California love pt. 2

So this is day two for me in San Fran. I can't say that I've been terribly impressed by my stay yet, but in all fairness, it's awful hard to fall in love with a city when you're inside a convention center the entire time.

SATURDAY

Began bright and EARLY at 4 am. Boarded a plane west-bound for a very long, cramped, starvation-inducing flight. 6 (lonnnnnng) hours later, I was here. Thankfully the flight was uneventful, but there was one point at IAD that I was convinced I was going to be stripped searched because (begin embarrassing admission) I was so scared to be flying that I couldn't stop the tears (end embarrassing admission) and only afterward did I realize that hmmmm, a weepy woman could appear to be mighty suspicious!!! :o/

Landed, cabbed over, ate lunch with my coworkers at (oooh) the Daily Grill (how exotic). 1 pm local time - being 4 pm EST and almost 10 hours since we'd last eaten) we were FAMISHED. Headed over to the convention center to play "where's my boxes?"

Once our PAC booth was all set up and ready for the morrow, Kristin and I hit the shops. Well we hit an ENORMOUS Macy's and a "famous SF" store called Gump's. Um. OMG. I felt like a child, having to put my hands in my pockets to keep from breaking the pretty things that STARTED at $800... Oouf. Needless to say I didn't even bother at Tiffany's and Ferragamo's and other big named places like that. But I did manage get a cute top for dinner tonight (Sunday) - because when you tell me to pack "casual", I bring teeshirts and jeans. Noone said anything about "elegant casual".

Then I went back to my room - which PS is TINY. OMG I've never seen a smaller room. We totally got the "staff rate" shaft. You cannot open the door to the room without hitting the bed. You can touch the bed with one hand on all 4 walls. But it does have the "heavenly shower" - dual shower heads with the best water pressure. Pure bliss. Anyway I digress - took a 20 minute nap and hit the shower to go meet the girls for drinks and dinner. At this point it's 10 pm EST and I'm dragging. My eyes are so bloodshot I look like a zombie.

We meet for drinks at this funky bar downstairs and then head out for some "authentic" SF food. The conceierge sent us to a place called B44. It's an alleyway by Chinatown that holds like 5-6 different restaurants, all smelling wonderful. It was really cute. Look at the menu and - ew. Why does every dish either include squid, squid ink, rabbit or some other horrible piece of edibles? Blegh. Finally ordered some paella that had 99% normal food in it and had them substitute chorizo sausage for the rabbit. It was tasty and the night was beautiful.

Headed back to the hotel (at this point it's almost 1 am EST) and was informed on the way back that our boss wanted to meet us for a drink at our hotel. Sigh. SIGH. Fine. I managed to stay coherent for ONE MORE GLASS of wine (a very nice pinot grigio, might have to find out who it was and bring it home for Amy) and then passed. my. ass. out.

TODAY

Got up early, hit the convention center where I was working the PAC booth. Which, here, consists of pointing people to the registration area. :( Pretty boring for the most part. Got to meet a couple of the PAC board members. Saw three squids walk past (yummy - did I mention it's Fleet Week here so there are ALLEGEDLY military boys EVERYWHERE but since I'm stuck indoors all week I'm SKREWED?!) which brightened my day.

Now I'm chilling at the staff office which is code speak for "surf the internet for 4 hours and enjoy the peace and quiet". Not complaining in the least.

Tonight the staff is heading out to dinner at a little italian place where I hear everyone gets tore up and, past years have seen singing, dancing, and bull riding. :oO

The city seems to be an amalgamation of every big city I've ever visited (not that I have a long list, but...) I see parts of Denver, DC, NYC and Philly everywhere I turn. The land here is a mix of hills and palm trees, and very tall buildings. So far, noone I've met has been very nice. The cabbies are either surly or just plain crazy. The only nice people I've met (not connected to our meeting) have been the check-in clerk at my hotel and the guy who sold me my lunch today. Not good odds so far. But there are bits of beauty to be found. There seems to be some great artwork here.

I also am SEVERLY overdressed. I packed only suits to wear - I'm taking jackets, skirts, lined suit pants, etc. but everyone here is wearing khakis, normal business casual stuff. WTF? Man next year I am SO re-thinking my wardrobe!

I hope the rest of this week goes quickly. I am already counting the hours until I get home again. I miss Justin and the kitty and friends and blue jeans! :)

I hope I get some time to go out and explore the city on my own, take photos. I have had no time to myself yet, and the one time I tried to take a picture of the famed enormous hills behind my hotel, I was shoved out of the way (it's crazy busy here, like NYC) and the streets are too busy to snap a shot. I want to ride a trolly at least; I know some are staying longer to go to Alcatraz which I just won't be able to do. But I WILL come home with some CA wine! Somehow...

More to come if I have time. Ciao for now.