driving up the 101

we decided to take the scenic route to seattle...

across the ggb and into the foliagey vineyards near sonoma...

and then we drove through a tree!!

got out for a quick walk through redwood national park...

down a dirt road to this viewpoint...

crossed some state lines...

saw lots of this kind of stuff along the way...

and loved the sunset along the oregon coast.

epic road trip.
good music. excellent podcasts. fantastic conversation.
and lots of junk food.

in this one day in the car, i ate:
one bowl honey bunches of oats - 9 packs of fruit snacks - 3 fruit roll-ups - 2 fruit-by-the-foots - half a bag of pirate booty - bag of teddy grahams - an apple (yeah! totally healthy!) - a bowl of chili and a thick slice of garlic bread at a dive in crescent city, california - 2 diet cokes - 2 vitamin waters - and...a junior whopper.

18.5 hours. good weather, but a bout of pouring rain, which we, of course, loved.

"hey - scenic viewpoint! quick, turn there! go!" "let's just drive around this bay real quick." "feed me some pirate booty." "would you rather kiss george w. bush or micheal jackson?" "look at the ocean!" "let me consult my iphone." "can we have that one song again?" "i wonder what is down that magical looking road." "i'm so glad we got to drive through drain, oregon." "what are you impulsive about?" "my butt is asleep." "oh.my.gosh. this is gorgeous."

best three minutes (out of the 1,110), i think: blasting and singing along to the folk song "window" as the coast whipped by and the sun streamed through the clouds and all the world was aglow.

life is fun

this time of life is so unique!!! it is really great.

on somewhat of a whim, i packed all my stuff and moved to san francisco and fell in love with a place that keeps telling me it's mine. and now, i'm hanging on by a thread financially but loving it - i am really loving it. i sort papers and catalogs, babysit for a smattering of families all over the bay, complete random tasks and errands for a fascinating documentary filmmaker and sometimes work remotely for my brother's and my sister's companies. i will no doubt be finding other random means to pay my rent and buy ramen.

and in between all this, i get to have all kinds of adventures in this city that is positively bursting with beauty, coolness, diversity and a colorful culture. i've done things that i never thought i would do, seen things i never imagined i'd see. i get to entertain beloved visitors without having to take a day of vacation time. i get to take long runs along the beach and read good books and have sunday dinners with loved ones from salt lake and watch the sunset off the 280 on the drive home from work. i have a roommate who's a baker and brings home scones and sweet breads (and another - male - roommate whose nails are french manicured...), i'm getting lots of practice writing cover letters, and pretty much all my shoes have holes in them.

i'm embracing the free, bazaar place i've found myself in my little life. i'm meeting neat people, learning from them, trying to figure out who the heck i really am and striving to be the girl i've always dreamt of being - and getting there little by little each day.

when will this ever happen again? when in life will i ever be able to be this free? never. it's really great. i might not have any money but i've got my love for life to pay the bills. i'm learning and i feel so mortal and alive. and i'm having fun. as you can see.

brunch at mama's with tilly and jane -

tilly just moved to san francisco and she and her hubbie live downtown!

the food at that kitschy little place is to die for.

halloween night at josephine's house in alameda.

we entertained trick-or-treaters, carved pumpkins and roasted their seeds,

and had a delightful homemade halloween dinner.

the pink looks good on jo, yeah? her sister julia and roommate michelle are fantastic.

ingrid michaelson concert at the fillmore.

awesome venue, beautiful music, cool friends.

ingrid is a phenomenal performer. she was so funny, and the show was so fun!

dia de los muertos (day of the dead) procession in the mission.

this was a super neat cultural event. the streets were full to the brim with people.

everyone was carrying candles and many were making music and dancing.

it was kind of creepily magical.

giants victory parade on market street! holy cow this was awesome.

i got off bart and came up the stairs to behold hundreds of thousands of people crammed in the streets. a sea of orange and black. somehow i got on top of a little parking-ticket-giver-mobile. the cop said we could stand on it, and i had an excellent view. people were doing anything to see the parade - including getting in trees (see top right picture) and on top of a muni bus!

kelsey and i soaked in the pure excitement of the gloriously sunny afternoon.

it was like the entire city took a day off to go crazy and celebrate.

it was so fun to see the players and scream my head off. what a sweet triumph for the giants and for the city of san francisco.

saw this sunset from a look-out point in the presidio while searching for wood for a bonfire.

kels and i were screaming and yelling as the sky quickly evolved and left us stunned.

on november 5th we hosted a guy fawkes bonfire at ocean beach.

bonfire night is a big holiday in england and it was so fun to invite friends to celebrate it here in san fran! we had a huge fire and fireworks and of course an effigy of the traitor guy fawkes.

we hung out by the fire and roasted stuff and then read the history of the gunpowder plot of 1605, recited the traditional poem and threw that evil guy into the flames.

it was so fun!! the weather was beautiful.

and there is nothing like a bonfire on the beach.

especially when i have an excuse to wear my union jack t-shirt.

so, yeah, life is fun.

and this weekend i'm taking off for 10 days of adventure in washington (and thereabouts) with my brother and his family. because i can...

p.s. this post was inspired by this post. keri is rad. it's great to have friends like her - our souls are made of the same sort of stuff.

autumn

some things just stick with you.

probably about 5 years ago, i remember being in relief society at the boston university ward and we were all asked to go around the room and introduce ourselves as it was one of the first weeks of the new school year. we were told to say our name, where we're from, what we were doing in boston, and our favourite season (it was a new favourite every week for about a month).

everyone filed through, saying that they loved the heat of summer or the snow in winter or the new flowers of spring. then one girl got up and said, "my favourite season is always the one that i am currently experiencing."

for some reason, i will never forget that. i think it's really poignant what she said, and i hope that i can enjoy each slice of life as it comes because it's there in front of me and it's beautiful. there's something to embracing the chill of winter without having to relentlessly look forward to warm days, or soaking in the sun without aching for the weather to cool down and for change to come.

or, in my case recently, there's something to wholeheartedly enjoying the raw, hearty beauty of autumn.

we don't get a lot of foliage here in san francisco, but we do get gloriously warm days and tastes of fall color that are, since they're rare, spectacular. and the sunlight slants differently and the holidays are coming and going and i feel organic gratitude.

sometimes i go down to burlingame to babysit and i love taking long walks with the baby in the stroller through charming neighborhoods. here's what i saw the other day. lit me right up with goodness. i soaked up the season i was currently experiencing.

and...this past weekend i went with some friends on a bike ride through the stunning vineyards of napa valley. the landscape seemed unreal and the colors were blindingly beautiful. i felt like i was in a completely different world - a perfect, golden one. we sat in the sun on a hill overlooking rolls of ruddy grape vines for a picnic lunch. we rode for 16 miles through unbelievable, idyllic, sweet, astonishingly gorgeous earth. i'll stop trying to describe it now. it wast just really awesome.

i've decided that this season is my favourite, this time of life is my favourite, today is the best day yet, and the here and now is so great.

crammed

i woke up one friday morning, went downstairs to the living room and here's what i found:

eight of my dear friends sleeping on my couches and floor. i felt giddy and swollen with admiration, love and gratitude for good friends. i'm not sure how i lucked out and this happened - on wednesday i heard that some girls might be coming to help our friend jae move to san francisco, and thursday night a slew of 8 showed up. it was so fun! it was so fun to have them.

the weekend was crammed with visitors and also crammed with adventures, beautiful things, chaos trying to caravan around san francisco, and really, really good times. i felt so blessed. good people. pictures by jen and megan.

we cheered on the giants after their big win in game 2 of the world series:

we watched the 8th and 9th innings in an awesome sports bar by the stadium

and then ran through the streets hollering and cheering with all the fans.

showing off the city from alamo square - i'll never tire of that view!

hanging out at ocean beach and then golden gate park

at the berkeley halloween party - look at those cuties. mccaye and i were condiments.

saturday morning at lombard street

lunch in north beach. this photo is totally candid.

can you tell lunch was seriously fun?

after that divine evening in the marin headlands (that i have already blogged about-

see below....) we beheld this stellar view...

and just took a little moonlight stroll in sausalito.

we had one last adventure walking through the streets of the mission

to and from the taqueria and bi-rite - everyone was in costume!

certainly the weekend was epic! early sunday morning i stood in my nighty on the curb and waved goodbye until the cars were out of sight and felt so excruciatingly glad everyone was up for hopping in the car and driving to san fran, and again, so blessed to have these friends.

weekend of jewels

i know that when people shorten the name julie they spell jules, but when i think of my friend julie e i think of jewels. because that girl is an absolute gem.

we met while interning for a summer in dc and quickly found out we were kindred spirits and (at the dance clubs in the district) dancing soulmates. jewels is one of my favourite people on earth. it was such a treat to have her visit for a weekend.

we had a lot of fun and also i took a lot of pictures. i realize i went a little crazy on the collages here. but it's an efficient way to share all the beauty and gladness of julie's three days in san fran.

ike's sandwich (holy hannah incredibly yummy) picnic in dolores park and wandering around the mission:

gorgeous morning in north beach and scrumptious brunch at mama's:

lombard street and the palace of fine arts (where at least 15 asian tourists asked for a picture with uber-blond julie):

walking tour of the golden gate bridge (boy howdy the weather was glorious):

afternoon at stinson beach (it was warm enough to get in the ocean, and there was a baton twirler doing his thing - random and neat!):

japanese tea garden in golden gate park (misty and enchanting with a hint of autumn):

the conservatory of flowers:

strolling up and down haight street:

union square and riding a cable car up california street:

half moon bay pumpkin festival (with jane, blake and kelsey):

jewels and i decided to do boogie down with the country band at the festival:

see what i mean about dancing soulmates?

it was one of those weekends where come sunday your face aches from smiling.

i love those weekends, i love jewels, i love san francisco.

i had the best day

yesterday i went downtown to the giants' world series victory parade. it was crazy, epic, thrilling, electrifying, insane, incredible, extremely fun and absolutely sensational (pictures to come). kelsey and i strolled down market street with tens of thousands of exuberant fans, the air thick with triumph, merriment and enthusiasm - and marijuana. the city was alive, breathing, cheering.

we ate lunch at a corner sandwich shop. we rode the unine-smelling muni train smashed with fans. i walked home from the stop in the gorgeous, perfect weather (the slanty light of fall but the sunshine and still warmth of summer).

i drove down to the beach for a run as the sun descended and left the sky looking ethereal and almost eerily beautiful. i ran faster than i usually do and loved the ocean air hitting me in the face. i turned around to make my loop, then went to cross the street and looked behind me and the sky was on fire. i gasped. i ran toward the electric pink in the sky.

i screamed as i ran. not really quietly. i sang along to my music. i yelled. it was maybe one of the top 5 best sunsets of my life. i was fit to burst. every bit of me was effervescent - were my feet still making contact with the ground?

i came home to a house full of roommates that i love, drove to the church in a happy memory-remembering haze, enjoyed institute, and stayed up into the wee hours finishing my book which refused to be put down.

it was such a good day. it was such a good day! i love being alive. i love being alive!

'people always think happiness is a faraway thing,' thought francie, 'something complicated and hard to get. yet, what little things can make it up; a place for shelter when it rains - a cup of strong coffee when you're blue; a book to read when you're alone - just to be with someone you love. those things make happiness.'

hold it all until it hollers

i like slices of life when i feel like this - (from a tree grows in brooklyn)

francie stood on tiptoe and stretched her arms wide. 'oh, i want to hold it all!' she cried. 'i want to hold the way the night is - cold without wind. and the way the stars are so near and shiny. i want to hold all of it tight until it hollers out, "let me go! let me go!"'

on saturday, on a cliff overlooking the city and the ocean, i wanted to hold the way the evening was - chilly with a bite of wind, and the way the sleepy sun made the colors otherworldly beautiful. i wanted to hold it all tight until it hollered.

so, i tried this:

she decided to fix this time in her life exactly the way it was this instant. perhaps that way she could hold on to it as a living thing and not have it become something called a memory.

the company made the views even more splendid. this weekend i had 8 friends visit from utah. it was an adventure and a blessing (more on the epic weekend later).

but oh! that sublime hour in the marin headlands! i felt so human and so alive in that place and time. it made me want to pray like francie -

'dear god, let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. let me be gay; let me be sad. let me be cold; let me be warm. let me be hungry...have too much to eat. let me be ragged or well dressed...let me be honorable and let me sin. only let me be something every blessed minute. and when i sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost.'

i've been a san franciscan for three months. i really like my life. i don't want to miss one tiny piece.