My usual and preferred method for getting to and from work is astride my wonderful bicycle, La Nuit Verte. There is really no finer way to start or end one’s work day than with a delightful ride through downtown SF (the exception of course being those rides that include either mowing down a jaywalking pedestrian or being hit by a car, followed by a trip to the ER – but those are thankfully few and far between…)
With all the rain we’ve had over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been relegated to taking Muni to and from work, an experience that is at the complete opposite end of the commuting spectrum from biking. In fact, I would venture to say that spending time in Dante’s Third Circle of Hell would be like a vacation in a tropical paradise compared to riding Muni.
Of course, if it’s not actually raining, I could walk – though due to my Baron-Harkonnen-esque girth and monstrosity, I typically eschew walking if the Next Bus indicator tells me a 2-Clement is arriving within five minutes (though, this of course is a crap-shoot, thanks to the high percentage of ghost buses on this line…). But since Muni apparently thinks it is acceptable to have a 25-minute wait between buses at 5PM on a Friday (seriously – the Next Bus indicator as I left the office showed one arriving in 50 seconds – and the next scheduled to arrive in 24 minutes and 30 seconds), walk I often do.
This is really all just quite a long introduction to a discussion of walking in the City. It is something I do regularly – though walking to and from work is really the only time I combine walking with listening to music on my headphones. And I’m just wondering: am I the only person who uses this as an opportunity to practice my sexy walk for the fashion catwalk? I mean, the lines in the sidewalk really help with the footwork (heel-toe-heel-toe, in a straight line to get those hips swinging…), turning a corner gives me practice with my pivot and stopping for a red light allows me to brush up on my hand-on-hip-with-surly-gaze-into-an-indeterminate-point-on-the-horizon look. Currently, this is the best song on my playlist for my “rehearsals”…
(crickets)
Um, so it’s just me who does this? Well, OK… Gosh, this is awkward. Eh, whatever. It looks something like this. And no, I’m not the wobbly one – I’m the one who walks past her, muttering “Outta my way, bish.”
It's a Complete Outrage 