Last Day ;(

(a similar blog, and a really cool picture,  can be seen at LG's blog,  http://lusciousgarage.com/blog/  )

Today is (was?) my final day @ LG.  It was pretty exciting, LG received some love from the media (in the business section of the SF Chronicle), and is due for some more in the upcoming days. (It was also given the 'best of the bay' title for auto repair... awesome. )

I've been here since the beginning of May and its time for me to go back to Cleveland. 

(rewind for those who had not been following my previous blog)

I am a high school senior at Carolyn's alma mater in Cleveland, Ohio. 

Working at LG is my senior project/internship and soon after leaving here, I will graduate from high school. 

I plan to major in mechanical engineering and minor in industrial design at The Ohio State University in the fall (Carolyn went to UMich, OSU's mortal enemy). 

I came to the Luscious garage for experience in a small business, green practices, and a female's perspective on being in the male dominated technical field. 

(ok, back to where we were).

So yes, today was my last day. In celebration, Carolyn, John, and I drove up to Twin Peaks and looked over SF (the weather was really nice today), we got ice cream (yum), and took lots of pictures. 

Although its been a lot of hard work being an intern here, it has been very rewarding, and I'm sad to leave.

Who is going to make John and Carolyn laugh now? (Or make cheesecake, or get coffee?)

Well by this time tomorrow I'll be back in Cleveland, but for tonight I'll hopefully win the ticket lottery for Wicked or Spamalot, so that should be fun.

So yea. 

until next time, 

J

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

As I was running for the train I believe my phone slipped out of my pocket. 

I normally don't run for things, but I had maybe 10 minutes to book it to the caltrain station which is a block over and maybe 4 or 5 blocks away. I made the train (thankfully, the next one would have left an hour later!), though soon after it left I realized that my phone wasn't anywhere to be seen or heard. 

I miss my red blackberry. 

);

oh and now that the surprise is over, the 'groceries' was a homemade oreo cheesecake from scratch for John's birthday. 

yum. 

I'm going to see Chicago tonight (the musical) in Saratoga. That should be exciting.  I heard the music once before but I have never seen it done before (nor have I seen the movie), so this should be fun. 

sadly unable to check email every five minutes, 

J.

Houston, we have a uniform

After slaving away at the shop since the beginning of May in one of Carolyn's work shirts (No, I'm not Carolyn, No I can't fix your car...) I finally have my own shirt with my own name! woo hoo.

Oh and  shoutout to John whose birthday is tomorrow! he will enjoy the groceries. code word. 

Today was a marvelous day. 

I love the Caltrain, it officially became my favorite mode of public transportation. its like a double decker train that feels like an airplane (the seats), and unlike the BART, you never have to stand, there should always be enough room for you to sit. What's amazing about it is that I can get from San Francisco to Palo Alto in about an hour. No driving or anything. AWESOME

Speaking of Palo Alto, today I visited IDEO and I had a personal little tour by a recruiting person from the company. The facilities are so cool. They have a friggen yurt with a draw-on table (the paper is donut shaped... you kind of have to see it, but believe me its cool even though I can't explain it). 

The coolest thing at IDEO was that I got to see THE shopping cart. the shopping cart that started it all.  (check out the deep dive video from Nightline ABC from about '98 or '99, it was this video that sparked my interest in design and product design). 

I got to see the outside of the toy lab and I got to see some of their process. 

Prototype, prototype, prototype (that's kind of hard to type three times fast)

improve

validate

 (or something along those lines). 

I also got to see David Kelley the CEO.  I didn't get to talk with him, but I was super excited because I had sent him a sad "I was rejected from Stanford, so what should I do to be prepared for a career in product design..."

and he responded. How cool is that. 

I unfortunately wasn't able to meet up with my friend at Stanford, psh, you don't need to go to class! What do you think you are Harvard? haha jk. Maybe we'll meet up this weekend?

Today I also saw my once related, though now relative of close friends up in Belmont. (yay caltrain)

We then went to celebrate John's birthday a day early by enjoying a late lunch amidst children crying and trying to figure out why certain things are the way that they are. Like why men's shirts have buttons on the right side and women's are the other way, and stuff like that. 

Then a trip to the uniform shop and the hardware store, and that brings us to now (4:40pm ish PST)

can't wait for those 'groceries'

May 14th 9:40 PST (12:40 EST)

I don't get it.

At All.

Why am I so exhausted?

first of all I overslept this morning until about 10 after 7 (LG as you all know opens at 7:30,

but I had quite a commute ahead of me), but last night I fell asleep for a nap at around 10 hoping

to get up in 20 or so minutes so I could make my lunch for the next day. Today was probably the slowest day

yet. I think there were about 3 or 4 cars that came throughout the 7:30-6pm hours. With all of that

free-time, the Garage truly became Luscious. John and I cleaned until you could basically eat off the floor,

(though we agreed not to).

oh oooh, John got to do his FAVORITE thing today (I didn't catch the sarcasm the first time either), to have all of the

waste oil collected by the oil truck, all about 120 gallons or so.

Today was a big day for Cupcake Jr. he (she?) had ITS own little photo shoot in potrero heights still fresh

from its detailing so that it can be sold. This lovely and driverless '01 prius has a brand new transmission, a really

good battery, of course great MPG, and best of all, it has a 'clean air' sticker which allows it to drive through the

HOV lanes without any passengers (no suffering through the sometimes awkwardness of rideshare).

plus, IMHO, the '01-'03 prius are much better than their newer counterparts because they look like an actual car

(One guy I met at the bus told me that the Gen 2 prius looks like a cheese wedge...I'd have to agree), and you can actually change lanes with them (they have normal car visibility!).

Cupcake Jr. needs a good home.

After all that cleaning and chasing, I guess I should be exhausted!

zzzz

may 13th

(written on notepad on May 13th. I forgot to load Microsoft Word, and I can't get my computer to connect to the internet). 

Who knows what day of LG it was today. I just got back after my long weekend of walking to Berkley (maybe around 4 miles),

 to Haight (maybe 2ish?), and from Pacific Heights to SOMA. I've been walking a lot. 

I like to think that I'm walking because I'm "Too lazy to wait for the bus." It sounds kind of counter-intuitive or 

oxymoronic, but its so true. With buses you have to learn which line to take and what street you have to get off at

(as in paying attention). Rather than taking the bus, I just walk in the general direction of where I need to go, and 

boom! I'm there! I did have to take a taxi though. I knew that if I were to take the MUNI(bus) at 7:20am, I would have been 

late for my 8:00 AP tests. Those didn't go too well by the way... eh. Cross your fingers for me. I need at least a 4 on the chem test

 (then I will have completed all of my chem requirements, YAY OSU!) All of that walking made me hungry! So far the most exciting 

SF cuisine that I've bought so far: Bubble tea (they just call it tapioca here) in avacado (So GOOD!) and Thai Tea (a little dissappointing), 

Thai lemongrass soup (always good), crepes, and a Carolyn Approved hamburger--It was pretty damn good. Everything adds up here. 

public transportation, food, everything. No wonder there are so many homeless and begging people. The most interesting one came up to me Friday. I was cleaning out 

a messy Gen 1 Prius owned by the shop, he must have thought it was mine, even though I was clearly wearing a work shirt. In a thick spanish/mexican accent he asked me 

for change for the bus. In actuality I had just found 8 cents in the center console that no one knew was there, but I told him "sorry I don't have any change"

What came next was a bit surprising though. Despite his thick accent, I could understand what he said next very clearly, "F*** you, you rich F***."

Well sir you're not going to get any help with that. geez.

This reminds me of the video that now Hawken alum Nicole Pursell put together as an ad for coffee house. The best part was 

a close up shot of her standing on a street with her hands pulled to her face in shock "HOMELESS PEOPLE!" she yelled, making fun of 

the average sheltered Hawken student that has never been exposed to, well, anything. I really want to find this video, it was hilarious, 

(hilarious enough to get her into trouble, but great art comes at a price). 

In my personal opinion, senior projects are supposed to be the Hawken's student's gentle awaknening to reality rather than the rude one that is about to come. 

I'm living in a new city. There are homeless people. Public transportation. Responsibility. excitement. crime. REALITY. 

It's also about exploring. I don't plan on being a car mechanic, but I believe that exploring a different, but still similar field

is valuable. Plus entrepreneurship and eco-friendliness are always important things to learn about. 

eh. I have to write my mid-term report one of these days. 

FUN THINGS I'VE DONE:

I went thrifting/vintage shopping, so far the best place (selection and price), is 'Out of the Closet' a thrift store where 95 cents of each dollar goes to 

supporting AIDS programs. 

The best music store (i've only been in a handful) that I've been to has been Amoeba Music. It's pretty awesome. There's one in Berkeley and one on Haight. 

It is friggen huge. 

I plan to rent a bike and bike to the golden gate bridge one of these days. 

a little update on my Casual Commuting:

I've done it several times now, I've been with 2 male drivers and 2 female drivers. It can be a bit awkward

when the driver doesn't initiate a conversation. I was in someone's front seat during a huge traffic jam 

(it only ended up taking about 45ish minutes because we were in the HOV lanes), but it was just a bit strange sitting next to someone for so long, 

and not having a conversation. 

Despite the awkwardness, I'll continue to take the Casual carpool because its a much closer walk than the BART, and I don't have to pay/wait for the bus to take me to BART (again with the laziness).

Until next time, 

J

I wrote a whole long post yesterday (on my laptop's note pad of all things, you know the word processor that doesn't actually process any words...), but I forgot to save it to my flash drive to publish it @ LG today, so... you're just going to have to check in tomorrow, because its nearly quittin' time.

Sorry!
J

phew it's hot in San Francisco. I just finished my first full week of LG and I've already learned a lot. I even helped take apart and put together a new and improved Prius battery. I've even started a new project for getting signatures to help slow down the traffic on Clementina which will hopefully lead to some speed bumps. I've driven several priuses and, of course, made the almost daily coffee run. I've (nearly) mastered the public transportation (there's so many, the BART, MUNI, AC transit, Cal train--which i've never taken--, and I'm sure there's more...)

I think the true test was that I got to my AP test on time, I just hope I get to the next set on time.

Today I even took the casual carpool! (Basically hitchhiking, but its legal, and FREE compared to the BART, and it has scenery!)

I've rediscovered my long forgotten muscles from soccer and basketball by walking and lifting heavy tires and batteries.

I felt like I needed to write something longer than my last couple posts.

--J