M.U.N.I
Go to your nearest Cathedral. Ring some bells. Because I'm posting again after an absence of forever.
A few updates.
I'm now living in San Francisco, with roommates Rebekah and Josh, going to the City College of San Francisco with about 30,000 other people. I don't even remember if I've already posted any of this, it's been so long. This is my first semester at the college; I was supposed to start last semester but I fucked up and couldn't get any classes, so I ended up just working full time at the Barnes & Noble on Fisherman's Wharf (incidentally, an hour and a half commute away from my apartment). I think the most novel and potentially heartbreaking part about living in SF (aside from the obvious fact that I'm living away from my parents for the first time) is public transportation.
Let me explain.
Back in Los Angeles and the outlying areas, cars are life. I don't know if it's any different for the rest of you out there, but the degree to which most southern Californians depend on cars is amusing/tragic. We drive to the market. We drive to our friends. We drive to school, to work, to the gas station. Fine, I'll give you the last one, but I'm sure there have been (though I can't clearly remember) times when we've driven a block down the street to visit a neighbor. The problem with San Francisco is that the streets were not designed for cars. If you look at a map of the city, Market Street divides the city in a diagonal. Everything North of Market is planned one way- the streets are parallel, blocks are of certain lengths, etc. Everything South of Market is planned on an entirely different scale, which means if you're NoMa trying to get somewhere to SoMa, you're basically faced with the wall that is Main Street USA on some quality San Francisco Acid. Once you hit Market street and there are 6 different cross streets at one intersection and you can only make a left turn on one of them but you desperately need to go right but that street is at an acute angle to you and besides it's only one way and oh shit there's a guy on crack is standing in the middle of Market screaming at cable cars and you really want to break down in tears or look at a map of something but there's absolutely no place to pull over and that is San Francisco driving. "We built this city on Rock and Roll? Hell, I believe the city may have been built on mescaline.
The two times I've taken my car up to the Bay area have been unprecedented disasters. So I leave the car in LA and take Public transportation, which at least have the benefit of having clearly defined routes and being steered by people who know where they're going. Unfortunately, the idea of having to depend on a grumpy and possibly deranged public servant who, in spite of driving his bus like a drunken cheetah, is still always 15 minutes late, is a concept I still haven't fully grasped. If I'm five minutes late getting out the door, I miss the bus. The next one comes in 20 minutes, and takes me to a place where the next train comes in 10 minutes (since I've missed the last one by 15) and somehow through a complicated conspiracy on the part of the creepy folk at MUNI, though I was only 5 short minutes late getting out of my house I'm now at least 45 minutes late to where I want to be. But really, I shouldn't be complaining- I can have unlimited travel in the city for a mere 45 dollars a month, compared to the 80 dollars a week I'd spend on gas. Oh, the high life we live in the Bay City
A few updates.
I'm now living in San Francisco, with roommates Rebekah and Josh, going to the City College of San Francisco with about 30,000 other people. I don't even remember if I've already posted any of this, it's been so long. This is my first semester at the college; I was supposed to start last semester but I fucked up and couldn't get any classes, so I ended up just working full time at the Barnes & Noble on Fisherman's Wharf (incidentally, an hour and a half commute away from my apartment). I think the most novel and potentially heartbreaking part about living in SF (aside from the obvious fact that I'm living away from my parents for the first time) is public transportation.
Let me explain.
Back in Los Angeles and the outlying areas, cars are life. I don't know if it's any different for the rest of you out there, but the degree to which most southern Californians depend on cars is amusing/tragic. We drive to the market. We drive to our friends. We drive to school, to work, to the gas station. Fine, I'll give you the last one, but I'm sure there have been (though I can't clearly remember) times when we've driven a block down the street to visit a neighbor. The problem with San Francisco is that the streets were not designed for cars. If you look at a map of the city, Market Street divides the city in a diagonal. Everything North of Market is planned one way- the streets are parallel, blocks are of certain lengths, etc. Everything South of Market is planned on an entirely different scale, which means if you're NoMa trying to get somewhere to SoMa, you're basically faced with the wall that is Main Street USA on some quality San Francisco Acid. Once you hit Market street and there are 6 different cross streets at one intersection and you can only make a left turn on one of them but you desperately need to go right but that street is at an acute angle to you and besides it's only one way and oh shit there's a guy on crack is standing in the middle of Market screaming at cable cars and you really want to break down in tears or look at a map of something but there's absolutely no place to pull over and that is San Francisco driving. "We built this city on Rock and Roll? Hell, I believe the city may have been built on mescaline.
The two times I've taken my car up to the Bay area have been unprecedented disasters. So I leave the car in LA and take Public transportation, which at least have the benefit of having clearly defined routes and being steered by people who know where they're going. Unfortunately, the idea of having to depend on a grumpy and possibly deranged public servant who, in spite of driving his bus like a drunken cheetah, is still always 15 minutes late, is a concept I still haven't fully grasped. If I'm five minutes late getting out the door, I miss the bus. The next one comes in 20 minutes, and takes me to a place where the next train comes in 10 minutes (since I've missed the last one by 15) and somehow through a complicated conspiracy on the part of the creepy folk at MUNI, though I was only 5 short minutes late getting out of my house I'm now at least 45 minutes late to where I want to be. But really, I shouldn't be complaining- I can have unlimited travel in the city for a mere 45 dollars a month, compared to the 80 dollars a week I'd spend on gas. Oh, the high life we live in the Bay City