one entire week late blog entry. my normal routine of blogging every saturday got interrupted last week because i was out of town. jg had to take a tour of a filthy* rich person's weekend estate in big sur.
* i'm green with envy. call me filthuy.
august 21 through 28 was just another week. i slept, worked, ate, and slept. in between, i took a lot of pictures. i'm having a difficult time recalling the days' events so i'm just going to make it up as i go along.
i see this street sign daily on my way to pick up/drop off jg:
friendship ends on mcallister
tuesday my colleague kristi and i took a long walk to the haight during our lunch hour. i hadn't been there since 1994.
at a curb in golden gate park's pan handle
the famous street is not far from our office. it's just on the other side of the pan handle. we didn't have much time to waste but we did manage to go inside a few eye catching shops. we spent the most time in a boutique shop called ambiance but i didn't take any other pictures of it other than this one:
krisi on haight
look at these mega trendy shoe stores:
john fluevog
isabel
i love the interior of isabel. their shoes are a bit much but their display shelves are pretty creative.
cashier counter
shoe art
190-
i was wearing flip flops so i felt very much ghetto in these shops. fortunately, the store attendants were quite friendly and politely aloof so i never felt out of place.
tuesday evening i got this:
card from chicago
the color of the envelope looked solemn. my friend julia had written to say that her lovely cat hugo had passed away.
wednesday kristi and i went out for another long walk. we went to golden gate park. two blocks from our office we passed a neat little coffee shop that has cool murals outside. i like this one lots:
internet coffee
this was taken somewhere along the walk i can't remember:
mccain from prez
i see a lot of sidewalk paintings like those around the neighborhood where my office is located. they are all sprayed from a template. some are real elaborate. i'll make a point of showing you more of them.
kristi and i walked a big old loop through the park. from mcallister we went along the pan handle into the park. we crossed the strybing arboretum and around the tea garden. on our way back we passed by the steinhart aquarium, a giant new building under construction. then, we passed by this:
conservatory of flowers in the fog
i hope those are not the maginificient flowers that everyone is gushing about. i've seen better landscaping in most front yards in montecito. i suspect the blooming shows are inside that castle greenhouse. i didn't have the time to check it out. may be next year.
thursday i saw this when i went to pick up thai food for lunch:
is that right?
true story: i saw that scribble on the corner of broderick and oak. i did a double take and back tracked so i could take a picture of it. as i pulled the camera out of my bag, a macho looking guy in a tow truck pulled up to a red light right at that same corner. i could see that he had leaned out of his window to shout at me, "hey beautiful, are you seriously taking a picture of that?"
me: yeah. (laughing it off)
macho tow guy: you should take a picture of me because i last longer!
i entertained taking a picture of him but i resisted. when i turned to get a good look at him, i laughed and shook my head. he looked thoroughly amused. he had a big grin on his face. i turned back to take a picture of the sidewalk and continued walking. he shouted again, "hey, beautiful..." the light must have turned green then because i couldn't hear the rest of the sentence.
thursday night jg and i went real estate shopping. yes, joke. some neat shots:
sausalito street drain
bizarre french people
$995,000
the house to the left of the picture was the one we wanted to see. sold faster than hot cakes. this is why:
view we can't afford
friday jg and i had dinner on clement street. vietnamese food. it's nothing special. we dine there at least three times a week out of convenience. but friday was extraordinary. the sky was fogless and the moon rose at sunset!
golden gate bridge from upper conzelman road friday 27aug2004 7:51 pm
yet more reasons why san francisco is not meant for me:
1. i got an honestly unwarranted parking ticket.
2. the sf public library wants me to pay for a book which i already returned
and is now lost. $35+$5 processing fee.
3. i am now paying $1,800 per month for this once free vacation rental.
4. it has been impossible to find a decent apartment in the city for less.
5. the new job didn't work out.
that's right, i quit this morning. gave up, threw in the towel, waved the white flag. i went in, spoke my mind, and left. done deal.
then i went to the library to pay for the book i didn't lose. on my way back i stopped by japantown. i wanted to browse the ichiban dollar store but it hadn't opened. so i went to check out the new restaurant per chowhound babe.
suzu grand opening
it's a sleek+simplified take on the traditional noodlehouse. i'll try to go back during business hours. for now we'll just have to look at the blurry menu.
open 11:30 until 10:00 daily
wonder if they'd hire me
in other news, the weather is back to its foggy and windy self again. seems like someone had bribed it to be perfect just long enough for the labor day weekend.
i'm also back. back to schmeebot and to the job searching process. back to the never ending search for a decent place to live. wish i could say that i was going back to santa barbara. alas.
this past weekend i wrote a long shpiel about how unhappy i have been. good thing i decided not to post it. i'm determined to maintain schmeebot as a creative and positive entity. i want to give myself incentive to find good things to blog about.
great thanks to everyone who has kept check on me. i am back and there are lots to come. hold on to your mouse!
how wonderful it is to wake up and not have to go to work. what a horrible job i had. i allowed it to beat me up for one whole month. all because i made a bad decision and i felt like i had to grin and bear it. lesson learned.
i've been up since 6:30. by 7:30, i have a job interview lined up. it may or it may not work out. but it sure feels good to know that getting work is not difficult.
i'm taking the time to tidy up schmeebot and the associated files. there are quite a few images which i created but never posted for some reason. like that flower, and these, all taken in sausalito:
taken on richardson street
someone lost a buck
fire engine red
these were taken enroute to san francisco back when i took the ferry almost daily. ah, the good old days.
took this shot blindly while tiptoed over the railing of the ferry
alcatraz and sf beyond
approaching port of san francisco
posf
today is a beautiful day again. the air is cool but it's perfectly clear and sunny. here's a live shot taken at the top of south street. that's 312 to the left, jg's bike to the right, and the north bay beyond.
jg and i used to take the entire month of september off and travel. in 2002, we took a road trip. 2003, eurail. this year, we're travelling by armchair lap top.
let's begin with my old college friend justin. he was living in alaska and then he left for thailand. i was in touch with him up to the moment i left santa barbara. i have no idea if he's still overseas or not. check out his story telling photo albums.
next, i give you the mysterious m. mysterious because i've never met him in person. he's in japan for a month long business trip. that's luxury! he's currently in tokyo. this is the view from his hotel room:
his counterparts in tokyo are helping him experience the high life. they take him out to dinners and binges almost nightly. he reported to have eaten horse steaks and whale cubes, drunk way too much sake, and, just this morning, sung karaoke.
the suspects
m has no idea what those hand signals are about. we'll have to surmise that they're harmless hand origami.
a scene out of blade runner
tokyo at night
that's all i've got so far. said he'd send more as soon as he gets sober enough not to drop the camera.
there can never be enough of pictures from far away places. if you know of good links to share, please do!
know how i've been, like, totally sentimental lately? like, way back to college and stuff? well, hold on to your text books, y'all! there's more!
first, look what i got yesterday.
postal goodness from san diego
that's from my long time friend wendall, a talented bass player who once had hopes that i would learn to play the guitar.
do you know how i met wend? i used to walk past his dorm room window all the time going to the parking lot. i would always see a tall, dark, and handsome boy playing the acoustic guitar. one fine day i walked around the corner to find the door to his room and knocked. he answered the door, i introduced myself, and we've been friends for over twelve years.
it's been ages since i've seen wend. what i remember most are his gnarly eyebrows and the intense color of his blue eyes. like this:
is it only tuesday? it's going to be a long week! jg and i got back to sf last night, i should say this morning, at 1:30 am. 312 is being fumigated this week so we can't live there. we actually drove around the city looking for a room at any motel or hotel around here and they're all full! at 2:30, we resigned to spending the night at jg's office. the big city adventure continues.
it was great to spend a long weekend in sb even though all we did was packing. we moved everything we own into the garage in order to rent out the rooms. i just can't get over the fact that strangers will be enjoying our wonderful house. ah well.
so, jg and i are living in an open loft right over his office. i was dead tired this morning but was forced to get out of bed before business hours began. the conference room is on the same level as the loft and i didn't want to risk getting caught scratching my butt by a bunch of architects.
the view from the loft is incredible! do you know what i can see by merely peeking over the headboard? saint mary's cathedral! it's my most favorite building in the entire san francisco!
i'll post pictures of the space later this week. i have to figure out how to exist invisibly in an office first, with a bunch of architects no less.
i'll leave you with this picture which i took at the garden gallery in morro bay back in 1996.
boots loves balloons
that's a real dog with a real balloon. she must have been the gallery's mascot. she's long gone now but i believe she is still featured on their business card. pretty neat, huh?
this entry was supposed to be posted on wednesday but, along with all the other wonderful things happening to me, it didn't. chalk it up as item 217 under the column titled my #@!*&% life in sf.
...
i felt like a bum this morning walking from the days inn to jg's office. i was carrying two sling bags, a paper bag, a sweater, and a towel. 8:30 am. i walked past a small crowd of homeless folks on gough street who were helping one of their own wash his hair with bottled water. i wanted to lend him my towel.
so, i couldn't hack living in the lovely open loft. yesterday's entry about office living must have shocked our sf friends pretty good. i got a concerned email from gabbie. then frank called. i was clear across the room but i could hear frank on the phone saying to jg, "are you guys seriously living at your office?!" they generously offered to take us in but we had already reserved and paid for three nights at the days inn.
i feel like i'm living a reality tv show and the director is trying to come up with better glitches everyday. i imagine there's a bunch of people running around with headsets excitedly thinking up challenges to make my life more interesting. the previous winners were:
1. make them move out of their comfortable house. make sure they can't afford
to rent anything decent in the city.
2. rip the bumper off her car. but only after a nice big deer is thrown into the road
in front of her.
3. lose her library book and give her a parking ticket.
4. get an ass to play her boss at her first job in the city.
5. tell them the fumigation takes two days when it actually takes five. see what
they'll do when they realize they had underpacked.
6. let them stay at a loft with nice views, except remove all the doors and curtains
so they don't get comfortable.
that's not all. but i'm going to stop before i start crying again. i'm waiting for the car to be broken in. i'm surprised that it isn't already. next week, i'm sure.
pictures: the bad news is, i can't download any i've taken this week because i didn't take the usb cable with me--see item 5 above. the good news is, i have some on file!
the roof of st mary's cathedral seen from front entrance
web designers' lamp of choice these guys occupy the fell street end of jg's office
self portrait
keeping schmeebot on the risque side
i hope your week is going better than mine. much better!
that's a badly spliced image made of pictures taken last night to show you the discombobulated state of 312.
we wasted the entire weekend either looking at unsuitable rental apartments in the city or unloading+unpacking at 312. cleaning, too. i've been leaving all the doors and windows open all day to air out the bad vibes. i just can't stop thinking about how the entire apartment was filled up with lethal gases!
friday night jg and i went to dinner on fillmore with our friends frank+gabbie. i had never been in that area before. a lot of boutique shops and restaurants. i had fun from just looking at the store fronts. i probably won't go back unless someone visits me from out of town.
i'm feeling a lot better today. there's still quite a bit of unpacking and tidying to do, including setting up a work space. yes, work at home. i am giving myself a trial run working as a consultant. that i don't have to deal with driving and parking is already a big plus.
me and my webmasta we're a team again. well, mostly i complain and he fixes. he went amissin on me for one whole month! small wonder that schmeebot remained in one piece!
