posted by wtanaka at
4/14/2003 04:43:00 PM
Sunday, April 13, 2003
2003-04-09
I tried to go to some cell phone stores today. This quest was hampered by the fact that I didn't really know where they were.
I walked to the Verizon store next to Home Depot (about 20 minutes away). After deciding that there was nothing in that store for me, I went across the street to wait for the "Emery Go Round" (a shuttle bus service that runs around emeryville).
Some girls were waiting there at the bus stop too, talking and joking around. We waited for 25 minutes. Finally, an AC Transit bus comes along (not the one I want), and I decide that there must be something wrong. So I go up and look at the sign and read "NO WEEKDAY SERVICE."
So I leave. One of the girls (sounding disappointed) said "but the bus is here now." I told her I wanted a different one.
So I walk up Hollis street, all the way up to 53rd. I pass two Emery Go Round stops. No busses go past me.
I turn west on Powell. An Emery Go Round passes me. And goes over a bridge. There's no stop nearby. I figure I want to go over that bridge too, so I walk over to it. There's a sign on the bridge. It reads, "No Pedestrians."
I go back to the last stop I passed on Hollis street and wait, feeling a little bit frustrated and reminding myself to not let the frustration take control of me.
10 minutes pass.
Another Emery Go Round passes. Its sign reads "Not In Service."
10 minutes pass.
An Emery Go Round bus passes. Its sign reads "Hollis St/Amtrak." I'm pretty sure that this is not the correct Emery Go Round to go to the Bay Street shopping mall.
I get on it anyway.
I sit down next to the map. North is not pointing up on the map, which makes makes my brain hurt. It appears that I'm at least 15 blocks away from where I needed to catch the correct "Powell" Emery Go Round. So I ride the Hollis bus all the way away from the Bart Station (the starting point) and then all the way back to the Bart Station.
And buy a Bart ticket, thinking that maybe I should just go to Oakland Chinatown to shop for a phone.
But there was a girl waiting for the Powell bus who was cute enough to spend some time looking at, and I figured I may as well also take this opportunity to wander around in Ikea. I'd never seen the inside of the store before, and felt curious.
Another bus goes past, also "Not In Service."
Finally, the Powell bus arrives, and I sit next to the map again. The girl sits next to me. After a few minutes, as I'm still looking at the map trying to understand where these busses go so that I don't get as lost the next time, I hear from behind me: "Excuse me, do you know where the Bay Street stop is?"
