Observations at 24th & Mission

Today the doorbell rang around 5pm. I am the only one at the apartment at this time because I get off of work at 4 (I am working chicago hours... 7am to 4pm :-/), so I finished what I was doing and trudged down the stairs to see who rang. Peeking around either side of the gate, I was glad that I remembered to shut the door behind me so that the cat couldn't run out while I looked around. The gladness was short-lived. I soon realized that answering the door was a huge waste of time because no one was there, and that it was going to be much, much longer waste of time because I had just locked myself out of the apartment. In business pants, a sweater, and some knee-highs (pantyhose that only come up to your knees ... like very thin socks) I stood in the tiny, 2ft x 3ft space between the door and the gate trying to decide what to do.

First, I looked through the mail. I figured if I waited long enough one of my roommates would come home. There was no interesting mail, unfortunately. I stood around for a bit. Sat down on the scratchy door mat for a bit. Then, a stroke of genius! I bravely entered taco loco (effectively barefoot) and explained my embarrassing situation, then asked if they had a key (since the owners of taco loco also own the apartment). They said no but allowed me to use the phone. The only person whose number I know in San francisco is Kyle, and his phone was dead, so that was no use.

Next I crossed the street and sat on my scooter for a while. At one point I walked to the BART stop to get some free reading materials from the newspapers stands. I made some observations while I waited:

• a pigeon* drinking out of the dirty streetwater puddle outside of McDonalds
• a girl dressed from the 70's with a hairstyle I liked but could never maintain
• an old burly white dude with a very white colonel sanders mustache
• a young guy with a dark mustache that wasn't completely unattractive
• a person yelling BITCH at me as they sped by in an large SUV
  
• a nugget-shaped latino couple happily holding hands as they walked by
• a well-groomed red-head in a suit helping his very white, very old grandmother walk down the side walk in her shiny, shiny white shoes with black toes and heels.
  
• a mumbling old fat guy with only 5 small teeth and some loose, flesh-colored chewing gum in his mouth (or maybe it was actually pieces of his fleshy gums floating around in there and not chewing gum??) asking me all about my scooter, ignoring my replies, and making contradicting statements about it. "Was this here made in Korea? It was made in Italy. How much did you pay for this here? It is made by genuine scooter company. Was it made in Italy? It's not a Vespa. It's a Vespa. It looks like a Vespa. It was made in Italy. It's a Vespa...." and on and on. He also told me that it wasn't worth what I payed for it, although I disagree! Eventually he got bored and saunted onward.
  

Normally I would share my observations with Kyle, but there are so many today and he is not home. Lucky you!!

*aka Dirty Creatures of Lucifer