Persistently Psst’d At

I was standing in front of Abe’s firm (sans Abe) waiting to cross the street when some dude on a bike went, “Psst” at me while riding by across the street. My first thought was gross, but then he kept doing it! He rode a couple more yards, psst’d again, then rode some more, and psst’d again. I’m not usually one to draw unwanted attention from men, unless it’s racist, and this is definitely the first time I’ve been repeatedly whispered at from a man on a bicycle, casually riding away whilst psst’ing. After his second psst I got a little bit nervous that he would turn his bike around and follow me to the gravel laden parking lot, which had become dark and ominous at this point. It’d be just my luck to have a bike bell ring behind me and scare the bejesus out of me.

So, if you’re in Mountain View alone in the dark, watch out for this man:

Sad.Sigh Down Under – Part 5

11.19.08 – Bondi

That’s pronounced Bon-Dye, you Yankees.

In the morn, prior to boarding the free shuttle from our Central City hostel to the one in Bondi, which is a suburb of Syndey on the beach, I needed caffeine like a mother, and went straight to the… you guessed it, Starbucks.  The reasoning behind this American superiority and consumerism is that is nigh impossible to find a decent cup of coffee anywhere else in Sydney.  You can only get cappucino & other espresso drinks.  When you ask for coffee, the typical response is ‘what kind?’.  This has resulted in me being undercaffeinated a lot.  Boo.

So, we boarded the shuttle, (really, a rickety VW Eurovan), and headed toward the Bondi YHA, where, of course, being a beach community in a beautiful country, it was cloudy.  Sigh.  Given that we had some time to kill before we could actually check in, I finally called AT&T and had those assholes switch my service over.  They had to go through the whole credit check including asking me awkward questions about my past.

After we’d checked in, eaten, and relaxed a bit, we took a walk to the beach.  Bondi, as you’ll see by the picture, is very much like Santa Cruz, except everyone is beautiful, and there is a dearth of white dreads.

Forgive my bald spot.  Apparently I have one.The famous Jamie Lynn Spea- sorry, D\'Andrea

Continue reading

Sad.Sigh Down Under – Part 4

11.18.08 – Taronga Zoo, Oxford Street/Darlinghurst

Rachel, Jamie’s friend from The JC was supposed to leave to head back to the States this afternoon.  However, before she was to do that, we decided to go to the Taronga Zoo, on Sydney’s North Shore.  Jamie, who’s been to 167 zoos whilst she’s been here, (including world-famous Australia Zoo of dead-via-stingray Steve Irwin fame), opted out on account of her general lameness. Continue reading

Sad.Sigh Down Under – Parts 1, 2 and 3

Yay!  Blogging from afar!  (G – we need a Sad.Sigh Abroad category.)

11.15.08 – NYC, Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.

But first, a small tangent.  So, prior to my departure from JFK to SYD, I’d received a text message from my Magic Phone Panel telling me that they were disbanding the panel immediately, and that my phone service would be shut off on November 20th and that I would have to switch my service to an account of my own name, or be faced with account termination.  (I love when they use such mean, forceful language.  It makes me feel like I’m being abused, and I like that.)  So, Friday night at 11:30pm, as I’m sexing up my boyf, (in this case, sexing up = watching Ugly Betty), I get another text message and e-mail with instructions on how to switch my account over.  I was relieved at this, as I thought they weren’t going to get it to me in time before I left for the wonders of Down Under, (I promise this will be the 8th to last time that I use the phrase ‘Down Under’).  However, it turns out that, because I tried calling on Saturday, and my account was solely handled by AT&T’s Small Business Unit, I couldn’t get anyone to make the switch for me.  I tried their main number, I tried the number that was supplied to me by Magic Phone Panel, Inc., I tried a corporate store, I tried the main Transfer of Service line.  All to no avail.  Perhaps it’s time for me to try switching to a different provider?  The stupid fucking lowdown is that I’m going to have to stupid fucking do the whole transfer from Australia, and negotiate the dumass time differential, which is complicated for me, because I’m dumb.  Feel sorry for me.  Tangent done. Continue reading

Bitch.

After a stressful week at work, I went with a friend to treat ourselves to some Bi-Rite ice cream. It was creepily warm for a mid-November evening, and while walking down 18th St . there was this dog hanging half way out of a first floor window, acting like a trashy woman propping herself against the windowsill and people watching. After thinking “how cute!!” because I love when animals act like humans, particularly trashy humans, but then the sad-sigh kicked in and I got jealous and thought “Bitch! I want to be her!”