The Manrilla Blog | Life. Art. Religion. Culture.

We awoke today to another chilly, foggy morning, with the fog but not the chill burning off by 10:00 or so. Rebeca, of course, had her conference to attend which left me to my own devices again. I apparently strained my left ankle’s tendon some time during our trip. Perhaps yesterday while I was walking the steep hills of Chinatown. I revisited that area again today looking for fruit and vegetable markets but didn’t find any. I did see the gates of Chinatown though. Neat enough looking although I’d have thought that they stood 20 feet high or something. This town is so funny. Without my coat I would have frozen my butt off and with it I’m sweating like I was a 12-year old kid sewing Nike tennis shoes somewhere in Malaysia. I’m not complaining though. It’s great exercise. I may even drop a little bit more weight while I’m here.

My only major complaint of the trip so far has not been the trip itself but this damned laptop that I took with me from work. It’s one of the brand new Dells that we got in. It is supposed to be wi-fi ready but with out the wi-fi card, not much good, huh? So, here I am sitting in a Starbucks (yes, I know. The Dark Side of the Force…), trying to see if it really works when I realize that the wi-fi card is not actually installed. Kind of like everything else at Edgewood: Ass backwards. The whole idea of a laptop is to be mobile and portable. Well, what could me more portable than wireless Internet access? I mean, after all, Dell is shipping all of their machines wireless ready. I guess the last step in that installation is to go to Comp USA and buy a wi-fi card. Stupid stuff.

There are so many things that I could say about this fair city. Here’s one of them: You ever wonder how long you have to cross at a crosswalk? No, really. You ever think to yourself, “…hmm, it’s blinking that DON’T WALK signal. I had better wait ‘cause I just don’t know how long I’ve got…” Well here, the crosswalk signals have a timer on them. Yes, they blink, “…8, 7, 6…3, 2, 1 ­ time’s up!” What could be more ingenious than that? Hell for both driver and pedestrian alike. I mean, if you can’t see that time’s running out and you should stop, continue across and get your behind run over, who’s to blame but yourself? I would love this from a driver’s point of view. “…Officer, he saw he only had six seconds to cross and he just took his sweet old time. It wasn’t my fault that he bounced twice off the asphalt.” I will be bringing this to the Mayor’s attention at the next town hall meeting.

We had dinner this evening with a group from Rebeca’s training seminar. They’re from Phoenix, working together for the same company. I only remember two of their names: Ricky and Viviana. They’re all from a common Mexicano background.

We walked to the North Beach section to have some Italian food. We ate at Caffé Viva. The food was moderately priced but too salty for my taste. Most of the other women in the group were older except for Viviana. They didn’t talk much, only keeping to themselves. We made plans to get together after we rested for a bit. This resulted in us sitting at the hotel bar eating popcorn and drinking over-priced drinks. Tomorrow Rebeca meets her cousin so I think I’ll have the day to myself again.