My angel

I went up to Union Square to get my boyfriend a birthday present. Unfortunately, I had to break up with him before I gave it to him, but, fortunately, I could return it.

I tend to keep my travels in the city limited. The Mission is easy and obvious. Upper Market, SoMa, Hayes Valley, the Panhandle, Castro, Duboce Triangle, and even Civic Center happen regularly. But I almost never trek those extra few blocks to our central shopping district. So, it felt like a big hassle, a big waste of time, to have to go their twice within a week.

This stylish lady turned out to be my angel in little tweed jacket, pink patterned helmet, cute flats and gloves, because even if I had to travel to a strange and distant district twice when I was already suffering, she looked good, and I snapped her photo. So, the errand was saved. Remember that next time you dress for your bicycle and give the broken-hearted a boost by looking extra nice.

PARK(ing) Day TOMORROW

PARK(ing) Day is a one-day, global event centered in San Francisco where artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks.

Obama for President!

This is not a political blog, but we do want to make one thing perfectly clear:

The Duchess

I really try to do things that will make me happy. My coworker said yesterday: "Yeah, you don't really seem to commit to things." It bothered me. I'm trying to commit. Meanwhile, I went to the movies with Sultan tonight, a pre-release movie: The Duchess. Life is misery. Men suck. I went to the movies to get out there and increase my input, and now I just feel like drinking until I puke. I know, I'm too old for that. But the impulse remains.

I love my job and photo a day blog. That's more than a lot of people can say.

Homemade Boots

People often ask why I am taking their pictures. Sometimes, they don't like it, but usually they're flattered while still wanting an explanation. I told this woman in explanation, "I love your boots."

She replied, "Oh, I made them."

Which got me to thinking... Wouldn't it be amazing if we could all make our own clothes? It was all I could do to keep from yelling "I love you" as she rode away.

I tried to learn to sew years ago. I've tried to learn to knit... and paint. I have no talent for manual dexterity, and I regret it. Worse than no talent, my fingers have a poison for details. But I can fix my own bike, edit my own photos and type up words that are sometimes even spelled correctly. Having this incredibly talented woman bike past me made me hope all over again for a new set of talents in my next lifetime.

Or whatever.

You know what I mean.

Could she BE more San Francisco?

To be perfectly honest, I'm not quite sure what this young woman is wearing. (Can you help?)

I do know that it looks so perfect, so quintessentially San Francisco, with the short dress (is that a dress or a skirt?), t-shirt, leggings, fixie, brooks saddle, hair cut.... All I know is that she looked so good when she pulled up next to me at a Mission red light that I asked if I could record her look for posterity.

Love and other disasters

We can only stand so much wisdom. I have had the movie Love and Other Disasters in my instant view netflix queue for a while bc I like the name. Today, I went to Sunday Streets, where they blocked off a street along the eastern portion of the City for people to bike, skate and otherwise enjoy the street without dangerous cars from Chinatown to Bayview. I found Jason, Brian and friend-from-out-of-town Dara immediately upon arriving at the event by accident. We had a lovely time and of course saw everyone we know. I'll probably post some photos somewhere sometime.

Near the end of our time together (I had a massage appointment at 3), they shared with me that they'd recently watched Love and Other Disasters and learned about the farting stages of relationships:
Stage 1: denial -- you both pretend that you don't fart or produce any waste.
Stage 2: intimacy -- you find out that your partner farts, and you think it's adorable.
Stage 3: reality -- you either accept that your partner farts and produces waste or you find them disgusting bc of it.
My response: Oh, you mean you either like them or you don't like them enough to stay together. duh.

I have been miserable in a lot of relationships... ~8 (defined as serious, consistent and lasting more than 6 months). Sure, I've liked some of them more than others. I've stayed with them after I should have left. I've waited for them to come back after I should have moved on. But none of that is real measure of how much I liked them. My project over recent years is to try to pay attention to how much I like people rather than reacting to how much they like me. (I see my sister and other friends making this mistake over and over.) The exercise is extremely challenging.

Tonight, I streamed the movie. The farting thing was cute, but to me not really the point. More truth, I thought, was in the ending message: love is a choice. That is, you choose to love someone who:
1) you like. (not to be confused with who likes you.)
2) really wants to be in a relationship with you.
3) is available and an appropriate choice. (not with someone else, the ex of your best friend, unable to leave another country, and/or the wrong age, class, education level and/or with the wrong interests or belief system etc.)
Meeting someone with those characteristics can take time. But it doesn't take that much time.

I've been dating for 20 years, and I've had relationships with a few people who met those qualifications. I can tell you with absolute certainty, finding them may be the part that movies are about, the interesting part, but it isn't the hard part. The hard part is finding happiness with this person who you love and who loves you. The hard part is staying together.

True love used to be my goal. I lost that religion. From observing my own life and the lives of people around me, I know with absolute certainty that love is not enough. I don't know what my future will bring, but I care for that future self as if she were my child. The one thing I wish for her more than anything else is that she be happy.

Staying together

I ran into this little family. She asked me: "Are you going to the Tour de Fat"?
"Why yes," I replied. "You must be too?"

"No," she said (earnestly). "We dress up like this every day."

It bears repeating:
Families that dress up in clown outfits and ride their bikes together, stay together.
How do I make sure I will be like you when I grow up?

Some FAKE words from Governor Palin

Alas, these words are wrongly attributed.

From interviews with Governor Palin by the Anchorage Daily News in 2006 when she was running for Governor

On Creationism:

The simple yet elegantly awkward moose proves God's creation and not evolution is the source of all life. How could something as oddly shaped and silly looking as a moose evolve through so-called "natural selection?" Is evolution a committee? There is nothing natural about a dorky moose! Only God could have made a moose and given it huge antlers to fight off his predatory enemies. God has a well known sense of humor, I mean He made the platypus too.


On oil exploration and drilling in the ANWR:

God made dinosaurs 4,000 years ago as ultimately flawed creatures, lizards of Satan really, so when they died and became petroleum products we, made in his perfect image, could use them in our pickup trucks, snow machines and fishing boats.

Now, as to the ANWR, Todd and I often enjoying caribou hunting and one year we shot up a herd big time, I mean I personally slaughtered around 40 of them with my new, at the time, custom Austri an hunting rifle. And guess what? That caribou herd is still around and even bigger than ever. Caribou herds actually need culling, be it by rifles or wolves, or Exxon-Mobil oil rigs, they do just great!


On Alaskans serving overseas in Iraq:

Well, God bless them, and I mean God and Jesus because without Jesus we'd be Muslims too or Jewish, which would be a little better because of the superior Israeli Air Force.

Happy Trails to Sheila.

We went to a nearby wine bar after my gallery party last night. The gallery is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this month. The air was blazing hot -- funny I'm the only one who appears to be feeling it in the photo. Sheila's moving to Barcelona in a few days. We will miss her.

More from David Byrne

NYT: David Byrne, Cultural Omnivore, Raises Cycling Rack to an Art Form, By ARIEL KAMINER, August 8, 2008

"David Byrne is an installation artist, author, blogger, recording executive, photographer, film director and PowerPoint enthusiast. He’s even been known to dabble in music. But in certain New York neighborhoods he may be most visible as a bicycle rider, a lanky figure pedaling around the Lower East Side, or from Bay Ridge out to Coney Island in Brooklyn or up to the Bronx Museum of the Arts.
..."

Back!

My flight landed 30 minutes early due to favorable winds last night. I slept from 10 pm until 2, 3, 4 and 6 am and ate a burrito for lunch. My apartment is blazing hot sorta like the air outside... a lot warmer than Paris right now. I've talked with friends, updated Netflix regarding the movies I watched on the plane (Made of Honor - 2 stars, 21 and What Happens in Vegas - 3 stars, Fools Gold - 4 stars for personal reasons), watered my tomatoes, picked up my contacts and more sunscreen, done laundry, and now I have about a thousand photos to sort through. Oh, yeah, and I'm back to work. Wish me luck.

train + vegetables

If this blog has a third subject after bikes and street fashion, it would be food. We talk a lot about groceries and local produce. I don't know what she's carrying--sporting a sparkly scarf, skirt and cute earrings, but it doesn't look like it came from a big box.

Congratulations Sultan and Julia

I wish this photo was better, but it documents their first kiss as Mr. and Mrs.

Weird Vehicles on the VTA Lightrail

Bike fashion is different in San Jose than the City. Bikes are more rugged. You see a lot of mountain bikes with beaucoup de suspension. I ride in San Jose too, and the roads I use are smooth. So, the explanation is either differences in fashion, differences in routes or people are using their bikes for off-road recreational fun as well as commuting.

The following photos support the fashion theory. This guy souped up his regular mountain bike with crazy handlebars, fenders and a purple velvet seat. Yowza. I'm wondering if Elvis is lurking nearby.

Who knew you could commute by unicycle:

I like this photo because it shows the unicycle, a skateboard and the sign about where to put your bike. It goes to show you how resourceful people can be.

Former Leather Tongue

I have a prejudice against this place because it used to be the venerable Leather Tongue Video store where I did not get my videos but liked knowing it was there. Now, it is an upscale jeans store, and they put a bicycle in their window display.

Stories and categories

Another overcast day in Paris, and I’m pondering how you never know where the gifts of your life will come from: love, money, music, joy, satisfaction…. I’ve wanted the complete Beatles on my computer forever, and I had this idea for unknown reasons they would come from DJ… which was strange since we have never shared music. Whenever left alone in a person’s apartment with my computer, I scour their collection for something I might like. Here, in J&G’s, waiting for the sun to come out or inspiration to strike, I find they have a complete Beatles anthology. (At home, I only have it in vinyl, and since I no longer have a record player, that doesn’t do me much good anymore).

I find it useful to avoid getting attached to any one storyline like where my Beatles will come from or who will refer me to a job when I need one. Stories are better when they unfold exactly not as you suspect. So, you try to make decisions for reasons, listen to your gut, and keep your options open… until you stop and commit to something. Then, you must have complete faith in that thing or you’re setting yourself up for misery.

My mother said when her first two marriages broke up, she was so heartbroken it never occurred to her that her divorce affected anyone else. Each marriage lasted less than 2 years and yielded a child. In French, one word, fierté, is for the pride you have in your country or your children, and another word, orgueil, is for the deadly sin. We use language to categorize things and understand them, but we also find that these same words and categories make them more difficult to understand.

I’m back in Paris after a week in Brittany with my mother. I can’t recommend Brittany enough. I’m also happy to be on my own again. Tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn, I head off to Zurich for the weekend and Sultan’s wedding. I’ve lots more to share but no muse and a day ahead of me to see again this whole city. Sometimes I feel like my waking activities are primarily for the purpose of creating a situation where I will be able to sleep that night.

Cycle Chic Pali-style

KT and I were discussing Cycle Chic chez moi the other day while surfing the net when I noticed the new Cycle Chic banner for the first time. It reminded me of this photo I recently snapped at the Palo Alto Caltrain station.
If you've read my blog before, you know that I am a bike/train commuter to the Valley. If you've done that before, you know that the Palo Alto Caltrain station has more bikes than anyone knows how to store. They have a bike station, racks and lockers and still there are bikes chained to every pole and tree in sight. Meanwhile, cyclists are also frequently getting bumped from the train because there isn't enough room for them all on the train. Is the solution just more of everything? A bike share program? What do you think?

Bow Tie en Train

This man is my new favorite person in the world. Not only is he wearing a bow tie while bike-train commuting, but look at that smile!

...Alas, I also see a ring on his hand.

On being alone

I hate being alone. This conflicts with my need for “downtime” and that my way is the best way. ;-) I’m listening to a This American Life recording called Home Alone, and I find it terrifying. What if I slip in the bath tub or have a heart attack in bed? For example, this woman dies completely alone: no family, no friends, no one knows her. A month after her death, they call her answering machine, and the outgoing message is completely antisocial… rather, ahem, like mine. People who want to be alone should be. But the program points out that what we all really want is control over whether or not we are alone. What I guess we aren’t always aware of is what we’re doing that creates a situation where we are going to be alone when that isn’t our choice. In the program, the woman died. We discover that being mourned is a privilege for people who choose to be close to other people.

Despite my fears, I have not been alone here in Paris. Well, I didn’t see anyone I knew on Sunday, but I had a lively time at the Plage on my own. That isn’t particularly different from some weekends in San Francisco.

Yesterday I spent the first part of the day riding bus rapid transit in southern suburbs for work. The RER returned me to the centre ville; so, I figured I should check out the shops before returning to the apartment. I’m looking for a purse.

I have always been a night owl. I realized the my body desperately wants to be awake at around 4-5 am here which is about 7 or 8 pm in San Francisco. I wonder if I should limit my location to time zones where that’s an appropriate hour to be awake.

No photos today as they were all of buses yesterday. I’ll do a separate post about that another day. I’m also going to leave my laptop at J&G’s and go have a vacation with my mother for a week. So, don’t expect me to keep up the blogs (except VV which is queued in advance).