Snoqualmie

Were all those hills in the building spec, or were you just fucking around that day?

Fucking around is my vote. I discovered today that, while it's possible to bring my lunch, dress for stompin', and walk over to the park during my lunch break from work to eat on the grass, the specific topography of this street means that it really is uphill both ways. At least, it's about 49% uphill both ways. In San Francisco, however, 49% is enough. A section drawing of the street looks approximately like /\/\/\/\/\ , and it's a mile plus three hills from work to the park. My legs are much more than 49% hurting.

My feelings about the job, after swinging wildly around for my first few bewildering days, go something like this: I don't want to go into the office in the morning, and then I don't want to leave in the afternoon. It's fun. The people are nice. There are office policies that include bagels and ice cream and Italian food, and drinking of huge quantities of tea is encouraged. It's also doing wonderful things for my telephobia-- I actually made a phone call on my own time yesterday, to swiftly take care of a problem that needed solving, and there are at least three things about that statement that should have you astonished. I'm even starting to really enjoy doing the secretary voice (you know, the one that you use to say, "Good afternoon, Insert Name Of Company Here," and leave the last syllable hanging pertly to prompt the caller to explain him/herself).

The times when the phone isn't ringing are also nice. Then I eat candy and wander around the office with papers and boxes and messages and watering cans and big wheely tape dispensers and order forms and binders and magazines, doing stuff. You know, stuff.

On my way home today, I noticed again the thing that I've been noticing for the last couple of days. Advertising space in the BART stations is really not evenly distributed at all. Embarcadero, Powell, and Montgomery stations are dominated by big, bright billboards in continuous blocks. Three iPod ads together, four for a new IBM laptop; six for Lufthansa's new business class. Technology, business solutions, big bucks. By the time you get to 24th and Mission, the billboards are mostly for movies and sports events, and they're not in blocks anymore. One for The Rock's new movie; one for Commuter Check, a money-saving transit purchasing program; one for the next Warriors game. Things aimed at your average Joe, who'd like something to do this weekend, and could use that extra $300 a year, and doesn't have million-dollar expense accounts in his pocket. It kind of says it all about big cities, I guess... a) move a mile in any direction and your resources change radically, and b) people always fuckin' think they know what to offer you. I wonder if they're right.