Fame
Today I’ve learned a very important lesson.
One must never be presumptuous.
Last year, living in the Mexican district of San Francisco (the Mission),
Cathy, the boys and I would regularly consume Burritos from our local food place.
The Mission is as Mexican as it gets. It’s pretty rare to find English anywhere.
In Ireland, we are not taught Spanish. I studied French and
German, but picked up a few Spanish words here and there
over time. For example, I knew that ‘mañana’ is one of their most popular words. I also knew that ‘carne de vaca’ was ‘beef’.
I was only too happy to translate the menu at the Mexican take-out for my house-mates.
I assured all that the three words appearing on the menu before
‘beef’ were ‘roast’, ‘grilled’ and uhh… ‘fried’. Today I learned
otherwise.
An English-speaker has started working there. He’s translated the menu.. to “Beef tongue”, ‘Beef head meat” and “Beef brain”.
So uhh… sorry about that guys! But at least I helped you to experience something you might not have otherwise experienced!
And hey, I was almost still experiencing it right up to today!
So to pick up where I last left off;
Talking to a webcam outside Apple..
I also made it into the ‘pissed people’ video (scroll to third video, the one with the guy being smacked in the face) which is in Gizmodos Top 5! Woohoo!
We were pissed because Apple, which provides free internet, was closing early in order to prepare for the iPhone release.
Thanks to my favourite airline pilot Kent (go check out his site - it’s an order!) for sourcing the videos!
The line was getting more humorous throughout the day.
It KILLED Orlaith and I that we hadn’t thought to do this;
That’s SPOT, not POT, like 90% of those around her thought..
I won’t mention how much people got for selling their places as it’s sickening, but I sure could’ve done with that $300 to $1200!
Needing a break, I headed to Fisherman’s Wharf for a bit
with Orlaith. I walked her towards the Golden Gate bridge, but didn’t
want to miss Apple re-opening so we didn’t get far.
I was fretting because time was getting tight. We were standing at the
streetcar stop in the Wharf when a stretch limo pulled up. The rather insane but hilarious driver got out and approached, telling us that only the homeless ride streetcars and they can give you nits so he’d do us a deal. He’d bring us wherever we wanted to go for $5.
I decided to take the risk of getting brutally murdered and dumped in the bay at Hunters Point to make it to Apple on time.
It was worth the risk. A couple from Santa Barbara joined us in the limo.
They had to tip more because “people from SB are rich”..
He also told us he could fit 25 Japanese into the back of the limo ” ‘cause they have small asses”, compared to only two Texans!
We pulled up outside Apple and I had my camera around my neck. I walked into the middle of the press line (2nd row!) and started taking
pictures.
(Work for the associated press? High quality originals and eye witness account of FIRST iPHONE PURCHASE* available for a small fee!!) *in SF..
NBC were parked outside the store since Thursday afternoon, yet somehow managed to miss the exclusive by sitting in their truck when the Apple doors opened..
When they saw what they were missing (a few minutes after the main excitement), their reporter tried to move me (star of Gizmodo’s top 5 video) out of my position!
It was pretty late when I got home on Friday, after hours hanging around Apple (it was open until midnight). My phone was
dead so I put it on charge in the living room and eventually worked up
the energy to take a relaxing shower. The water was running less than 5 minutes when everything went dark.
Now I usually quite enjoy power outages; locating and lighting candles, making shadows on
the wall, playing the guitar.. There’s a novelty factor.
This occasion was not a novelty. Try navigating your way around a
house you’ve lived in for a couple of days in TOTAL darkness, without
even so much as a phone or an outside light source. And my cellphone comes equipped with a built-in torch but the battery was dead!
I eventually made my way back to the living room and located the
couch (I’m even more proud of my navigation skills now than
previously!), and I slept until the power came back. I managed to catch
the local news airing me in all my “exiting Apple” glory, but couldn’t record because the VCR re-set itself and went into a weird mode!
Saturday
It was morning. I was on Market Street. I went for a walk. I kept going.
It was windy!
No longer satisfied at ground level..
“Vertigo” fans will recognise this location.
I’m happy to certify that it is structurally sound.
And going…
I found THE coolest place on earth to sit and couldn’t get my head around why no-one else had climbed up to my new-found spot.
After a few hours sitting on a giant former tree stump overlooking the bay, I made my way back down to more solid ground and met a professional photographer called Steve. He had the most AMAZING 30-second sunset and night exposures of the bridge. Unfortunately he doesn’t do the flickr thing, but he spends all of his time shooting the bridge from the surrounding hilltops so I’ll get his e-mail next time!
I asked him why no-one was shooting from where I had been sitting, and he pointed me to the numerous ‘no entry’ signs..
When I got back to solid ground, I noticed all of the old military bunkers and tunnels in my not-at-all natural hilltop..
I kept on walking, exploring many of the old abandoned buildings as I went, and also accidentally ending up on the roof of one huge building, which provided great views of the bridge.
I was so busy watching for and avoiding poison oak all day that I completely forgot about sunblock. It was VERY windy at my elevation and quite cold so I didn’t notice I was being burned.
I eventually turned back, but only when my camera battery was completely flat and my 1GB and 256MB cards were full..
I got home after 9pm, completely exhausted. By 9.30pm, I was ill. I felt
very, very hot, weak, dizzy and generally burned out. I presumed it was
due to walking and climbing and hiking so many miles. I fell into a
deep sleep and woke up sometime around 5am, sick.
Caught a glimpse of my VERY tomato-like head in the mirror at some point and realised I had sunstroke. You’d think I’d have learned my lesson after last year..
It took until later to realise I was very dopey and confused. Over night, I didn’t have the energy to get up, let alone do anything about it.
Sunday
I decided I couldn’t waste my Sunday being sick so somehow forced myself to go to Church. No, I wasn’t on some kind of medication-related trip. And I haven’t suddenly found strong faith and religious determination in the USA.
It’s Glide.
Located in the heart of the Tenderloin, it’s the coolest Church I know. Very different to Catholic Mass in Ireland.
Cathy and I attended last year. It’s not for everyone, but she ‘got it’ as much as I did.
For me, it’s about the music. The Glide Ensemble (top quality jazz) are good enough to make me sit through a 2-hour service any day, which says a lot.
This week, a gay and lesbian couple had their shared baby christened. 
And a photo from last year: 
I didn’t have the energy to do much else on Sunday, which kind
of killed me.. I HATE losing a day, doing nothing. It doesn’t
matter if I was here for the next 20-years, I’d still find it very
difficult to stay still and be lazy and not experience something worthwhile or interesting.
To make myself feel better about my laziness, I purchased my monthly transport pass for July so there’s no stopping me now. Free to get on any form of transport anywhere around here.. MUNI must hate passengers like me!
This morning was tied up with job-related stuff. I spent the afternoon and evening at the Aquatic park, cargo-ship watching. I had
intentions of taking many ‘bridge at sunset’ photos but didn’t take
any. I got quite a few 747s overhead though!
I made the local news again.. though I haven’t watched for myself yet. This morning, I got “captured” entering and boarding BART.
I guess I’m becoming kind of used to the fame.. After a while, you stop bothering to catch up with yourself. Turn on the TV.. Oh, there I am again! Meh.. I can always look in the mirror!
Hmm.. Wonder when I start earning that price of fame everyone always talks about..?
