Retail Therapy Solves Everything

Note to self: NEVER attempt to drive in San Francisco again.

I set up a meeting with one of the owners of Green11 in Noe Valley. Bettina and I have talked a few times and she is one of the people in Noe Valley that I feel comfortable talking to. I thought that her store Green11 would be a great subject for my profile piece.

Saturday afternoon I got into my 2002 purple Honda Civic with my roommate Megan, we were ready for an adventure and that's exactly what we got. She typed in the address and we made our way to the 280 North towards Civic Center/Bay Bridge. We then exited Cesar Chavez St./Potero Ave. We realized by all the murals that we were in the Mission. Finally! I have never been to the Mission before and even though I didn't get out, I loved passing through the district. The colors and the happy people dancing to Mexican music made me smile. THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN I get cut off by a huge MUNI bus. A-W-E-S-O-M-E only not, this preceded to happen for the next few streets, getting cut off by cars, people not turning on their blinkers and not stopping at stop signs.

Megan and I were screaming and cursing every few minutes. Then we realized we were going the wrong way, the little red pin on my iPhone map showed Green 11 was in the opposite direction of where we were headed...cool! We then turned around on another street and went back towards the Mission, and then she said we're going the wrong way again. We stop at a stop sign, no one was behind us and we look at the phone. It seems someone put in the wrong address; we were headed to 3098 24th Street instead of 3980 24th Street. Ugh okay so we just headed toward the part of the map that showed where Noe Valley was, easy enough right?

We were driving and all of a sudden we see this huge hill that my little purple car was expected to go up. I screamed, "Meg, I can’t do this. I have this fear that my car will roll down the hill like in The Princess Diaries!” She told me to floor it and I screamed all the way until we got to the top. Then to my surprise another HUGE hill! Seriously what the hell. I floored it again and we made it.

I finally see MUNI tracks and recognized the place where we were, thank goodness. We pulled in front of Bernie's coffee shop and realize we have a 30 minute maximum for the spot. This is ridiculous, it was 4:45 and my interview was at 5. We decided to wait in the car for 15 minutes and when we get out fill the meter so we can start at 30 minutes.

We waited and put more money in at 5. It turned to 5 and I check in at Green 11 on my Facebook and walk in. A man with an accent was helping some customers so I waited quietly at the entrance of the tiny shop. He asks if I need help and I tell him I am waiting for Bettina, he then informs me she isn't there. UGH!!! He gives me her number and I call her. She said she didn't come into work that day and said she didn't have access to a computer so she couldn't email me.

This was the icing on my amazing day cake. Megan and I headed back home and stopped at Forever 21 for a little retail therapy.

What have I learned: never drive into the city and when you're sad just go to Forever 21 and buy a $15 high wasted blue skirt.