Apartment hunting, Ghirardelli Square and way too much sugar

So do I.

San Francisco really is quite a city.

Now, I have worked in customer service before and have definitely had my share of rude encounters, but when dealing with people and their coffee...well, it can get really ugly. But the tips I make and the hours I get honestly make up for all of the jerks that come into my store. And if they really piss me off, I can just mess up thier coffee.

Besides school, work and the occasional moment of slumber, my life has been pretty stagnant. Either I'm throwing strange coffee concoctions out to the masses, burning my eyes out over my scripts or trying to get some form of sleep. My social life has gone down the drain, and sadly, my once a week outings have as well. I've been trying to keep up, but lack of sleep does not exactly prompt going out. It usually prompts a nap. A lot of naps. I was supposed to go out for sushi with Ruth a few nights ago, but that didn't work out(I have seriously been trying to get sushi for three weeks now. I'm going through withdrawls.)due to the fact that she had too much homework and my left ankle exploded. Really, it seriously exploded. Also, life has been rough lately, so food hasn't been my first priority. But luckily for you(and me)that has now changed!

Let's start at the beginning: Kim and I are trying to find a place to move into at the end of the semester because the dorms are just not cutting it anymore. And by that I mean: living with a bunch of brainless girls is enough to drive oneself to homocide. Since I had most of the week off and didn't have to be at work till 1pm on Thursday, we decided to hit up some open houses Wednesdy afternoon. The first place we went to check out was in a prime location. It was walking distance to several of our classes, Union Square and a delicious pizzeria. We were pretty excited about seeing the studio, but unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. See, I always thought an "open house" meant that you went to actually view the living space. Apparently I was wrong. We got to the front stoop and spent about 5 minutes pressing various buttons trying to figure out how to get in, only to be turned away by what I think was an elderly foreign woman with a bowl cut. Outraged by the false advertisement, we headed to another possible apartment viewing. After climbing a few vertical hills, we finally made it to the apartment and unlike the previous one, it was actually open. And it was also about the size of a small janitor's closet. It was beyond disappointng, folks. The bathroom was the largest thing in there, the view from both windows was a giant wall and IT DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A KITCHEN! How am I supposed to cook delicious meals when I don't even have a stove? How am I supposed to entertain millions of adoring fans and friends who visit my humble abode every night? No kitchen? I'm sorry people, but I have standards.

We left the "cage"(I refuse to call it an apartment.)and tried to pretend as if we weren't totally bummed out. Though, running at full blast to catch the bus did brighten both of our moods. Once we got home, I could tell neither of us were feeling very excited about apartment hunting. S0, I decided that the only way to make Kim and myself feel better, was to go sit in her room and awkwardly stare at her. Just kidding! Sort of...I did go to her room and we sat in silence for a bit, till I confessed to having a savagely intense cupcake craving. We headed out to Ghirardelli Square to buy a second batch of delicious goodies from Kara's Kupcakes. Sadly, when we arrived, they were closed. We threw ourselves down on the ground, cried out in sorrow and then realized that not even two feet away from us was the Ghirardelli Ice Cream Cafe. In the short walk it took us to get there, we were stopped by an employee who was handing out free samples of "drinking chocolate." The name basically says it all: It's chocolate. You drink it. It wasn't anything too special, just nice warm melted chocolate. The only other type of drinking chocolate I've ever had was something called a "Chantico" from Starbucks almost 4 years ago. The Ghirardelli version was probably better, but I can't really say because I don't remember much of the Chantico, except that it's name was fun to say out loud.

I like'a da chocolat!

After downing the chocolate, we went to the cafe and proceeded to order our desserts. To me, the setup of the ice cream cafe is kind of strange. You order at the front register, pay there, they give you a giant metal rod/clip thingie with a number and then tell you to sit anywhere you want. They do it politely, of course, but it still seems strange to me. Kim knew exactly what she wanted, and since she had been there before, she really didn't even need a menu. She order a classic Ghirardelli Hot Fudge Sundae...well, techincally speaking, it's called The World Famous Hot Fudge Sundae. Why is it world famous? I'm not sure. It's just your basic hot fudge sundae: vanilla ice cream, hot fudge sauce, whipped cream, chopped almonds and a cherry on top. But apparently it's world famous because it's made with "indulgent Ghirardelli fudge sauce." I didn't try any of it(I can't have almonds), so maybe it tastes different than the classic and I am really just missing out on a very good thing. We shall never know.

After Kim ordered, I spent about 10 years trying to decide between two very extreme sundaes. Intense Dark sundaes, to be exact. I couldn't decide if I wanted something with espresso(as if I don't surround myself with enough coffee already.)or something with just a plain ol' sky high sugar content. I went for the latter and ordered something called a Toffee Interlude Sundae. My sundae was compiled of: two scoops of vanilla ice cream, dark chocolate hot fudge sauce, toffee bits, whipped cream and supposedly a square of dark toffee chocolate. When my sundae arrived, the chocolate square was nowhere to be seen. It didn't really matter because the sundae was gigantic and the chocolate content was through the roof. It was probably one of the best sundaes I have ever ingested in my 20 years of exsistence. The ice cream was sweet and rich and the chocolate....Oh God, THE CHOCOLATE. The fudge sauce at the top of the sundae was warm and gooey, while the sauce that had settled between the scoops of ice cream was more of a chocolate bar texture. At one point in my sundae eating adventure, I was only getting spoonfuls of chocolate. And you can bet I had no problem with that at all.

The setting of the cafe was pretty nice as well. It leads into their actual chocolate shop, so there were plenty of tourists coming in and out of the place despite it being somewhat late in the evening. Ghirardelli Square is one of the few places where I don't feel like a total wacko when I pull out my camera to take pictures of food and/or people eating. It was actually my first time ever eating at Ghirardelli Square, which is pretty odd, being that you know, I LIVE in San Francisco...But I can whole heartedly assure you folks that this will not be the last time I eat one of their sundaes. I definitely reccomend going to the ice cream cafe whether you're a tourist or not. I know I'm going to be taking my parents there when they come up in two weeks(Oh, what an adventure that will be!).

Sundae Aftermath.

Upon finishing our more than satisfying desserts, me and Kim proceeded to roll our stuffed bellies out of our chairs and wobble to the nearest bus stop. Had we not just ingested copious amounts of sugar, wait for the bus would not have been nearly as fun as it was. Since Ghirardelli Square is right by the warf, the winds are stronger and definitely colder than the part of the city we live in. And of course, when the weather isn't exactly pleasant, the bus is always late. We ended up waiting for probably a good 30 minutes before the number 47 finally showed up. And in that 30 minutes, me and Kim proceeded to shout, sing and make unintelligable noises at each other while laughing like maniacswho were incredibly sleep deprived. As soon as we got home, we both had our sugar crashes and passed out.

I worked the closing shift the next day. I was supposed to leave work at 9:30pm. I actually left 10:30pm. I didn't get home till around 11pm. Needless to say, I was very tired and VERY cranky. But, I had also offered to help Kim bake a cake for our friend Robert's birthday, so I managed to stay up a little later. We didn't actually start preparing the cake until almost midnight, so I didn't stay up as late I wanted to in order to help her. Kim was understanding and told me it was fine if I wanted to go upstairs and get some much needed and deserved sleep. I, being stubborn, told her I was fine and that I would help bake the cake. I got as far as putting the batter into the pan and throwing some chocolate chips into, and then I was done.

Kim ended up staying up baking the cake and I was able to see the final product in the morning. Unfortunately, I didn't get the opportunity to photograph the finished cake because she had to actually give it to Robert. Basically, the cake was a two layered devils food cake with chocolate chps baked into it, covered in chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles and then two candles on top(a 1 and a 9). Robert later texted Kim to confirm that the cake was infact, delicious. He was obviously referring to the layer that I half-assed baked. Obviously.

My goal in this coming week is to eat sushi. Why? Because I have been planning on eating it for the past 3 weeks and it has continued to fall through everytime. Finding the time to go out for sushi will be hard since I have officially sold my soul to Tully's. Maybe I can just talk Tully's into starting their own sushi line....

Maybe...