Stairs Hamper Bike Riding

I was at my friend’s apartment when her roommate came home and wanted to make us dinner.  However, later while talking to her we decided to go to Hayes Valley for dinner because I wanted to see a movie. We had debated where to go and settled on Van Ness because of the time.  My friend was really tired I had to work to get her go.  We were talking to my friend when we decided it was time to go.

We rode Octavia to Page and Charlie suggested Straw Carnival Fair.  We wanted to sit inside but some people took the last table so he sat next to our bikes outside.  We ordered kale and corn on the cob.  I didn't want much to drink.  The owner served us our food and it was good.  However, the service was lacking.  He had let an employee go the day before and was super tired from training new people.

We talked to him for a while.  He had opened five years before and he told us he had learned a lot.  We talked about how SF Park was organized.  I thought that I would talk about my sad relationships with them but instead I discussed organizational politics in the more progressive sectors of city government and non-profits.  When the host came back out to give us our bill it was for the wrong table.

Later we discovered one of the neighbor’s keys opened her garage and we locked up there.  Inside I played with the cat but he was on to us and tried to keep us there.  We spent a bit of time on the couch with him but eventually we got the bike and went to Jefferson Park.  We had to figure out how to get through because the stairs hamper bike riding.  At the park lot we learned that they were open super late.  We walked upstairs talking about organizations.  I wanted to say that smaller organizations are the key to helping the city develop better bicycle infrastructure

We saw American Ultra. I thought that it would be funny but it turned out it was really violent too.  Later my friend said she had gender and race issues with it too.  One advertisement at the beginning of the movie was the “Don't ruin the movie” campaign.  My friend thought it was really violent but later she said she really likes action movies.  We decided to go to Polk and look around.  We settled on Amsterdam.  When we came in I asked the bartender where his clientele had gone and he said Burning Man.

I noted that I had that I had been there before.  We got into a conversation about how sometimes an author embodies the very thing they write about.  Later a regular came in and he bought us beer.  He was on a real rager and the bartender noted that that was normal.  I tried I tried to make certain that we didn't drink too much.  I went to bed late that night.

In the morning of the day that I wrote this I was up at 9:30 and left my friend’s house at 10:30.  We were going to catch the ferry.  My friend’s roommate, on the way out, said that he might want to accompany us to Marin.  We told him to meet us at the Ferry Building.  Then we rode to Patricia's Green.  I decided to follow her to the neighbor’s place to feed the cat.  Then we went to blue bottle and some lady named wanted to take pictures of my friend because she was wearing a vintage outfit.  She also saw someone that she knew but she didn't remember his name.

We rode Market to the Ferry.  The roommate didn't show up.  We boarded and had food on the boat. We wanted to sit in the back, but we decided go inside of the boat. We talked to some lady from England about her cargo bike and how she was going camping with her son. We saw other cyclists on board.  I noticed that the stewards had trouble docking.  We checked my friend’s rear wheel at the ticket booth and then we started through Cal Park tunnel.

We stopped in San Rafael.  We looked at a consignment shop but I found that the shirts were too small.  Then we went to the bookstore where I bought a notebook and cached my iPod. We got a bit lost on the bike path out of San Rafael but I found us another route.  We had stopped at Wells Fargo.  It stopped halfway up the path out of Millers Creek and then we tried a new way through to Novato on Redwood Boulevard.  The road became a bike path at the hillcrest. We ate crackers there.

We rode into downtown Novato and got a schedule for the buses.  Then we went to Peet's and had some snacks before heading to Olompali State Park.  We got passed by three cyclists and in general it was a really pleasant trip.  At San Antonio we had a lot of choices to make.  We had stopped to rest at the Korean church once we left the park.  A little later we were at I street and had a second rest.  This was around where we learned that San Antonio was a bike detour.  I noted that we should look into it.  The traffic was crap at I street but D was great even after being passed by several cars.

We ended up at a park in Petaluma where I walked around the place alone for a bit.  After that we rode to the waterfront and through the downtown.  We parked in a bike rack and went to the Chicago pizza place.  Then we walked around the town and returned to eat.  The deep dish pizza was good and the service was alright.  Later we went to Kentucky Street and visited Maguire’s bar—the one we wanted was closed.  My friend got into an argument with a patron but it was alright.  I had intended to leave on a later bus but after a couple of drinks we decided to find the Transit Center.  There we were concerned about the number of bikes on the bus, but we ended up boarding fine.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.