So, with the peace of mind that my husband would not be suffering from malnutrition when I returned home, I packed my little carry-on suitcase and I was on my way to San Francisco. It was so wonderful to see Paige!!! I can't believe how long it had been. We talk so frequently that it just didn't seem like it had been 5 whole months since the last time we saw each other. And I know I said this same thing after my trip last year but getting into Paige's car at the airport felt like such a treat! My own little piece of home and familiarity in a city that is still quite new to me. Thursday night we found an Indian restaurant in the Mission and took some Chicken Tikka Masala back to Paige's house and just talked all night. It was lovely.
I didn't sleep very well that first night. It was actually really strange to not be in my own bed with Steven. I was quite tired when Paige got up for work Friday morning but had to snap myself out of it when my friend Shannon showed up a few minutes after Paige left. We were planning on getting together but I hadn't gotten her last e-mail saying what time she would be there and as I was laying in bed thinking about falling back to sleep I could hear her outside yelling "Hellooooo?" Oh dear! She couldn't' find Paige's doorbell and there is a gate before you get to the front door so she couldn't knock on the door. I got dressed as quickly as I could and Shannon and her 18month old daughter and I hung out at a coffee shop for a while. I had such a nice visit with them. Serena's brother Toby (I used to babysit the two of them) was at school so unfortunately I didn't get to see him. Toby turned 5 last week!! I started babysitting him when he was just a year old. Or maybe even a little younger.
After Paige got off work we enjoyed a partially sunny walk around Lake Merritt. It was one of those days where one minute you were standing in the sun and got so warm you had to take your sweater off and then three minutes later a cloud has moved over the sun and you're shivering again. It was really nice to be outside though and we decided we were warm enough to make a stop at the frozen yogurt place.
And also a quick stop to wash Paige's car with squeegees at the gas station :)Later that evening Paige took me to this really cool restaurant called Souley Vegan http://souleyvegan.com/ I can't say I've ever been too thrilled about the idea of vegan food (uh, no chicken, no cheese, no heavy cream, no butter...) but this was all so yummy!! We had black-eyed peas and collard greens and potato salad and corn bread and macaroni and cheese and barbecue tofu and yams and lentils and fried tofu and cayenne lemonade (which was very puckery and needed some sprite or soda water added to it methinks). Yum! Seriously, I'm getting so hungry just thinking about it all right now. I don't know how they made mac and cheese and corn bread without eggs and cheese but everything was delish. We even finished off our meal by sharing a slice of sweet potato pie.
We spent the rest of the night all snuggled into Paige's bed drinking tea and watching Denzel Washington in Inside Man. I was a little confused by the actual motivation of one of the main characters and I think they left out a few details but overall I enjoyed it.
Saturday we had a picnic at Baker Beach!! This all sounded like a great idea until we woke up to rain Saturday morning. On our way to pick up Erica I got a text from her that said "...are we crazy? It's sprinkling a little..." but we went for it anyway. The rain actually stopped just as we got there and we had a lovely little picnic.
We shared crackers and cheese and carrots and hummus and fruit and pretzels and almond cake. And the rain started pretty much the very instant we packed everything up.
We tried to hang out for a little bit longer at the beach but it was just way to cold and wet and we ended up practically running back to the car. Paige and I thought it would probably be best to have another cozy evening. As soon as we got back to her house we were in sweats and wrapped in blankets, drinking tea, sharing kettle corn, a mango and almond cake and watching a movie called Fracture. Another rather intense thinker type movie but also quite good. When we were out and about earlier in the day we spotted a 24 hour doughnut place and we decided that we were determined to set out late Saturday night to satisfy our doughnut cravings. Well, true to the Paige and Steph nature, around 8:45pm we decided it was late enough and off we went. We felt pretty pathetic as we passed all of the still open normal doughnut shops en route to our 24 hour shop. Evidently a 9pm doughnut run doesn't require a 24 doughnut shop in San Francisco.
We took Sunday pretty slow. Around noon we were just finishing up breakfast and heading out in search of the Walt Disney Family Museum. We found it and we loved it!! We spent about two hours in there but I could easily go back and spend many more hours reading all of the stuff I left unread. The museum consists of 10 galleries. The first you enter has all of these baby pictures of Walt and tells you all sorts of things about his family and where he came from. You move through everything from him serving in the war to the start of Laugh-O-Grams, which went bankrupt, to the creation of Mickey Mouse and all that we know the Walt Disney Production Company to be. Even when they got deep into the Disney company and everything that was going on with that they still incorporated what was going on with Walt's family. I think my favorite part was probably all of the stories of him and his wife, Lilly. They were so in love! It was really quite sweet. I want to read books about them and maybe be just like them. It was interesting to see how much of a risk taker Walt was. He always wanted to try the next new thing and didn't allow much of anything to inhibit his progress. It seemed like with almost everything they did, at least in the beginning, if it hadn't been a success, like Snow White for example, they would have lost everything. It's amazing what he accomplished and the way that his legacy is going to continue all these years after he died. The very last gallery had the details of his last few days and then all of these terribly sad cartoons that had been published in all sorts of different newspapers. Cartoons with Disney characters crying and the world losing a piece of itself and all kinds of things. It made me wonder what it was like at Disneyland the day they announced his death. Did anyone go? Did they shut it down? Was it depressing or was it still just Disney and happy and magical and enchanted the way it always is? At the end we felt like we had just walked through a biography or a documentary. The museum really lived up to the Disney standard in regards to presentation. I was just really impressed with the whole experience.
Paige and I made dinner for her housemates and then fell asleep watching Emperor's New Groove. And sadly, that was pretty much the end of our weekend. It went by so quickly!! It just didn't seem right at all. I think Paige needs to move up here and live with Steven and I. We're just such natural roommates it's hard to believe that we live so very far apart these days.
We discovered that we're actually really close to Flaming Geyser Park so we took a stroll around there one day. It was freezing cold (literally 27 degrees) but the sun was shining and it was just such a beautiful day to be by the river. There's another park nearby called Nolte Park and it's supposed to have a nice walking trail around Deep Lake. I'm hoping we can check that one out soon.
I finally finished taking down what little bits were left from the holidays. I still had some paper snowflakes in our front window since they weren't Christmassy and I was still really loving our Christmas card display. I was a little sad to take them down but it was time.
Steven and I also made a trip to Ikea! We'd really been wanting a new game shelf to put in the spot that's been empty since the Christmas tree left. We've looked at all of the local second-hand stores for a shelf because we didn't want to pay too much but we finally decided we might as well just go to Ikea and get something nice. And here it is...
Steven is very happy that we are now displaying ALL of our board games downstairs. It really bothered him that some were still tucked away in the guest room closet. Of course, he's already stressed about where he will put Shadows Over Camelot, Revolution and Mystery Express when he gets them. Who says he's getting board games for his birthday anyway?? Let's be honest, I'm sure he will :) we can just move the less frequently played board games back upstairs or maybe find a place to squeeze in yet another shelf.
We took Sunday pretty slow. Around noon we were just finishing up breakfast and heading out in search of the Walt Disney Family Museum. We found it and we loved it!! We spent about two hours in there but I could easily go back and spend many more hours reading all of the stuff I left unread. The museum consists of 10 galleries. The first you enter has all of these baby pictures of Walt and tells you all sorts of things about his family and where he came from. You move through everything from him serving in the war to the start of Laugh-O-Grams, which went bankrupt, to the creation of Mickey Mouse and all that we know the Walt Disney Production Company to be. Even when they got deep into the Disney company and everything that was going on with that they still incorporated what was going on with Walt's family. I think my favorite part was probably all of the stories of him and his wife, Lilly. They were so in love! It was really quite sweet. I want to read books about them and maybe be just like them. It was interesting to see how much of a risk taker Walt was. He always wanted to try the next new thing and didn't allow much of anything to inhibit his progress. It seemed like with almost everything they did, at least in the beginning, if it hadn't been a success, like Snow White for example, they would have lost everything. It's amazing what he accomplished and the way that his legacy is going to continue all these years after he died. The very last gallery had the details of his last few days and then all of these terribly sad cartoons that had been published in all sorts of different newspapers. Cartoons with Disney characters crying and the world losing a piece of itself and all kinds of things. It made me wonder what it was like at Disneyland the day they announced his death. Did anyone go? Did they shut it down? Was it depressing or was it still just Disney and happy and magical and enchanted the way it always is? At the end we felt like we had just walked through a biography or a documentary. The museum really lived up to the Disney standard in regards to presentation. I was just really impressed with the whole experience.
Paige and I made dinner for her housemates and then fell asleep watching Emperor's New Groove. And sadly, that was pretty much the end of our weekend. It went by so quickly!! It just didn't seem right at all. I think Paige needs to move up here and live with Steven and I. We're just such natural roommates it's hard to believe that we live so very far apart these days.It was really nice to come home though. I definitely missed Steven and I'm pretty darn sure he missed me too. He was at work when I got back so my mom picked me up from the airport. I walked in to a vase of daffodils and a love note on the kitchen table and then found tulips in our bathroom as well as on my bedside table :) I love flowers and I loved even more that he thought to get them for me. It was pretty tough waiting all day long for him to come home and he had to stay at work an hour late but he finally made it home around eleven and it was so so SO good to see him!
Our time together since has been somewhat limited but we're trying to make the most of it. Steven's schedule is out of control these days. All of his "days off" seem to be filled with firefighting stuff. I'll be really happy when he actually gets hired as a firefighter and is working just one job instead of two.
We discovered that we're actually really close to Flaming Geyser Park so we took a stroll around there one day. It was freezing cold (literally 27 degrees) but the sun was shining and it was just such a beautiful day to be by the river. There's another park nearby called Nolte Park and it's supposed to have a nice walking trail around Deep Lake. I'm hoping we can check that one out soon.
I finally finished taking down what little bits were left from the holidays. I still had some paper snowflakes in our front window since they weren't Christmassy and I was still really loving our Christmas card display. I was a little sad to take them down but it was time.
Steven and I also made a trip to Ikea! We'd really been wanting a new game shelf to put in the spot that's been empty since the Christmas tree left. We've looked at all of the local second-hand stores for a shelf because we didn't want to pay too much but we finally decided we might as well just go to Ikea and get something nice. And here it is...
Steven is very happy that we are now displaying ALL of our board games downstairs. It really bothered him that some were still tucked away in the guest room closet. Of course, he's already stressed about where he will put Shadows Over Camelot, Revolution and Mystery Express when he gets them. Who says he's getting board games for his birthday anyway?? Let's be honest, I'm sure he will :) we can just move the less frequently played board games back upstairs or maybe find a place to squeeze in yet another shelf.In other odd news, our gigantic TV is on the fritz. We were watching Seinfeld the other day and all of the sudden we lost both the picture and the audio. The whole TV just went blue. We're not really sure what to do with it. I think it might be worth it to get it fixed but Steven wants to just save the money until we can afford a new flat screen. Don't worry, we only want a 60" tv and we saw the perfect one at Costco the other day for just $1,100. Uh, yeah, we might be waiting a while for that. In the mean time, I think we might need to get this ginormous tv out of here. It's taking up way too much space for something that doesn't even function.
So that's what's new with us.
Hope all is well!!
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