critical mass!

did the coolest thing on friday. met adam in oakland and we took the BART (like the T/commuter rail) into san francisco where we met adam's girlfriend, ellen, his friend ben, and theresa sharpe, who is a phd student in soc at berkeley, and whom i know because she worked with marshall on the union leadership project (weird!).




HUNDREDS of people on bikes were gathering at embarcadero in sf, many of them dressed in crazy costumes (the pictures don't really do it justice). a lot of scrappy anti-war protestors, and some people dragging carts with huge stereo systems attached to them. so, there was music, there were costumes, and there were a lot of people on bikes. it was very, very festive.

strange! theresa's friend from h.s. (in the pic, she's second from the left, in the bee costume) is also someone i met at the tea party last weekend! her name's diana. also in this pick, theresa's friend on far left (forget his name), theresa, bob (diana's friend), ellen, and adam. these are pictures from the start.

so, the hundreds of us biked all through the streets of san francisco, stopping traffic, ignoring traffic lights, and "woo'ing" and laughing and biking to hip hop music. pedestrians waved and smiled as we came down market st.; cars honked (both in appreciation and frustration); and streetcar drivers rang their bells and shouted encouragement.




the whole idea was to stop traffic. and we did, streaming up market, and van ness (two of the main drags in sf), getting to a tunnel in the middle of the city, whooping through the tunnel, and then back out. the other pictures are from when we were stopped outside of the tunnel. after the tunnel, i think we split up, rode around a bit more, and then adam and ellen and i took off for the delancy st. grill, a rather nice restaurant run by ex-cons. the food was fabulous, but we all felt a little out of place amid white table cloths after having spent the early evening in scrappy company.

it was just so much fun. i spent most of the ride balanced on the pedals (the bike i borrowed belonged to a really tall guy named nick. i am a really short woman named jess. but i made do), with my jaw hanging open, looking at the costumes. there was one guy dressed like a devil, and on his right shoulder, he had strapped a mannequin's head (dressed as an angel). one guy was ironically dressed as a gasoline pump. but it was all in good fun. exhausting, but fun.

yesterday (sat) i volunteered for girls inc. of the island city, tristen's org. they were having their annual summit. and it was so much fun! i spent the first 1.5 hours in the "sexual health" workshop with a bunch of hs sophomores. they were great - giggly and funny, but so honest and open. then i went along with them to the hip hop dance workshop. which was reeeeallly challenging, but reeeeaalllly fun. yessss! maybe i'll take a hip hop class........hm.....