April 2007 Archives

A group of KPMG employees and partners got together on Saturday to help make the Hunter’s Point home of Mrs. Edwards a brighter place to live. This effort was part of the Rebuilding Together project. When we arrived, we found a garage full of unwanted furniture, trash, and countless other items. The back yard was so over-grown it could not be walked through, and the house was barely accessible due to piles of recycling, more trash, and more unwanted miscellaneous things.

Over the course of about 6 hours, we transformed the place into a nice cozy home for the elderly Mrs. Edwards. We cleared all the trash out of the garage and house so that she could actually use the space, created a peaceful sitting area and flower garden in the backyard, and re-painted her bedroom (very bright pink)!

I was on the back yard crew – in charge of flower placement. Our team trimmed the large pine tree back so that the sidewalk was usable, created planter boxes from half wine barrels, and set up a few benches and a table in the sun. We planted a little garden outlined by decorative rocks, and even cleaned the gutters. When Mrs. Edwards came out and saw her new back yard, she was speechless. She was amazed at how nice we had made it look, and very grateful. I felt like Ty Pennington for a second – ok well maybe one of the members of the design team.

Here's a somewhat interesting concept, a blog about a blog...this entry is about the PostSecret website. In case you aren't familiar, please do check it out. It may seem weird at first, but give it a chance and I think you'll love it as much as I do. It is "an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard." The founder, Frank Warren, began the project by distributing self-addressed blank postcards and asking people to decorate them and send them to him. There are only two rules - 1) it must be true and 2) you must not have told anyone before. The project also supports a suicide prevention organization, www.hopeline.com.

Every week there are secrets that make you laugh, make you want to cry for the person who wrote them, or surprise you because you could have written them yourself. Looking at PostSecret is the first thing I do every Sunday morning when they're posted, and I check back throughout the week to see if there have been any comments on the postcards. My sister bought me one of the books for Christmas, and it was my favorite gift. I haven't sent in a secret yet, but keep checking - one of them might be mine! At the risk of sounding extremely cheesy - the secrets make you feel connected to strangers, and somehow more normal knowing that others share the same secrets, feelings, and fears.

Here are two that I could have easily sent in myself...

I hate to admit my animosity toward kids that wear these stupid skate shoes - after all they're just kids and I'm sure the shoes are lots of fun. But it drives me crazy! One of the greatest things about being a kid is being in your own world, and not worrying about your surroundings. This is also one of the most logical reasons to outlaw these things! I hope that by the time I have children they only exist on the VH1 show "I love 2007" but if they are still around, my kids are definitely not getting them. What ever happened to the shoes that just lit up when you walked? Those were cool AND safe.

Here's another secret that I'm surprised I'm telling the world, but it's relevant to the topic of blogging about another blog (well, forum in this case): my name is Lauren and I'm hopelessly addicted to the Missed Connections section of Craig's List. I sometimes check it multiple times a day, and to my knowledge no one has ever posted one for me. The idea is that when you feel a connection with someone but miss the chance (or lack the courage) to tell them, you post it. If they felt a connection too, they check the site. In theory, you get in touch and go out for coffee/drinks with them and live happily ever after. I'm not sure why the MC's fascinate me so much, perhaps it is because I've convinced myself that the guy I like wants to call me, but he's just shy. That is a totally different issue and not one I'm going to delve into here! Sometimes people use it to reconnect with old friends, and others to say things they are afraid to say in person. I posted once to find a dear friend I had lost touch with, and it worked! I posted in the city I thought she was living in at the time, and her friend saw it and put us in touch. So my feelings are not completely negative - I guess I'm still hopeful, and will probably keep checking it regularly.

Yours truly has signed up to audition for WHEEL OF FORTUNE! I'm so excited I can barely contain myself. I've been on the list for years, and finally I get to go to an audition here in San Francisco...wish me luck! For those who don't know - this is my favorite game show of all time, and I'm actually pretty good at it :)

Heads up! I'll be participating in the Avon Walk for a Cure on July 7 & 8. I will be raising $1800 for Breast Cancer Research, and walking almost 40 miles to support a cure! I'll be sending out an e-mail to my friends, family, and co-workers soon with details on how to support this excellent cause and help me reach my goal. If anyone is interested in participating, please let me know and you can join our team!

Google has recently released MyMaps, a feature that allows you to add points of interest to maps that can include photos, descriptions, links, etc. For fun, I created one that shows some of my favorite places in San Francisco and around the United States. Check it out by clicking here... I've included links to this blog, as well as recommendations & opinions!

I got back from Mazatlan last Friday, and have barely had time to catch up from my vacation. I promised pictures, but am waiting for my parents to figure out how to e-mail them (Mom, if you're reading this please send them soon!). A lot has been going on since...

I caught a SF Giants game on Wednesday, it was the first night game of the year so there were fireworks afterward. I went with my friends Lindsay and Thomas, and despite the fact that our team is having a terrible season so far and we lost the game - we had a good time. My favorite player (duh, Noah Lowry) was not pitching, so I guess I'll have to plan to go to many more games during the season to enjoy the view :).

Thursday my Aunt Kris and cousin Emily visited on their way to Southern California. I booked their room at the Queen Anne Hotel, which is reportedly haunted by the ghost of Mary Lake. It is also the starting point of the San Francisco Ghost Hunt which you may remember from my prior post. I'm a little disappointed that they did not experience any paranormal activity, but will refer anyone there again. The hotel is in a beautiful neighborhood, clean, quiet, and surprisingly very affordable (less than $100/night!).

A good friend from college came into town on Saturday and we went to see The Killers at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. It is one of my favorite bands, and I saw them in October at the Warfield. The other venue was much better, and the acoustics were a little disappointing at Bill Graham. My co-worker Fabian also went, and had the same complaints. We had a great time - the energy from the crowd was amazing and of course the performance was awesome. We met up with more friends at the Bubble Lounge, then headed to Swig, and eventually ended up at Encore Karaoke. My friend Thomas does a mean rendition of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun."

My friend Lindsay had big plans for Easter Sunday, but we ended up losing motivation at the last minute. We were going to bake and dye Easter eggs, but realized that we didn't want cake and would have no use for dozens of colorful eggs so we settled for a nice brunch and a relaxed day. We went to Thomas's house to cook and hang out and relax, but our day was interrupted by a bizarre experience. As we were putting a DVD on, we heard loud banging from downstairs – Thomas figured it was his neighbor slamming the door. But after several loud crashes he went down to investigate while Lindsay and I watched from the window. We were surprised to find a guy (not the neighbor) staggering away from the building and up the street with his bike. He yelled, “you get the hell out of there you ****” and then told Thomas “there’s a guy in your back yard, he just ran through the neighbor’s house.” Thomas turned to look and realized the neighbor’s door had been kicked in. Lindsay and I panicked because the door opening to the shared back yard was wide open. We had no idea whether there was an intruder in the yard or even the house for that matter, and had no intention of going back there to find out. Thomas called the police and they responded quickly – they searched the back yard and found nothing (thankfully). Confused about what had happened, we determined that the guy with the bike was the intruder, and had been trying to distract us so he could get away. This was in a nice neighborhood, in broad daylight (it was about 1:00pm) on Easter. Sigh. City life can be a little bit overwhelming at times – I’m glad no one was hurt and nothing stolen. I know it can’t be easy for anyone, but I think it’s especially hard for a girl from a town where many people didn’t even have keys to their front doors because there was no reason to lock them. If we came outside and saw our car missing, we would assume someone had needed to borrow it and would return it soon. Not the case here.

Later in the evening Jeff and I went to see Zodiac. It was pretty creepy, but surprisingly not as scary as I'd anticipated. Considering it takes place here in San Francisco and has not been officially solved, I figured I'd be afraid to go to sleep afterward. Not the case, I'm ok with the ending and won't lose sleep over it.

Jeff will be in the area all week visiting friends, and there is no shortage of social events planned at work so I think it will be a busy couple of weeks coming up as well. I’ll try to post the pictures as soon as I get them, until then, adios.

In case you aren't familiar with Critical Mass, it is a protest held in San Francisco (and various other cities around the globe) where hundreds of bicyclists get together to block the streets to motor traffic. I've been caught in it twice, and was incredibly disappointed by my fellow San Franciscans. They are screaming obscenities, banging on car windows, and just about anything else you can think of that is annoying.

During the March ride, one threw a bicycle through the rear window of a mini-van driven by a suburban Mom taking her kids to a birthday party. The sad news is, the person will likely not even get prosecuted. But our philandering mayor Gavin Newsom vows to take "a good look" at the problem. There are more details in this SF Chronicle article - but it just irritates me to read it. Seriously, I'm getting a headache from rolling my eyes.

To be honest, I'm not even sure the point of Critical Mass. Is it to make a statement against the pollution caused by cars, or against so-called "inconsiderate" drivers? I guess it doesn't really matter because it doesn't effectively do either. Forcing cars to sit and idle while waiting for the parade of obnoxious whiners rides by isn't any better for the air than just letting drivers go on their way. I've never met anyone who decided not to commute for a day because they were so moved by this ridiculous demonstration. News flash: San Francisco is a city of commuters. Hundreds of thousands of people do it every day and you congregating and acting like jack-asses once a month won't change that. Get real, and get a life.

The cyclists bitch about being ignored by drivers. The day I see a cyclist actually obey traffic laws, I'll be so shocked I won't be able to ignore it. They don't stop for red lights, don't use bike lanes when they're provided, and fail to yield when turning. They make traffic problems worse, and cause accidents all the time. So my answer to their complaints about unsafe drivers is this: get off the road.

When these people moved to the city (or chose to stay here), what were they imagining the commute to be like? Rolling hills, quiet nature sounds, watching the sunrise/sunset, and enjoying the crisp air? They have that very close by, you know...in the places we are all commuting to/from.

Taxi drivers in this city are some of the craziest people and most dangerous drivers I've ever seen (no offense). They break traffic laws, speed through crowded streets, and just aren't courteous on the road. But you learn to deal with it, and drive defensively. If you're heading down a street at 30mph and see a taxi that looks like it might want to turn (they don't use blinkers so you have to develop a special taxi esp to tell what they're going to do), you have to prepare to slam on the brakes and deal with it. They don't care, it's not their car. Once I was in a taxi that made a noticeable dent in a parked car and drove on as if he didn't notice. I asked him if he noticed, and his reply was "it's ok."

But this rant is not about taxi drivers, it's about bicyclists. Just like I have had to learn to drive amongst the crazy taxis, drunk pedestrians/homeless people wandering into crowded intersections, last-minute double parkers, illegal lane changers and u-turners; they need to learn to ride among drivers whose main priority isn't yielding to annoying cyclists.

I hate driving in this city, I'll admit. But I know that before I even get to my car that I park 4 blocks away from my house because I can't find a closer spot. I'm not going to waste my energy trying to piss people off and make a spectacle of myself. I'm not going to take out my frustration on a family in a mini-van. I'm not going to perpetuate the stereotypes and bad attitudes that already exist about people like me (in my case, female drivers :). I'll just take the bus, thank you very much.

And on the bus, I get the pleasure of trying to balance in my high heels while holding my laptop bag, purse, and whatever tiny sliver of handrail I can manage to squeeze in between the grimy hands of fellow passengers. I get to take in the glorious smells of body odor, urine, old lady perfume to the 10th power, and morning breath. Once my stop finally arrives I'll get to revel in the joy of pushing past all the other jerks who hate their morning bus ride too, so that I can stumble out the back door just in time to be cut off by a damn bicyclist. But guess what: there's no use complaining because if I didn't like it, I could just always ride a bike.

I apologize for offending any of my friends who participate in Critical Mass with this post. If so, please contact me so that we can re-evaluate our friendship.