Random observations…

It was exhausting, but productive. I’d been putting it off the eventuality of Christmas for ages, and so my sister intervened, Barted in from the East Bay and got me to make decisions. Chinatown, as usual, offered up its opulent riches from the East, or rather, container ships full of plastic and pseudo-silk at ridiculously low prices (yet high when you compare to the original cost in yuen)- when I was negotiating with one store seller, she offered up a kind of unique argument- because the US currency conversion was so bad they weren’t making as much profit, and couldn’t negotiate down as much as in previous times I’d shopped there. Could be true or fals,e but I gave her points for unique. Instead she threw in more product. H&M resolved some holiday party dressing issues, and the food court at SF Centre really hit the spot, once we managed the masses of office workers, retail workers, and shoppers elbowing folks out of the way for the random little Beard Papa puff or Vietnamese soup. I was sorely tempted to head into a movie and checkout for a few hours, but instead took the Cable Car- which while touristy is the most direct route home- wrapped and prepared stuff for shipping. The car turned out to have a 8:3 townie:tourist ratio. Last week the conductor let some tourists change seats to go outside, and it took about 5 minutes, as one gal kept wavering in her decision. I mean, there’s a point I’ll concede to tourists as they generally pay for the rail, but come on, that’s just bending over a little too far.