Staunch Consumerism, Steve^2 Style, Updated!

Posted by Steve Hanna on July 2nd, 2007 filed in Random Tags: doppleganger, fixie

Over the past week my good friend Steve Cavazos has stayed with me while he searches for a job and apartment in the north bay. After a few hectic days, he got an awesome job and an apartment. He tells me that he is heading home on Tuesday and then experiencing the headlong rush that is packing and tying up loose ends in Columbus. Needless to say, I am very excited to have another friend in this area.

Upon receiving the good news, Mike, Steve* and I headed to this bar near my house that is *so* trendy that it doesn’t even have a name; it just has a glowing martini in the window. After a quick run in with an audacious bartender who felt compelled to badger me about the tip I left her, the night settled down and we had a good time.

The following day we decided to head to one of my favorite restaurants in the area, La Note. This “provençal” French restaurant has quite possibly the best brunch I have ever had. It is a bit pricey but so totally and completely worth it. If you want more reviews, check out yelp. After that, I joined Berkeley Iron Works, a really awesome climbing gym in the area. Now I’ll have something to do after work!

After breakfast we hopped on the BART and headed into San Francisco. We got off at the Powell Street stop and little did we know, this stop took us directly into the largest mall I have ever seen. It was a well played trick to get us to spend many hours in a large mall. Well played San Francisco, well played. Without getting into extensive details about the style and amount of clothing we purchased, let it be stated that for some reason we both felt like patronizing a great deal of stores.

We then headed to china town to do a little more shopping. I bought a new stainless steel ring and a $10-absolutely-not-fake-or-counterfeit pair of “Versace” sunglasses. Look at the amazing juxtaposition in the chicken picture!

After that, we headed down the The Embarcadero, which is a long road that runs parallel to fisherman’s wharf and Alcatraz. It was pretty neat to see for the first time, but the entire place was a veritable tourist trap. We then headed back to the BART station to end our eight hour journey. We really had an excellent time hanging out together, hopefully that trip was the first of many grand bay area adventures.

The next day, I finally obtained a bike. I had searched long and hard for the perfect bike considering many variables during the buying process: cost, weight and target riding landscape to name a few. I had originally wanted a Jamis Coda Sport but when I went to purchase the bike, they had sold out of the only size that fit me. Which was quite disappointing because I learned that this company produces relatively few bikes per year and the likelihood of getting another one anytime soon was relatively low. However, after talking to Steve about his fixie, I decided that I could at least entertain the idea of a fixed gear/single gear flip-flop hub. I decided to buy the Bianchi San Jose. This thing has all terrain tires, excellent brakes, a really comfortable drop bar setup, and an incredibly light steel frame. All this in addition to the reduced weight from lacking front and rear derailleurs, the ease of maintenance of a single gear, and the perfect city riding gear ratio made this bike a winner. I’ve ridden it for approximately two hours today, but so far, it is fantastic. I cannot wait to ride it to work in the morning! If you want a decent picture of the bike check the link above. Otherwise, here is a fairly low resolution version from my camera phone.

The summer passes quickly.
*This looks weird doesn’t it? Kind of like I’m talking in the third person. During Steve’s stay he frequently rose earlier in the morning than I and left me notes regarding his plans for the day. One of his notes commented on the fact that it sounded like he was writing a note to himself. It’s fantastic, living in a world of doppelgangers.