July 12, 2024
Day S1: Coach of a Lifetime
I live for the night, I live for the lights
I live for the high 'til I'm free falling
One of the best sleeps of the whole trip in that amazing Airbnb and it was much needed because a trek to San Franciso was going to happen today. The plan was to meet a legendary fitness coach who changed my life back in Shanghai. He since moved out with his wife and they now live in San Francisco. He basically found work teaching at the same global fitness chain -- none other than Orange Theory. Since I was in the general area anyway, I had to make a trek in to see this coach.
That was accomplished through Google Maps taking me on a circuitous route through public transit and the BART system. My local friend later told me that was not the best route, I should have taken Caltrains but I had no idea.
Anyways, after 2.5 hours one way I finally got to the heart of the city in San Franciso and found the location. All the effort was worth it, because this coach knew I was coming and said he would roll out the red carpet. His coaching style was more or less exactly the same as in Shanghai but this time his tone was subdued. He still said some lengendary quotes such as, "If anyone holds onto the treadmill handrails while we're walking up those inclines then we all do 50 burpees. Don't think I'm not watching you. I have eyes everywhere. I have the orange eyes. Actually I have brown eyes because my last name is Brown."
At the beginning he said, "We have a special guest here. This is Fit Steve in the house. He is one of the founding members at the studio in Shanghai where I used to coach, the original gangster. He traveled all the way from there. This guy is a fit monster so you all better shape up. He's going to be the group leader today on the treadmills so I want to see you all busting your ass and following whatever he does." Sure enough that is exactly what happened. If any of my neighbors started walking on the treadmills they got an earful from me to push themselves and not slack off. They then started pushing hard and blamed the coach after.
The coach had done such a marvelous job with introducing me that the girls at the front desk skipped all the protocol of credit cards, waiver forms, studio surchages, etc.. and just made it simple: I knew the head coach and was one of his original gangster fans. That's the way it should be. Who says you can't bend or break the rules in the US or Canada. I was experiencing some proof of this trip that rules aren't what they appear.
He said a lot of other cool stuff on the microphone then they all gave me some free soda before I bounced. His parting words were, "Make sure not to get robbed here in San Francisco. But overall it's a great city, people don't give a fuck. The only thing that really scares me here is the medical system."
Well that made me feel at ease as I walked off.
The next errand was to try and get some sort of data connection or a SIM card. I tried T-Mobile and they were useless. Then there was a Mexican restaurant next door with great food but no wifi. Further down was a Peet's Coffee with wifi but pathetic customer service. I ordered a coffee and a banana bread. The coffee showed up, the bread didn't. While sitting down and drinking coffee while trying to figure out a bunch of logisitics out on my phone, the bread never showed up which I paid for. So I told them, "I ordered some bread but nobody gave it to me". They said, "I'm sorry, would you like it warmed up?" I said, "Sure but I would also like to eat the bread that I paid for." They said no problem and it still didn't arrive. Finally I figured out you're supposed to pick it up at a far off counter where it says 'mobile pickup'
Remnants of the pandemic. I found the bread that I ordered, picked up two pieces and said, "Why you guys didn't tell me I'm supposed to pick up the microwaved bread at the mobile pickup counter? I was waiting here for a long time and I even told you exactly where I was sitting. You could have just given me the bread when I ordered and not warmed it up because it makes no difference anyway"
The pandemic protocols were still very much alive and well. I have absolutely no doubt that during covid you would order stuff online or maybe at a counter while wearing a fucking mask. Then someone would deliver it to another counter way off somewhere that you would pick up and not contact anyone in the process. This had to be how it was.
After all that it was time to head back to the Airbnb. It took another long 2.5 hours trip and then I took a short nap and figured there has to be another way to get some service on my phone. For whatever reason I picked T-Mobile again and eventually threw some money at the problem. Then presto, I had service. For maybe an hour. Then it crapped out again and the phone calls were choppy to the point of not being able to hear anyone.
During this walk around the shopping mall I also saw plenty of examples of how how a sedentary lifestyle could be deadly. For example I saw plenty of fast food places and cinnamon buns with nearly 1000 calories each. To put in perspective, a typical fitness class I do with busting my ass might burn 700-800 calories. A day's bike riding would burn somewhere in the 2000-2500 calorie range. You can see very quickly that eating fast food would negate any benefits from the fitness and biking. It gets 10 times worse when you're living a sedentary lifestlye and driving cars everywhere.
Put all this together, it was more evidence of how horrific the rat race really is. I saw it firsthand with friends and family, and even my Dad who couldn't stop working and living this way. While I have been down on China a lot lately, this trip really put into perspective just how bad the problems are at home also. It is sickening on both sides. At least China moved on from the pandemic that they created. Back home they're still doing social distancing and talking about covid protocols right now in mid-2024.
Zooming out to the big picture here, this was all beginning to reveal the importance of a multipolar world. Are the US and China really the only two countries the world has to offer? If so we're in trouble. While I would generally side with the US, some of the stuff I've seen really makes me question why this is a leading world power. China can, and has done better in some regards. But still, I am sure there are other power centers that can beat them both. The challenge is where to find them.
An unexpected benefit came from the fact that later on I could walk into a 7/11 and unload all my coins. The guy got really sick of me and gave me the stink eye. He said, "Take all the chocolate bars you want for $1 and just dump all the change on the counter." I only took two bars then bought a bunch of fruit instead. Basically I was off by about 4 cents and yes I counted every penny.
Little did he know that I made over $2500 on the stock market in just one day. And wouldn't you know it, the winner of the day was Femasys, the exact position that I had quintupled down on several days earlier.
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