Days Nine and Ten (2/10-11):
Collin at Blue Danube my first afternoon in San Francisco.
OK, in my last entry, I described Day Ten instead of Day Nine. Oops. So you already know about Day Ten. Let me explain though, that Day Nine was basically a non-event. I know this mostly because I don't remember anything that happened that day. Let me check my Twitter feed to be sure.
Apparently I watched Intervention and did little else. That seems about right.
Anyway, here are some photos from Day Ten:
Just so you know.
I wait for the bus.
Day Eleven (2/12):
This was the day Collin and I set out with high hopes to see the city. Let's see, we started out by getting breakfast at Blue Danube again, which was great. Then we went to ride the cable car but the line was obscene. So I met an interesting man, who was collecting money in his huge bucket, to whom Collin said "I don't care how big your bucket is, man, I'm not giving you any money," after taking his photo with me. Our budding friendship was unfortunately doomed to fail, clearly.
Me and the man with the big bucket. I could say something about my big cans but I'll resist. Except I just said it.
We walked up to Union Square and sat for a minute.
Collin took some photos in Union Square...
... and I took some photos of Collin taking some photos in Union Square.
We considered taking a tourist bus (I like doing that because it gets all the touristy stuff OUT OF THE WAY so you can just enjoy being in the city) but decided we didn't have time, since we were meeting Collin's brother for dinner later, so we just went shoe-shopping. My lovely new work shoes are apparently not the best shoes for walking around the hills of San Fran. However, my super cool new shoes ARE the best. They are incredibly light -- they are basically like tires for my feet, which makes sense, since they are made by Jeep. I know, weird.
Collin waits for the bus.
Collin and I ride on the bus. I have new shoes!
Collin's birthday beverage from Starbucks: a venti mocha something frappuccino something or other.
Dinner with Collin's brother was superb, other than the fact that it made me terribly sick the next day. I truly believe that at some point I will take my milk allergy seriously, but at this point in my life, I just want Fettuccine Alfredo too hard. But I love Collin's brother, Dane (I actually love all three of Collin's brothers, but Dane *is* the only one I've seen in a plastic crab bib, so I can't say that he doesn't have a huge advantage, because he clearly does).
Day Twelve (2/13):
The day started wonderfully with a nice walk and a visit to the park.
Nice effort. And nice shoes.
Collin didn't get his knees all the way up but his bench was steeper so it's ok.
Slowly but surely Collin and I made it out of the neighborhood and over to the airport. We didn't really have time to eat on the way there, like we'd hoped, so we ate at the airport. Yech. Plus sad.
Airport meal: my last in San Francisco unfortunately. At least the beer was good! And the company.
What was really sad was the pathetic quesadilla with "chips" I had in the LA airport. Luckily I also had two $12 margaritas and met some fun people from Atlanta who were on their way to HAWAII, so my layover actually turned out to be pretty sweet.
Generous helping of FOUR tortilla chips.
My new shoes/tires. Waiting for my connection in LA.
My flight to Atlanta didn't get in until after midnight. In order to preserve the sanctity of Day Twelve, I'm going to end by saying that my flight landed safely, and there was not one screaming child on the plane. Awesome.
I love San Francisco.
Day Thirteen (2/14):
I'm not going to lie. This was the worse start to Valentine's Day EVER. That's really saying something, since I am finally in a healthy relationship on a Valentine's Day and have suffered through more than my fair share of pitiful or pathetic or psychotic (or more frequently all three at once) V Days. But this was way worse than crying myself to sleep the night before and just waking up with puffy eyes...
Picture this: You're super tired. It's super late, and you've just paid way too much for less than 72 hours of parking. It's Valentine's Day, and you've just returned to a lame-duck hometown from an amazing weekend with the love of your life in a breathtakingly beautiful city and are slightly freaking out about having to figure out a way to get out there as soon as possible, and STAY out there. You walk into the parking garage assuming you will be able to find your way to the economy lot ("economy" = REALLY bad sign in this case) only to find yourself in a dark parking garage surrounded by empty cars with no idea where you are going. You know the direction of your car, so you head that way, only to find yourself standing on a service road on the other side of a chainlink fence, looking into the massive parking lot containing your car and realizing that the rows start in the teens and you will have to walk to row FORTY-FIVE. So obviously you burst into tears. Then a security truck pulls up and a woman looks at you like you're crazy when you flag her down and tells you she will call you someone to meet you here and help you instead of just helping you herself. Miracle of miracles: you look up and see the path you missed 15 minutes ago and sobbing, wave away the useless security truck. You finally get back on the path and begin the hike to your car. You get to your row and see your car right where you left it. Only you realize when you get there that this is not your car. In fact, it's a different make, model, and COLOR and has none of the distinguishing characteristics of your car. You look down the row as you keep walking and although you're approaching the end of the row, you don't see it. You start sobbing again and then finally see your car. You get to your car, still having seen NOT ONE PERSON other than the security guard, get in, realize how thirsty you are, and down the remnants of a Lime Lacroix that has been in your car more than 72 hours and start trying to stifle your sobbing. You finally get to the exit and after inserting ticket, wait while TWO other cars approach, insert tickets, and drive off, and then FINALLY the gate goes up and you begin the 30 minute journey home. You arrive at home in time to get to bed just before 1:30 am and wake up in 6 hours to go to work. Terrific.
The good news is that Collin's stepmom called me at work and took me out to lunch. She had driven in from Athens, so she got a little lost, but we had a great conversation! Of course, my lunch hour turned out to be lunch hours, so I had to stay late for work. I went home and collapsed. What a day. Crikey.
Mad and me after lunch.
Day Fourteen (2/15):
On the other hand, this was the BEST start to the day after Valentine's Day EVER. My niece was born! She is amazingly beautiful and I am totally in love. This day was basically spent sighing, giggling, and crying. What a miracle. It really puts things in perspective for me. Life is beautiful.
Harper Eliah Crabtree
Day Fifteen (2/16):
Ok, back to business day! I met with a friend of mine who gave me some GREAT advice about setting up informational interviews in San Francisco with some folks I know (and others). She also told me about her web design business, which is crazy fortuitous. She has built her business up in the way I wanted to, following advice that I have read and received and it has worked! She doesn't rely on it for her sole source of income (yet) but in the meantime is building up her skill set and having fun doing it! It was inspiring and very motivating. Yay!
I was supposed to go out with another friend for dinner but that didn't work out so instead, I went to visit one of Collin's other brothers (he lives like 3 blocks from my friend, which I realized when I dropped her off) and we had a very nice evening. We ate dinner together (PIZZA!) and talked, and played with Devon, Collin's amazing nephew. What a charmer. I love him. He asked about "Uncka Collin" which was very precious, and then spent about 15 minutes flipping through the photos on my phone. He has been working on double-tapping to open photos and zoom, etc., so he kept stabbing my phone with his tiny fingers saying "Tap-TAP!!" Adorable.
The Van Dyck-Scott family (Michelle, Chris, and Devon)!
So then I went home and talked to Collin and now he's terrified that I'm baby crazy. But seriously! How can I NOT BE?!?!
Yeah, you like my OUTFIT!
I'm loving reading your blog, Charity, and can't wait to see what adventures life has in store for you! Super glad I had the opportunity to meet you before you hightailed out of the ATL =)
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