Amber's Thighs Vs. The Golden Gate Bridge

Whatever happened to predictability?
The milkman, the paperboy,evening tv?
How did I get delivered here?
Somebody tell me please!

This old world's confusing me.
Clouds as mean as you've ever seen
Ain't a bird who knows your tune.
Then a little voice inside you Whispers,
"Don't sell your dreams" , so soon

Chorus:
Everywhere you look,
Everywhere you look(there's a heart)
A hand to hold on to.
Everywhere you look
everywhere you look(there's a face of)
Somebody who needs you.

Everywhere you look.
When you're lost out there and you're all alone.
A knight is waiting to carry you home.

Everywhere you look. Do-be-do-ba-do-ba-da!

Yesterday morning, I took a complimentary hearing test with Rob and Julius on the showroom floor of the convention. It turns out, I have better than perfect hearing. Rob and Juius, who have been in loud bands before, did not. I got to gloat over my perfect ears.

That afternoon, Erin lost Jon Day to the convention, so she hung out with us. The three of us headed down to Fisherman's Warf, and Jon met up with us there.

After a lot of hinting (and by "hinting" I mean "Pearls! Ooooo! Pretty! Rob? Look! LOOK! DO YOU SEE HOW PRETTY THESE ARE? I WANT ONE!!!"), Rob bought me a pearl (good move!) The Pearl Company is a stand in Fisherman's Warf. They have already made jewelry, or you can use a pair of their wooden tongs to fish around in the barrels they have, pull out your own live oyster, open it, and have it mounted into the setting of your choice. I opted to do that. The Chinese lady behind the counter (who was a little nutso) told Rob and me to put our hands together ("To make it nice romance!") and wave our fishing tongs over the fated oyster three times and say, "Alooooo-ha!", which we did (They're a Hawaiian based company).

My oyster had a blue-ish toned pearl ("Ahh! Vedy, vedy special, the blue one!" Crazy lady crowed. "Only 10 percent are blue! You good fisherman!")

I had it set as a necklace, and she gave us another opportunity to choose a pearl ("My special gift to you!") My next one was a larger white pearl, but I didn't have that one set.

Everyone that went to school with Rob went out for Thai to dinner, but I wasn't into it, so I had some rice and went back to the hotel.

Today we got up early and biked over the Golden Gate bridge. We rented bikes in Fisherman's Warf and rode the trail up and through, over to Salsalito. I can't believe I did it! It was a ten mile ride; a lot was up-hill, but the day was sunny, folks had their dogs out, and the view from the bridge is AMAZING!

One of the most interesting people we encountered was a man and two really old dogs who were collecting dollars for a no-kill shelter. Rob put a dollar in one of the dog's collars (see? It wasn't just g-strings we were stuffing dollars into!) and we patted the dogs and missed Matty.

I rode along singing the theme song to Full House at the top of my lungs, dinging my bike bell, and pissing off serious bikers who were annoyed that I wasn't going as fast as they were. I got a lot of "Hey, hey, out of the way!" I wanted to say, "Dudes! Chill! We are in beautiful, sunny California, and the bridge belongs to us all. Peace." When I finally got to Sausalito, I got to hug a street performer's singing, guitar playing dog, and we got on the ferry back to Fisherman's Warf. On the deck, Rob joined me in a few rounds of "Down By The Bay", because he is awesome. It was one of the best days of my life.

I feel powerful! I can't believe I biked ten miles! Woo-hoo for my thighs! Woo-hoo twice, even! We went slowly sometimes and walked the bikes up steep hills. Rob tried to be encouraging in the tougher parts, and I told him to shove it. I can't have a good attitude and make it up a tough hill at the same time, but I said I was sorry when I was less hot and sweaty. Our original plan was a bike for two, but we nearly killed ourselves attempting to pedal it, so we opted for separates.

After a well-deserved shower, we headed to Haight-Ashbury which is like Greenwich Village with better weather. San Francisco is so mild, being homeless seems to be a legitimate way of life, and Golden Gate Park was full of dirty homeless kids smoking pot and walking their dogs. The homeless actually have dogs here.

We checked out Amoeba Records, which is a super cool, new and used music store, and Rob lost himself for a while. I got yelled at by the hipster employees by not standing in the correct line, (and, probably, not being cool enough), and we came away with some cool CD's.

I'm going to miss this city. It's so clean and the weather is KILLER. And I'm thinner! All the walking up hills and biking made a difference. I slept better, too. Back to Connecticut with us, where it's no doubt cold. I don't want to leave yet (except I miss my dog like all get-out!)

I'll be home tomorrow night.