The Meeting Adventure.

I went last Thursday to the Planning Commission meeting for (obviously) the meeting story. I was fully expecting it to be very dull and fairly long (the agenda looked substantial, to say the least).

I decided the night before that I would take public transportation since there was no way of knowing how long the meeting would be. And because I’m cheap and refuse to pay for parking. Plus, the last thing I really need is a parking ticket because I have zero income these days since I quit my shitty job.

Anyway, back to our story: I went to check out the part of the Lower Haight that would be affected by the Market & Octavia plan. So I got to ride the 71 into the Haight from Civic Center because I took BART in. A nice white bum saved me from an evil black bum that was harassing me all up in my face for spare change. I could only think of South Park.

The second I started cruising in the Lower Haight, I instantly felt more comfortable with the area that I ever have walking around the Upper Haight. No lies. (Quick interjection: What does that say about me?) In all seriousness, I can’t honestly figure out why I like it. I only spent slightly over an hour there, but it was fantastic. So calm on that day (probably because of the rain, but, hey, I didn’t melt) and I had no idea what anything I stumbled across was.

Oh, and a trick of the trade that I picked up: I’m going to carry around a little map and write on it because it helps me WAY more to get familiar with an area than just aimlessly wandering to get a feel for the place. My internal compass is screwed up 10 ways to Sunday, I assure you.

I found my way to City Hall no problem, and to the room no problem. Cruised on in and they started the meeting slightly late. The first portion of the meeting (as in the first hour and a half) had three highlights: people fighting for a preschool expansion, people advocating for a parking lot to be sold, and me being on camera behind every damn speaker for the live broadcast.

We got a break at 3 p.m. and I was stoked to go get some food. I basically booked it to Walgreens because I thought I was going to pass out and then went to Starbucks to chill because I was literally freezing to death in the rain. Well, maybe not literally. But I was getting there.

Cue the reason why I don’t like being in Civic Center/Tenderloin: I got chatted up by this black guy who was over 50 (for a fact, he told me). For an hour. AN HOUR. He ended up giving me his number after I refused it twice. I think he actually expects me to call. This happened shortly after I got some commentary on my chest while walking down the street. God, I love this city.

Went back to the meeting at 5 p.m. Little did I know that I would seriously spend the next four and a half hours of my life (in a different seat so I wasn’t on camera) listening to complaints about public transportation. I felt a little outraged at the attitude towards parking and people who drive instead of take the bus. Granted, it wasn’t meant as a personal attack, but dude, people drive. Forreal. And parking in the city absolutely sucks.

But that’s an entirely different topic. Point being: this meeting was hell on earth for me. I have a great attention span when I want to, but after the two hour mark my ass was killing me and I just wanted to go home and eat some real food and KTFO.

The meeting finally finished at 9:30 p.m. and I went home to lie on my bed all comatose-like for the rest of the night. I guess listening to hours of testimony on why .8 to 1 parking is so much worse than .75 to 1 parking can really take it out of a girl.