Sunday, October 08, 2006

Pub-trans-rant

This is my Saturday morning routine. I'm at a cafe called "Bean there" about 2 blocks from my house on Haight st. It is a woody and comforting place with outside seating, taking the form of unstable metal-mesh chairs. I've been doing this for a couple of months now, since I started applying to med school. At this very moment I'm procrastinating.

Yesterday I became a true city dweller. First, I cringed as my boss INSISTED on taking her car out on a little lunch time lab outing. We were headed to the sports basement, you see, over the hill in the Presidio. Not far, could've cabbed it, could've taken public transit, but in the end we took the car. But, not until the parking lot attendants fetched it from stack parking, fifteen cars deep. We when back inside while they did this. An hour later we were able to leave. I just thought it sad that my boss, in this most liberal and environmentally conscious of cities, insisted on taking HER vehicle. When the mention of the bus came up you should've seen her face. It was easier to take the car once we extracted it from the lot, but I guess it is the principle that bothered me.

And again it happened that day. Alina came into town to see a movie called the Short Bus. The Short Bus is a indie unrated movie about love and sex (homosexual and heterosexual) in New York. Normally I would not seek a film like this out, but a subject of mine has a role in the film (I cannot say who). This film is a big deal: reviewed in the NYTimes and playing at the Embarcedaro center (kind of a big deal). In terms of nudity and sexually activity it was somewhere between a gay-porn and a softcore porn; lots of cock, ass, tits and dildos. Anyhow... It was thrilling to see a person that I had interacted with, even connected with, up there on the big-screen! I truly feel like a big city dweller.

Getting to the theater was a fucking migraine. First off, Alina brought a friend, and her friend brought a map. I should also mention I was back in a car for the second time that day. The original plan was to take the MUNI (the light rail that runs along the street and under Market St). It would've spat us out fairly close to the Embarcadero center. Alina arrived late after picking her friend up in approximately the same part of town as the theater. Her friend apparently is not unlike my boss in that she thinks of the public transit system as being too convolute and curious to navigate. We made it in plenty of time, but again, it was very unnecessary to employ our own vehicle.

At -any-rate, I enjoyed the movie immensely. It was easily the most compelling, beautiful, provocative and uplifting movie I've seen all year. I love this place for all its solitary offerings, cause I am very much still alone. It's okay.