..then the beer and endorphins wore off...uncomfortableness ensued, but that's okay....Jason did a super-fantastic job on the outlines, and at the end of the month I go back for round two...sleevage madness indeed!
That pretty much took up my entire day, and i'm too pooped and sore to type anymore...
Is best exemplified by Freddie Mercury. Srsly.
"...Don't stop me now I'm having such a good time
I'm having a ball don't stop me now
If you wanna have a good time just give me a call
Don't stop me now ('Cause I'm having a good time)
Don't stop me now (Yes I'm having a good time)
I don't want to stop at all..."
Yep, California is officially on fire. Google maps was kind enough to let us know exactly where in case we weren't bummed enough...
I really wanted to go camping soon, too. Now, not so much...
Tomorrow i'm finally getting my sleeve sleevafied...it's been in a state of half-done-ness for awhile, so i'm looking forward to, well...moving forward with it...
There are often people who are shocked! and appalled! by tattoos in general, and it's my belief they're really into it but don't wanna admit it...they own a whole closet full of this mess at home;
They also drink near-beer and grape juice at parties.
I've got a whole lot of cleaning, errand running, bike building, and bike riding to cram into the day...so i'm off to it...
In this part of California, there are now hundreds of wildfires in various places which means there is now an ever-present blanket of smoke across the Bay Area.
We went riding last night, and the sun is a creepy orange behind the haze of smoke, and it's just...a little bit strange.
This whole week i've been wiped out...falling asleep early, waking up late, getting the afternoon nap feelings...welcome to summer indeed!
As a sad state of reality. i've said it numerous times to lots of people, but credit cards are 'ze deevil'. The other night Nate and I watched this documentary called "Maxed Out" and there was some underhanded shit that I had no idea went on, I think everyone should get this on their Netflix queues and get rid of credit cards, people!
Here's lecture time....If you live here in the Bay Area, yes, everything is totes expensive, BUT you can do so much to stay out of debt. It's discipline and denial, but in the long run, you'll be way less stressed. I have people tell me "But I need my credit card..." and then they just use it to buy more crap that clutters up their living space...that's want, not need...okay...here goes;
So, what shall we do...you may ask. Well, spend time with your significant other - talking is good. Read a book. Ride your bike. Paint a picture. (start a blog...)
Or, I should say 'hobo', singular. Dooder has decided to take up residence in his car at the end of the street, taking advantage of the dead-endage...and the first week, it was like..."meh...he'll move along soon enough" and then the second week passed, and now, week three, and he's taken to talking on his cell phone next to his car at 2 am, wandering the trailer park, getting free coffee from the rec room, doing everything but paying rent. Le sigh.
Now, don't get me wrong, in the Silicon Valley there's prolly a ton of folks in the same unfortunuate sitch...but first, he kinda creeps me out. He's not a lovable tramp, a la Charlie Chaplin,
or rad, like El Duderino..
I kinda want to say chav-like, but I don't really know anything about him except that he should make up with his wife/girlfriend/boyfriend/room-mate or whatever and go sleep in a proper bed. Sleeping in a car on a dead-end street next to a trailer-park is just unsavory. Especially when one is disturbing the sleep of said trailer park residents....
After a triple digit weekend...awkward...
There's a line in "Best in Show" that kinda sums up how i've been feeling lately...
"...we love the outdoors, and talking and not talking. We could not talk or talk forever and still find things to not talk about."
When I did paint, my favorite thing about it was the not taking and the just doing of it...I'm a believer in the whole 'actions speak louder than words'...
OH!! And quick interruption, as i'm writing this, two office ladies are standing behind a Lexus SUV at the dead end street that abuts our house, in their heels and office clothes, smoking a fat joint and chatting...the Silicon Valley. They probably rolled over from Microsoft to hang out by the trailer park and get lit. There's so much I could say about this scene, but talking isn't as good as not talking sometimes...actions > words...
...more on that later, I need to gather some pictures...he is a work in progress indeed!
While cleaning, I came across not one, but two, dayplanners, and thought about the empire of "organization" that Franklin Covey has now built.
Respectfully, I say F*** that.
I got through undergrad andgrad school with all A's, three jobs, and no late assignments without the use of a dayplanner, no daily list, no checkboxes, no prioritizing...I just did what needed to get done in a timely manner...good times.
But you know, i'll give anything a try, and it was suggested to me to try it at one point, and there are three things it did;
It made me really neurotic.
It wasted a ton of time with all the list making and checking and prioritizing and planning.
It made me bitter and resentful. Oh wait, I already was that..okay, it increased it,
It also made me realize that if people need to schedule and prioritize every second of every day, they're probably working too much. At least when I was in grad school, I didn't have a dayplanner so I didn't actually see a list of what I did everyday, or I would have realized I was working too much and started to freak out.
I've been much happier without a dayplanner.
Saturday dawned hot...and continued with the hotness and the sweatiness all day! Though we live on the peninsula, we decided it would be a good idea to rack up Stella and Beretta and head to our old stomping grounds in Berkeley....
Madness can ensue when you spend six hours meandering the back streets and well known streets alike...the highlights, were as such...,
We had some rad food at Naan 'N Curry, as per my usual, I had the Chicken Vindaloo. We hopped over to Raleigh's for some pints, where I noticed there were Gnomes watching us...an auspicious sign....
We headed over to FTW to speak to Jason right-quick, next Sunday is still go...sleevage madness will be had...meandering through the backwoods I saw this gem, which is like an awesome houseboat, but on land....
We headed back down and got some delicious frozen lemonade, a satisfying end to a lovely summer day....
There are a couple of, I dunno, lets say paradigm shifts that I realized have happened to me as I get more into the "i'm an adult - therefore boring and responsible" years....
First, work is my life....no, not just work...let me clarify, I have finally fallen into the niche I like, I like my job....lots. I plan on being the tenacious barnacle at my company of employment...and I realized that when I get asked what I do for fun...is work. Which is a good thing, actually. I get in waaaay less trouble.
I also realized that what I like and what my body like are two different things..
I like Taco Bravo
My body doesn't like Taco Bravo quite so much...in a myriad of ways...
The other paradigm shift is my attention span has gone all to shit...oh look! A puppy!
Yep, that's my dog, I have visitation rights....
It's hot out, and I had a crapload of conspiracy theories about the government and the uptick in consumerism amidst a recession...but you know? Saturday is upon us, Stella is going to get the ride of her life, and i'm too old and boring to get into it right now! Also, yes, my drawers are fantastically clean...
Go outside! Get rad!
...and it gets all better when you go home and turn it up to 11 and get rad.
...a chicken fried steak eatin' sunovofabitch....
...good times!...
Wednesday was a middle of the week day through and through...it didn't help that drunk people decided that 2 am was a good time to stand next to our house and pontificate in REALLY LOUD VOICES, and...yeah. Not a lot of sleep.
Today i'm focusing on...drawers.
My regular routine has been out of whack for the last two weeks, but i'm so close to ultimate organization...when I come home from work...the drawers in the house WILL BE TACKLED!!!
(the below picture, btw, is not any drawer at my haus, but rather, what I fear a drawer can potentially become...)
SHUDDER
The best workout really is cleaning the house..seriously....
I came home from work and mopped the kitchen, did the laundry, vacuumed the stairs, vacuumed the living room, scrubbed (and I mean scrubbed) the upstairs shower, and did the dishes...
My arms hurt and I am truly, really, greatly exhausted...BUT, first, I will sleep well tonight, second, the house smells really good, and third i'm getting closer to the goal i've had for the past five years of being a minimalist...it's hard to do when you have so much extraneous shit...
i'm working towards clean and simple....
This is a dream..a cozy, comfortable dream....(btw, my living room looks NOTHING like that...sigh....)
We're back from our little 3 day vacation in Sausalito - the prettiest 'lil town in The Bay Area! The bummer aspect of it is that it is a one street town, really, and everything closes down early - AND is extremely expensive...I forgot just how expensive...
The views are unbeatable, the fog was unavoidable, but we did take our bikes on the ferry to angel island so we could ride around , which was amazing! I learned three things about myself on this trip,
All in all, a very good time...next year we may be back, or we may decide to venture someplace new...but of course, the bikes will always come with us!
You know how they do on Sesame Street..can you tell me how to get there, indeed!
If it's Saturday, and you're in front of a computer, and it's daylight...these glorious woods exist at Big Basin right now...you should go see them or something similar...and in real life, not a computer monitor!
Know what today is!? RADNESS! It is Friday my friends, ahhh yes! The day before the weekend, and all is well...
Superstitious folk don't like when it's Friday the 13th, but I say 'tis a glorious day!
You know why? Starting on Saturday, i'll have three days of being here and looking at these wonderful things, eating at fancy places, and all around radness!!!
Ahhhhh! Heavenly! This is definitely the weekend I cast my penny pinching ways aside!
Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes, well, he eats you.
I try my best to come home and clean, and relax, but sometimes, i'm not so into it..
That's when I have to pull on the wisdom of the Big Lebowski, "Hey, careful, man, there's a beverage here!"
"Say, friend - you got any more of that good sarsaparilla?"
Summer is good times because the warm weather means more parties, bbq's, outdoors-y type fun, all that good stuff...
This also means I get into cleaning frenzy mode, and for two years i've had this goal of being uber-organized - like, not one drawer that was messy, not one shelf in disarray...but it always seems so...daunting.
I have, however, found the perfect solution, here's how it's worked so far...everyday I pick one thing i'm going to clean, and one thing i'm going to organize. When I get home from work, that's what I do, and I don't go all overboard, I just do those two things and then relax . In a couple-few weeks, I think our casa del trailer will be spotless - oh joy of joys!
When I used to work from home, about once or twice a week I would swear that I heard some lady yelling and screaming at the top of her lungs (at somebody). I dismissed it as being in my imagination, but I saw her yesterday!! Or at least, I saw some lady just tearing into some guy who was sitting in his car, right there near the *gasp* 7-11 parking lot. The sad, very,very, very sad thing was that there was a little girl in the car who was getting upset, and I don't know what the situation was, obvs, but people please, there's no need for all the drama! I don't think i've ever really lit into anyone for anything, really, even with good cause...
So - in any case, on a good note. On Sunday I was in a grumpy mood...my whole day was kinda in a funk, for no good reason, BUT, it never stops a good ride....
Nate decided that we should venture into what's called the Rose Garden district of San Jose, as well as into the adjacent not so rosy district, and it was a beautiful ride despite my churlishness...
While riding we saw that cars will revert to their intended forms when faced with neglect and rising gas prices...
So, as the story goes, no matter what kind of a nasty, horrible, no good mood you wake up in...go outside!
So Saturday evening, I didn't make it to San Francisco, I made it upstairs and went to sleep...sleep is a wonderful thing, and after spending all day running around to finish projects, I just like to sleep....
Cari did an amazing job with my mess of hair, as always, i'm putting in my endorsement for Faux in downtown Campbell...
It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but then, that's the beauty of Democracy...
We did take a walk around the neighborhood, there was a concert on Saturday afternoon, and it's always good times to see what shenanigans the young hooligans are getting into around here...I also noticed that concerts=litter, or more precisely, the beer cans that live in the wild venture into the domain of the people and allow themselves to be tamed, thus causing their untimely death and their carcasses to be strewn about the streets...
Not even blended, iced, coffee drinks were safe....
At least it had the dignity to be thrown aside while still upright...
After witnessing all that, I just had to go home and rest, really, it was simply too much....okay, so i'm full of it...I really just wanted to sit down, read a book, and go to sleep early....
My Friday was filled with all the amazing everyday-ness that Friday's are good for (heck, that everyday is good for!) and now that it's Saturday there's more good times to be had!
I'm off to get my hair did, and then tonight will be a swingin' shindig in SF, i've not yet seen my cousin and her business partners amazing SOMA loft/warehouse-y place yet, and there will be many people, much beer, music, and good times...
But on a serious note..the fence...the cursed fence that is open, then closed, hopped and abused....they saw fit to nail it completely shut thus increasing my commute by a block...I think because it is a trailer park, they're not so much trying to keep others' out as they are keep us white-trashy folks in. Speaking of whitetrashy-ness...without irony, here is really what I came home and made for dinner last night, as it was the only food I had in the house..
Yes, that is a Frito Pie with an icy cold can of the High Life next to it...We have beer still left from Nate's party, I had a half-finished bag of Frito's that I bought for snackies at work, and a can of chili...topped off with some pre-shredded Safeway cheese...mmmmmmm...delish!
We went walking last night, and I thought I would share some of my everyday sights..
Yes, that's a buckin' Ford Bronco Truck alright...(rad!)
Right after we walked past this pipeline, the floodgates opened...seriously right after....
And I think it's because the Feds are always watching us...always
I'm off to pay some dollars for a hair-do...
Know what Fridays are? What I like to call a 'lil slice 'o Heaven is what!
Not that every day of the week is not bad-ass in its' own way...like yesterday, when my hubby made dinner...
I realize that when I tell people that I have the worst.eating.habits.ever they may not at first believe me....
However, I do not lie when I say that this is my everyday fare...
As summer is here (so they say) i've kicked up my cleaning a couple few notches, and am always surprised at what I unearth...and it got me thinking about collections. I mean, when people have a tendency to hoard stuff...it kinda freaks me out..to me, people can call it 'collecting' but I think it's clutter...
But you know, to each their own...it's just on my mind because i'm bummed at how much crap I keep finding hen I clean, it's like, I get rid of some stuff, and then I find stuff...more succinctly, life is too complicated in other areas, so I like to keep my living space simple!
ANYWAY, whatever! Enough of this rambling nonsense!! It's FRIDAY!!! Rad!
When you walk, or ride your bike, everywhere, you start to develop the habit of being a wee bit more observant than you are when you're used to seeing things zip by at 60 MPH.
Like, semi trucks...they're actually pretty rad, and they have personality...like this one...it's a loooong truck!
and notice the grin the dawg has on said truck....
Oh geez! That's quite the, uh, shifter?
So, back to the clean world, last night was a beautiful night for a ride on the trail and to Amicis on Castro.....
We locked Beretta and Stella up securely and sat at the outside table to enjoy the evening...
We ignored the fact that there is a mortuary across the street, people on segueways, and a spooky advert with Nosferatu right above us...
Beer with the hubby and a veggie pizza, a ride home in the dusky evening an d a good nights rest...good times indeed!....
It doesn't matter what day of the week it is, good times are never hard to find...!
One of the things around Mountain View that pulls me into its' irresistible vortex are the 'Google Bikes'. Like Amsterdam, Google has a network of what I like to term 'shareware' bicycles on its' campus.
I always notice the bikes being used by the everyday folk, especially on castro street, sometimes even *gasp!* locked to a fence near the CalTrain station, and i've always wondered how the everyday mortals acquire these bikes...
I think I saw the answer yesterday...
Black Market Google Bike Pile!!! Rad in one way, but overwhelmingly frightening in another...'specially when you get glared down by three big guys in an unmarked truck... I definitely hightailed it from said parking lot. Also, most of the bikes looked kinda mangled, so it could have been Google Bike Rx for all I know...except for it wasn't anywhere near the campus, and it's more fun to imagine I unearthed a clandestine something or other....
On a totally different note, for all my talk of disliking of consumer goods and what-not, I do have a not-so-secret penchant for hoodies...zip-hoodies specifically, because they comprise most of my wardrobe and i'm always cold. While in SF the other day, I was trying to find another of my old hoodies which had 'disappeared' a few years back, and was, arguably, my favorite;
The original Frisco Choppers rad graphic....
Alas, it was not to be. First, they changed their name to 'California Choppers' and second, they changed their design...i'm bummed on both accounts...
As always, lets end on the good foot...can I just say...hell YEAH!!
Yesterday, not so good...I'm not a fan of the dental work, and I had three...THREE fillings in one sitting. I'm no good with the nocvocaine, I know it's just to numb up the mouth and blah blah blah, but the resultant numbness always makes me feel so nauseous....
I was so irritated and completely thrown off kilter that I just went back to work, with my face feeling like a basketball...and I swear, my dentist is a good dentist, I know this deep down, but I swear dentists naturally have a sadistic bent...
And after all that, they take many, many dollars and schedule a cleaning. Thanks ever so...
The nauseousness waited until about 8:30 pm, and so I do what I do when i'm flustered...I started organizing. I decided to unleash the wrath on the linen closet, refolding and stacking items by type, use, and color, and it occurred to me...we have waaaay too many sheets.
We moved in two years ago,and between housewarming parties and the wedding, we've somehow ended up with a veritable stack of sheets we'll probably never use. Anyways, the point of it really is that clutter adds to a feeling of general frustration and malaise, even if it's just something as benign as sheet sets. Be careful what you put on a wedding registry.
But to end on a happy note...I may be a conspiracy theorist, but I was proven RIGHT yesterday! I've posited for years that TV is the devil, yadda yadda yadda, here as a huge marketing ploy to keep people in debt - I noticed this in a commercial for KFC while visiting family, (where the TV is always on),
The 'snacker' sammich has a digital DOLLAR BILL mixed in with the lettuce, WTF?!??!! I think that it's because people don't truly want a delicious sammich, they want dollars, and so, logically, dollar in sammich = instant want = an overwhelming urge to go to KFC! I call shenanigans and tomfoolery on them!!! Big time!!
Not that i'm going to say that a snackers sammich doesn't have any redeeming qualities, i'm sure it's delicious when you're really hungry, but i'm boycotting it anyway because I think that's dirty pool by KFC, bad, naughty marketers!! I mean, advertise all you'd like, but don't try to pull your subliminal voodoo on me!
Sunday was San Francisco day - more specifically it was Zeitgeist and their bloody mary Sunday morning special day, as well as a wander around aimlessly in the SOMA district day...in short a perfect day!
I don't love it enough to smooch a random storefront window, but I appreciate those who do....
Around the corner from Zeitgeist is the amazingly huge armory building...
Folsom is way colorful....
And other random radness...
It was a beautiful, beautiful day...the point is, really, that there's so much around the Bay Area that's just...rad. I know there are people getting bummed about "it's too expensive to do this, I can't afford that..." But walking and looking and enjoying are all free, and at Zeitgeist the drinks are cheap...
Weekends are rad, and my weekends always start on Friday night...my Friday started getting rad at about lunchtime, when I indulged in something from 7-11 other than a pre-made sammich...
Bean and Cheese goodness for $1.98? Yes please!!
The evening found us at University Chicken, (formerly Cluck-U Chicken), where I had the chicken strips at "Traditional Death" as opposed to "Global Thermo Nuclear" hot - but even with a $5 Pabst to wash it down, it was still too spicy - i'm getting old...I got no sleep Friday night...(that, and the chicken itself was cold and the beer was flat) However, the evening was saved by the skinny kid who put Slayer on the jukebox and proceeded to ignore his girlfriend whilst playing the air guitar. Unfortunately, I was too much in awe to get a picture...
Saturday's are adventure days, and what I love best is to find the trails and hidden-away bits of nature the Bay Area likes to hide...our chosen adventure was smack dab in downtown Campbell, the Los Gatos trail...
We traversed for a good hour and a half...that trail goes on and on, and it's an interesting juxtaposition of walking along and at some points having the freeway and the cars rushing past you...
Those cars reminded of the sad state of affairs...I haven't put gas in my car for three weeks, and I experienced some sticker shock...
You've GOT to be kidding...luckily, I was just passing by, and not buying that day...hopefully I won't be putting gas in my car for a long time to come....
It's good to know there are people out there who believe as I do....
Saturday evening found me visiting the parent's house....
You know you've got the best mom in the world when she indulges your penchant for pre-made sammiches and classes it up with an ice cold martini.
Heading back home, I was reminded of why I love the Bay Area...
Mountain View is definitely my favorite place to call home. We'll see what Sunday brings...
