Turning Nothing Into Something

Almost every time my co-worker asks me what I am doing on the weekend, I have the same one word answer: exploring. I'm not sure why, but she finds this hilarious. Is exploring only something adolescences do in their parent's backyard? Eh. Maybe my wording isn't the best, but what I mean to say is simply that I'm checking out something new. Whether I am just walking around a city I have never been to or riding every roller coaster in an old-timey theme park, to me it is just exploring.

Steven and I just love to "explore" new places and things with each other. In fact, I'd say that is what we do together most often.

We love not knowing what to expect. We either discover something great or as Steven points out, we discover something awful but end up with a great story to tell people. Those stories will have to be another post. The point is, it's always an adventure when we try something new. However, there are a few things that we do habitually. My absolute favorite of those things is visiting an arcade. This began when we first started dating. We had a lot of fun playing games. Skeeball being the all-time favorite for both of us. But wait, here comes the best part...

When we were done playing games, we realized that we both had a bunch of tickets in our hands and we didn't know what to do with them. We didn't have to look at the prize counter for very long to know that we weren't going to get much. Prizes are fun and all, but neither of us had much need for a miniature plastic slinky or a 4-pack of Now and Laters. Steven suggested that we give them to a kid and I was delighted at the idea. We found a cute little girl with just a few tickets in her hand and we passed our tickets onto her. We've been doing it ever since. We spend very little money at arcades, maybe $10 each time. We have a lot of fun and would gladly pay $10 just for that, but we also get to bring a pleasant surprise to a child. It may not be much, but what means basically nothing to us can be the difference between a ice cream cone shaped eraser and a real-sized Whoopie Cushion to a child in an arcade. I get really excited now when we win tickets and I can't wait to look around the room to find someone to give them too. It's an excellent tradition!

The Sidewalk of Morality

I am extremely fortunate because I've been able to live in San Francisco, California for the past year. The City by the Bay is a truly amazing place. It is by far the most unique city I have ever been to. Just a few blocks from where I live, I can hop a ferry to Alcatraz Island or walk to the end of Pier 39 to watch the sea lions play. I can drive down the "crookedest street" in the United States or ride the world's last manually operated cable car. I can bike across the Golden Gate Bridge or through an urban park consisting of over 1,000 acres of beautiful landscaping. I've seen the wild parrots of Telegraph Hill on my walk to work, as well as group of goats hired for weed control. The list goes on and on. I've explored the city as much as possible in the last year and there are still things I haven't seen here. 

All of these things have been documented countless times, I'm sure. However; one of my favorite things in San Francisco, you can only read about here. I call it the Sidewalk of Morality. It lies on Sansome Street between Green and Filbert, right across from the Levi Plaza. On the west side of the street there is a walking path sandwiched between a fence and a series of parking blocks. This path is just wide enough to fit two people comfortably, and this is precisely why it makes the perfect test of morality. 

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Since it is on my route to work, I have taken this path many times. I've taken it so many times that I have noticed a large variety in the way that people handle walking past others. My love for philosophy has caused me to find a lot of ways to find out the character of a person, but this is definitely the simplest version I have found so far. The path is long, so one would have plenty of time to judge how much room they and another person would need to pass each other. 

The really good hearted people get as far over to one side as they can, leaving plenty of room to walk by casually. A larger group of people stay to one side, making sure you have enough room to pass but also making sure they have at least half of the path for themselves. Sadly, the largest number of people move slightly to one side, leaving just enough room for you to walk by with a lean. Some people will even go so far as to purposely take up the entire path, forcing you to jump over the parking blocks just before you pass them when they clearly have plenty of room to move over. Yes, these people exist and aggravate me more than I can say. Of course, judgement gets a bit more complicated when there are groups of people, but you get the idea. I enjoy trying to guess who will move over and to what degree. Which group would you be in? 

Float Me Down the River

One of the best things about traveling is dining out at places that you wouldn't normally. Despite the fact that I am an American, I don't normally eat at A&W, the fast food chain that boasts selling "All American Food". So when Steven and I were visiting Toronto, I thought a small meal at A&W sounded great. Sure, they don't have much on the menu for vegetarians, but I could at least enjoy a delicious root beer float. Wrong.

It turns out that the famous A&W root beer float is no longer on the menu in Canada.Yes, really! So, basically Canada doesn't have A&W -- they have a fast food chain posing as A&W. I just don't understand. Aren't root beer floats what A&W is known for?

Okay, A&W. Here is an idea for you... Maybe you should give a bunch of Americans a free trip to Canada along with coupons to your restaurant. Why? Because I've lived in America my entire life and I've never really craved a root beer float. Then I went to Canada for 3 days and root beer floats are all I can think about.