Feeling a little better today after some rest, I am happy to report. Not much better but I think I can last through a seven hour shift at work. One of my friends at work switched shifts with me, so I get an extra hour and a half to rest. I spend the day, like I do many others, doing my pre-work routine.
I do a few hours of homework, put on Pandora, and start to get ready for the evening. I usually ride my purple, beat-up bike, to work; but today its pouring rain. Our winter consists of days, upon days of rain, which I like better than snow. However, today is said to have thunderstorms, which is highly unusual. So to take precautions, I decided to take the bus instead. I have a bus stop right in front of my house but I have yet to use it. I put on the "Real Time" tracker, a really cool instrument to let you know when the bus is really coming (not when it says its scheduled because if its one thing I've learned about public transit, is that it goes by its own schedule).
I take Rufus for his last walk before I leave. He is so fussy and he hates the rain. I don't know if its because he doesn't like his big, pointy ears getting wet, or if its because he is spoiled. Either case, he sprints, not walks, all around until we get back home.
I take an hour to relax, while drying off my furry friend with a recently washed sweatshirt, a.k.a. doggy towel. I did mention that he is spoiled. Once the clock strikes 4:00PM, I resume getting my things together. I check the bus trackers and am disappointed to discover that it will be 40 minutes until another bus gets here, which would be cutting it way too close. I decide to walk, hoping that I will beat whatever thunderstorm we supposedly would be getting.
I make it to work with time to stop and get coffee. My restaurant is a casual dining establishment and ice creamery. It has been around since 1894. Its a cool place to work, no pun intended; but no one likes cold treats when its so damp and dreadful outside. Or so it seemed until about 8:30PM, when we went on a wait and all of the tables in the restaurant got filled with rain soaked patrons.
By 1:00AM I am almost at home, with a modest amount of money in my apron. Dreading tomorrow night's shift, from 4:30PM - 12:00AM (at least, that is just when we close)!
I thought I'd give you a rundown on what I know or think I know about Oakland:
ReplyDelete* fire in the hills burned a manuscript of Maxine Hong Kingston
* birthplace of the Black Panthers
* "There's no there there"--Gertrude Stein
* It's definitely not Berkeley
* The ballpark is not a good ballpark
And that's it. And, of course, that it rains and rains....
I'm not sure about the burnt manuscript but Oakland is the birthplace of the Black Panthers. Its an up an coming city, where Berkeley has notoriously been awesome. The ballpark is not great but it has an Irish pub and tickets to A's games are really cheap. I've seen the Sox play there twice and my tickets were less than $40. No one goest to A's games either, so once you get in the park its easy to sit up front.
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