Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2006
All Public Transit, All Day...hey, I was working the APTA Conference (American Public Transit Association), how could I not?
Contra Costa County Transit to BART. BART to a short stopover at work (until 3pm or so), MUNI to Caltrain, Caltrain to San Jose, DASH shuttle to the San Jose Convention Center.
What a trip. Loved it. The best part of it? The CalTrain ride. Yes, folks, I'm a sucker for trains - the rolling on the track with the big engine pulling them kind. :-) Was just about jumping out of my skin waiting to board up. Once on, I spotted the upper level - all empty seats up there, so I went for it. Perched up above the world with a great view - and the setting sun. Damm it was hot! No wonder all the seats were empty. D'oh! I slinked back down to the lower level and found a pair of empty seats for us - on the other side of the train - in the shade. Sock Monkey grabbed the window seat and readied his ticket for the conductor (yes a conductor - how cool is that?!?)...
Pretty soon, we were sharing the seat and staring out the window like a couple of kids on their first train ride...
I saw lots of familiar sites alongside the tracks. I recognized many landmarks from when I did the AVON 3-day Breast Cancer Walk-a-thon back in 2001 and 2002. You walk from San Jose to San Francisco (yes you read right) on a route up the Peninsula. Ah, the memories that brought back. On the first night (both years), we camped out in the center of the Bay Meadows race track...
It was cool to wake up at 5am (did I really type that?) and see the jockeys and horses already on the track exercising. The horse breaths puffing out like smoke in the cold morning air. Awesome.
No, I didn't work on or read anything that I had packed up. I tried, but just couldn't. Not only was the ride a rough one (like a true train rolling the rails should be), but I just couldn't stop staring out the window.
We arrived at the San Jose Station and waited for the DASH Shuttle (free) to the Convention Center. All the Local Bus lines had this flashing on their destination signs...Hey! That's where I'm going!
A few minutes later we arrived at the Marriott and Antonella's room. What a luxurious hotel. I thought it was anyway - one of the fanciest places I've ever stayed in...
and what a view...
Sock Monkey made himself comfortable...
... spotted the free wine...and that's the last we heard from him. Lush.
He missed out on dinner at Gordon Biersch with 2 hot chicks...
and an in-room movie...
That's him passed out on Antonella's bed. Those are her feet, and that's the movie menu on the TV.
OK, for those of you with gutter minds, stop it. We watched Pirates of the Caribean: Dead Man's Chest. Jeez.
The next day we worked the Internet Cafe at the conference. At times fun, at times slow, at times interesting. I liked meeting all the people from all over. By Wednesday, Antonella was tired of it (she'd been there since Sunday), but being that I'd never done anything like that before (they don't usually let me out of the office - let alone let me meet customers), and I only had to do it one day, I thought it was cool. No train ride home (bummer) as we carpooled it home with our Co-worker.
The best part of the Conference? Getting out of town - if only for a little - if only a few miles away. Spending it with a friend doing something different (it was the first conference ever for both of us), and this Transit Pass...
I rode BART for free (yes free - I love free) on Thursday and Friday. That saved me about $21. Booyah! Did I mention I love free?!?
It took Sock Monkey a few days of sleeping it off - apparently he can't handle his vino - to get back to normal. He's back to hanging out on the cubicle wall, watching everyone. Silly Monkey.
Now for some knitterly content...
Currently on the needles:
- RYS II - yes, I'm still working this one - shut up.
- Cigar - for my cigar smoking friend Gary
- Something else - I'll spill details next week - it has something to do with AmpuT, but you have to wait until next week.
- Wine Cozy - for my friend Gerson
Both friends know they are getting stuff, so that's the only reason I'm listing them. Otherwise it would be hush-hush 'mystery gift' again. Since it can be difficult for me to knit something for a guy and be assured he'll like it and more importantly want to use it, I asked them if they wanted them and what color they wanted them in...and voila! More knitting projects. And we all like knitting projects, don't we? There's a ton of patterns from knitty that I want to try - I just need to find the right family/friend-to-pattern match. I'm getting there.
I think I might do some charity knitting again as well. Rabbitch is collecting hats for the homeless in her hometown, there are several sites collecting hats for military members serving in Iraq, etc, and AmpuT might be starting up something for military amputees. I'll have to raid the stash and see what I've got. I know I have tons (2 drawer fulls) of acrylic left over from previous years of charity and other knitting. This will be a good use for it all. Time to do something for someone else, feel good doing it, and make room for more stash. All these small projects will be great for commuting too! It's a win-win situation and I need some feel-good feelings right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment