My Pleasant and Not So Pleasant Trip to Pleasanton
A few weeks ago, I realized that I needed to get some new pants to wear to work. A big part of this realization was the discovery that I could no longer safely carry anything in my favorite khakis, due the danger of keys and change falling through the holes in the pockets and landing at my feet.
After an abortive effort at reality shopping, I decided virtual shopping was the way to go. I ordered a couple pairs of pants from J. Crew and, at the same time, decided I might as well buy a shirt. As I was purchasing a long sleeve polo shirt, I received the message that I could get another of the same shirt at a much cheaper price. It sounded like a good deal to me, so I ended up buying two shirts.
But when the shirts arrived (after some painful wrangling with UPS), I was dismayed to see that the color of both was navy, rather than navy and gray as I had requested. I think that the J. Crew website messed up the order because I was using Opera as my browser, and it didn't record that I changed the color on the second bonus shirt from blue to gray.
I wasn't about to pay to ship the shirt back for an exchange, just because J. Crew has poor web designers, so I decided to drive over to Pleasanton this afternoon and return the shirt to a J. Crew store in a mall. I had to stop by work for a little bit, so I decided to make an adventure of it, by driving over the hills rather than going through the Caldecott Tunnel. As I was driving up Spruce Street in Berkeley on my way to Grizzly Peak Drive, I heard a biker yelling "Excuse me, excuse me!" into my window. I slowed down to see what she wanted, and she said, "You just got a little close, that's all." I think she was a little taken aback that I actually checked to see what she was yelling about.
I continued my poor driving skills once I got onto Grizzly Peak, mainly because the views were so astounding. After swerving around the road a bit, I pulled over just above the University of California campus and took in the sweeping view of the entire San Francisco Bay.
Shortly after, I turned onto another winding road, leading through Orinda toward Highway 24. I had read earlier that the current weather conditions are exactly like those that led up to the 1991 Oakland firestorm, and I noticed many signs along the road stating an "extreme" "red flag" fire danger. The houses in Orinda are very nice, but I'm not sure I'd want to live at the top of a narrow, winding road surrounded by tinder dry vegetation at this time of year.
Once I got to the highway, it was a quick drive down to Pleasanton. For some reason, I thought I knew where the mall in Pleasanton was, even though I had never been there before. I exited at Stoneridge Drive, figuring that would be the natural way to find Stoneridge Mall. But my mistake was that I headed east instead of west, which caused me to have a nerve wracking tour of the soulless corporate parks of Pleasanton, as I watched the clock tick ever closer to 6, which was the closing time of the Pleasanton J. Crew. After fifteen minutes of searching, I finally found the mall (aided by my faith in the Pleasanton town fathers, in that they wouldn't name both a street and a mall "Stoneridge" without having them be in some sort of proximity to each other).
But as I parked the car in the huge parking lot, I saw it was 6:05. I didn't have a lot of hope, but I figured I couldn't give up, after driving so far just to exchange a shirt. I ran into the mall and found the J. Crew, just as they were letting the last customer out and locking the doors. I pleaded my case, and they let me in, and I got my gray shirt.
Afterwards, I took a quiet amble around the shuttered mall. It's actually a nice mall, except for the annoying fact that there are not one, but two Macy's as anchors.
After an abortive effort at reality shopping, I decided virtual shopping was the way to go. I ordered a couple pairs of pants from J. Crew and, at the same time, decided I might as well buy a shirt. As I was purchasing a long sleeve polo shirt, I received the message that I could get another of the same shirt at a much cheaper price. It sounded like a good deal to me, so I ended up buying two shirts.
But when the shirts arrived (after some painful wrangling with UPS), I was dismayed to see that the color of both was navy, rather than navy and gray as I had requested. I think that the J. Crew website messed up the order because I was using Opera as my browser, and it didn't record that I changed the color on the second bonus shirt from blue to gray.
I wasn't about to pay to ship the shirt back for an exchange, just because J. Crew has poor web designers, so I decided to drive over to Pleasanton this afternoon and return the shirt to a J. Crew store in a mall. I had to stop by work for a little bit, so I decided to make an adventure of it, by driving over the hills rather than going through the Caldecott Tunnel. As I was driving up Spruce Street in Berkeley on my way to Grizzly Peak Drive, I heard a biker yelling "Excuse me, excuse me!" into my window. I slowed down to see what she wanted, and she said, "You just got a little close, that's all." I think she was a little taken aback that I actually checked to see what she was yelling about.
I continued my poor driving skills once I got onto Grizzly Peak, mainly because the views were so astounding. After swerving around the road a bit, I pulled over just above the University of California campus and took in the sweeping view of the entire San Francisco Bay.
Shortly after, I turned onto another winding road, leading through Orinda toward Highway 24. I had read earlier that the current weather conditions are exactly like those that led up to the 1991 Oakland firestorm, and I noticed many signs along the road stating an "extreme" "red flag" fire danger. The houses in Orinda are very nice, but I'm not sure I'd want to live at the top of a narrow, winding road surrounded by tinder dry vegetation at this time of year.
Once I got to the highway, it was a quick drive down to Pleasanton. For some reason, I thought I knew where the mall in Pleasanton was, even though I had never been there before. I exited at Stoneridge Drive, figuring that would be the natural way to find Stoneridge Mall. But my mistake was that I headed east instead of west, which caused me to have a nerve wracking tour of the soulless corporate parks of Pleasanton, as I watched the clock tick ever closer to 6, which was the closing time of the Pleasanton J. Crew. After fifteen minutes of searching, I finally found the mall (aided by my faith in the Pleasanton town fathers, in that they wouldn't name both a street and a mall "Stoneridge" without having them be in some sort of proximity to each other).
But as I parked the car in the huge parking lot, I saw it was 6:05. I didn't have a lot of hope, but I figured I couldn't give up, after driving so far just to exchange a shirt. I ran into the mall and found the J. Crew, just as they were letting the last customer out and locking the doors. I pleaded my case, and they let me in, and I got my gray shirt.
Afterwards, I took a quiet amble around the shuttered mall. It's actually a nice mall, except for the annoying fact that there are not one, but two Macy's as anchors.
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