Day 5: A Non-Idle Ides of March

After last night’s multitude of activity, I slept in a bit this morning versus being a good girl and going on a run. I have to tell ya, the 9 a.m. start time makes life much more tolerable.

I did rush a bit more than I’d have liked however, resorting to grabbing Starbucks in the Chevron station behind the office. Pike’s Roast, a banana and donut probably weren’t the healthiest choices, but I was panicked and hungry. I also witnessed a full-scale Starbucks meltdown (they’re only rumored in a “nice” city like Milwaukee) from the guy in front of me. He had two Starbucks cards but had apparently transferred the load from one to the other, however the machine didn’t read it that way. At the end of the day he had enough between the two cards to cover his purchase but apparently it was some huge friggin deal that it wasn’t all on one. Dude, I just had to get to work.

Work actually flew by as there was quite a bit of activity with both in-person and online meetings in the office today. I ran into some awkward snafus with using multi-platform technologies, but I’ll learn in time. I’m also getting used to having  a dual display — something I’ve dreamed of forever, but of which I now must harness the power. I had a solid meeting with my boss this afternoon and understand a bit more of how I’ll integrate in with the existing company. I always forget that the first week or two on a new job is almost like being in a foreign country. I’ll get the hang of it eventually though.

For lunch today I did try the highly recommended Harvest Urban Market, about a block from my office. The salad bar was sort of overwhelming, but I navigated my way through that, and grabbed a tasty treat of an organic corn muffin as well (probably vegan also). I took it back to the office and ate with the other women that work there. They had some good tips for music venues and restaurants. Always good to hear advice from the locals. I also found out that we have communal breakfast in the kitchen area, so no need to rush to Starbucks in the future. Woohoo.

It’s sort of a flexible closing time, so I tried to follow the lead of my co-workers of when to go. Mary Ann suggested we attend a Wisconsin Solidarity Rally together, so we arranged to meet up at the Civic Center Muni stop at 6. Side story: as I waited I had a bit of a sneezing fit. The homeless man sleeping at my feet, sat up and said “God Bless You.” It was such a human moment in its total element of surprise.

The weather was truly MISERABLE this evening (Mary Ann called it the “fine print” of living in California) and the turnout at the rally was a little sad. I am nervous of catching cold having just started a new job, so we left the well-intentioned souls there and headed up to Lower Haight on a mission.

What mission? Well…I’ve started actively stalking/following San Franciscans on Twitter to get my finger on the pulse of what’s going on around here. All day there was a buzz about Pliny the Elder Ice Cream at Three Twins Ice Cream on Haight & Fillmore. Yes, that’s correct, beer-flavored ice cream. Mary Ann was game, so we decided we’d grab dinner first than ice cream.

Having gotten soaked on the way up the hill, we stopped into a Thai place that MAB thought she’d been to before called Chilli Cha Cha. I had green curry, which was just okay. There were eggplants in it, which redeemed the dish, but I’m always weary when I see a crinkle-cut carrot and a probably frozen green bean.

No worries though, because the next stop was culinary heaven. It seemed we weren’t the only ones with the idea either, just beating the line to get a scoop of pure deliciousness. I have no idea how the folks at Three Twins did it, but the ice cream really did taste like beer — in the best way possible. And since my pals over at Year In Beer had recommended Pliny as a “must drink” beer I was happy to sample the dessert version of it.

I had a little more time before I needed to be back in the Mission and MAB suggested we stop into Toronado, where she’d always wanted to go. Talk about brew to bay! I counted no less than three Wolski’s stickers, a Lakefront Sticker, a Fuel Café sticker, and an Atomic Records Sticker. Milwaukee represent!

The bartenders were also *incredibly* helpful in beer selection. MAB decided to get an actual Russian River non-ice cream Pliny and let me sample, so I opted to go with another beer. I’d never heard of The Bruery, so finding out they were semi-local (Orange County), I opted to try their Saison de Lente after getting a taste from the bartender (who to his credit tried to talk me out of it). It wasn’t at all that it was bad, just that there were so many *good* beers available.

So before I left, I had to get my own Pliny. Which meant Mary Ann had to one up the Pliny. While I’m not sure she succeeded, at the barkeep’s recommendation she ordered a Lagunita’s SF Fusion: Hophigh Double IPA. While the Pliny slid down with near perfection, the Hophigh had a sweetness to it that I suppose could be off putting to some. It was pure caramel on the first sip, but after a couple almost had a peppery taste. Overall, I’d say we did damn well with our selections.

Also, while we were in there some folks brought in a pint of the PtE ice cream and were passing it around. I do love how communal this city is. Soooo my vibe.

It was soon time to part (daylight savings keeps throwing me off as to how late it really is), and I headed to MUNI. I got home just in time to welcome back Ritu and Darian and catch up with my gracious hosts before heading to bed, ready once again to see what tomorrow brings!