My past week of work has been plagued with technical difficulties and bad news (Tim is leaving WTF). However, at least I’ve had 2 good weekends in a row.

Last weekend kicked off with our afternoon company offsite on Friday. It was a nice day so Ryan & I walked to the Metreon, but stopped in at a little diner on 3rd for some greasy food. We people-watched our entire office walking by, which was pretty amusing. I devoured my delicious grilled ham & cheese. After the meeting, we all walked over to Lowe’s theater to catch Alice in Wonderland in 3D. I liked it, but apparently very few others shared my opinion. Then again, I’m not of the opinion that movies need to be a perfect match to their book counterparts, unless there’s a true story involved. Oh yeah, I caught the last run of Avatar in IMAX 3D on Wednesday with Tim, Emily, & Miguel. It was beautiful, but written for 8-year-old’s.

Saturday I headed downtown for Kali’s bachelorette party, which was on a roof deck of her friend’s apartment building right by Embarcadero. After a week of on/off rain, she really lucked in to a beautiful day. The views were amazing. We had Bay bridge and the Ferry building on one side and the Transamerica Pyramid on the other. I also saw my first feral parrot! Her friends had done a beautiful job decorating, including creating some stellar floral arrangements. It was a fun time, and I made some new friends while carefully toting food from the 9th floor to the 23rd. Kali also loved my gift, so that was a plus. Unfortunately, I had to cut out early to make it to the symphony and missed most of the shenanigans.

I was kind of exhausted from 4 hours of standing and talking, so I didn’t enjoy the symphony as much as usual. They usually do 2-3 pieces, but this night they did 4. It was too much. However, it was cool to be the first to hear the new work, Post-scriptum, from composer Kissine. It was very modern/futuristic sounding, and I enjoyed it very much. The rest of the bill included Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major, Opus 35; Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales; and Liszt’s Tasso: Lamento e Trionfo. I believe it was one of the movements in Ravel’s piece, which I recognized from a recent commercial. The actual commercial/product has escaped me, which makes it all the more unnerving that advertising managed to seep so deeply in to my subconscious.

This Friday I had my first dine-in experience at 3rd Street Grill with half the CRD department. There’s never a dull moment at that place, and we still don’t know why Tim is the only one the owner addresses by name. He hasn’t broken the news to her that he’s changing jobs. That night I headed to Spindig, since it was the last one at Butter. I had one last After School Special (drink), but they had switched the watermelon smirnoff for citrus so it just wasn’t the same…or good. We continued on to Edinburgh Castle. It was my first time there (I think), but it felt familiar. I liked the vibe. I also enjoyed our cab driver who made a joke about going to the actual Edinburgh Castle. It was a really fun night.

Yesterday, I bought a bike. Her name is Myrna (specs). Though I’d been considering one in the back of my mind since I moved here, it was still a completely impulse buy. Last weekend on the way home from the symphony and Friday on the way to work, I was harassed by the same homeless man on the bus. He said terrible things right to my face. I can tolerate a lot of bullshit, but his words crossed the line. I’d already had to hear him describe his genitalia to the entire bus for 20 minutes so having him talk about screwing me twice in one week and calling me a stuck up bitch for ignoring him had put me over the edge. As I stared intensely at a random inanimate object until he went away, I decided it was time for a bike. Knowing how my brain works, I knew I had to act fast. Given the time to think about it, I would talk myself out of it. And sure enough, when I woke up Saturday morning, that’s exactly what I started to do. “Mindy, you will never ride this bike. Who are you kidding?” but then I remembered a little piece of wisdom Melissa had passed on to me the night before from her mom. “You never feel like you’re ready for something until you do it.” We were talking about it the context of getting married and having kids, but I think it’s generally applicable to life. So, it will be Melissa’s mom I blame when I get my credit card statement this month :) But, she will share the blame with sunshine because pretty days make me spend money.

The 30-minute walk to Sports Basement in the Presidio flew by, since it was a beautiful day and I was walking along the water with Golden Gate bridge always in view. A lovely man finally helped me after I walked in circles for 10 minutes, feeling overwhelmed. He sent me out on a test ride, so I retraced the walk I’d just done. It took 6 minutes. I was so out of shape, though, that I could feel my speed dropping by the last leg of the return trip. (I need to do some testing…the man told me bigger numbers meant easier but the bike manual says smaller numbers mean easier, so I might have been peddling in the hardest gear the whole time because I’m a newbie). I’d done more exercise that morning than I’d done all year combined. I paced around the store for 20 minutes, trying to deal with my pre-buyer’s remorse by calling my sister for reassurance. I thanked her for telling me it was a good idea, even if she didn’t really think so. I bought it, biked back on the same route yet again, and the slight incline of Fort Mason totally kicked my butt. I was knocked out in a nap by 4, so it sounds like I’ll be sleeping well each night I bike. This week’s forecast is all sunshine, so I couldn’t have asked for a better week to try out my commute. I may still go for a ride today, but I don’t want to overdo it and be a wreck for my actual commute. I’m excited but totally nervous. After conquering my commute, I think I want to travel down to Golden Gate Park and finally bike that whole thing. I’m lucky to have a nice, scenic, and flat place to ride right at my front door, though. Now, if only I could educate humanity about keeping to the right on shared paths so they can be passed easily/safely. Definitely need to get a bike bell and be one of those people.