Manlio Rules

A few weeks ago, during one of our post trivs drinking binges at Bigfoot Lodge, Aubrey, Ali, Ryan and myself decided that this summer would not be complete without a little bit of a camping trip. I was put in charge of “planning”, which in retrospect was probably not a great idea, as the next weeks after proved to be hectic and unmanagable for many many reasons.

Somehow, through all the messes of vacations and other crazy stuff, we ended up planning a camping trip for this weekend. the destination: Clear Lake State Park, about 120 miles north of the city.

Friday
9AM: wake up
9:45AM: head for REI to pick up tents, end up spending $100 on random camping gear including kick ass matches (light in a downpour!), and a crankable LED lamp.
10AM: head for Sean’s place to drop off gear
10:15AM: Sean is not answering his phone. Call Daisy to see if she has talked to him. end up calling Briehan’s high school friend of the same name. Realize that i don’t have Daisy’s phone number.
10:30AM: Sean lets us in, transfer all supplies, head back home to get some work done
3:30PM: go back to sean’s, park my car in his garage, walk to ron’s with my bag
4PM: We’re on the road!
4:15PM: Friday Traffic sucks
5:15PM: i mean, seriously. where the hell is everyone going?
5:30PM: we realize that Aubrey has printed out directions to the wrong State Park. Iphone’s are used to find the real ones
6:30PM: this sucks
7PM: stop for McDonald’s Fries and skewers for shrimp
7:30PM: we all get sick while taking CA-175 over lots of turns and hills
8PM: arrival! pitch the tents and marvel at the feast Sean and Daisy have for us
8:30PM: dig into lots of food, settle in, sing songs, relax

Saturday
10AM: Rent a boat.
11AM:

12PM:

1PM:

2PM:

3PM: returned to camp, took naps, thought about bacon cheeseburgers for dinner:
6PM:

ali turns back time
7PM: Burgers, Beans, and corn on the cob
8PM: food comas
10PM: sleepy time
10PM: talk about how Ali goes on lots of dates
10PM: talk about how most of us have been on many dates in our lives.
Midnight: Sleepytime

Sunday
9AM: Wake up to children banging on things
10AM: breakfast includes 15 of the 36 eggs that we bought
11AM: packing begins
11:45AM: on the road
3PM: back in SF
3:30PM: drop off the tents
4PM: home. sleepy. relaxed.

Main Takeaways (for next time)
1. Renting boats is awesome.
2. Maybe next time we find a place with grass so everyone doesn’t get so dirty
3. it would be nice to hike in a little bit so we can’t see the cars right next to the campsite
4. we need a place with a camp fire pit closer to the tents so we have heat at night
5. my “build a chair” sucks, i need another camping chair
6. food planning should be done before the day of the trip
7. Reservations need to be made much earlier than 3 weeks in advance
8. i should not go camping and then expect to enjoy my cubicle.

Last month, i received a citation on the Caltrain. to be fair, i deserved it, even though i don’t think forgetting to stamp your caltrain 10 ride ticket should result in a fine. i thin ktaht the conductors shoudl be able to do it for you. but that’s not how caltrain works, and i’m sure there are good reasons for that.

in any event, on my citation it told me to appear in court on tuesday. last week i started trying to figure out how to just pay the fine and not have to deal with this. i found the following things:

1. the ticket told me to go to SF2, also known as juvenille court. hmmm…
2. Juvi (juvy?) told me (on the phone) that this was clearly a mistake, to go to regular court
3. the automated citation payment system had no record of my ticket, so i couldn’t pay in advance
4. there is no way to talk to a real person on the phone. after the citation system gives you the option, it sends you to a line with a busy signal

so, like any good citizen, i went to SF superior court at 8AM on tuesday to clear up the matter. upon arriving, i proceeded to room 101 as my ticket stated, only to see MANY signs indicating that the traffic division had moved to room 145. now, my citation clearly said “non traffic”, but since some of the signs referred to the division as “traffic/nontraffic citations”, i figured maybe i should just try room 145 first.

lady in room 145: “i don’t know what this is, try room 101.”
lady in room 101: “have you been to room 145?”
me: “sigh.”

so the nice woman in room 101 looked through the records, and found no mention of my citation, and stamped the ticket. i thought i was home free. but then she said: “oh, and you shoudl go up to room 475 just to make sure you don’t have a record up there”

the woman in room 475 was also very nice, looked up my ticket, couldn’t find it, stamped me, and then sent me to room 322, to make sure that the DA had no record of me.

the woman at the DA’s office took my ticket, and told me that i did not actually have court today, but i would be receiving a fine in the mail at some point (crap).

and then today, because my life sucks, i got a fine from the SAN MATEO court system, telling me that i owe them $300 and a guilty plea to make this all go away. but of course their website still can’t find my ticket, so as loathe as i am to put this stuff in the mail, i like that idea better than going to 14 different rooms in San Mateo only to end up in the basement where i’m sure i’d be fined a billion dollars and then told to proceed to room “negative pi”, where they would remove all my fingernails with a pair of pliers… wow. that got dark really fast.

anyways, point of story = don’t forget to stamp your freaking caltrain ticket.

ok, quick updates on the last 2 weeks, i didn’t realize it had been so long since i posted.

last weekend mom and mont were in town. we did the following things

1. angel island power walk
2. giants game (barry did not break the record)
3. Softball (mont pitched)
4. Napa

this was all in 2 days. i was exhausted. i’m still exhausted

this weekend trish and i are going away for her bday, which some of you may know was a few weeks ago, but she’s been busy so we had to reschedule the trip. i’ll have photos next week.

work is going ok, i’m having some trouble getting motivated, but somehow am still exceeding expectations. crazy talk.