Week of February 7th 2011: Bindi Indian Restaurant

Almost everyday on the bus I pass Bindi Indian restaurant. I love Indian food and really wanted to check it out. The only problem was that it was a little far from my office so I knew I would need a special reason to make the trek over there on my lunch break... and that was just about the time that my friend, Anna, was back from her stint in the Peace Corps and had some time to reconnect with her friends. Since our last meal had been Indian food, I thought it was fitting that the first time we saw each other again would also be over an Indian meal.

I could tell you about how good the food was, or that it ended up being a buffet, and I could tell you that the waitress was pretty unresponsive, but that's not really what mattered about this lunch. This lunch was about coming full circle.

Although Anna and I took very different life courses after college, it's kind of surprising how much our lives have mirrored each other.... when she left for Africa, we were both starting a new - leaving behind old relationships and starting new jobs. Now that she's back, I find that once again we are facing similar issues. I won't say more on it in order to respect both of our privacy, but it just shows that whether you spend a few years in an office that's a short drive from your college, or in Africa teaching English - you still have the same touch choices to make, the same concerns. We all make different choices in our lives, but we're not so different really...

Seeing Anna again really meant a lot to me. She is one of the best conversationalists I've ever met, and just a truly unbelievable person. Although I know she was doing a lot of great things in the Peace Corps, I'm really glad to have her back in the Bay Area.

Week of January 31st 2011: Giant's Fan Appreciation Day

I know every third post is about how I need to post more, so I'm just going to give you a two month warning - Between now and the beginning of June I probably won't be posting too much. I know, I'm very behind and I have a lot of posts from the month of March to put up, but I have a New Year's Resolution to keep (one down, one almost done, and so many in progress - hate to just give up on one of them at this point...). So, until mid-June, I won't complain about how much I suck at writing posts and you won't wonder why a blog that has enough material to write a post once a week (or more), doesn't. Writing these are great study breaks though, so maybe we can make a little compromise...

It's funny how winning the World Series brings everyone together... almost 4 months after the fact, when AT&T park held their Giant's Fan Appreciation Day, the park was absolutely packed with fans trying to get an opportunity to get an autograph of a player, take a picture with the trophy, or just walk onto the field of that park that gave them so many good memories the year before.

I arrived at Fan Appreciation Day shortly before it was about to start, only to find the longest lines I had ever seen. Luckily, some of my friends had gotten there early and staked out a good spot in the trophy line. I gladly joined them (thanks again for letting me cut!!!) as we began our long wait to see the trophy.

I try to be pretty positive and put a good spin on things in this blog, but I do have to say, this event was pretty poorly run. We waited in line for two hours (and we weren't terribly far from the front of the line) in the sun because the park couldn't manage the crowds. They kept letting people into the stadium after they got a picture with the trophy so when the stadium reached capacity, they stopped the line. They didn't think to let people get their picture with the trophy and then leave until about 1 hour and 45 minutes into our wait.

All in all though, we got a little reward for our wait when Andres Torres walked by...

And of course we got our picture with the trophy!

Week of January 24th 2011: Movie Set Casting Call

So this adventure has been my little secret. I honestly still am not sure why I did it. My good friends know that I am terrified of video cameras. I am a ham for photos and I obviously love hearing myself speak but I hate being video taped. It's a long story and I'm sure enough googling will give you the answer but yea, I hate being video taped.

Yet - when I saw a posting for an open casting call to be in an upcoming Matt Damon movie, I was intrigued. I figured I would at least go wait in line and see what happened. You never know if you're a wait in line from being a movie star or a waiter in any restaurant in Los Angeles.

The casting call was at Fort Mason and a short drive and a creative interpretation of some parking rules led me right to the site. I walked past several waiting people to the site of the casting call only to find that the location had been moved and the line I had passed was the one I was meant to stand in. Luckily, I had been located in a group of interesting characters. Between the over aged San Francisco punk and the overly eager couple, I heard enough to keep me occupied.

I was also able to share my own experience with show business. No, that's not the experience mentioned above, but I did have a dream of being in pictures once. My parents were very supportive of it and helped me get headshots taken. While I got a role as an extra from those, I wasn't able to follow through with it because of school and I'd always wondered what would have happened if I could have made it.

But cest la vie - the filming of this movie also interfered with my work schedule. I put that on my casting card and then ducked out of the audition early. I never heard from them and that's ok with me. Like I said, I hate being video taped anyways.

Week of January 17th 2011: CSSC - Sage Cafe

Sorry for the dely in posts! I know you must think I got lazy on my vacation but that wasn't quite it. I actually did keep up with a few posts while overseas but mostly I was writing about the thoughts and inspirations I had at the moment. Because many of my posts are delayed a month or two, it can be hard for me to recall some of the thoughts I had at the moment. I figured it would be better to capture some of those as I had them than to keep up with a post that I already had detailed notes on.

But moving rapidly forward - this post is the second installation of my cafe study ratings. The next cafe I went to was one that in my neighborhood of SoMa. I had been wanting to go to Sage for a while because it is so close but they hold some odd hours (closing around 5 and not open Sundays) which didn't fit well with my full time schedule.

Anyway, here it is:

Taste - 2. It wasn't bad but it wasn't anything special either. I needed to put my usual ton of sugar in and Blue Bottle just didn't need that.

Buzz - 3. I stayed alert the rest of the day but it wasn't the same motivating rush that Blue Bottle's caffeine gave me. I did come from Bikram yoga though and that stuff just drains my energy.

Presentation - 1. My coffee came in a paper cup and my pastry was wrapped in plastic. At least the 7x7 guy got a happy face... maybe I should have said I was going to write about it on my blog?

Ambiance - 3. There was comfortable seating, space to sit and other people studying. The staff seemed friendly and recognized regulars but it still didn't feel as warm as I would ideally like to see.

Food - 3. I bought a delicious,  but dry fruit tart. There was a full food menu that seemed pretty popular and several people were having lunch around me.

Selection - 5. There was a full selection of sandwiches, salads, breakfast, pastries, and drinks so there was plenty of choice.

Study - 3. It was a better space but there were a lot of distractions. The space had a bit of an echo so a simple conversation resounded in my ears a bit.

Novelty - 2. Pretty simple coffee shop, but it was well executed.

Overall - 3. There was nothing special in most categories and it wasn't too easy to focus. The bathroom has an awesome sink though... it also looks like bands may play there at times but I am not sure where they would find the space.

Week of January 17th 2011: Warriors Game

Even though I grew up deep in Laker territory, I had never managed to make it to a Lake show or any other pro basketball game for that matter. So when a deal for some cheap Warriors tickets cam up, I knew I had to get them.

Try, Shannon and myself got some tickets for a game against the Indiana Pacers. We started the night off with some beer and garlic fries and the headed up to our seats. To say we had the cheap seats was putting it lightly - we had to watch most of the game on the screens since we were so far from the court.

However, the other people in our section were very funny. We were sitting in front of a row of foreign students studying Law at Cal and they definitely made the game entertaining. I knew it would be a fun night when one of them asked which one the quarterback was.

The game itself was really great too. I'm not usually the biggest basketball fan since the scores usually comes down to the last few seconds but in this case it was really exciting to watch the Warriors take home the win in the last moments of the game.

I know I should have more to write about the game but that's the problem with a two month lag... hopefully I can log a couple more posts during my vacation! Unfortunately, I think my brain is taking a few days off as well...

Week of January 17th 2011: Philz Coffee and Bi-Rite Ice Cream

It's probably a bad sign when the employees at Best Buy recognize you... This post comes to you from my brand new Xoom while I wait for my flight at SFO. Some day in about six months I may be caught up with my posts and write about the trip I am about to embark on, but for now you'll have to settle for reading about something I did in January.

On Martin Luther King, Jr. day, my friend Elissa and I decided it would be fun to spend the afternoon in the Mission getting lunch at one of the best burrito spots in the city - El Farolito.

After spending my morning knee deep in CFA books, I knew I would need some coffee before meeting up with her for our tasty burritos. The bus I took stoped right in front of a Philz coffee and after hearing many of my friends talk about how amazing it was - I knew I needed to give it a try.

I decided to order the espresso which at Philz is supposed to be extra strong. The ambiance in the place was really Col as well althogh I'm glad I didn't use it as a study spot since it was really loud. The Phoebe-esque guitar player was a nice touch but would have probably distracted me from my books.

After getting my coffee fix, I met up with Elissa for our burrito fix. El Farolito isn't a new place for me, but I still highly recommend it if you're in the mood for an amazing, inexpensive burrito. When we were finished, she recommended we go to Bi-Rite. Bi-Rite is an infamous ice cream shop in the Mission that has been high on my list ofnthings to do.

I got a little cup of Earl Grey and Honey Lavender ice cream. The flavors were really nice and it wasn't overly sweet. We also lucked out by finding a rare warm day in January. We also lucked out by not having to stand in the notoriously long line.

All in all it was a great food day with a great friend. I will definitely need to go back and try, more flavors!

Week of January 10th 2011: Bikram Yoga

Have you ever done something that someone explicitly did not recommend? Because I do all the time...

Honestly though, I'd heard mixed things about Bikram. Some people swear by it and say that although the heat is intense, you feel really cleansed and amazing after you've gone a few times. Others have said how awful it was. I typically don't mind hot temperatures though and I've been to enough yoga classes that I'm fairly comfortable with it so when I saw a Living Social deal for 10 weeks of Bikram yoga, I thought it would be a really cool idea to try it.

So, one fateful Sunday morning, Try and I grabbed our yoga mats and towels and headed out to Global Yoga in the Marina for our first Bikram class.

I should have gotten a hint when the instructor told me my hand towel wouldn't be enough and handed me a full size one so I wouldn't "soak through my mat."

We walked into the room and were immediately taken aback by the intense heat. This room was a little warmer than I expected it to be... So, the two of us headed towards the window to try to get some more air. It didn't help that much and we had to take a number of breaks because the heat made us so dizzy.

The actual yoga poses aren't too bad but of course some of the harder ones take place in the middle of the class so the heat is just unbearable. After the class, we downed as many bottles of water as we could find and then passed out for a couple of hours.

We decided to give the class a couple more chances to see if we felt better but it was more of the same. I know some people swear by the health benefits of Bikram, but I'm used to feeling good after working out, not wanting to spend my day in a dehydrated coma.

I definitely think that people should try it and decide for themselves, but I'd rather do a workout that makes me feel good afterward, not like I'm punishing myself.