Bike to Work Day....

It was 7:45 AM and I had 75 minutes to hit as many pit stops as possible on my way to the first appointment. I woke up Friday morning and it was like Christmas. So excited to hit the road, meet some people and ask some questions... With my back pack ready to rock with lap top, working girl attire, assorted vanity products--perfume, mascara, deodorant--etc... off I went. The route was Texas to University to 6th to Island to 4th, circle back to Little Italy for meeting.

I came upon surprise pit stop on the corner of Normal Street and University. This one was sponsored by KTUA. They are a planning and landscape architecture company in San Diego. I met a great guy names John. He said their company does a lot of the landscaping/planning for bike paths in San Diego and for master planned communities. I asked him if he's involved with any of the plans on Texas street, he said YES. But....only from University to Madison. We chatted a bit about the overgrown trees and debris on Texas. He said his wife experienced the same thing over on Aldine in Talmadge. She took some of his sheers and cut the trees. I think I will do the same for Texas Street. I took an iCommute sponsored flashing bike light and away i went...Whole Foods bound. Bike count after this stop: 8.

Cruised up to Whole Foods and met Ray. He was manning the pit stop here. He was a really nice guy, the marketing director at Whole Foods. He was genuinely interested in talking to all the bike to work pit stoppers. He spoke about "Health Starts Here" which is a Whole Foods company wide healthy eating initiative. He recommended I look up a fella named Rip Esselstyn who wrote "Engine 2 Diet". It's all surrounded around eating more raw and whole foods, and eating to live. Good fuel stuff. At the Whole Foods pit stop I met a cool dude who was obsessed with talking about this movie called Forks Over Knives. He said it was a compelling look at the power of eating plant based foods and whole foods. I just checked out the trailer and it looks good. Action step--go see this thing--it's playing at the Landmark in San Diego.
www.forksoverknives.com . I started talking about the movie Riding With The Dutch and that there will be a screening of it at the end of June here in San Diego at the Childhood Obesity Conference. Ray asked me how I knew so much about this stuff. I told him I learned about a lot of the active living stuff when I was working for hotels and booked a conference called Active Living Research. Right then, a girl who I had seen at the previous pit stop said, "We work for Active Living Research" We immediately looked at each other, took our helmets off and said, "Amanda is that you?" and "Mandi is that you?" And it was.... A gal I had worked with in contracting the conference a couple years ago was here at the pit stop with me. I hadn't seen her since February 2010 and it was great to reconnect. The organization is headed up by a dude named Dr. Jim Salas, who is chock full of energy, a music buff and a dynamic person to be around. I spent only and hour with Dr. Salas as we toured the hotel and discussed the meeting space but I knew he was someone that changes things. Some people are groupies for rock bands or celebrities, I was a Dr Salas groupie immediately after I met him. In preparing for the site inspection, I needed to learn everything about their business. ALR is very cool and is all about assisting with master planned communities, designing them to provoke an active living. Creating walking paths, bike paths and communities near stores in which you can walk and live healthy. After learning about ALR, it was shortly after I had started the bike commute gig and it was uber inspirational. I asked if Dr. Salas still had the drum sticks I gave him, and Amanda confirmed that he did. ALR does great work--and it was really nice to reconnect. Inspired and motivated, I charged on to pit stop #3, Island and 4th. However, along the way while riding on 6th, I was waved over by another pit stop---this one was sponsored by ReCon. I met a slew of people there, including 1 person dressed as an Owl, and another dressed as a cactus. They were biologists and planners for ReCon. They were dressed in costume to demonstrate the possible endangered species in San Diego. I asked the Owl, "If you were a bike what kind would you be?" She replied: "a road bike. I have a mountain bike, and have road bike envy" It was a suitable reply and I totally understand. My first bike was a mountain bike and was really slow, and heavy. I had road bike envy too, and appreciated her plight. I grabbed a Clif bar and headed to 4th and Island. This one was sponsored by Gaslamp Quarter Historical Association and a Real Estate company that I didn't catch the name. I met a great gal there who had a florescent orange bike pin on. I had pin envy. It was really cute, and she worked for a company called ALTA. She is a planner there and we discussed BIKE STATION. We still need a BIKE STATION in San Diego. 4 pit stops in 75 minutes and I still had an hour before my first appointment so I went to Brickyard for some coffee. I perched up on their patio ready to relax, reflect on the morning and sip upon my coffee... I sat, inhaled, exhaled, took a sip and then a loud, pounding jack hammer started across the street. There is construction on the street over there at G and Front street. Already set up I wasn't going to move so I dealt with the loud construction and carried on. Got to my Anthology gig, and got a text that my 2:30 Appt was cancelled, but added 2 other phone appointments in the meantime. Hopped the bike, headed to InFlux in Little Italy. While there, I solved some contract issues and eaves dropped on the 2 people on either side. From what I gathered, an interview was taking place to my right. 2 girls were grilling one. The candidate seemed polished and that she had a great shot at the job. I was ready to hire her. This came to a screeching halt when they asked her if she had a Facebook page. The girl did not. There was an audible disappointment in her answer. Next question was, "how much do you want to get paid?" she said, "Uh I dunno, about a thousand bucks...but I am really uncomfortable talking about how much you should pay me" I gasped and almost grabbed her by the hand to take her outside for a moment and give her a quick lesson on negotiating for a paycheck. After the facebook and payment issue, it seemed the whole interview went really downhill. Tuned out to the hen house to my right and tuned into the 3 hipsters to my left. From what I gathered they were into websites and fashion and hairstyles. Looks like they were putting on a hair show or a fashion show. One guy was in town from New York. The other hipster kept staring at me. I am not sure if he didn't like the looks of my chai tea or my "I want to ride bikes with you" t-shirt...but he had a starting problem. They spoke about a cool gallery on India street that is perfect for a party. I interrupted them and said, "I am so sorry, I was eaves dropping, but, you just mentioned an interesting venue. I find cool venues for people for a living, where is this thing?" They were oddly not bothered by the interruption and shared all sorts of details about it. This made the staring hipster crack a smile, and now his stares seemed a wee bit more of adoration, instead of angst. Result from this is there is some cool venue in little Italy--somewhere--with a loft space and a floor level and it's all bright white. I think I have to investigate more, they didn't know the name or the streets, and only knew it by walking back there. So, time will tell.

I took my 2 phone appointments sitting on a Little Italy Chair on India street. Slam Dunk--I scored 2 more Sales Coaching gigs. A successful work day and bike to work day down, I decided to head home. On my way, I stopped at my friend Chrissy's brand new sales office. She and her husband started a wine import business called "Quigley Fine Wines". www.Quigleyfinewines.com
Since I am a wine club member, a big fan of wine and had a great day, stopping off for a celebration glass of vino and to see my great gal pal was in order. Their office is awesome....and the sales energy is great. All the sales people were on the phones chatting away and selling wine. I had a glass of something involving the word Devil, and it was a real treat. Since it was "free public transport day" My bike and I hopped on the #2 bus and headed home. All and all, Bike to work day was a great success. I learned a lot about a lot, reignited the flame for ALR and Bike Station.....and have more healthy eating and healthy learning homework than ever before.

Action steps:
Get some sheers, cut Texas street tree obstacles
Learn more about the plan the city has for Texas Street improvements.
Bike Station--get back on the mission