back from the wonderful trees and sheer granite cliffs....

Catching up.

I so give up. let’s do a list type catch up:

1. Coraline has a gig coming up (thanks to Michael!) – very soon – we’d love to see anyone at all show up, as it is a Sunday night at a new venue for us! Details are:

Coraline
Sunday, October 8th
9pm (we are the opener and will only be doing one set)
Hotel Utah
500 -4th Street @ Bryant, SF, CA
http://www.thehotelutahsaloon.com

2. Back from Yosemite. Hard to adjust. I want to go back. Now. I think part of me is still there and has not caught back up yet. She’s standing in the valley looking at El Capitan with a mixture of horror and bubbling passion and thinking, ‘dear god, is this all really real???!!!?!??!’ It was so freaking amazing. Mom and I had a wonderful time and if I actually catch up with life, I’ll try to come back later to include details. We also drove across the whole park to the eastern side of the sierras and saw mono lake, stayed in june lake and visited Bodie, the historic gold rush ghost town. We also ate. A lot. Good times all around. :)

3. Yesterday, instead of having time to negotiate where my head begins and my ass ends, I said goodbye to mom, ran off to trapeze class, dropped off my film, ran to my first day back at work, sped out of there to meet dave, tom and kate for sushi before going to see Medeski Martin Wood at the Fillmore. Omigod, I was soooooo tired. After catching the opener, waiting 45 minutes for the band to come on (9:45pm on a Tuesday night was a little late for me), I made it through the first set with a couple of full on eye closures and had to leave. Don’t get me wrong, they are amazing musicians, but between my utter exhaustion and the prodigious pot smoking of the two parties on either side of us, I think a contact high put me over the edge and I walked home and fell promptly asleep on the couch. I am so cool. Rock on.

4. Monday was our last day with mutti. We did simple things like mother-daughter mani/pedis and yummy mescolanza dinner. We also took serafina to the vet for her second to last shot (of 8 total). It will be nice for it to be over. For us and for her. She continues to seem better. However, we had to change food types for our birdies. They are fat - not the wodgdog, her evil doings keep her trim - but they were sorta horrified at Serafina, which made us wonder what they would do if they got their hands on miss fatty fat fat (Terfle). So we have to feed them organic pellets that they do not like. They ACTIVELY do not like them. They kick them out of the tray onto the floor of the cage. *sigh* however, it is now a matter of life and death, so we have to make sure that ‘pellet conversion’ actually succeeds.

5. So this past weekend and previous week were filled with the Yosemite trip, but the weekend before that, we went camping. You would know all about where we went camping had I ever finished my labor day weekend tale, but I still have TWO days to finish and I just don’t know if I’m up to it. ;) Anyway, we went to Portola Redwoods State Park – a wonderful little find in the northern santa cruz mountains. You have to go down an 8 mile tiny twisty ‘road’ with sheer cliff drop-offs on one side as the final approach to the park, which is possibly why people don’t know about it or frequent it. They have one trail camp with 6 sites and we were able to get one on a Saturday night with only a few days notice, which is amazing in California! Plus, as a last minute amazing scheduling bonus, Mia and Dave were able to come along with us (this ended up being our 3rd annual fall camping trip, so it looks like it is now tradition!) :) We had an awesome time. It was only a 3 mile hike back to the campsites, so it wasn’t grueling at all. We heard all about the honeymoon in Hawaii and Mia’s trip to Germany and Dave’s new school year and it was just an excellent little serendipitous trip. Mia and Dave had to head out early the next morning, so Dave and I hung back and ended up doing a 10 mile hike to another redwood grove. It was rather strenuous and uphill on the way back, but was very much worth it and the weather was perfect and we did not see another person for almost 8 miles of the hike! It was wonderful. Afterwards, we grabbed lunch at Alice’s Restaurant with all the bikers and then had to motor back to the city because I had a rehearsal for ANOTHER reading that I will not go into right now for brevity’s sake. Whew.

6. The day before this, um, we are now back to Friday, September 15th at this point, I had to work and then met the AMD over in Berkeley for dinner and a show. We saw “The Typographer’s Dream” at the Ashby Stage. I am so pleased to report that it was REALLY good. There was one actress in particular that just blew me away with her clarity and specificity of character and bold choices and comic timing and willingness to go for it. I have not seen a performance of this caliber in a long time. It was inspiring.

ok. Enough of the backwards chronology for now. Off to band rehearsal and then hopefully BED BED BED.

physics is like omigoodness so cool

Yet another quick interruption. This past weekend I got to talk to my dear friend Kristin (she's the awesome cosmology/astro-physics whiz currently doing post-doc work at princeton) about, okay, check this out – PHYSICS. Yep. That's right. For an hour and a half. Physics! I never even took HIGH SCHOOL physics, let alone have any CLUE what someone of her caliber studies on a daily basis.

Let me explain. I was asked to do another reading - for the Magic Theatre's Science on Stage series – more info: http://www.magictheatre.org/pages/readings.shtml

This one was REALLY cool. Amazing female lead – brilliant physicist – who turns into a bit of a nutter (to put it mildly). Good meaty role. Great cast. Cool director and playwright (www.laurengunderson.com). This was one that I would love for someone to produce so that there would be the chance to REALLY do it.

Anyway, the play was full of real physics. And I had to talk about a lot of it – fermions, bosons, dark matter, dark energy, quantum, string theory, false vacuums. And Kristin, thank god, gave me a crash course. I can now actually speak about this stuff. And when the reading was finished and the Magic had a scientist come up and answer questions regarding these words and ideas and notions, I could actually follow the conversation. It was a very illuminating night.

Dave came to this one and decided that he wants to be a theoretical physicist. I don’t blame him. It’s pretty amazing work.

9/2 - Day Three – Part 2 of 2

Ok. So now we are home looking at all of our goodies from REI. We had planned to use the afternoon to do this SF hike/walk out by Land’s End and the Sutro Baths and Baker Beach, cause, well – we’ve never done it. But – we were quickly running out of time. Dave had his weekly café gig to do and he had already given up the chance to do his Farmer’s Market gig since he was dead set on the REI sale…and he needed to pack up and get his shit together – and then James called – he was up for the weekend – and then 10 other things happened and before we knew it – there was no hiking. Dave went off to his gig, where Jim and James were nice enough to swing by. I cannot remember what the hell I did during this time. At all. Perhaps I sat on the couch and looked at all the shoes and felt overwhelmed. I’m not really sure. Anyway – I headed over to Dave’s gig at around 5:30pm and chatted with Jim and James about life, love and the pursuit of happiness and then it was time to get our asses in gear and get over to Pizza Orgasmica to celebrate Michael’s 35th birthday. Woohoo! That ended up being a very nice, tasty time with much conversation (which was impressive due to how wiped out Dave and I both were…). I think I ate like a truck that night. I can be quite impressive these days. I finished my pizza before Dave. That’s only happened one other time and it was after hiking a glacier in New Zealand.

After dinner we headed, with the remaining party members, to the Toy Boat Dessert Café (funny little place out on Clement) and even though the group did not end up staying, Dave and I got some yummy ice cream cones from a very sour young lady. We then went out into the freezing night and ate them. Ah San Francisco. How very cold you are! And wet.

After that, I am assuming that I was taken home and put to bed. But who knows? Memory fades…

6 years later, we finally finish it!

Last night, Dave and I finished watching 6 Feet Under. This will be amazing news to the many of you that encouraged us in big and small ways to check this show out....and tried to light a fire under our asses to get through this amazing tv series sometime before WE die. Oh yes, we have opinions. Yes, we will return VHS tapes long owed to some of you.... But overall, it was an extremely emotional and difficult and challenging and humorous and eccentric and passionate and well-acted and frustrating and loved and hated and everything in between experience that was really special to go through whilst huddling on the couch together. Whew. Kinda feels like we've been through a lot of therapy....or hit by a bus...something like that....

for those of you who have never seen it, it is very much worth checking out should you have the time to devote yourself to 5 seasons of television.

REI Recovery - Part I

ok. let's keep this moving. (i should not set myself up for tasks that i know i probably can't finish...)

We are on Day Three: Saturday, 9/2, also known as Michael's Birthday.

Dave and I managed to get up rather early, feed ourselves, get some coffee in me and drive over to, oh yes, you know it – REI – in order to stand in line for their Used Gear Sale. This was a special sale in addition to their already pretty awesome Labor Day Sale. Ok – so basically, REI has a 100% guarantee on everything they sell, which means that they have an amazing return policy. If you used it and broke it, you can bring it back. Of course just like other stores, you can use the 'didn't fit', 'don't like fabric', etc. sort of reasons, but at REI, you can buy a pair of climbing shoes, wear them for a year, get holes in the soles and then have the audacity to bring them back and say ANYthing from 'didn't like them' to 'they were too small'. It seems ridiculous… and I think that most of us would not abuse the policy, but clearly some people do and then REI is left with a bunch of used gear (anything from hardly ever used to clearly battle scarred). So they need to unload it, but would like to make a few dollars in the process. Literally. Just a few. These things are marked down so far, well, it's almost silly. Nice wicking sports bras for $1.93?!?!? it's awesome. Well, if you can find your size and something you like, it's really awesome.

Anyway – we got there about 9:30am. Made friends in the waiting line with other people who have NEVER stood in line to go SHOPPING before. Met someone who had just bought the same shoes that I had for $19.93 (list price $120) and we shared our excitement. At 10am the doors opened and people went for it. As far as these things go, i had the feeling that people were fairly polite, but at one point dave got ahead of me - I turned the wrong way and got caught behind a divider and as I was stepping over it to get back into the traffic flow, two guys joked, “we're gonna have to mow you over, no pity no pity.” I have a feeling that if it had been Macy's or WalMart, I would have actually gotten mowed over. But these nice young men in their North Face and Tevas allowed me in and we resumed the journey to the famed 'Used Gear Room'.

It wasn’t all that big. The room. Not nearly big enough for all the people. Or so I thought. But I don’t like being too close to people I don’t know. Especially ones that smell. It’s part of why I hate MUNI. Anyway, as always, I digress… Dave and I spent from 9:30 – 12:30 at REI. At 11:30 I was toast. At 12:30 I was spewing gibberish and totally protein deprived and unable to deal. Dave totally outlasted me, which is kinda funny I guess, but then again he was the winner of the day. We did really well: Day packs, backpacks (like really backcountry camping backpacks), a walking stick, ANOTHER pair of shoes for Dave!, an altimeter, a pedometer, nice side bags for dave’s bike…oh god I can’t even remember anymore, the exhaustion was overwhelming and all-consuming.

Ok. We HAD to eat. Figuring that out was NOT pretty because by then Dave had become hungry as well and we were both fairly useless. But we did eat and went home fed and loaded with bags.

and here will end Part I of Day 3 as it is all I can manage as today is insane. to be continued....

more labor...

So, let’s move on to Friday: I need to be briefer.

Let's see. Got up and out early.

1. went to beaver street wall (that's what the pic is showing in the last post) to see if we could loosen the stuck cam with MacGyver type tools and ideas (clothes hangers, guitar strings…) we tried really hard, but the rock beat us.
2. went to best buy to purchase a new phone (we had a coupon). Our old workhorse ATT phone that I have had since before college finally just up and died. Dave and I were both very sad as we were strangely attached to this phone. Other people found it ugly. It probably was. But you know what? It worked. And it worked REALLY well. *sigh* our new phone is kind of sleek looking and very light and has a built in answering machine so we had to change our message. That was also sad. We’ve had the same message for a REALLY long time. I tell you, change is hard. Ok. I am not being brief. Okay – onwards…
3. went to sports basement to use gift certificate from figgy’s parents and get some clothes. Dave did super well and got a lot of new shorts and shirts. This back to school shopping for dave thing has been going shockingly well! I also found a couple of workout things and got to grab a bunch more packs of sharkies - http://www.sharkiesinc.com - even dave likes them. A lot. Tasty sharkies.
4. shopping makes us SO tired. And hungry. Ugh. We decide to try to go by rainbow to pick up a few quick things. Ugh! The line is around the corner - forget it!
5. Dave is REALLY getting hungry now, and we all know what that means. The clock is ticking. So, we decide to go by Lovejoy's Tea Room (http://www.lovejoystearoom.com) to see if we can just walk in without a reservation. Arwen almost forgets how to get there, but we find it. And a parking space! And it’s not too crowded! Yay! We walk right in to a pretty little table and place setting by a side window. Dave seems pleased. Yay! This is a VERY long-coming b’day present I had promised him (to take him out to a nice high tea somewhere) and as we all know, sometimes it’s just hard to find the time. So Dave finally got his high tea. :) and seemed to have a very nice time. We had the house tea blend and a black current blend as well as scones and mini-sandwiches and salad and little tea cookies and a petits four. We must take our families here. We also checked out their funny little tea store across the street and took a couple blends home.
6. Now we are both tired from our calming respite, but there is so much to do! So much to see! We stop by Valencia Cyclery to pick up tubes for Mr. Speedy (who, once again, looks and rides beautifully!)
7. Since we are in the area and have our stuff, we haul ourselves over to the climb gym. We are tired and unsure of how this will go, but we manage to stay for about 2 hours and do some top-roping. Did all new routes, which was fun, except for the fact that the route-setter on two of them was clearly an insane person who wanted to fuck around with our heads, by making them super weird and un-balancey... Ok. We persevere. Now we are sweaty and ready to go.
8. Stop by REI because 2 times in one week is not enough. Check to see if they have put any more shoes out in the used gear preview pile. They have! A lot! Our excitement makes enough of a scene that REI employees are coming by to watch in sheer awe…how many pairs will dave get? How is it that almost all the shoes are his size, no matter what the size tag actually says?? Was it meant to be? As I am camped out (literally – I’m next to a pup tent) on the floor inspecting all the shoes dave is throwing at me with a childlike abandon generally reserved for all things expensively musical, we are finally able to do the tally. I think dave came home with 8 pairs that night and I got a pair of hiking boots. All told, we figure that we got $1,300 worth of awesome shoes for just about $300. Dave will not need shoes for YEARS. He has waterproof hiking boots, normal day hiking shoes, regular sneakers, another pair of climb shoes, keen hikers, keen normal day shoes, waterproof amphibian shoes, waterproof sandals, loafers (that’s right big dave – your son can now run around the house in spandex bike shorts and LOAFERS – if I leave him soon, you will at least understand why. ;) ok. Anyway…REI is the best.
9. Stop by San Francisco Public Library to return the “After the Fall” play since I did not get cast in it…
10. ok. We are starving. We are fading. No one in the car can make any decisions because of all the shoes in the way….what do we do?!??!?! Oh! There is a parking space right in front of California Pizza Kitchen. Ok. It’s weird, but dave and I both really like CPK. I don’t know why exactly. It’s kinda wrong. But we do and we went and got all of our favorite things – PLUS – they have LAVA FLOWS!!!! Like we drank in Kauaii! We decided to go for it and be girl drink drunks. (although we only had one each cause they are SO sweet.) it felt like vacation – eating out at the end of a long day and feeling like we deserved it. Lovely. :)

Wow. I was not brief. To be continued….

september...when it comes...

Dave and I had quite an exciting Labor Day weekend. we took Thursday and Friday off work with the intention of getting away, however Serafina had to be taken back to the birdie doctor in the afternoon (she's doing much better by the way, but still has 5 more weeks of shots with the doctor ahead of her...) and we thought that the morning and evening medicine still would need to be administered (turned out that we get to stop that one), but anyway, it wasn't looking good for actually getting away, so we decided that we would try to get away a bit every day.

Day One –Thursday: to celebrate the final day of August, we checked out the Beaver Street rock wall in the city - such a crazy thing that a 45 foot rock wall exists right above the Castro with easy access! did not climb it. looked scary. Found a cam that had been wedged into a rock so deeply that it would not come out (hence, some poor person had to leave their nifty little $75 gadget stuck in the rock face). We tried to get it out. We failed. After that, we headed to Glen Canyon - as recommended by a 'rock climbing in the Bay Area' book that dave picked up at our second home, REI. Oh wow. How is it that there is this big CANYON in the middle of the city that we have completely MISSED for 10 years?!?!?!? so strange how these things happen. It was an absolutely BE–YOU-TEE–FUL day and we hiked around a bit, found the boulders listed in the book after a bit of confusion and did some fun outside bouldering. We then pulled out the rock climbing gear and set up our first anchor all by our little selves. It was on a wall face that was only about 20 feet and not too scary. We set up the anchor together trying to use all the learnings gleaned from our outside rock clinics. It was our first time doing it unsupervised and with no one there to double check us, so it was a bit freaky. We used our new gear, including our one fancy neato cam and i'll be damned if this shit really looked pretty darn safe. We climbed on it a couple times each and i know dave was super happy - like a little toddler getting to play his favorite game. It was nice to finally get some wear on our new equipment and it was good that our anchor held and we did not die. We ended up being out there for hours and had to zoom back to get serafina in order to get her to the doctor in time. She was inspected and they took more blood (she did not like this), weighed her in the pot (did not like this), checked her little body (didn't like this either) and gave her the shot (soooo did not like this). At one point her bleeding was not stopping and they took her away to work on her and told us to sit down outside. Dave and I were having horrible visions of serafina bleeding to death due to some goddamn routine blood draw in order to do tests to make her better. I have no idea how anyone deals with having children. She was returned to us intact and we got her home as fast as possible. Ate some egg and cheese scrambles with deeeeeelicious farmers market veggies and decided to got to REI and check out their labor day sale… and see if we could find dave some more hot spandex bike shorts. On sale. We did. And some other fine back to school finds. And then as the clock was hitting 9pm and the store was ready to close, we passed this amazing rack of shoes. Mostly slightly used shoes. What the hell was this? Marked down to $19.93? For $100 shoes? What is this? Turns out that prior to their out of control amazing used gear sale, REI will put out their shoes starting a night or two before…. Dave and I worked as fast as our little tarty feet could try on shoes and ended up walking out of there with almost $300 worth of shoes for $50. nice. It was invigorating. We vowed to return the next day to see if we missed anything. Went home and watch 6 Feet Under - Season 5 Episode 4.

Wow. That was an exhaustive blurb. Perhaps I will try to be more concise with the rest of the weekend. But for now, we’ll call this installment ONE.

my life is office space...and showgirls...

stole from sarah. very pleasing. i like these short and sweet ones sometimes. :)

The Movie Of Your Life Is A Cult Classic

Quirky, offbeat, and even a little campy - your life appeals to a select few. But if someone's obsessed with you, look out! Your fans are downright freaky. Your best movie matches: Office Space, Showgirls, The Big Lebowski

If Your Life Was a Movie, What Genre Would It Be?