To Eat or Not to Eat...

Once again I was on BART into the city for another interview. The train is pretty empty the whole ride it, making it very comfortable…until Mr. I’m Not Following The Law boards. He has a bike with him, with is fine since there is plenty of room for it, but what is offensive is the food he has brought on board. The smell of a hot dog loaded with everything, including an over bearing amount of onions has fill the air. It’s rather nauseating and I know that if I were pregnant I’d be puking all over the place. But since I’m not pregnant…nor ever will be again I can’t puke on the guilty culprit I’ll settle for giving him dirty looks. I always thought that they didn’t allow food on board because of the mess it could cause, but now I realize it’s because how offending the smells can be to other passengers.

But a few days later I’m sitting at Oakland airport waiting for a flight to Chicago. I am nibbling on a cookie, the lady city across from me is eating a slice of pizza, the gentle man behind me and to my left has a bag of potato chips. There must be really good air circulation here because I don’t smell any thing. Yes the pizza is making me drool, just because it looks really really good and I’m starving. This little cookie isn’t cutting it. I am a stone’s throw away from the See’s Candy Kiosk and it’s killing me. I know I need to get something to eat to take on the plane because it’s a “non meal” flight. When I made this same flight 3 weeks ago the food they did offer on the plane was horrible at $5.00 a box. The actually encourage you go buy food to bring on the plane to eat.

So depending on where you are, Shakespear was almost right when he wrote "To eat or not to eat..."

Lullaby and Good Night….

On Friday night we took BART into the city to see a concert at the Warfield Theater. The show was great, especially if you like metal music. It had been a long time since I’ve been to the Warfield and I forgot what a great place it is to see a show.

When we boarded the train at the Dublin/Pleasanton station, the station was packed with commuters getting off the train on their way back home. We got on a train heading into the city and it was empty. We were the only ones in that particular train car. Of course, me in all my silliness pointed this out and I had this strong urge to run up and down the car making funny animal sounds, but I did contain the urge and stayed in my seat. For those of you who have known me personally for a long time, you should be very proud of me…Yes I’m finally growing up and trying to act my age! As we traveled closer to the city, it was defiantly a Friday night crowd getting on board. There was no such thing as the hushed speaking voices, but more of the “Let’s Party” battle cry.

Like I said, the show was great and so was the crowd. Some young thing even asked if he could buy me a drink….or maybe I’m confused, maybe he wanted me to buy him a drink, he didn’t look much over 21. I think I’ll stick with my first thought and he wanted to buy me a drink. I was looking damn good Friday night!

Needless to say I turned him down, but managed to have 3 diet cokes and rum. When we boarded back on BART to go home I felt my age as well as the cocktails and promptly fell asleep. Not just a dozing off, but a deep sleep. We got on at the Powell station and I was asleep before we went through the Trans Bay Tunnel. I didn’t hear anything till I was nudged awake when we pulled into Pleasanton. I personally apologize to everyone on that train if I was snoring or drooling. If I was, next time please laugh at me louder so I’ll hear you and wake up.

I'm Jealous

I'm jealous. When I was on a BART train one day last week I happened to look out the window as we passed the Fruitvale station. I looked out at the parking lot there and I saw empty parking places during the mid morning hours. I board at the Dublin/Pleasanton station and if you aren't parked by 7:00 am on a week day morning you can pretty much forget parking. I'll gladly pay the $1.00 parking fee for a parking spot, hell I'll even $2.0o any time of day or night if I could find an open spot. I've tried reserving a parking place, but unless you know 30 days in advance that you'll be parking and are able to get on line on that 30th day before everyone else it's nearly impossible.

While interviewing for jobs in the city (shameless plea here - I'm an excellent Executive Assistant with tons of experience both as an Executive Assistant and as a Training/Education Coordinator looking for a position with a great company...email me at cecelia.liss@yahoo.com if you have an open position for me!), my interviews are scheduled for generally mid morning after 10:00 am so I would be boarding BART about 8:30. There are never any parking places available at that time of day Monday through Friday. Thank God for the wonderful and incredible El Marko who leaves for work about that time and drives me there.

Leaving the city at noon is a breeze, but if the wonderful and incredible El Marko has driven me to the BART station that morning I'm stuck at the station because my car isn't there. It's about 5 miles from my house to the BART station and if I'm all dressed up for a job interview in heels, I don't really want to walk those 5 miles home. There isn't a bus route that comes close to the house so I'm faced with a $15.00 + cab ride home.

So here goes my second plea (this one not so shameless) and it goes out to BART....PLEASE hurry, hurry, hurry and expand the parking at the Dublin/Pleasanton station. Employers, please refer to plea number one and send me an email so we may discuss the wonderful things I can bring to your organization!

Trains, Planes, Buses....and a whole lot of walking

It’s Sunday and the train is full and it’s just the first stop. There are a lot of events going on in San Francisco today and all of us suburbanites have elected to ride BART rather than drive in and deal with the hassle of parking and a hundred other reasons that make a car in the city a headache. We are headed in to see the Blue Angeles as part of the Fleet Week celebration that happens every year in October. There is also a 49er game, the Italian Heritage Parade and the Annual Castro Street Fair happening today.

There where a lot of families on the train and could be attending any of these events with the exception of the Castro Street Fair. If it’s what I think it is or anything like the Folsom Street Fair I attended last weekend, I surely hope that none of the kids on the train will be attending! Yes, last week was the kinky event for me, this weekend it’s the good wholesome family event for me….the many personalities of Cecelia!

I’ll write more about the people who were on the train today in another blog, especially the adorable little blond girl on the train who makes me want to be a grandmother far sooner than I’m ready for my boys to have kids. I’ll go straight to the adventures of the city. I love being in San Francisco. I could never live there, but spending the day or the weekend playing tourist is a blast.

For the first time today I rode on a SF City Muni bus. It was no big deal, but an adventure none the less. The bus was even more crowded that the BART train. From the families heading to the Blue Angeles, there was the excitement written all over there kids' faces, to the teenage girls heading who knows where, gossiping and text messaging the whole way, to the sounds of foreign tourists finding there was through the city trying to see all the sites. And of course those that use the bus everyday as their normal daily transportation. Every seat was taken and there was no standing room left. All th0se sounds blending together giving you the sound of the city.

Needless to say the air show was awesome. The food was a bit over priced but smelled great so I couldn’t resist. It was a great day to be outside. Which was a good thing because I got more of the outside than I thought I would be. When it came to getting back on the bus to head back we had no problem boarding the bus. The problem was the bus never moved. Traffic was awful. I have no idea how many people attended this event, but I think all of them were attempting to drive up Van Ness at the same time we were on the bus.

We boarded the 49 Muni bus at Chestnut Street and it took us about 15 minutes to go 2 blocks south of Van Ness. At that stop we got off the bus and walked the rest of the way to the Civic Center BART Station. Walking we passed the #70 bus that was about 3 blocks ahead of ours and neither bus passed us. In fact when we looked back at about Eddy Street we couldn’t see either of the buses. Traffic was that bad. I don’t think they were moving at all. We probably shaved ½ an hour or more of time by walking while being able to see all the buildings that usually blur by me and go unnoticed when I’m in the car. I’m glad that the buses were stuck in traffic and that we decided to walked the city allowing my love for it to grow even more as it showed me its splendor, glory… and of course it’s chaos.

I'm No Physicist, But Shoes Win Every Time...

God knows I’m not a physicist, but if I were riding on a BART train this morning it would be using less energy than it was 2 ½ months ago. I’m sure in terms of energy how much less energy it needs if the train is 8 pounds lighter. I’m sure it’s not much at all, but for me it’s huge news. I got on the scale and I’ve lost 8 pounds!

Since I’m not on riding BART today, I’m actually in Chicago, I thought I’d share my first ride on BART. It was the summer between 6th and 7th grade so I must have been about 12 years old. I was in the city with my Dad, but I’m not sure why. We lived in Marin
County at the time and BART doesn’t have service there. I’m not sure exactly where we were, but I remember my shoe breaking. My dad knew that shopping was abundant in around Market Street by Union Square. He didn’t want to have to take the car so he said we would ride on BART. BART was still fairly new and I had never ridden on. I had heard a lot about it and was excited about riding on it. I remember Dad buying the tickets and trusting me to hold on to my own, warning me not to loose it since we would need to it get off the train as well as on. I was so afraid that I would drop it.

Well I managed not to loose my ticket and they let me off the train. I don’t remember a lot of the details about the train ride, except for that it was really exciting to ride on it for the very first time, but I can give you every detail about the shoes. Since I was shopping with my dad, and he didn’t really care about what I got as long as it didn’t take forever, I got to pick out what ever I wanted. I remember the shoes exactly. They were brown sandals, the must have summer shoe that year for all the girls my age. I was so excited to get them! They were a sandal that my mom would never let me get but since I was with my dad I was able to get them.

I really don’t know what was more exciting that day, finally getting to ride BART for the first time or getting the shoes. It must be the shoes because 34 years later I still remember exactly what the shoes look like.

Late in the morning, and my coffee is cold

It’s the morning commute on BART, well actually late into the commute. It’s after 8:30 and I’m sure that most going into the city for work were on board the 7 am train. I’ve never seen the 7 am train and if I had my choice I never would. At 7 am I’d much prefer to just be waking up to the sound of the handsome man that was just sleeping next to me going downstairs to start the coffee. These 8:30 train people are my people…the sleeper inners of the world.

It’s a world of difference between the casual weekend / midday / night riders as compared to those on board during the morning commute. News papers, laptops and books. Sport coats, brief cases and pantyhose. In this section of the train I only see one person in a baseball cap. At least he has the common decency to be wearing a home team SF Giants cap and not some hip hop clothing logo or punk band branded cap. Same goes with the few carrying back packs rather than briefcases. Plain navy blue Jansports far out number Echo and Dora the Explorer brands.

We are about 5 minutes into the ride and heads are starting to do the head bob. You know the look of the head bob, the eyes start getting heavy, they slowly lower until they closed. And as the eyes close the head starts to drop down onto chest. You can see the sleep deprived trying to fight it off. As soon as their head hits bottom, it immediately springs back up and the eyes fly wide open in panic. The entire process to be repeated again in about 30 seconds.

It’s a much quieter ride in the morning. There is a rustle of newspapers and the occasional brief and hushed conversation on a cell phone. For the most part everyone keeps to themselves. The train’s operator comes over the loud speaker announcing the next stop in a brief but soft tone, as if not to disturb the riders’ brief time of solitude before they start their workday.

Welcome to the city, I hope the office coffee pot isn't empty yet.