Let Me Wow You With My Weekend, Plus So Much Rambling

It's a toss-up. Either the most productive thing I did this weekend was come close to cracking 200 on Wii Bowling, or get the Facebook promotional widget in the sidebar of my blog. If I knew more about coding, I could probably make it not look so dumb. On the other hand, I kind of love that everything is in ALL CAPS and that my blog's self-selected descriptive tags are LIFE, HUMOR, BIG ASS.

Not inaccurate, but the ALL CAPS font kind of makes it seem like my topics should be more important or formal than they are. Then again, I could have added CAT PEE to the list. Meaning it could have been worse. Won't you join my blog network on Facebook? So that...uhm...

Really, I have no idea what your joining my blog network on Facebook will do for you. I don't know what it will do for me, either. But it seems that joining things on Facebook is imperative, so let's all just keep doing it. Maybe someday we'll know why.

Anyway, the next two BlogHer events are coming up this week, on Saturday (Boston) and Monday (DC). This means one of two things: I will be too exhausted/harried/stressed/busy to post, or I'll post all the time because I will be spending a lot of time on planes and in my hotel rooms. I will make the effort to blog regularly, even if they're short entries.

(BTW, are any of you going to these events?)

Oh, so you know how you came up with all kinds of ideas for what I should blog about? I love you! You have very good ideas.

I agree that it's super dumb that I post so rarely about San Francisco, given that I live here and love it so much. I will definitely have to change this.

My biggest issue (related to blogging) (hi, so many other issues) is that I build these things up in my head and then think I have to write War And Peace about any given subject, which then gives me performance anxiety and then I get blocked.

And then I write another stream-of-conscious entry and AREN'T YOU SO LUCKY.

* * * * * * *
For what it's worth, I'm currently sitting at a restaurant in Fisherman's Wharf because it's Monday night and I had a doctor's appointment in the area-ish, and I have (a cappella) rehearsal tonight. So between one and the other, I decided to get a bite to eat here.

It's a weird, weird place.

First of all, if you are going to visit San Francisco and want to get a feel for the city, do not stay in Fisherman's Wharf. It's lovely, but it's like a plastic version of SF. Even if all you did while in San Francisco was peruse the aisles of a corner Walgreens, you'd get a more realistic idea of this place than by anything you can do at the Wharf. Locals never come to this area unless they are entertaining relatives from out of town.

But one of our group's members works down here, in practically the area's only office building, and her company graciously allow us to rehearse in their conference room on Monday nights, and so.

The place I'm currently sitting is called Tiernan's. It's an Irish pub, created for I'm-not-sure-who. I don't think the food is as authentically Irish as it is authentically what Americans want in an Irish pub. The food is fine, and I know I can get something low-carb-friendly, so it's a good stop for me under the circumstances. Circumstances being it's a few doors away from rehearsal and I can park here without issue.

But here's where I get confused: EVERY time I've ever been here, there is a table full of white-haired British tourists.

Why, if you're from Britain, would you come to a faux "authentic" Irish pub IN SAN FRANCISCO? There are approximately eighty million fantastic places to eat in this city. It's like going to Paris and stopping in the only "Authentic American" bistro in the area. Why? What kind of advice are these folks getting? I honestly don't understand. There are light-up Heineken signs in the window.

Anyway, let's consider this my Advice About Visiting San Francisco, The First Entry. It can be summed up by the very useful "Don't stay in the Fisherman's Wharf area," followed closely by "And if you do, don't go to Tiernan's because there is no reason to unless you're from England and want to run into other English people, and/or just want to hear British accents. Well, also unless you need to grab a bite to eat near my a cappella group's rehearsal spot and don't want to eat at In-And-Out Burger."

I should totally be a travel writer.


p.s. My a cappella group is called The Loose Interpretations. We've got a website (here) and an upcoming performance, which you're invited to (here).

Comments

  1. I will be in Boston. Looking forward to seeing people I feel like I already know.

    And the Facebook thing? I also have the lame widget. Apparently it is a very important thing to have. Or so I am told by my more Facebook savvy friends.

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  2. my favorite pub: the pig & whistle. dangerously close to the dorms when i was in undergrad.

    -el snarkster

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  3. Please tell me your acappella group is named Here Comes Treble.

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  4. I'm hoping we actually get to hang out, have a drink, and talk blogging till we explode, which we never get to do which is damned weird since I am RIGHT IN YOUR OFFICE!! Busy busy!

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  5. Gah, there's something else I need to learn about Facebook?
    As for San Francisco, I live on the opposite coast but my brother-in-law is a cab driver there and I hear he gives awesome tours. So that would be my advice to an out-of-towner. You know, from someone who doesn't live there.

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  6. I live in the Metro DC area - what is going on Monday? And will there be alcohol? Lots and lots of alcohol?

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  7. re the why are the tourists in the pub question: because the English want pubs EVERYWHERE THEY GO.

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  8. I always enjoy your blog, but this particular post (and comments) have been especially delightful to me. Because...*wait for it*...I'm going to San Francisco for my first time as a "grown up" (I use the term loosely) for a week around Thanksgiving. So if you could, you know, write a bunch of more blogs about great things to do/not to do in the city, that would be great. Thanks.

    And Susan...how can I pick out your brothers cab to get a tour?

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  9. Long-time lurker, first-time poster here.

    I understand your point about tourist pubs, but Irish people may not appreciate your implication that they're British. Your analogy may work better if you went to Paris and sought out an "Authentic Canadian" bistro, if such a thing exists. Just some feedback for your Walking Around With It travel series.

    I have broken 200 in Wii bowling, only once, in a bar in Wilmington NC when I was drunk and the girl I was playing with offered to buy me a shot if I broke 200. Perhaps you should try that strategy...

    I enjoy your writing.

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  10. why would you NOT want to eat at in and out burger? it is like heaven on a bun, the kind of heaven that is not available on the east coast. sad :(

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  11. My ex-inlaws once said that they prefered such-and-such a Spanish resort because it "serves better fish and chips". This the land of paella and chorizo and tapas.

    On the flipside, I once heard two Americans in Dublin espying a Burger King and saying "finally, some real food".

    People are unadventurous dolts.

    Jim

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