Social Safeway

No, we don't shop at the Marina Safeway, because we're not looking to be picked up. We do shop at Safeway by the Church Street station, which is always packed, has check-out lines 3+ full carts deep, and recently has been showing off some quite bare shelves despite a grand re-opening with much fanfare and an otherwise aesthetically pleasing store.

Because Matt and I almost always bring our own bags to the store, I often find it necessary to bag myself. Although BYOB is becoming much more common, many baggers simply can't figure out how to bag in a timely fashion if the bag is not already attached the handy little metal holder thing. (This is especially a problem at Target, where the check-out lanes are just not set up to handle BYOB very well.) So anyway, Matt pays while I bag, me being the one with professional grocery store experience and all.

Last night, the bagger on our lane was stupendously far behind, and nearly the whole end of the lane was still covered in food from the previous customer. Instead of helping to bag, our intrepid cashier began scanning our items, and stacking them carefully next to the scanner, so as not to confuse them with the other person's items. So I quickly whipped out my bags and started tossing in items, of course being careful to put the heavy things in the bottom and spread out, the crushables on top, and the cold items in their own bags. (Baggers just don't bag like they used to.)

The cashier actually told me, albeit somewhat jokingly, that I shouldn't go so fast because I would spoil their routine. Apparently, he thinks customers enjoy standing in endless check-out lanes just so he doesn't have to strain himself, and since no one is usually there to demonstrate how a grocery check-out should actually happen, the customer doesn't know the difference. Meanwhile, when the bagger finally finished with the previous customer, I had about one bag to go. Did he offer to take over? No. He just stood there and watched me, as did the cashier. As we were leaving, the cashier was still going on about how I was making them look bad. No kidding.

(Granted, had the bagger taken over, I would have just complained per usual about how slow he was. Also, note that these people make at least $9.79 per hour (minimum wage in SF), far more than I made as a cashier back in high school.)

Bad News in the Bay

So far the New Year hasn't been kind. Early New Year's morning, BART police shot and killed a young black man in what videos seem to show was an uwarranted homicide. The police have yet to release any details about exactly what happened. Last night, what started as a peaceful protest aagainst the act and racial injustice led to an angry mob that smashed cars and storefronts throughout downtown Oakland. Even the Mayor's personal address could not appease them.

[Update: and another questionable shooting of a young non-white man by police.]

In other bad news, someone drew swastikas and angry messages about the Catholic church's support of Prop 8 on the pro-gay Catholic Church in the Castro where I went to Christmas Mass with my mom. Yes, the Catholic Church in general stuck their nose places they should not have in the Prop 8 campaign, but it is still the right of gay people who otherwise believe in the faith to practice their religion, especially at such a liberal church. The Christmas Eve celebration was fantastic. The pews were packed by a large majority of men -many with their arms around each other, some women, and a very few kids. Everybody sang together, and everybody seemed to know each other. Trust me, this is not typical in the Catholic church. It seemed to be a wonderful community, and they did not deserve that graffiti. Yes, Prop 8 sucks, but let's not spread blame to places it doesn't belong.

A Hydrangea To Brighten Your Day

Boys and Girls

Check out the recent post, by invitation only, on the Cocktail Party Physics blog. Sexism in not only religion, but also science. A topic near and dear to my heart, as always.

P.S. My birthday present turns out to be a boy. If I still buy pink things, will my sister acquiesce to my nuttiness or to social conformity? To be continued...

Monterey Part II: The Monterey Bay Aquarium

I have never seen so many giant strollers in one place. I have never seen so many families with terribly-behaved children pay good money to eat in a full service restaurant when they could eat with the other terrible children across the way in self-service. (Honestly, if your child is going to throw food at me, you could at least apologize...) That was just a rant. I recently discussed my feelings about zoos and aquariums in relation to the CalAcademy.

Seafood Watch

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is super famous, because it is awesome, and also created the Seafood Watch Pocket Guide with which I hope you are familiar. If you are not veggie or vegan or like Matt, a meatatarian who despises seafood, you should check this out. Please make sure you are not eating bad fishies. This is very important for your health and for the ecosystem.

Sea Otters

The Aquarium also does some other awesome things. It houses 5 of the cutest sea otters ever. All of them are unreleasable for one reason or another. At least one of them, in fact, has toxo, which I recently learned about at NASW. Accordingly, one of the Aquarium's educational campaigns is to teach people that even outdoor cats should have litter boxes. When cats pick up toxo from rats and then poop, water carries some of that toxo-fied poop into waterways and eventually into the ocean, where tiny sea creatures pick it up, and then pass it on to bigger creatures like sea otters. Sea otters with toxo cannot survive in the wild, but they can live in captivity if medicated. So if you have an outdoor cat (or ahem, monkey), you are supposed to train it to poop in an outdoor litter box, and then send the poop to a landfill in a bag where it cannot escape.

Three of the resident sea otters also serve as surrogate moms to orphaned pups. Pups who have lost their mothers are brought to the aquarium, where a resident sea otter teaches it to forage and other such things that sea otters need to know. It also provides maternal comfort. The surrogate moms do such a good job that the pups can then be released back into the wild. Isn't that the cutest thing ever? See a success story here.

Save the Oceans

The Aquarium also helps provide other opportunities for people to contribute to ocean health and sustainability, and can keep you informed about specific issues that require action.

Other Education

Throughout the Aquarium, there are tips about how you can make a difference. I learned not to stand on things near tidepools that probably are alive. Although Matt and I learned our lesson and stepped carefully post-Aquarium visit, we saw many others smashing cute little creatures unknowlingly.

Pretty Things

From the jellyfish to the rays to the river otters, there were some phenomenal things on display. I may have had to fight children to see them, but see them I did.

And the Cons...

I did have some concerns, such as the sign that assured me I could touch the rays because they had had their stingers removed, and the volunteers who told a guest that they moved creatures out of the touch pools when they showed signs of stress. Although I did enjoy touching the starfish, I certainly don't want to contribute to its elevated stress levels. Which brings me back to the question; is it okay for some animals to be, in a way, sacrified, so more people can care about the oceans and the creatures and learn how to protect them? I don't know where to draw the line.

A Weekend in Monterey

(with the Rich & Famous)


(and the cute but not-so-cuddly)

Highlights:

~Coast scenery similar to what we saw on our honeymoon, only closer to San Francisco and more populated.

~Beautiful sunsets

~Monterey Bay Aquarium. I have so much to say about this, I think I might write another post.

~Fantastic beaches and tidepools

~Butterflies! by the thousand

~So many other creatures! Whales, sea lions, seals, sea otters, dolphins. The sea otters are my favorite.

~Whale watching. Yes, we took a boat ride, after I verified that the company followed protocols and wouldn't get too close to the creatures, etc. No, I wouldn't do it again. The humongous (! I am not exaggerating. They were bigger than our 75 foot boat!) ocean swells even made Matt's stomach do flips. We never thought we'd eat again, especially when the German next to us went to the back of the boat and threw up after a lengthy conversation with his wife.

~Eating lunch in our scrubby clothes in Carmel-by-the-Sea (hoity toity town where Clint Eastwood used to be mayor)

~I'm sure I'm forgetting something. It was beautiful. You can view pictures of our trip on Picasa.

Chihuly Updated

I finally put up pictures from my DBG post on Picasa.