Curiosity Never Killed Nobody

Settling in after a marvelous Thai dinner with some new friends, I am full and--having eschewed beverages of the alcoholic variety with my meal--wide awake.

Two weeks in San Francisco, the city I've wanted to live in for well over a decade and what do I have to say for myself? Not much, considering I remain very much in the honeymoon phase (a phase which wore off in Manhattan only near the tail end of my years there). Ask me again when the majority of my time is spent staring at a computer screen, scrambling to finish writing assignments for school. I'm sure the sentiment in my response will be vastly different than that of a woman living a life of leisure in this fantastic city.

Yesterday, I was out enjoying an afternoon jog (I have yet to join a gym, but when you live in a town with holy-shit-look-how-fucking-steep-that-is hills at every turn, just stepping out for a newspaper is all the cardio workout you need) when I happened upon the Cable Car Museum. Pretty neato, thought I, and ventured in, despite the not entirely presentable combination of ruddy cheeks and sweat-stained workout gear.

Who knew the cable cars are all powered by this one control room? Who knew they run on pulleys and sheaves? (And what the frick is a sheave, anyway?) Who knew they maintain a constant speed of 9.5 miles per hour (far faster than any L.A. freeway)? Geeks like me get all giggly-cheerleader excited to learn about shit like this. Don't expect me to develop the remotest interest in cooking or sewing or carpentry or anything remotely useful. But I'll get all freaky geeky up in here when it comes to planes, trains and automobiles. Oh, and history. And animals. We all know I hate being without my Animal Planet and Discovery Channel. They should just combine them all into THE GEEK CHANNEL for 24-hour-a-day full-blown geekery. I might seriously consider not leaving the house again.

All kidding aside, it becomes more apparent to me as years go by that I can be entirely too observant for my own good. I notice things. Things I see and hear tend to sink in quickly and deeply and then frustrate the shit out of me when I can't convey them as eloquently as I'd like on paper (or, in this case, in cyberspace). Occasionally, things go unnoticed by me, sometimes pointed out by others in my company to my utter (Shit, I can't believe I missed that) surprise. Still, I tend to observe and absorb far more than what I imagine the everyday person does. I look, I notice, I absorb, I learn. This seemingly infinite range of perception should make me a better writer, but instead I think all it does is make me a better ponderer. I ponder things. A LOT. I'm the precocious two-year-old whose persistent response to every question or statement is "WHY?"

One of the elective courses I'll be taking for my program at SFSU is Science Writing. I'm more excited about this than almost any other in the curriculum. Through this course, I'm hoping to discover new and satisfying ways to answer the question "WHY?" that will suit even the most insatiably curious among us.

Posted by ayelet at January 12, 2006 09:55 PM