be ultra-civil and friendly and together regardless of my spaced-out morning demeanor. It rained a whole lot yesterday, especially while I was heading home. Today everything is cold and crisp and clear. I just found the Coolest Web Site with photos of SF graffiti! Woo!

Thursday, 12-14-00
<morning> I woke up about 30 minutes late due to exhaustion and earplugs, but I still managed to haul ass out the door by 8. I am über kommuter! The german word for commuter is apparently "Pendler", which isn't as cool as the french, "banlieusard", or the italian, "abbonato" or the spanish "viajero". Hmm. So I schlepped my butt out the door and I even managed to remember to bring my overdue videos to drop in to the kozmo.com return box. DOT COMMER! There was high hilarity going on in the cafe, the kind of good-natured ribbing and banter which seems like it might be on the verge of really offending someone. Weird! I was sort of still waking up, so it didn't make any sense to me. When I left the cafe, my bus pulled up right away, and I ran up just in time. I had a good 20 minute wait at HAMSTOP. I watched this totally suburban middle-class white kid tag the bus shelter, and noticed this other kid I'd seen tagging Muni a few days ago watching him also. Our eyes met briefly and we both sort of smirked. I'm totally down. It's kind of cold, still, cloudy and damp. It seems on the verge of rain. I like this kind of weather a lot. It makes me want to drink brandy, though I hate brandy. I overheard a woman having a conversation with the driver, and it went something like this: "See, now, that's the beauty of living in New Jersey! You have the Lincoln tunnel, and the George Washington bridge. The George Washington bridge is just like the Golden Gate bridge, basically." - Uh? I've been across both bridges, and the GW doesn't even compare with the Golden Gate. She must be huffing Raid or something.

Wednesday, 12-13-00
<morning> I woke up gloriously late at 7:30 this morning because I had an appointment to get my teeth cleaned. I made it to the dentist at roughly the appointed time, and they did all kinds of gnarly cleaning type stuff to my mouth, and made me say three hail marys. I've been naughty. I am a dental sinner. Anyhow, it didn't take too long, but while I was paying, I saw my bus go hurtling past, and I knew I was going to have to wait for a half hour for the next one, so I trudged up to the next stop and settled down with my book (PIMP by Iceberg Slim) and then, shortly thereafter, I realized that the whole bus shelter smelled very strongly like old vomit. Um, yuck? So I moved away from the smell and leaned against a pole for a little bit. A car pulled up right in front of me, and I couldn't really clearly see the driver, but I could see that he was waving emphatically at me. I leaned down and peered in to see... My cow orker! Offering me a ride! Woo! So I hopped in and we sped down Geary listening to some pretty cool techno. As we pulled up to the Golden Gate Bridge, I whipped out my camera and started snapping photos. I told him I took a photo of the bridge every day, and he asked me how many photos of the bridge I've got, all together. Made me stop and think a little bit, and I think I might have to go through and count sometime. But not now. I should probably get to work. The whole trip took about 20 minutes. Yeeesh. 20 minutes! As opposed to an hour on the bus. So, while I did wind up coming in later than I should, I made it in earlier than I would have. like, an hour earlier. Kickass. It rained a little when we pulled in to San Rafael, but not too much. In the news: People keep dying as a result of buses. Pedestrians are endangered. Oh yeah, Matt Gonzalez won District 5! yay!

Tuesday, 12-12-00
<morning> Today is another election day! The Run-off for SF District Supervisors! What's with all the political indecision in America today!? Jeez! Oh well. I didn't vote this morning, I figure I can wait until after work to do my good deed and all that. I left a little later than I generally prefer to, I was just moving really slowly this morning, so I left at about 8:20, giving myself plenty of time to get coffee and catch my bus. OR SO I THOUGHT. My weird kommute pal came along after about 10 minutes, the woman with whom I had such terrible misadventures last week, and she started in right away on the "We're gonna be late again! This time we're taking that cab!" speech. Haha. I think she jinxes my kommute luck, because sure enough, Muni was nowhere in sight. We wound up taking a cab with another woman, this creepy girl with thick thick makeup. The cab driver told us about having to take a pregnant woman to the hospital, since he didn't want to have to be the driver in one of those "miraculous taxi birth" stories. What a jerk! Not really. He was friendly enough. We got to HAMSTOP in plenty of time to catch the bus. Pff. All that worry for nothing. Better safe than late, I guess. It's all wet and clean out, but bitterly cold. Of course i'm wearing a short skirt. Smaaart. You need to go see Hat Bat Louie, in case you haven't already. Ok! um!

Monday, 12-11-00
<morning> Friday was Root Canal day. It took forever and it wasn't very much fun. I stayed home and nursed my aching jaw for a while instead of coming in and being out of it at work. Saturday night was the office christmas party (o lordy) and stuff. I left my camera here after the party, doi doi. Today I'm including photos from last week and some of my Wrist Camera pictures to make up for my lazy, forgetful nature of late. So, today I woke up at 6:30, way before my alarm was set to go off. I don't know why, but I went ahead and got up, stumbled around a little and got out of the house before 8. Ultra Happy Guy was in the cafe, and I wore my Mighty Mouse shirt so he got all excited and did a little dance and everything. He said "Good morning Kaaamio, How are you doing?" so I guess he remembered my name. He asked me where I work, and I told him "San Rafael. That's why I have to wake up so early." People always look at me with this sort of pity when I tell them how long my kommute is. Buhhh. I pity me, too. Boo, hoo! I watched a little 12 year old kid do some tagging on Muni, it was kind of cute how cautious he was about it, tucking his pen in to his backpack really carefully. I took a photo of him when I got to HAMSTOP. I saw an interesting note written on label stickers stuck on to the bus shelter at Lucky Drive: "To my Dearest 8 7 6., I can be found at the local Denny's." I missed the last sticker, but I'll be sure to write that down tomorrow morning. A bunch of really loud, unruly teenager types got on the bus and they were all being offensive and tough and then they all started reading aloud from their Horoscopes. One kid said "Listen! Listen to this: 'Love intensifies...' I like that. Love Intensifies. Yeeeeah." People are funny!

Thursday, 12-07-00
<morning> Bleah! No photos today. I wound up leaving the house at 8:20, allowing plenty of time to get to HAMSTOP in time for the 9:00 bus. I took my time in the cafe, since I watched a bus pass by MEATSTOP when I headed out the door, I chatted for a bit longer than usual with the guys who work there. The Ultra Happy Guy asked if my name was Kamio again, and he seemed to be working fairly hard at remembering it for some reason. Strange! So, I meandered over to MEATSTOP, and this woman I used to see all the time waiting for the Sausalito bus was there, waving and smiling at me, so we struck up a conversation. We talked for about 10 minutes, and started to worry that the bus might be late, which it was. We flagged down a cab, and as we were heading towards it, we noticed our bus was a few blocks down, and we wavered, and ended up deciding to take our chances with Muni. The cab driver cursed and swore at us for a while and then sped off like a big spaz. I should mention that there was a meat delivery guy tossing huge boxes and bags of meat out of a refrigerated truck and on to the pavement during my entire stay at MEATSTOP. GUH. So Muni pulls up and it's totally packed, so this woman and I waited for the second bus, and we sat next to each other and talked. She told me all about her son who's in college, dying his hair and getting piercings and drinking and carousing. I always feel a little bit weird when people I don't know very well start telling me really embarrassing, private information, so I mostly just smiled and nodded a lot. When we got to HAMSTOP, it was immediately apparent that we'd missed the bus. I settled down and read a little bit, and talked to the woman some more, which made it pretty much impossible to take any photos. It was really, really cold again. Once the bus did get there, I saw a bunch of folks from my old commute. When I got off the bus in San Rafael, the driver asked if i'd gotten a new job, and I said no, just a new location. Let's hear it for my stupid 2-hour kommute!

Wednesday, 12-06-00
<morning> Ho jeez man, is it ever freezing out! I need to get a scarf or something, like a hoodie. Brrr! I woke up kind of late, I forgot to set my alarm back to the normal time I should be waking up, so I woke up after 7, all confused. I had all this trouble getting ready, but I managed to get dressed and out the door relatively quickly, in time to catch the bus. The Happy Loopy guy took my order, and he started to hoot something along the lines of "Yay, Mighty Mouse!!" but it sort of came out as an unintelligible mumble. I just smiled and said "Mighty Mouse! Woo! Go team! Heh-heh" and he smirked and said something else I couldn't make out, something about being tired. I can totally relate. I didn't experience any fearsome mounds of decaying meat today, so it was, in the words of Ice Cube, "A good day". Muni was uneventful, copacetic. I didn't have long to wait at HAMSTOP, either, my timing today was fairly lucky. There's this one weird little guy who I see a lot on my morning kommute, he's kind of weaselly and creepy. He always looks at me really pointedly, so I tend to curb my photography when he's around. He talks to himself, or at least he talks to nobody in particular a lot of the time. It must be fun to be kind of crazy, just to be unhinged, like, balls-out freaky weird. I mean, some of the time. I don't know. I spent most of the remaining kommute devouring chapters of All Tomorrow's Parties, ignoring everything else. Glorious link of the day: an article about the Billboard Liberation Front. Viva Revolucion!

Tuesday, 12-05-00
<morning> It's a crisp autumn day. Invigorating or something. I got to sleep rather late last night, around 2:00 a.m. for crying out loud... I set my alarm for 7:15, about a half hour later than most days. I awoke from a strange dream involving graffiti and plywood to the sounds of static and prog rock. It took some very serious effort to roll my butt out of bed, but I pushed myself and struggled with the banal intricacies of my morning routine. I found that I was actually vaguely excited by the prospect of trying out a new shampoo I bought. How sad is that! Well, whatever gets you out of bed in the morning. I went in to the cafe and Christian started singing the Mighty Mouse song (sort of butchered it, really) and all I could do in response is giggle inanely. I snuck a photo of him. When I went to MEATSTOP, I was treated to a very special ritual. This big wretched reeking garbage truck pulled up in front of the stop, and this very dour looking man got out, lowered the garbage arm thing, and wandered in to the meat market with a dolly. He returned with garbage cans full of slightly rotten offal! I can't begin to describe the photographic joy I experienced when I saw this beautiful scene laid out before me. CLICK CLICK CLICK. The guy actually noticed me taking his photo, and he looked at me in a mildly irritated, all-suffering way, and I smiled, as if to say "Yeah, buddy, you caught me." HAMSTOP was a total letdown after that, let me tell you. The rest of my journey was pleasant and timely. One thing about San Rafael is that it smells really great lately. It's a lot cooler and more nipply than the city, and there are brilliantly colored leaves all over the place.

Monday, 12-04-00
<morning> I was having a real cliffhanger of a dream when my alarm went off, I was interrogating someone and they were about to give me some really juicy information. So I woke up vaguely annoyed and probably won't be able to shake that feeling for a while. I left the house a little later than I usually do, deciding I might just as well take the next San Rafael bus. I had to go to the Creepy Swipe ATM machine to get cash for my coffee, which slowed me down considerably. The super-happy guy took my order again, but he was much more subdued, he didn't spaz out or holler "Mighty Mouse!" so I figured that he must be sick, or something, so I gave him a big tip. I was feeling kind of headachey (still am) when I headed out this morning, and I thought perhaps it was a lack of caffeine, but 2 coffees later, i'm still achey. I had best not be getting one of the evil colds or flus making the rounds at my house and office. I got to spend some quality time at my beloved HAMSTOP, reading and observing the goings-on. The bus came a little bit early and I just got on and sort of spaced out for the whole ride, wishing my headache away like that kid in Mask. By the way, look at what washed out to sea over the weekend. Tragic! Comic!

Friday, 12-01-00
<morning> Wow, December. Already. What a weird year! Some freak sent me to this image, and it is to laugh. It's a gorgeous, weird-lighting kind of a day. Milky light, very diffuse. It's also very calm and windless, so the water was as smooth as glass around Sausalito. I got up a bit later than yesterday, having gotten to bed rather later than usual last night, but I slept soundly and waking up wasn't too difficult. Staying awake is another thing. I got ready in time to leave just after 8:00, and I swept through the cafe, chatted with Cheerful Happy Guy - I wore my Mighty Mouse shirt today, so he got to do the clapping and shrieking "Mighty Mouse!!!" thing, and asked again what my name was - and filled my cup with Sumatra really quickly, just in time to make the next bus. Efficiency is my middle name. Or something. Muni was muni, but not too crowded. My ginchy friend niffer has a cute name for the Divisadero bus line, the 24, she calls it the "Twenty-Forever" hawhaw. Dissing Muni is almost too easy. The girl, Tiffany, who borrowed 35¢ from me a couple of weeks back walked right up to me at HAMSTOP, and said "Kamio, right? I wanted to repay you for the quarter or whatever you loaned me." and I said "Oh, no, don't worry, it's no big deal," but she was crouched there rummaging through her purse, while we chatted about working in Sausalito, commuting, the weather. Same stuff most commuters seem to talk about, I guess. She didn't have any change to give me, as it turned out, but I snapped a pretty good photo of her. She looked up just after i'd taken one, and I kind of felt weird but she didn't react. My foot is killing me, walking is a real pain. I got off at a different stop today, and I went to a cafe nearby and got myself a tasty big Latte. I earned my treat!

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