You may have heard about my trip to the CNET offices, but the adventure was in the trip from the offices.
After losing the Brain Bust tournament, I chatted with the uncomfortably congested Jeff, the magnanimous Vinny, the affable Aaron Thomas and many others. It was a hoot to just chill in the CNET building. We talked, we watched the Live crew strike the set, turn off the lights, and prepare for the Friday of Fridays.
What I didn't know was Friday, May 25 was to be a day of conflict. While I peaceably conversed with the GS staff, a storm was brewing. The living dead began to gather in Union Square. Every moment I sat and chatted, more shambling corpses added to a dark mass of inhumanity. Jeff and others were resolute in attending The Giants/Rockies game. While they were confident, I couldn't believe even Barry Bonds could fend off the incoming storm. 
A different mass was gathering at Justin Herman Plaza. A nightmarish, deadly gathering. The last Friday of every month is the designated day for Critical Mass. For those not in the know, this mass is not a religious observance, but a gathering of wheels. Scores of bicyclists seek to flood the roadways of the City for their own use, protest, and unabashed cavalcade.
As is only fitting for the City, ecocars decided to join the lot. As the fog enshrouded the city, rumor and speculation held all three groups were bent on securing the main artery in the heart of San Francisco. That's when I decided to leave. I had to get to school, but each faction had a designated start time of 6pm and my watch said 5:45. It was a brisk walk down to Market, and my subway escape.
I phoned my wife to tell her, possibly one last time, that I loved her. She knew. But what she didn't know was a wave of fetid corpses were washing down the street as a torrent of wheels raced up to an inevitable meeting. . . and I had somehow gotten tape on myself. I didn't want to be stuck in the inevitable middle. Fortunately, the voice of warning saved me.
Ducking down the stairs toward the trans-Bay tube, I escaped without ever catching a glimpse of either zombie or bicycle rider. However, any trip into the city is filled with sights of cars. I had clearly missed my own brush with DAM NATION. Instead, I had an almost impossible mission to finish my paper in the time of my arrival.