Last Tuesday

Now with pictures!
Tuesday was the day I had planned to real trek all over. So, I did. This is also the part where I discovered that while I knew intellectually that San Francisco had some hills, that really, until you've climbed a few, you have no idea how that changes your perception of the distance. (Especially if on the map it only looked like a couple blocks.) So, I headed north to Nob Hill,
wandered east to Chinatown, where I stopped at the Chinese Cultural Center.

They were doing an exhibit on puzzles that was really interesting, in fact I picked up a ring puzzle with which to torture myself. (So far, I got two rings off, but I have no idea how.)
Then, I decided to go check out the UU congregation, which was in Tenderloin. So, I wandered back that way.
On the way I found a park in the Russian Hill area with a great view, so stopped and took a few pictures.

I did not take pictures inside the church, although there was a cool courtyard. There were children playing there, so that seemed like not a good thing for me to be photographing.

I went back downtown to make my genius bar appointment, which was amazingly easy since it is apparently a common glitch with Ipods and PCs that is resolved by plugging it into a Mac. (The genius guy smiled when I said, "So you're telling me I have to make friends with someone with a Mac?" (I do have friends with Macs.)) Anyhoo, all was right with the Ipod, so I then wandered back to the hotel to swap shoes and grab some lunch.
I had planned to head back to the North Beach area for dinner, and had made reservations at a restaurant. On my way up there (oh yeah, hill again), I saw signs for Coit Tower. I still had plenty of time, so I went up that way and again took pictures.

(I did not go up the tower itself - too cheap. Yarn I pay for, views, eh.) I then headed back towards the address I had for the restaurant, but it looked wrong. The street was residential, and while the number in question was lovely, they did not appear to have any signage or indication that they were going to be letting people in to buy food anytime soon.
I tried picking up some errant wi-fi to check my info, but no luck there. (Later I checked a different phone book - different address. Ah well.) I finally decided to walk back down by Washington Square where I had seen food and just eat since my knees and butt were starting to protest all that wandering. I ended up finding a lovely Brasilian-Italian fusion restaurant, so all was not lost. After that, I made my way back to the hotel where, I slept really well that night.

Food: Salad, Chicken salad sandwich, Chai, three cheese ravioli, apple tart.

Last Monday

So, basically, since my internet access was limited last week, this week I am going to tell you all about last week. Lucky you!
So, I think I have previously mentioned my fear of boredom. So, I had charged up my Ipod - freshly loaded with Will Write for Wine Podcasts. I had three knitting projects and three books. I figured that would cover the wait in two airports, any knitting or book ADD, and the travel time, plus any delay time.
Of course, my Ipod didn't want to play. So it froze. Fine. (I did reload, restore and restart, no go.) And of course the first flight (the longer of the two) was full, so while I had the window I had two large men sharing the row with me and one was in a bad mood, because are seats were against the bulkhead, so did not recline. (Everyone was lovely for the duration of the flight, but I would have liked everyone better with the music or the podcasts.
Monday I arrived in the afternoon in San Francisco.
My BART card got jammed in the machine, which was a fun start. (Apparently the airport card readers do that a lot, yay!) Rode in to town which I did not remember from my last trip that you pretty much have to memorize the stops because the speakers in the cars suck and you can't hear what the driver is saying over the sound of the cars, and the signs are little and not lit.
Made it through the throngs of tourists outside the BART station and up to my first hotel - Hotel Union Square. After checking in and stashing my bags I wandered around briefly, and discovered that the Apple store was a mere three blocks away, so I went in and made an appointment for the following day with the genius bar. Then I found some dinner. My mother once told me that she kept a record of the food she ate on her trips and I have to say, that it's fun, so, I'm going to do that here to.
Food: California Tortilla (at the airport in DC), Starbucks (at the airport in Phoenix), and fish tacos (in San Francisco).

Communication Breakdown

So I was in a place known for it's coffee. This is one of those places where you can get a card and put money on it, essentially prepaying for your purchases. The transaction that occurred seemed, from my position as next in line, an understandable but relatively simple miscommunication and yet it took several rounds and intervention from another employee to resolve. (I am blaming neither the employees nor the customer here. Or at least I think it is equal.)
So the customer ordered a drink and then explained that he wanted to add five dollars to his card. The employee entered this into the register, and the total came to seven dollars and change. The customer explained that he wanted to add five dollars to the card. The employee replied that yes, the seven dollars encompassed that request. And back and forth they went. Now, I could see that the customer meant I will give you five dollars to put on the card then from that five dollars, please subtract the cost of my drink. However, while respecting everyone's right to perform their transaction as they wish, I personally would have either explained it differently or done the card reload later. The somewhat amusing thing about the whole thing was that both the customer and the employee were so locked into their explanation that they just kept repeating what they had previously said, like some strange comedy routine. It took several repetitions and the intervention of another employee for them to get to the point where they attempted using different word configurations to explain the situation. Meanwhile the line was increasing.
I read an article recently that talked about how there is a human tendency to talk to someone about an issue, and then, if it does not result in the expected behavior change, we tend to try to talk to them again, instead of understanding that their might need to be a behavior change on our side too. These too guys (who may well have been tired or ill or otherwise understanding challenged that day - not really picking on them) didn't even make it that far. They couldn't get past the words they were using.
Oh, and in the end, they voided the transaction and started again.

TVUUC

My thoughts are with the members and guests of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in the wake of this tragedy. They are holding a gathering and candlelight vigil tonight. Other congregations are also holding vigils this week.

I Have to Agree

PoP says: I Think I'd Rather Look at Pigeons.