San Francisco Adventures

First and foremost, I am very flattered by the sudden interest in my blog generated by the review of the target dress. However, as most of the year I don't get to do a lot of shopping (which is why I live vicariously through Gigi and other awesome bloggers who review clothes), I can't do a lot of reviews. Although I will occasionally blog about what I'm wearing or what I bought, most of the time I'm either writing about my average life or food I eat or make (or both). Just wanted to get that out of the way before somebody starts making mean comments about how stupid/boring my life is or post "BAIT AND SWITCH!!!"

Moving on.

I'm in San Francisco this week! I drove up from LA on Sunday night/Monday morning. The purpose of this trip is to hang out with some friends I haven't seen in a while and to renew my external Russian passport. My high school friend Forrest goes to Stanford and I make an effort to visit him every summer. (We're both on the quarter system, so our school doesn't start until the end of September.) Jessica and JY are both starting San Jose State this year, so I get to hang out with them as well. I'm currently staying with Forrest, but as he has work until late afternoon I have a lot of time to explore the area. Today I decided to get the Russian consulate errand out of the way.

As you can see from the pictures, the weather was gorgeous. I took a train from Palo Alto to San Francisco and then a bus to the consulate. (I drive a stick, so the prospect of driving and parking in SF definitely deterred me from taking the car. Besides, the public transportation system is so great here, I couldn't resist.) The iPhone told me exactly what train/bus to take, what time each departed and arrived and how much the fare was. The plan was for Forrest to pick me up after work. That is until my iPhone decided to test my ability to survive without it.

I was lounging in a park (that I had found by wandering around the city), enjoying the sun, and listening to Ayn Rand when BAM, it ran out of battery. Let me preface this by saying that I LOVE the iPhone battery life. I think it's one of the best things about it. I could use it for a whole weekend without charging it once. Well, I neglected charging it after the long car trip and navigating through the city using 3G while chatting to people through AIM was what finished it off. I think I may have accidentally left AIM on the whole day. So, just as it was about time to let Forrest know where I was so he could pick me up it died. I had wandered so much into the city that I didn't really know where I was anymore and had no iPhone to light up the little blue dot indicating my location.

That's when the temperature started dropping rapidly and I started seeing people in winter coats and pants while I was wearing a t-shirt, shorts and the Patagonia fleece. (This was a true test of the fleece and let me tell you, it got an A+.) Panic set in when I realized I also had to pee every 20 minutes because I had just downed a cup of coffee (black) and TWO cups of water. I felt weird asking to use the same gas station's bathroom more than once so I kept migrating to different ones. (I was also really hungry so I got a Nature Valley granola bar and it totally reminded me how awesome it is.) I finally called Barry from a payphone, who then called Forrest, told him where I was and Forrest rescued me. I was so cold, I kept jumping in place and doing releves. My calves are actually sore from doing so many.

I got to meet Forrest's friend R who turned out to be really awesome. After eating in SF we got back to Palo Alto where we visited R's home's basement. (A California house with a basement?! I know.) It was fucking bomb. He had this really cool lab set-up with a really nice oscilloscope, various meters, a huge and organized collection of resistors, capacitors and jumper cables. Really impressive.

I had a pretty exciting day: I got lost in the city, almost froze to death, cried while listening to Ayn Rand, got to see the biggest basement I've ever seen in my life and Forrest confessed his love for batteries and lights. I assure you it was more exciting in real life. I guess you had to be there.