Mike Jutan's World: My busy car rental day

Sunday, September 09, 2007

My busy car rental day

Wow, today was busy. I did like a bazillion things. Now I'll do my best to describe these things in way too much detail. Actually, not in tooooo much detail. It's already 3am, I'm exhausted from the day and I've got another episode of Entourage to watch. So I'll make it (relatively) quick. :)

Ok so this morning I got up later than I wanted to. But headed off right away to the dude who was supposed to sell me a TV entertainment unit (that I wasn't actually sure I wanted anyway), but seemed like a good deal and a good idea to get that before I get a TV. Anyway I got the ZipCar and then got to his place and he said it was not going to fit in the car. So that sucked. But I wasn't sure I wanted it anyway, and it was kindof a pain that the dude didn't tell me that it wasn't going to fit in a normal car and I should get an SUV. Anyway I said no worries and took off to the Sunset area to get my awesome blue squares Ikea rug. Sweeet!!!!!!! I had to make a stop off at a bank and made a parking spot on someone's driveway pretty much while I ran into the bank. But got to the rug person's house and it was in great condition, really cool and quite big, so I went for it. Great deal for such a cool rug, and it seemed to be in excellent condition. The people were very nice, the lade I didn't meet but her husband was originally from Jordan and was really nice and I wished them good luck for their move.

Then I got a call from Matt Parrott who had been waiting for me at the Ferry Building for ages with his girlfriend Miriam (who is also awesome), and sucked that they had been waiting. So I booted it downtown, and the drive downtown wasn't bad, there wasa bit of traffic but nothing too crazy. The most annoying part about driving around here is the one-way streets and the weird intersections and FINDING PARKING SPOTS ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, I got there and then found a decent parking spot close to the Ferry Building, it was just 25 cents for 5 minutes!! I stuffed as much change as I had in there, and then went to meet Matt and Miriam. Got a nice Blue Bottle Cappuccino and also some more coffee beans. Then got a muffin and some peaches, said bye to Matt and Miriam and headed back to my car with the intention of driving across to the east bay. But as I got there I got a phone call from Frank (who was at Ghirardelli Square) and Bill (who had just arrived at the Ferry Building himself!) I just realized then that I'd just walked by Bill's car and so I got a bunch of change and put 1 hour more into the parking meter.

Then back to the Ferry Building, got some bread and cheese, saw the cute Cowgirl Creamery girl again but she was busy and I didn't want to make too much of a commotion. Bill's friend made fun of me for having a bit of a crush on this girl for like 2 years and never asking her out. :) Oh well. Anyway the coffee was awesome and we had bread and cheese and honey on a bench at the water. Then I said bye to Bill and his friend and took off, driving across the Bay Bridge for the first time!!!! That was fun and, again, driving over the bridge was no worries! It was finding the entrance to the bridge between the traffic and the one-way streets and no-left-turns (I CAN'T TAKE THOSE NO LEFT TURN SIGNS ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) haha, anyway I finally found it and got across the bridge and went all the way to Berkeley.

There I went to the North Face Outlet store and got an ammmaaaaaazzinnng new Gore Tex XCR lightweight bright blue jacket with a hood, for when the rainy season starts and I am still biking to work. It is a reaaaaaaallllllly nice jacket and it was SO cheap. I love that store!!

Then off to Target, where I spent another $130 or something ridiculous. I got cleaning supplies for the toilet and the bathroom, a swiffer, swiffer refills, a massive pack of paper towels, toilet paper, Total cereal, coffee, and I got about 6 bottles of Classico pasta sauce since it was on sale for $1.99!! :) Good times. I also finally got a battery-powered air inflater for my big air mattress. It is so hard to inflate that on your own since it's a Queen sized mattress and it's pretty nuts. So I got an inflater for it and that'll be good for when I go camping or when random friends stay over and want to sleep on the air mattress. Yes, I got my favourite breadsticks there too. Even though I am not eating junk stuff now, you gotta get those breadsticks when they are hot and fresh... ohhh maaaaaaaaaaaaaan those are good.

Anyhoo, after that I went to Trader Joe's in Emeryville and got a few kinds of dried fruit.

Then... to Ikea!!!!!!!!! Yes, this day of schlepping around in the car is still going. Then I spent a good 2 hours at Ikea looking and stuff and picking out a nice paper drawer I needed to get. That was reaaaaaaally fun. I got lots of cool stuff there. Also I saw the multicoloured rug I wanted to get but it was too expensive, so I got the one from Craigslist instead. The one I got is exactly the same, just not such crazy colours.

After Ikea I drove back across the Bay Bridge and then home. I unloaded the car and dropped off all my stuff. Then ate something. Then Yaron called!! The Waterloo boys were in the city in the Mission and were going for dinner. Man. So I got BACK in the car and headed down there! Again, no worries. Easy drive, no worries, pretty quick, 15 min. But then I took about 30 min trying to find a parking spot!!!!!!!!!!! It took SO long, but eventually I got one. I met the boys, we had a hamburger and then went to a bar/chill place and that was fun. I didn't have anything to drink because I was driving, but it was cool to see the guys as usual. Then we went back to their temporary house, watched some SNL for a bit, and then headed out. They dropped me at the car and then I drove back home.

Wait, it's not done. Since I still had the car, and was still clearly trying to maximize my 1-day rental, I drove out to the Safeway store and went grocery shopping at 1:30 in the morning!!!!!! Haha insane. Anyway, it was super quiet (of course) and I managed to get some heavy things like Milk and stuff so I could drive all that stuff home.

Then... I drove home and unpacked the groceries. Then I decided I was going to be way too tired tomorrow morning to drop off the car early in the morning at the parking spot where it goes. This is about a 10 min walk from my house, so I just drove the car there and then walked back to my aparment. Man I'm tired, what a crazy day.

Tomorrow I am just going to chill and unpack and organize some of this stuff.