Monday, August 4, 2008

Back from the Conference

I'm pretty sure I have pictures of the actual conference, but I took them on my cell and I can't find the data cable. So it's going to have to wait. I did more wandering Sunday morning, up and down the streets around the Marriot, just looking...I found the church Kaige mentioned.

..and the chocolate shop next to it.

The church was cool, maybe because it was Sunday, they were ringing the bells, and I haven't heard church bells in years. I sort of sat down and just listened.

And as a thought, there sure are a lot of homeless people in San Francisco, and some damned pushy pigeons. There are two policemen on every corner in the heart of tourist town, and so many tourists they almost outnumbered the panhandlers. You could tell the tourists, they were the ones taking pictures of the homeless people.

For some reason, there were a lot of European tourists, I heard a lot of French and some kind of Dutch based language. The people at the Walhgreens around the corner must be used to it, because these people would just spill their pockets out on the counter instead of handing over the right amount of money.

I did get to watch a bunch of writers doing what most writers seem to do best--which is hang out in the lobby bar (because I'm guessing the one at the top of the Marriot cost more).

I wanted more AMP, but you guessed it...

I had to go back to the Wahlgreens.

The Bristol Farms in the basement of the mall had FIVE kinds of AMP. I was so amazed, I took a picture. But I took it on my phone, and right--missing the data cable for right now. 'sides, Bristol Farms being in the Westfield mall food court, it cost double the price of the icky (and seriously rundown) Walhgreens next to the bus stop.

9 comments:

Kaige said...

Yep, that's the one I was thinking of! It seemed so quaint and out of place when we were there a couple of years ago. I bet the bells were something to listen to.

And the homeless situation there is something that DH has commented upon since he's been going there for conferences. July/August seems to be a good tourist month as it's one of SF's cooler months.

Glad you made it home safely! I hate when cables go missing. Hope you find it.

Unknown said...

It's a beautiful church, and maybe that's my new hobby? Photographing churches. I have to get a better camera or something.

It was gorgeous. It didn't draw me like the other one in Chinatown. I went back to that one later Saturday and said, "thank you". It was pretty hot there, I'm glad I couldn't fit the sweater into my luggage.

But my kid did offer to give me his old bluetooth computer thing and let me sync with that instead. He's loading it tonight. It should work and then you'll get a lot of me staring into the camera at the autographing and dinner and bunches of people and wandering SF aimlessly, lol...

Anonymous said...

My son is trying to get me into Blue Tooth too. I just barely got into cell phone and haven't even done much of anything with text yet. I'm not ready for syncing. It gives that that sinking feeling.

deanna said...

Glad you made it there and back safely. A chocolate shop next to a church sounds like a good thing. Do you feel inspired, serious, writerly?

Jeanna said...

Let's get back to that chocolate shop.

Jennifer McKenzie said...

I didn't get too many chances to talk to you. Even at the Diva dinner it was so loud and noisy, it was too tough to have conversation.
Hey, thanks for getting me into an elevator with Jessica Faust. It gave me the courage to approach her later which was awesome.
And the chocolate? That disappeared. Almost immediately. LOL.
As I sped away in my taxi to leave, I saw you on the corner and tried to wave but missed you.
LOVE the pics. I didn't take to many because I had a cell too. I email mine and then download them.

Unknown said...

Alice, if I did have a geek-son (that sounds kind of odd, doesn't it?) I wouldn't have a computer or a cell. He updates, protects, and hooks me with with weird stuff. I was totally amazed--it was like--"you press a button and it conencts?"

Jeanna, it was Schoggi. A very good friend sent me some Schoggi while I was at the conference and I had to track the shop down. It was fabulous! And expensive. But they also did chocolate drinks, (which were a lot cheaper than buying chocolate) And what better place for it than next to a church?

:)

Unhinged said...

I'm sorry.

You're going to have to slap me.

(But make sure you feed me something good first, dammit.)

It pisses me off that tourists are taking photos of the homeless. Actually, the feeling beating at my throat is much more than that.

Unknown said...

sometimes people come from places where there aren't any, Andi. And in a way that's good, because that sense of naivity (sp?) is what's good about most of the rest of the world/country. Imagine places where homeless people are so rare you only read about them in books and see them on tv? In a skewed way, it's pretty cool.