joy ride

Yesterday I attended a 2 hour meeting out at the deYoung and I
hopped on the #33 Muni and secured a great seat on the view
side of the bus. Remember when I thought I'd take the bus
everywhere? Well, when I'm not in a rush I still do and will,
but a half hour Ken car trip takes about an hour across town,
especially in rush hour. Anyway, this was a fine time to see
the beautiful Twin Peaks and head on down onto Haight Street
and out Stanyan to Fulton and Golden Gate Park. I know you'll
enjoy my iPhotos and this time the crooked is the scenery, not
the photographer.

free floating thoughts

(today's Round Robin 10 minute write)

This morning I awoke thinking about the people in my life who are
no longer here. And yet they are here, maybe. I hope they float above me
like in this wonderful Billy Collins' poem:

The dead are always looking down on us, they say,
while we are putting on our shoes or making a sandwich,
they are looking down through the glass-bottom boats of
heaven
as they row themselves slowly through eternity.

Parents, brother, friends and even my foes. Are they in one
large boat or do they have individual dinghies? I think Michael will
secure his own boat, just as he was able to have a single room when
he was in rehab. Just demand it in your gentle way, dear friend.

Are my parents with my brother and is he having yet another loud
fight with mother? Will my father be reading the newspaper, smoking and
pretending to ignore them? That kind of mutual mother-son anger could upset
a small boat and then what?

Bill's brothers ~ floating and rowing together or apart? They didn't have
too much in common, but I imagine they would like to be partners in a
little boat. Can we change boats when we want to? Hop on with a friend
for awhile, work things out with an enemy? Be alone for awhile so we
can slip over to France to see a niece or have a latte with a friend in
New York? Will our Kindles, iPhones and computers work in the
glass-bottom boats? Alas, I already know the answer to that one

let's play Moneyball!

Here we see Brad Pitt as Billy Beane talking to his assistant Peter,
which is a serious, meaty role for Jonah Hill. I know that even non-baseball
people appreciate this movie, but Husbando and I loved it. That ratty
old Oakland stadium never looked better and for the first time in my
life I really rooted for the Athletics. And now we know why Art Howe
hated the movie, but Philip Seymour Hoffman who plays him is superb.
Honestly, this is one of the best films of last year, in my opinion. Rent it!

baseball, Brooklyn, friendship

What's not to like? My friend Susan recommended this book
and I bought it the next week and started it yesterday. Last Days
of Summer is the story of a boy who hero worships a 3rd baseman
for the New York Giants and it takes place in the 1940's, so
there's lots of nostalgia here. Author? Steve Kluger and so far,
very good.

twin peaking

The rain stopped yesterday ~ ah, the air was so very clear. After
working on Neti's new computer we took a brisk walk around
her Twin Peaks neighborhood and talked about, you know,
whatever. Then I scurried home to get ready for the writing
group which was meeting at our home and today I have Post Tiapos
Stress Disorder. Too much coffee, too many things to think
about and then my resolve to keep writing and please try for a
few more words a day. OK? But first, yoga this morning to calm me.

his, mine, ours, theirs

Our close friends know that Husbando and I aren't exactly GREAT
with money and there have been some actual disagreements (!) over
the years about how to spend/save/waste the stuff. We have always
had separate checking and saving accounts and one general VACA
savings account that we both put money into (equally). It is not a
perfect system, but the best we could work out since neither of us
will budge on certain things. Men can be so stubborn.

Yesterday we did our taxes and all in all, it was a pretty smooth
day. Turbo Tax® is fabulous. This is our second year and it was
soooooo much easier because the program picked up all the
boring information (numbers, addresses, more numbers) from
last year and it would flag some details that would have probably
been forgotten, such as the Union dues I had to pay at the museum.

We have e-filed and await our small but important refunds. And
we are still speaking to one another in civil tones.

our glass wonder

The Conservatory of Flowers had to be restored after the last
earthquake and it seemed to take forever and I missed it. After
that, I was determined to visit more often, so yesterday after 4
hours of work at the deYoung I went to pay my respect.

There is a sweet low tech exhibit called Playland at the Beach
showing currently and that's the original sign in the second photo.
Playland was demolished in 1972 so more condos and a Safeway
could be built down there, right across from the ocean. They
play the old music in the exhibit ~ you'll see Laughing Sal too.
So pleasant, especially since it was cold out and it's always
too warm and moist inside, and I like to wander about and
check out the happy plants thriving inside the glass dome.

scenes from my morning walk

This was a walk I took last week. I was thinking about the 60 min.
piece on depression and how the same results occurred with
placebo pills, diet change and exercise as with pills that battle
mild depression. How walking makes everything so much better
for me ~ and no, I wasn't depressed, just pensive.

The only way to see my neighborhood is to walk around and
in it with a camera. I was also thinking about how many mistakes
I've made in life, but how the big right one was insisting on
living here in San Francisco. No place else would do, except
maybe London, but there even the natives have to carry maps.
And you can also see why walking sticks are so helpful here.

ah, now we get it

It was well worth missing the tepid Oscar program last night to catch
this fascinating play featuring David Strathairn at ACT. Scorched
is basically a search for identity and the plot is really amazing, as is
the acting. The second act is so surprisingly powerful that I had to
take several very deep breaths to calm myself. Most of the play takes
place in some nameless war torn Middle Eastern country and that's
part of the drama here ~ it could be so many places.

We had dinner with Ginger and the Great Plotniks before the show
and his review will be much better written than mine. In fact I'm
going to read it right now...

imported from Canada

We are certainly enjoying Slings & Arrows ~ it's a Canadian TV
series that tells the story of a group of Shakespearean actors
who are trying to reinvigorate this overly commercial Theatre
Festival as they bicker amongst themselves and sometimes
bring up the not-so-pretty past. From the Flix®, with thanks.

clarification

On my Pathetica post this week I mentioned that I was slowly getting
used to NOT working 40 hours (plus) a week. It's a big change for me
and for Husbando too, of course.

Now I work 12 to 15, sometimes 20 hours a week. See? I said it was a
change. Someone on the blog inferred that I was bored. Oh no, not once
have I been bored since last October when I decided to go part-time.
There is always some place to walk, someone to have coffee or lunch
with, some writing that needs to be done or a few household tasks
that call out to me. Plus, living in San Francisco means that there is
more to see and do daily than probably anywhere on earth ~ except
maybe New York, London or Paris.

No, it's just getting used to change. To not getting up and rushing through
breakfast, standing around at a job facing ennui for 8 hours straight. I am
slowly getting used to freedom, I guess that's the thing. I still get up early,
still make daily and weekly lists, but I have hardly any "must do's" to
contend with. Would I go back to full-time work? Oh, God no, never!

Time is a luxury that I never had before and I'm just learning how to
appreciate it. The simple fact that I can walk every single day or take a
bus downtown just for the heck of it, or visit any museum is beyond
belief. And am I writing? Not as much as I hoped to, but more than
I did in the past and that's a huge step in the right direction. Oh, yes,
and I am way, way more content than I have ever been in my life.

And don't forget all the books I get to read!

repeat of a favorite

I first shared this poem by Adrienne Rich on commano back in
2005, and since I have some new readers and some who may
have forgotten it, I will gift you again. It remains the poem I
love more than any other, or at least I think so this sunny morning.

From an Atlas of the Difficult World

(Dedications)

I know you are reading this poem
late, before leaving your office
of the one intense yellow lamp-spot and the darkening window
in the lassitude of a building faded to quiet
long after rush-hour. I know you are reading this poem
standing up in a bookstore far from the ocean
on a grey day of early spring, faint flakes driven
across the plains' enormous spaces around you.
I know you are reading this poem
in a room where too much has happened for you to bear
where the bedclothes lie in stagnant coils on the bed
and the open valise speaks of flight
but you cannot leave yet. I know you are reading this poem
as the underground train loses momentum and before running
up the stairs
toward a new kind of love
your life has never allowed.
I know you are reading this poem by the light
of the television screen where soundless images jerk and slide
while you wait for the newscast from the intifada.
I know you are reading this poem in a waiting-room
of eyes met and unmeeting, of identity with strangers.
I know you are reading this poem by fluorescent light
in the boredom and fatigue of the young who are counted out,
count themselves out, at too early an age. I know
you are reading this poem through your failing sight, the thick
lens enlarging these letters beyond all meaning yet you read on
because even the alphabet is precious.
I know you are reading this poem as you pace beside the stove
warming milk, a crying child on your shoulder, a book in your hand
because life is short and you too are thirsty.
I know you are reading this poem which is not in your language
guessing at some words while others keep you reading
and I want to know which words they are.
I know you are reading this poem listening for something, torn
between bitterness and hope
turning back once again to the task you cannot refuse.
I know you are reading this poem because there is nothing else
left to read
there where you have landed, stripped as you are.

-Adrienne Rich

I'm starting to get it...

Honestly, I've had a little problem adjusting to not working 5 days
a week. It was no fun at the end, but it was structure, if you know
what I mean. Of course I still have an active To Do list, but some
(if not all) of the tasks can be put off for a day, or a week or...

Then yesterday a surprise email from Ginger ~ "Can I come over and
play?" We ended up having burritos with Husbando at the Taqueria
on Mission and then the two walking women drove down to Pathetica
for a hike and then most welcome lattes at the now famous Chit Chat
Cafe at the end of the pier. Gorgeous weather, glorious waves and
always lots to talk about as we walked.

I need to be a little more spontaneous and relaxed now that I'm a
full-time person and yesterday helped. Plus, I always feel a tad
guilty that we live so close to the ocean and don't take advantage
of it more. It's one of the reasons we love living here, after all.

step away from the screen

I bought this yesterday at the deYoung bookstore. It's not that I don't
have a huge assortment of HOW TO write, create and live well books,
but this called out to me and for $10.95, I answered. Here is one
quote from chapter #9 "Be Boring" ~ there are 10 steps to unlock creativity:

Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be
violent and original in your work.
-Gustave Flaubert

But I think my favorite is chapter #4 entitled "Use your Hands."
Austin Kleon suggests setting up a designated space to work away
from the computer. Hey, that's unusual these days. I got to thinking
that maybe I could map out a plot for poor old Ellen using a big old
fashioned pad or graph or even a bulletin board. Maybe do the index
card thing like we used to do before computers.

And the title of this little black and white book? As Picasso said,
Art is Theft. Copy. Copy. Copy.

What is originality? Undetected plagiarism.
-William Ralph Inge

it's about time...

Somehow along the way I missed this novel. My Plot (not nik)
teacher sang its praises so I picked this Vintage Press edition
up at Books, Inc. on Market @ Castro for $8. And, I was able to
have some chisme time with Ken, the person. Of course when I
got home Husbando pointed out 3 hardcover Dickens classics
here in our bookshelves (covered by the ugly, huge TV), including
Great Expectations, but that's OK, I now have his other work here
for those long summer days sitting in the fog on the back deck.

Back in the day, the Blogmaid had an adorable white (male)
cat named Miss Havisham. Hav was adored by all.

why I (still) like my job

Here I was all by myself (illegally shooting two photos) at the
brand new Cult of Beauty exhibit at the Legion of Honor. It was
9am, before the crowds arrived and yes, it did seem like a little
slice of heaven. Here you'll find the likes of: Whistler, Rossetti,
Burne-Jones, Leighton and a lot of other artists from the years
1860 to 1900. This is also known as the British Aesthetic
Movement, something I had never heard of before. It ends
June 17th, and I bet it will be crowded everyday ~ it should be.
Don't miss the two galleries upstairs ~ they are part of the
downstairs exhibit and yet easy to bypass despite our tasteful signs.

closing today

There were some good moments, but this was NOT the best play
of the season, by any means. Jesus in India had a few good lines
and the plot could have been reworked maybe, and some of the music
was OK, but really l-o-u-d and you know I'm very sensitive to
noise. Only about 35 of us in the audience which means that word
has gotten out because on closing weekend usually a play is packed.
The five actors did a terrific job and I do want to salute them here.
Win some, lose some in life and theater.

A friend tried to get tix to Becky Shaw at the SF Playhouse and it is
sold out. No surprise there and sorry if you missed it.

controversial movie ~ my vote

I went alone to see Hugo yesterday and loved it, despite the divided
opinions at my work place and beyond. The two kids pictured above
are delightful and I especially enjoyed when she said, "I need an
adventure," because I've heard myself say that for a few decades,
usually before a big or little trip. And Paris is exquisite ~ surprised?

next ~ Rachmaninoff & more

Another treat from Jennie yesterday afternoon to the tune of the 2pm
matinee symphony featuring both Rachmaninoff and Saint-Saens.
The latter (Symphony #3) showcased our magnificent organ and
the full orchestra. And yes, I stayed wide awake again. Good job, Stein!

touring our ballpark

'tis true...

Our guide was knowledgeable and funny ~ not afraid to make
fun of his customers either. We are in the press room here.

We are getting new grass. Note how beautiful the day was.

The uniforms from our World Series team of 2010.

The pitching cage ~ all business.

The visitors' locker room, my favorite part of the tour.
Did you know we add little extras like the opposing
team's logo clock and other details to make them
feel at home? Nice little kitchen and an
office for the manager.

Willie rules our roost.

Honestly, this is the best deal in town. Only $15 ($12 for seniors)
for 1.5 hours to see the Jewel as you never have before. Ginger and
I went yesterday and we were the only natives in our group of 16.
There was tons of memorabilia on all the floors that one can't
usually see because of all the fans milling around. We were in
Shorenstein's box, inside the pitching cage, all around the fancy
Club Level and then down in the bowels of the park where the
players go. I'm thinking of going back with the next out-of-town
visitors. Oh, you can get your tickets online ~ definitely a must-do.