To continue yesterday’s mixed diary post:
I forgot to take a photo of my haircut. But while I was getting it, I asked my stylist, Sarah, whether she had any advice for finding a hairstylist while we’re traveling. She did. One tip: I should ask prospective salons whether their stylists are proficient in razor cutting. I am a complete doofus about hair, so it never would have occurred to me to ask that question (and I only vaguely realized that this is what she’s been doing on my hair). I have been amazed by Sarah’s expertise for years now. She’s an artist.
I could take a photo of my hair now, but I am writing this from a crowded Whole Foods and it’s a little more exposure than I want at the moment.
After my haircut I thought it would be nice to swing by the UC Berkeley campus (my alma mater) for a little while. I parked along Bancroft Way and entered campus next to the dance studio where I took modern dance for a year. Last week Belinda and I reminisced happily about that studio during our Gamble Garden outing; thinking of her, I stopped in my walk and snapped a photo. This morning I uploaded the image and decided I love its mix of lines and colors and (a)symmetry.
After I left campus I drove across the bay to San Francisco, where I entertained myself for a couple of hours until my friend Kay got home from work. I ate two organic strawberries at the farmers’ market in the Castro district, browsed pretty sofas at A&G Merch, and wrote nine pages in my journal (with a piece of pie for sustenance) at a bakery that has been around since the year I was born. The bakery had One condoms in the restroom. That made me wonder.
(I really miss that cafe right now. This Whole Foods I’m writing in has really uncomfortable bar stools. The seats cut into my thighs in all the wrong places.)
Not long after I left the bakery, Kay called, and we met up and walked along Castro Street to get pizza for dinner. We stopped into some more cute shops on the way. This morning I was inspired to start a new Pinterest board to document them — and another new board to document cafés I like, now that I’ve started doing more work in such places. Pinterest is really helping me make good my resolve to record more of my visual experience. It’s also becoming an addiction. When I saw a cool drawing at Little Otsu or lacy carved eggs at Prairie Collective, instead of whipping out my camera to take a photo, I whipped out my journal (the same one you see in the photo above) and wrote down the artist’s name so I could Google and pin the piece later.
Kay and I ate our pizza and then walked to the rooftop deck of her friend’s apartment building, where we found an outdoor loveseat with cushions. “This is what I really love to do,” she said, and pulled two footrests toward the loveseat, replacing the coffee table she’d pushed out of the way.
“Put your feet up?” I asked, doing so. “Yes,” she said. We were both wearing boots: mine black leather and suede, hers brown leather cowboys.
I lightened that photo so you can see the boots; actually, the sky was deep black and you could hardly see a thing. All around were the lights of the city: the yellow-glowing windows of the hospital to our left, the swooping suspension lights of the Bay Bridge, the dim structures of Oakland in the distance, the blatant red sign of a Safeway down the hill. We talked about cities we have known, about travel, about work, and about the meaning of life. It was one of those conversations that feels both momentous and somehow outside of time. We sat until we shivered and yawned, the wind finally getting to us.
We got up, gathered our things, and turned around to go back into the building. Then I realized that the narrow walkway and the door that led back inside had no walls on either side: the doorway appeared to stand alone, like a door in a dream, a portal to the unknown.
On the way home, the freeways were near deserted. I sped along 280, singing along to Incubus and Fiona Apple. I don’t know if this happens elsewhere, but sometimes in the Bay Area on a rainy night, the sky lights up all depthless black canopy and pale magnificent clouds of grey. It’s like a daytime view at night, with the colors all unfamiliar. At one point the sky-view to my east was so incredible I almost veered onto the shoulder, looking at it, and (I confess) wishing I could Pin it.
This morning I woke up with Incubus’s “Talk Show on Mute” in my head.
I love this piece because it is incredibly visual, beyond the obvious photos. Your word selection brings the images to life. I don’t know Kay, but I can almost see the faces of two great friends, cherishing and savoring the experience and non-expectation that comes with authentic friendships. 🙂 I also hear the music, and visualize you tapping the steering wheel to the beat of the radio as I often do. Perhaps.
Thank you, Empress!! It was a lovely evening. I don’t think I do tap the steering wheel, actually; I’m a slightly tense driver, so I’m probably gripping it as tightly as I can. 😉 But I yowl out with the best of them. In fact, I once dinged our bumper that way, getting too into the song while pulling into a small parking space. ;b Having learned that lesson, now I STOP the singing when I need to make a tricky maneuver. 🙂
Oh, I’m there with you. Great day out by the sound of it…. and I miss San Francisco. I always wanted Fi to get a job there so we could move. I guess it’s a long shot. All my life I’ve lived in a village of some sort where I need to get into my car to go anywhere. I’d love to try living in a city so I can just hang when I want and where I want. Just for a change, you know.
That’s how I feel about walking and moving around a city, too. People are always surprised when we tell them that we walked more in LA than we did in San Pablo, but it’s true; San Pablo is a little suburb-y, whereas in LA we were right on Hollywood Boulevard and it was only a mile to get to our favorite burger place, my yoga studio, or several grocery stores. That’s something I am really, really excited about for our travels: not having a car. Though doubtless I’ll change my tune after a couple of grocery runs in the rain. 😉
funny you all feel this way about cars!! one of the things that bothers me the most about potentially moving to SF is that i *wouldn’t* be able to drive to everything. waah 😛
I’m sure there are people who live in SF who still drive every day. 🙂 I’ve definitely known SF residents who drive a lot!
ahhhh but you know me! too scared to drive (and park!) in the city 😛
I was too, and in some places I still get super nervous. But other areas aren’t so bad. 🙂 If you go at a not-too-busy time of day, to a not-too-crowded part of town, you can get in some practice. 😉
it’s true! i kinda want someone to drive me around so i can familiarize myself with certain areas and do a dry-run 😛
If we weren’t leaving, I’d volunteer. 😉
And then the lightening and thunder started!Wow what a day you had.Did you get anypictures of the lightening or paint a little one from memory?
Yes! The lightning was spectacular last night, when I was out in the South Bay (I didn’t notice any the night before), and the thunder was insane! We said it sounded like someone rolling a giant, giant trash can down the street. I tried to get lightning photos but couldn’t, and the flash was so quick I don’t even know what I would paint. 🙂 I really wanted to, though.
a lightning storm from our travels in india: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM1ARfztjzA
Ooh, dramatic! Cool you caught that in video. 🙂
Oh my goodness, but someone else got a photo. Just look at this! From Phil McGrew on flickr (Tamgerines sent it to me).
The photo and other great ones are from this article (also sent to me by Tamgerines). Wow!
…and you were sitting on the uncomfortable whole foods stool cuz of me!!! 😦 😦 😦 hehehe
you wanting to pin everything reminds me of this: http://xkcd.com/77/
For you, bring on the uncomfortable seats. 😉 (But I did move to the library!!)
That XKCD comic is one of my favorite comics of all time. 😀 It came out when I was still on LJ and it was so spot-on I couldn’t believe it.
I definitely enjoy reading this post, Thank You! 🙂
Thank you for all the comments. 🙂
no problem! Thank YoU! 🙂