Health, Life

I Went to Sausalito and Didn’t Even Eat the Cookie

If you think physical activity and social interactions are key components of happiness, then by all means this weekend was a success for me. I took Friday off again, so I did another yoga double. It was fine, but afterwards I was toast. Saturday was beautiful, so Ryan and I rode to Ocean Beach, then made it back in time for yoga (en espanol!), followed by a blow-out housewarming party. Sunday we had planned to do a bike ride with my friend Tristan, and even though the skies were gloomy, we set out for Sausalito. The summary, in crappy phone pics:

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Having a short break in the Presidio. Things were pretty smooth up to the Golden Gate Bridge. By the time we crossed over, it started getting miserable. Rainy, cold, windy, yuk! We huddled under the trees with the wet tourists, ate some fruit leather, then vowed to plow on.

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I was happy that Sausalito pulled out all the stops, including providing me with my own street! Yes, that is a bike seat in my hand. Yes, I’m paranoid about bike theft!

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Things were pretty dead, what with the tourist-unfriendly weather. We decided to duck into a bar and wait out the next ferry with irish coffees. There was a horrible waitress and a cantankerous jazz band in the bar, but all in all it was a great way to pass an afternoon.

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On the way back we had to stop for burgers.

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Because hello, it has a rotating grill thing! Look at it! Look at it! In the words of Alexis K. Tylor “It’s on fire!”

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Things continued to be quiet.

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Ferry ride back. Goodbye Sausalito!

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Hi GGB.

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We were still wet, but who can be upset with an awesome burger?

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Also magical- there were gulls that basically kept circling the boat, then lagging behind, but never truly losing us. It’s like the boat had spirit animals.

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Blahblahblah Alcatraz blahblahblah

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HOME!

The adventure didn’t end after we made it back to SF. Ryan fell over on Market St. and Tristan got half his bike stuck in a BART toll booth. By the time we made it to 16th St, it was raining harder than ever… Whew! What a day!

Design, Food

Starbucks’ Sexy Midlife Crisis
Yes, the coffee still tastes the same

Hey, it’s a corporate rebranding that I really can’t complain about! To celebrate its 40th birthday, Starbucks gave the siren a refresh. I think the reason that this move doesn’t bug me is because it is still recognizable as Starbucks, plus the bright green cardboard sleeve shows that they’re not afraid to take risks. That’s been my main gripe about the last couple of major product rebrands (Tropicana, Pepsi, etc) – they were so minimalist that they became unrecognizable!

Oh, another Starbucks note: March 10-12 from 2pm – 5pm Starbucks is offering free snacks from their “Starbucks Petites” line (at select locations, duh). I eyeballed the cake pops this afternoon and they actually look awesome! Pretty as a picture.

 

Life

Goodbye Borders, My Personal Therapist
Everything must go

The Borders store at Union Square is in the midst of closing down, and it makes me immensely sad. Normally I don’t get all sniffy about non-independent bookstores shutting down, but for some reason this feels different.

For nearly four years now this Borders has been my go to spot whenever I was feeling down and out (and on my lunch break). I came here and perused the knitting mags, poked around the self-help section, and got excited by checking out the travel guides. I normally head straight to the comics whenever in a bookshop, but then I always came to Borders for “crisis” situations.

Now what will I do when I am feeling blue in the middle of the day? I love SF Library, but it is just not the same. Crackheads do not cheer you up! Also sometimes you just HAVE TO HAVE THE BOOK NOW.  If I want “Too Good to Leave, Too Bad to Stay” at 2 in the afternoon, or “A Severed Head,” or a quick present for a friend… Now what?

The store is getting pretty bare at this point. Not much else but lots of signs proclaiming 20-40% off!!! My coworker pointed out that the truly sad bit is this: even now Amazon’s prices are probably still lower than Border’s “We are bankrupt sale” price.

I remember when Cody’s Books closed.

And then Virgin Megastore.

And then Stacey’s Books.

I guess I will have to make friends with the Alexander Book Co.

Health, Life

Well, they broke me. I finally had my breakdown. This one was different from all of the other yoga freakouts I’ve had in the past.

In my class today there were so many people. More than I’d ever seen before. I tried to count and it looked like 60-ish to me, but you can’t be sure. All I knew was that this was a big class. My mat was an oasis in the a sea of skin and sweat.

The things that went through my mind during my freak out:

1. This teacher is phoning it in. Her voice is killing me. I wonder if she’s having a bad day… Who cares, she should fake it. How am I going to make it another hour and 15 minutes?

2. I wonder if someone is stealing shit from Ryan’s bicycle right now. This studio really needs to get a security camera or figure that shit out. It’s in their best interest to create a safe environment.

3. Why did they raise their prices from $14 to $18 a class? That’s 29%! This overcrowded class is not worth $18. Or maybe they raised the prices so less people would come…?

4. If you’re going to do a promo on Living Social or Town Hog, you need to have the capacity to handle it. Shoving extra people into the room does not solve the problem.

5. They need to set a cap on class size. What is the fire code? Is this against the law?

6. Why are we doing this to ourselves?

And on. And on. And on. While these things were going on inside my head I sat on my mat and stared at myself.

Somehow I got over my panic attack and back to it, but the facts remain: classes have been too crowded for the last month, bikram is going to be expensive after my challenge special pricing is over, and it’s not safe to leave my bike locked up down there. Is it time to find another studio?