"Take Our Picture!!"

I was absorbed in trying to determining shutter speeds, aperture settings, ISO.. to get a clear sharp foto of a trademark San Francisco Street.

"C'mon, were gonna act like were running in front of the cable car, trying to escape from it!!" they cajoled.

I smiled apologetiically and went back to trying to get the shot I wanted.

After awhile, I gave up and reset the camera.. and turned as the women jumped onto the cable car.

"Im sorry, I wasnt trying to be mean.. this is what I was trying to get." I showed her the image.

"Oh my, thats far better than what we wanted you to do."

I cringed inwardly at those words.

No, it wasnt more important or better.
Being serious and focused on the 'perfect picture' was nowhere better than taking the pictures of people having fun.

Trying to get the 'perfect picture' is one breeze away from pretentiousness.

The perfect picture is the one you take that feels good when you take it, when being frivolous and focused arent mutually exclusive.

So I took her picture and showed it to her as the car started moving.

She liked it.

That was the perfect picture.

We waved at each other as we went our seperate ways... her to enjoy her ride and me to take whatever caught my whimsy.

And I had fun.
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The young girls at the bus stop were giggling and talking about all things serious and frivolous, as teenagers are wont to do.

I waited until they paused for breath...

"Does this bus go all the way to San Francisco?"

They stared at me as if I were from another planet, and then - almost in one voice, but alternating couplets as teenagers are wont to do..

"Umm..... we dont know.. ...all we know... is that this bus .......takes us to The Mall."

Hehehe. The Mall.

I wasnt lauging at them when I laughed out loud. :-)

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In slow motion, I watched as it bounced off the marble floor, bouncing high and spinning, plastic pieces going in several directions.

Not again.

The first Palm Pilot I had toppled off my desk as I was synching it to the computer, smashing to the floor with a sickening *whack*, the glass screen shattering.

This is only the second.

Not again.

The stylus seperated itself and went skittering off towards the Oakland BART escalator, away from the phone booth where I had been fumbling for it tryin to find a phone number.

After much time, I had finally gotten my data to the PDA .. and now I was going to lose it all again.

It bounced not as high again, the cover clattering off to the side...

Ive been meeting people on a daily basis here, and scraps of paper aint working.

It finally settled to the floor, and I held my breath as I examined the unit.

It happily beeped and turned back on. Whew.