I got my two additional prints last week. After a quick trip to Michael’s this weekend for some more matting materials, I got them up on the wall today. It’s truly a pleasure to look up and not see the spots where the past occupant of the office pulled tape off the walls, and a bit of paint with it. 

This might not have been my preferred arrangement, had I not been trying to cover up the areas of missing paint, but overall I think it looks pretty cheerful! The scarf one is especially awesome in person.

 

All by Ashley G via Etsy

 

 

My rides on Muni today were some of the most disgusting of my life, in keeping with the past week’s trend. People are sick and filthy. The homeless and unfortunate seem more desperate than ever. In the past week, I have walked past fresh and copious amounts of blood at the entrance to one of the stations; inadvertently seen an elderly man spit phlegm into a handkerchief, then heard him do it three or four more times; seen a woman break open garlic and smear it onto her 6-year old’s open blisters while the child moved from one seat to another, feet all over; seen multiple people picking their noses. I’ve had to walk through the Transbay Terminal, the most vile place in San Francisco. I’ve seen things living in people’s hair.

Today, when I got home, I headed straight for the shower, barely stopping to drop my shopping bags. If I could have boiled myself, I would have. 

So, this isn’t the time or place to be a person with allergies. A person whose nose is often running and always itching. No matter how much I sanitize, I can’t bring myself to touch my face without washing my hands first. And therefore, I decided that what I need are some hankies. I am not yet ready to actually blow my nose into a handkerchief, but for on-the-go delicate dabs of my allergic nose, a handkerchief would be a lifesaver. I figure I’ll save a tree or two and save myself from visions of I-don’t-know-what getting on my face.

I had some extra fabric around — remnants I picked up at a fabric store with the intention of making headbands. An intention which, needless to say, never came to fruition. They whipped up into perfectly serviceable hankies. 

On a related, note, I went to church this a.m. at a place that serves communion from the shared cup. You know, where people take a sip, and then someone wipes the cup with a little cloth. Oh, yeah. That’s getting the germs off. I think it’s probably worthy to be able to share the cup with everyone in the church and not be grossed out. Very “communion of the saints”, yes? But I’m just not there. It’s not that I believe I’d get sick (God, being God, can surely prevent the spread of the common cold and Herpes simplex in places of worship); it’s just the shear stomach-turning nausea that besets me at the idea of putting my mouth on a cup that a stranger’s mouth has been on. I can’t even sidestep it by being first in line for communion, because the priest takes the first sip.

Wherefore art there germs everywhere??

While friends and family in Colorado have been freezing and buried under the weight of some 20 inches of snow, I’ve been pretty toasty enjoying the beautiful fall weather in San Francisco. But yesterday morning, I woke up to fog and a serious chill in the air. It was a perfect morning for a cup of tea and a book, but because I worked so much last week, what I really wanted was to be moving.

Luckily, it was also a perfect time to go for a walk in Golden Gate park, being that it was about 7 a.m. on Halloween morning, and not many people would venture into the Sunset if it was even foggy in the rest of the City. So I drove over to the park, parked just across the street from my old apartment, and went for a stroll. There were quite a few people out, actually — including the animal feeders. This woman’s bird feeding efforts had completely blocked the path, but once I got around I was also treated to some very picturesque foggy reflections on the other side of the little lake. Very All Hallow’s Eve, no? I may even be able to use it to refresh (finally) the header here on WANBB.

P.S. I’m allowed to apply the “Four legs good, two legs bad” category to this post, right? Since the animals on animal farm decided that wings counted as legs?

Yesterday, I had occassion to walk through the building I worked in when I first moved to San Francisco, in the summer of 2006. I was surprised at how nostalgic I felt as I walked through the lobby. I can’t believe I’ve lived here so long.

My memories of my first six months in San Francisco are some of my most vivid. I like to think this is because I changed a lot during those six months. That could be the nostalgia speaking, of course, but in my mind my life is divided at the moment I moved to San Francisco, and in moving here I became (more of) an adult.

In the B.S.F. era of me, I was apt to do or say whatever I wanted to do or say in the moment, without regard for the consequences. Maybe this was because I tended to be around people who knew me well and would put up with that, or maybe it was because I felt I could always run away from any consequences and make a fresh start. I’m not sure. But in the A.S.F. era, I have taken (actually, it is probably more accurate to say I “am taking”) to heart the lesson that wherever I go, there I will be, so I’d better try to be the person I’d like to be – and mind the consequences.

This all does relate to 405 Howard. Really. Because at work at 405 Howard, I was not the person I wanted to be a lot of the time, but I got better. I lost half my job at 405 Howard and wondered daily how I would pay my $1200 rent in this exhorbitant city. I also talked to A every day, because she was having her Long Beach adventure and we had much to discuss. The lobby was the perfect place for those calls. I had my phone interview with my next job in that lobby, too.

Isn’t it interesting how the most benign memories become good ones?

What do this:

Courtesy Yosemite Hikes

and this:

Courtesy kvh.com

Have in common? NPR is reporting this morning that scientists in Yosemite National Park have found minivans to be the “picnic place of choice” for “nearly a quarter of all bear breakins,” although minivans make up only 7 percent of the vehicles in the park. “Park scientists say one thing that likely attracts the bears: the scent of sodas, chips and other snacks which have been spilled and left behind by kids,” they reported.

I’m a little late with my fall list this year. I was somewhat directionless for a while, but it’s all coming together. Heavy on jackets and sweaters this year; I’ve realized that all I ever do is layer jackets and cardigans over tee shirts with either a) frilly girly skirts or b) skinny or wide-legged pants.

Mugshot-esque from Ssense

Much needed pink from Gap

Much needed casual pullover from Gap

Sequins from Nordstrom

Plaid from Nordstrom

Color from MyTheresa

Crushed velvet from Bloomingdales

Red from Bloomingdales

"I do not hate this" from Banana Republic

The cropped zippered pants, not the hideous tops from LuvCharlie

The boots I've almost bought four times from Aldo

I watched the documentary ‘Elusive Muse’ about Suzanne Farrell this week. It specifically focuses on her relationship with Balanchine, but covers her whole career. She is a beautiful dancer, and the film was quite interesting.

But as I watched it, I kept getting distracted by her hair. In my head, the thoughts about her hair were spoken in the voice of one of my gay male friends. He was saying something like: “Girlfriend, you are legendary dancer starring in a movie about yourself. You cannot tell me you couldn’t find a single person to trim those split ends and run a flatiron over that mane.”

It seems to have been a longstanding problem.

So I could do this!

I couldn’t resist photographing my office today. By gosh by golly that’s a lot of swatches.

 

They are breeding

 

By the way, those prints on my wall are by Ashley G. I have these two.

 

Hello May, Ashley G

 

Why So Blue, Ashley G

 

 

And I think I need a third to fill that space. They’re a bit forlorn there. I also think I need to put them in a straight row. Anyone have an opinion about which of these two would go best?

 

Windy Day, Ashley G

 

I Like Your Scarf, Ashley G

Do you ever have those days where the Internet makes you feel like a 75-year old Grandma, awed but also overestimating its capability simultaneously? Happens to me all the time.

For example, I still get so excited when someone finds my blog, even when they are one of the 50+ people who get here through “mad men wardrobe”-related searches. Today, I realized that Dov Abramson–you know, the artist about whose work I raved in my last post–found my post and tweeted about it! Indeed. Indeed he did. And wordpress told me, and twitter logs all his tweets, so I could read them. Oh, internet. You amaaaaze me. 

[I need to interrupt myself here to clear something up, in case Mr. Abramson comes back. Apparently I was not clear in my last post that yes, in fact I did very much like his art. I can't say "piece" in this context, because it sounds dirty when there are gendered pronouns involved.]

The other beautiful thing the internet told me today, which I know several of you have been waiting to hear, is that my hilarious sibling has a blog again! I already choked on coffee and sort’ve half spit coffee on my keyboard while reading the blog and laughing this a.m., in a completely cliched sitcom manner that would have worked rather well if it had appeared in a promotional clip for said blog. 

On the “overestimating the Internet’s capability” front, I can only mumble and mutter … Work grar garumph research humph harumph. Spit out answer, dammit. SEO durrrrr … WTF, future?