I had an eventful weekend...really the last several weeks have probably been the most busy, exciting, exhausting days thus far in California.
Work is really starting to pick up, and I find that when I have colleagues here in town, it seems even busier. I like having my colleagues here because it helps me to learn my job when I can observe and work closely with others. But it seems like there is always so much extra commotion and nervous energy. It makes me feel a bit crazy and manic. It's just another thing that I will learn and get better at. You may have noticed that I don't speak much about the details of my job. That's because I work for an executive and so much of my work is "classified" information. As a new person, I haven't distinguished yet between what is ok for public knowledge and what should remain private. So at this point, I keep most of it to myself. I will start to share more later as I learn what I can and cannot share.
With that being said, I had a total of 7 hours of sleep over the entire weekend due to work (not because of too much fun). So that just gives you an idea of my schedule over Saturday and Sunday. But work just consisted of my weekend nights... but I have to tell you about my weekend days.
Saturday was the infamous 49ers vs. Raiders football game that I was soliciting company for. My boss gave me his two tickets because he was unable to go. Unfortunately (or fortunately - however you see it), I wasn't able to find someone to go with me. However, I really wanted to go see a NFL game and thus decided to go by myself. Plus, my boss gave me the tickets and I knew that he would ask if I went to the game. So I had to go. I knew that there would be some rivalry between the 49ers and the Raiders, but I was not prepared for what I experienced.
First of all, I took the train to the game since I didn't want to deal with traffic and parking. Plus, I thought I might consume some alcohol and decided to be safe and not drive. The train station is about a mile from the stadium. No big deal for me to walk. Except I had to walk through the ghetto. Parts of the neighborhood were just poor, but kids were playing in the streets. Other parts of the neighborhood were downright scary. Men were catcalling, people were coked out on the sidewalks, there were cars with hydraulics and rims and spinners. It was interesting, to say the least.
I got to the stadium and saw all of the crowds. The tension and aggression in the air was palpable. It's like when you're in a room with two people and they are having an argument in front you. You feel so uncomfortable, like you shouldn't be there. Well, that's kind of how I felt in the stadium. Well, no big deal. I got some beer and found my seat. Just walking around, it was so loud. There were so many people yelling and pushing. It generally felt very hostile. However, it was interesting to see that many couples, groups of friends, etc. were evenly split regarding their alliances. One person in the couple was for the 49ers, the other person was for the Raiders. I was thinking to myself that I've never seen such a mix of support amongst friends. Typically when you go to these types of events, whether it be football, baseball, hockey, etc., you see groups of supporters but they are all for the same team. You very rarely see the mix. So I thought that was pretty amazing. Until the action started...
I was in my seat and there was still lots of commotion and yelling. It was very difficult to pay attention to the game with everything going on around me. The guy sitting behind me dumped his entire hamburger on my sweatshirt during one of the plays so I was not a happy camper. The girl in front of me got into a fight with her boyfriend and spilled half of her beer on my shoes as she was waving around her arms. So of course I was getting more agitated. I looked up to see 10 policemen running in front of my row to the right. I follow their movement to see them arrest a man not far from me who started a fight in the stands. About 10 minutes later, another group of policemen run in front of me to the left and arrest another man.
With everything going on, I decided it was probably not wise for me to stick around for much longer. I already didn't feel safe since I was alone, but it seemed the crowd's aggression was escalating. I texted Mikey to see if he and Brett were home from their day at the beach. Mikey said they weren't home but offered to come pick me up on their way home, and I graciously accepted their offer.
After a closed exit on the highway and 30 minutes later, Mikey and Brett show up to rescue me. Honestly, seeing their shiny silver BMW round the corner was like seeing a knight in shining armor. While I was waiting for them outside of the stadium, 7 or 8 police cars pulled up and then all ran into the stadium. It almost reminded me of the clowns coming out of the VW bug at the circus... it was like a never-ending stream of policemen running into the stadium. So then I was really happy that I decided to leave the game early. What was going on inside???
I got in the car and Mikey and Brett informed me that I was probably in the most unsafe neighborhood in all of San Francisco and I should never go back. They checked that their locks in the car were actually locked like 3 or 4 times until we got back on the highway. The boys are a little dramatic, and I thought it was kind of funny... until Mikey sent me an article later that night saying that two people were shot during the game at the stadium and multiple people were beaten up outside of the stadium after the game. There's something to be said for one's intuition and gut instincts.
When we got back to the city, I went out with the boys to a couple of bars in the Castro. One of the bars is named Moby Dick and has a very phallic looking coral piece in the enormous fish tank. Moreover, there are many other great names of places in the Castro. There's a manicure place called "Hand Job." There's a sex shop called "Does Your Mother Know." I know I saw some others but those are the ones that stick out in my head.
On Sunday, we all went to Berkley. The boys had never been so it was a touristy moment for all of us. Unfortunately Berkley was not nearly as hippie-fied as I had been led to believe. However, I did get to see the small protest on nuclear weapons by some 70 year-olds. There was a Starbucks, McDonalds, Subway, and American Apparel. Not the original town that I was expecting. But Mikey and I both decided that we wanted to go back to college. There's something to be said about those college boys. ;-) LOL. Dang, I'm such a cougar!!
Stay tuned for my next update, covering my fantastic birthday weekend...
First of all, I took the train to the game since I didn't want to deal with traffic and parking. Plus, I thought I might consume some alcohol and decided to be safe and not drive. The train station is about a mile from the stadium. No big deal for me to walk. Except I had to walk through the ghetto. Parts of the neighborhood were just poor, but kids were playing in the streets. Other parts of the neighborhood were downright scary. Men were catcalling, people were coked out on the sidewalks, there were cars with hydraulics and rims and spinners. It was interesting, to say the least.
I got to the stadium and saw all of the crowds. The tension and aggression in the air was palpable. It's like when you're in a room with two people and they are having an argument in front you. You feel so uncomfortable, like you shouldn't be there. Well, that's kind of how I felt in the stadium. Well, no big deal. I got some beer and found my seat. Just walking around, it was so loud. There were so many people yelling and pushing. It generally felt very hostile. However, it was interesting to see that many couples, groups of friends, etc. were evenly split regarding their alliances. One person in the couple was for the 49ers, the other person was for the Raiders. I was thinking to myself that I've never seen such a mix of support amongst friends. Typically when you go to these types of events, whether it be football, baseball, hockey, etc., you see groups of supporters but they are all for the same team. You very rarely see the mix. So I thought that was pretty amazing. Until the action started...
I was in my seat and there was still lots of commotion and yelling. It was very difficult to pay attention to the game with everything going on around me. The guy sitting behind me dumped his entire hamburger on my sweatshirt during one of the plays so I was not a happy camper. The girl in front of me got into a fight with her boyfriend and spilled half of her beer on my shoes as she was waving around her arms. So of course I was getting more agitated. I looked up to see 10 policemen running in front of my row to the right. I follow their movement to see them arrest a man not far from me who started a fight in the stands. About 10 minutes later, another group of policemen run in front of me to the left and arrest another man.
With everything going on, I decided it was probably not wise for me to stick around for much longer. I already didn't feel safe since I was alone, but it seemed the crowd's aggression was escalating. I texted Mikey to see if he and Brett were home from their day at the beach. Mikey said they weren't home but offered to come pick me up on their way home, and I graciously accepted their offer.
After a closed exit on the highway and 30 minutes later, Mikey and Brett show up to rescue me. Honestly, seeing their shiny silver BMW round the corner was like seeing a knight in shining armor. While I was waiting for them outside of the stadium, 7 or 8 police cars pulled up and then all ran into the stadium. It almost reminded me of the clowns coming out of the VW bug at the circus... it was like a never-ending stream of policemen running into the stadium. So then I was really happy that I decided to leave the game early. What was going on inside???
I got in the car and Mikey and Brett informed me that I was probably in the most unsafe neighborhood in all of San Francisco and I should never go back. They checked that their locks in the car were actually locked like 3 or 4 times until we got back on the highway. The boys are a little dramatic, and I thought it was kind of funny... until Mikey sent me an article later that night saying that two people were shot during the game at the stadium and multiple people were beaten up outside of the stadium after the game. There's something to be said for one's intuition and gut instincts.
When we got back to the city, I went out with the boys to a couple of bars in the Castro. One of the bars is named Moby Dick and has a very phallic looking coral piece in the enormous fish tank. Moreover, there are many other great names of places in the Castro. There's a manicure place called "Hand Job." There's a sex shop called "Does Your Mother Know." I know I saw some others but those are the ones that stick out in my head.
On Sunday, we all went to Berkley. The boys had never been so it was a touristy moment for all of us. Unfortunately Berkley was not nearly as hippie-fied as I had been led to believe. However, I did get to see the small protest on nuclear weapons by some 70 year-olds. There was a Starbucks, McDonalds, Subway, and American Apparel. Not the original town that I was expecting. But Mikey and I both decided that we wanted to go back to college. There's something to be said about those college boys. ;-) LOL. Dang, I'm such a cougar!!
Stay tuned for my next update, covering my fantastic birthday weekend...
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