Going Up?

I don’t know if I have mentioned before the funny looks i sometimes get in my elevator: either when I reach to push button 22 or I have to ask someone to push it for me. There seems to be sort of a reflex neck snap on the part of other riders, which I find humbly sort of funny. The other day I got on and there was already one man on who asked what button I wanted pushed. I replied”22″ and he immediately laughed in a kind way and said, ” oh! The penthouse! One of the 1%!” ( remember I am in a studio) I laughed back and said, ” no, certainly not the 1%!”

Recently i looked again at some other possible places to live if I needed to move out of here. It is just crazy the money they want for shared bathroom and kitchens, not to mention no view, way less safety, no great transportation outside your door. Yikes, I am getting spoiled. I better be careful!

Halloween is approaching, and I did not know whether kids would be coming in ( from other units) to trick or treat. I plan to use it as an opportunity to market myself as a tutor/ enrichment person. I have my info already attached to stuff for kids AND parents! Plus there is a gathering earlier too where I will be prepared. Recently this complex has started using NEXTDOOR, a social network for your neighborhood. With over 1000 residences in four or more buildings, it is a great way to spread info about problems, events, etc. those of us in the 99% will use it to make some money!! I have visited the other buildings, and where I thought mine was maybe the oldest, it is actually the newest. 3 elevators ( fast ones!) instead of 2, bigger laundry and lobby, etc.

Thoughts are with any of your friends and family along the eastern seaboard! unprecedented is a scary word to hear attached to a storm.

P.S. I guess my neighborhood DOES have a nickname: FiDi ( not Fido!) for Financial District. I will have to learn whether it is ” cool” to say that. I already knew it was NOT cool to say”Frisco” and I have learned not to say “the 405″ or ” the BART”. No THE!! ( that is just for SOUTHERN Californians!)

Thanks to Brent for taking care of my car!! Dead battery and filthy no more! Thanks, Dude!

You are deserving

I am going tonight to see the movieThe Perks of Being a Wallflower. But I am pretty sure it is the movie I saw a preview for where someone says ” we accept the love we think we deserve.” Boy, that sure hit me as a problem in my pattern. Speaking of deserving, I typed this last night:

Just got done meeting for the first time with the wonderful lady who owned the condo below Coit Tower. We really enjoyed conversing for over 90 minutes, then we headed to the Little Vine wine shop for Thursday tasting. She is actually married to a Swede these last 10 years. That is the country she has been in, not Switzerland as I erroneously thought. Her husband will join her here in a couple of weeks, stay two months, and then they will leave for Sweden in mid December. She has lived a very interesting life, and is still employed part time by the State Department: she takes visiting ambassadors on ” learning” tours in the U.S. Her husband does some similar work. We thoroughly enjoyed our time together and have agreed to meet again.

I came back toward my condo thinking about thoughts I have had regarding ” living in a cheaper place”. Yet I love where I am, feel safe, have a Safeway a block awAy within my complex, and I just realized how TIRED I am of feeling like somehow I don’t deserve to spend money for the sake of my own comfort and well being. I am even tired of other people questioning how much this is costing.

I spent 33 years in a helping profession. For my first year of teaching in a private school I earned a whopping $4000– for the whole year!!! When I got a public school job 3 years later, my salary jumped to around $15,000. By the time I completed my career, having NOT been able to obtain a Master’s degree for several reasons but primarily a result of my 2nd marriage, I still never broke the $60,000 a year mark. Despite this, I was able to save some money within the portion of my retirement program that I can access now. And I am doing so! And I don’t really care what anyone thinks, because why did I save the money if it wasn’t to use to LIVE my life?? Right now I am doing the best thing for me that I have done in a very long time. I take responsibility for how I live, money I spend, and choices I make. I can only hope you feel the same about your own life, as it is very empowering.

(Geez, she sounds pissed. Maybe just a little. A little wine helps. Thank you to the far majority of people who seem to celebrate what I am doing)

A Jewish Series with beer

I guess I am finding myself posting again: got to talk to someone! Actually, I am meeting a woman for coffee tomorrow that I don’t know, then on Thursday I have the pleasure of meeting up with Katherine. She is the owner of the North Beach/Telegraph Hill condo I was in from mid-August to mid-September. She returned from her annual multi-month stay in Europe. We are meeting because she had collectibles in her place that matched some of my interests, etc., and any connections are good.

So I have been promoting myself the last few days via a sign in my laundry room on the bulletin board: i made up a nice flyer about ways I can work with young people. Even tho this building is not a real” family “spot’ I have encountered a few children in an elevator with a parent. i will expand my efforts to the other 4 buildings as needed to build up some tutor/ enrichment clientele: and I can get to them without going outside! We will see. I know I wondered if there would be ” internal trick-or-treating” by resident families. So I am also going to be prepared with nice treats to which I have attached my information!! Self -promotion: gotta love it!!

I don’t know if I mentioned that about a month ago I got a call from my Jewish school ( where I had applied to teach 2 third graders) about my willingness to sub. I told them that yes, they could call me, especially when they said it is always in advance ( versus those fun 4:30 am Federal Way calls….)

Well, today they called about a November gig. But I declined when I was told it was a combined group of first thru fourth graders! I wonder if that is what would have happened to my ” class” if I had taken the job? That is quite a multi-age spread: even my bag of tricks is not set up for that. Plus, when asked what the sub rate of pay was, she said, “I THINK it is…..” And that was the principal!

Well, last night the San Francisco Giants made it into the World Series. Not having been here all season, I understand it is quite a Cinderella feat this year. I love underdogs. When in the last 2 innings ( yes, I mostly watched the debate, but still….) it began to just TOTALLY POUR RAIN, it was unbelievable. Being so far off the ground, it is weird to SEE a torrential downpour but not to be able to HEAR rain hit the ground. My balcony is very protected so I just had to step out: It reminded me of a Hawaiian downpour, hard rain I’ve watched at “1404”(Brent’s place: the water just floods down the street) or at the beach, where it liked to drip in through the bay window as well as rush from street level through the black pipe onto the beach.

I have no idea how crazy this city will get tomorrow for Game One. I DO know that on my way back from today’s Farmer’s Market I passed the Giants store. OMG!!! There were no less than 50 people in line to buy Division champions apparel.

In closing, I must say I have discovered a wonderful new beer that may be available in your area: Downtown Brown out of Eureka: bright label in yellow, black with a drinker dressed in purple. Nice ale.

Bikers, cleaners and tutors

A comment about Lance Armstrong: what goes around comes around. let’s continue to dethrone false athletic ” heroes” who cheated their way to the top. They robbed hard working athletes of the prize and prestige that should have been THEIRS. Years later, if promoted via someone else’s DEMOTION, it will not be the same. It was a robbery. ( so never forget to push on, even if you come in 2nd or 3rd!! Who knows how many cheaters will be discovered i the future!) just glad that Cheryl Crow didn’t marry Lance.

I have a housekeeper. That is so wild since I spent many years working as a housekeeper myself during after school hours and in the summer. I am required to have Delia come in every two weeks. She does a beautiful job. However, it is really strange that she moves lots of my stuff to completely different places, which I would never do as a housekeeper. i wonder what she thinks when she comes back and finds I have put something back i the original place I prefer? But, I must say, it is kind of fun to come in and have everything so nice. Many of you have maybe hired people before and know that sort of enjoyment.

In about an hour, the final playoff game between the Cardinals and the Giants will occur. I am not into this, really, except that I think enthusiasm is contagious when people wear team colors to work even in this ” office setting” area. personally, I am more interested in the debate. But, if the Giants can win, the World Series would be held here for part of the time, and that is kind of exciting.

hope all of you are well. I know we are at the point when everyone is very busy with their own life. i do truly enjoy a quick blog comment, etc. I am making some progress toward more pay, as I have been accepted by two of the more stringent tutoring companies. Next I need to be assigned students!! We will see how this goes.

Marlo Thomas and Mary Tyler Moore

Today was simply AMAZING weather! At 6:30 pm I was still walking on the streets ( now shaded due to the sun angle) and it was warm with no wind. Probably in the low 80’s in the city. As I walked along beneath the high rises, I felt like a combination of MarLo and Mary. Both shows had a profound impact on me as a girl growing up. Both were living alone in major cities, unlike anyone I personally knew at the time. We watched them experience excitement and troubles. Now I get to be them. i will need to bring my beret down so I have something to toss in the air.

I have had a chance to learn and reflect on two local pieces of info. The first was a serendipitous discovery about the history of where I am living now. I previously told you the history of North Beach/Telegraph Hill. I have been able to see a walking pier from my balcony I had never walked on before, so yesterday I went down to the water to do expressly that. returning, rather than just walk along the Embarcadero as I had done so much, i found a ” public causeway ” that went in and out of buildings and covered areas. There I discovered a pictoral history of the area where my condo building now stands.

Since Gold rush days the area had been known as the Produce District. Here again it was the Italians who realized that gold was not going to sustain all newcomers, but they were going to need something to eat! So they began farming to the east and trucking the product into the city. Over ti e they were joined by others, and the area flourished as the main location for produce for the city.

This continued until the 1950’s, when it became apparent there was a need to provide housing within the city to meet the needs of those in the ever i creasing business world. it was nice to learn that an amicable agreement was reached with those still in produce: in exchange for their area being razed so high rise homes could be established, they were given another area in the city that was deemed desirable. And so my building came into being inthe 1960’s. constant refurbishing is evident even now: they started at the top and are redoing the walls and floors of every hallway. They appear to now be down around floor 7. The lobby is stylish, the 3 elevators are fast and these buildings along with close by office buildings were some of the first built with earthquake resistant technologies.

( i will share in the next few days my thoughts about recently killed diplomat J. Christopher Stevens from this area.)

Normal and abnormal city events

In the last 8 hours I have been amazed by two common ” suburb” sounds audible from my incredibly urban balcony. Last night there was a dog barking incessantly for at least an hour. I don’t even know where he could have been. Now, this morning, I can hear a lawnmower. That must be in one of the parks right below me. Still neither sound seems to fit this setting.

It is shaping up to be another beautiful day here. This is the exact time I visited last year and decided I had to come here for longer.

So, the abnormal. First, this event occurred on my last day with my sister, so I will comment on how great it was for her to visit! i took BART to SFO and met her there. We started right off getting ourselves in trouble with a turnstile issue. Then, Shelley and Dar, you may not believe this, but we came up OUT of BART in my neighborhood, but on the opposite side of the street from what I thought, so we actually walked at least two blocks before I realized we were going the WRONG direction!! Now I have a new area to go explore.

While Cathy was here we went through the Plaza at Embarcadero ( where, gulp, they wanted $100 to enter a wine/ food tasting event: we were thankfully too late), along the water, through the Ferry Building, then hopped a bus up to North Beach. I showed her my former home, visited Little Vine wine shop, saw disgusting stuff in Chinatown, then ate Italian food.

We enjoyed several evening and morning hours talking out on my balcony, where no one was mowing the lawn and no dogs were barking. My two favorite quotes from the weekend were when Cathy ( notorious for stopping to talk to every stranger) asked a woman in Chinatown what she was going to make with the food items she bought. Predictably, the woman did not speak English. After struggling to understand what Cathy was asking, she blurted out ” Chinese food!” ( duh)

Then, while at dinner, Cathy texted her husbands’sister who lives nearby and loves everything Italian. She mentioned we were ” in the Italian area: can we pick anything up for you?” Margie texted back ” depends on how he looks” LOL

We had a wonderful time being hosted by Margie in San Rafael the following day. It was on my way back to the city alone that the ” abnormal” occurred.

I was actually almost to my BART stop (after a bus and BART ride of 90 minutes) when an Asian man began yelling into a phone. He was very loud and completely unintelligible. After about two minutes of this, he came over near where a young Caucasian man and I were getting ready to deboard. He began handing the phone toward us. We both looked at each other as we waved him away( i was picturing the phone being some sort of bomb denonator). He continued to yell loudly into the phone, and the young man and I laughed and commented that it was like a Sketch from a comedy show.

Then we heard the Asian man say” you left your phone on BART” ( BTW, you do NOT say THE Bart). Suddenly we both realized that he was trying to talk to the phone’s owner, but could not speak English well enough. First the young man took the phone and spoke briefly about where he would leave it. Somehow it got back to the Asian man. Then I went ahead and took the phone. The female owner was asking for it to be left somewhere but she was breaking up. Right then, it was time to exit, so I kept the phone as I exited to leave at the booth.

Suddenly a young man comes on the other end, and I am saying” you left your phone on BART. It will be at the Embarcadero station”. The guy starts saying to me, ” wow. I don’t know how I could have lost it. it must have slipped out of my pocket….” By then I am almost to the top of the stairs, and he starts telling me where he would like me to take it for HIS convenience, thinking out loud about how he was going to be able to get to that station.

It had been a long day, it was almost 10 pm, and I could not believe what he was saying! ” I replied, ” well, I can either just drop it right now on the stairs or I can take it to the Embarcadero booth. So that is where it will be.” Being at the booth by that time, I handed the phone to the attendant and walked away. Dude! You are lucky 3 people even tried to get you back your phone! But again it was a GOOD example, as I have experienced, with people mostly doing the right thing.

Whew! you probably just wish I would blog more often vs. this long winded stuff? hope this finds you well! I have a note with 4 people’s names I have to be in contact with regarding possible paying gigs. And some have been just connecting through initial strangers. Amazing.

Time for Less Blogging

Thank you to those who encouraged this and enjoyed it. I may still add a post every week  but it seems the time has arrived to not feel the need to comment daily.

I can be contacted easily via text, phone or Facebook. I appreciate you reading and commenting on these posts.

Thank you for your friendship and interest in my adventures in SF!!

Boat on the Troubled Waters

Today I am choosing to post something Brent wrote to me after he had boat troubles last Friday. As he mentions, writing can be therapeutic. Some of you know that with boats moored on buoys out near the point of low tide, there are frequent incidents. ( we have been regaled with stories from years past. ) Then, Labor Day weekend of 2010, Brent’s1983 glastron ( with relatively new Yamaha 100 hp motor) lost the plug for some reason and took on enough water to damage the motor, ignition and electrical system, etc. Two beach friends and two personal friends helped him through that. The boat was ” totaled”, he bought it back from insurance and had it repaired. It has run like a champ the last two seasons. When I heard he had an issue Friday, I commented that it was a heck of a way to remove his boat from the Sound for the season. here is his reply, posted with his permission.

“Yes – a very dramatic way to end the boating season. My last class Friday was canceled so I heard the phone vibrate on my desk and saw it was Janice. She said the boat was sinking and she didn’t know what to do. So I quickly packed up, put on my jacket and helmet and weaved between cars on my way out of the bumper-to-bumper driveway at Woodmont, beating the buses out of the parking lot. It was a long ride to the beach but I wasn’t that stressed, considering what I was about to face. When I got to the beach and could see the boat – it was just as before – very low in the back. I struggled just getting into the kayak with high breakers. I had to time it just right, just to get into the kayak without being swamped, then had to steer into many high waves as I approached the boat. I brought with me a 5-gallon bucket so I tied the kayak onto the boat, hopped in and began bailing water. It was back-breaking work but it was what I needed to stave off the stress, which wasn’t as bad as you might think. As I bailed for some time I realized it was a futile effort yet it seemed I was making progress, although I think it was my imagination. I stopped occasionally to rest and at one point I saw what looked like someone getting into Reggie’s boat. I bailed some more and when I looked again it was Janice that was in their boat and she eventually made it over to me. So I threw her a line, unclipped from the buoy and she towed me to shore. The tide was at about a 6 or 7 and soon the waves began to pound the boat and wash items from the boat out to sea. A large wave tore through the canvas at the rear of the boat so I began to load the kayak with stuff to get it to shore, including the cushions. After Janice put her boat back on their buoy she came over to help me with everything and we finally got the stuff to the beach house deck. I tethered the boat to the sea wall and knew I had done all I could at that point. Wet and cold and the deck strewn with boat debris, I stripped off all my clothes, unloaded the dishwasher, cleaned all the counter-tops, loaded dirty dishes and started another load (my way of dealing with the stress.) Job done for now, so I drove home, ate dinner, called Vessel Assist and had a normal night at 1404.

I woke at 3:30, tried to get back to sleep, eventually gave up and rose at 5:15 am. The tide was low at zero at about 3:30 am, and would be high again at a ten at 10:30. So I knew I had a couple of hours of daylight to work with. I got to the beach and started to work at 6 am when it was still dark, wearing my headlamp. To my surprise, when I checked the boat, now sitting on the sand, the plug was still in the boat. I didn’t see any other signs of a problem so started the bailing process, alternating between the 5-gallon bucked, a plastic pitcher and a kayak hand pump. Every so often I would unplug the plug hole which constantly was clogged with sand and paper towel bits. I had dug a little trench away from the boat, toward the sea, so the boat plug could drain freely. Eventually the boat was drained of water, the plug replaced and the rest of the boat’s contents hauled to the deck. It was now 7 am. By 8:10 or so the tide was advancing quickly so that the boat had started to bob. It had moved quite a bit from the place I had left it Friday night and was resting at about at nine, in front of Evan’s septic system area, midway between the houses. I tied the kayak to the front of the boat and easily pushed the boat into deeper water toward the buoy. Then the hard part – paddling in the kayak with the boat in tow – a very difficult task with the waves. After several minutes of labor I reached the buoy and clipped on the boat. When I climbed aboard I could see the red Vessel Assist boat approaching, so the timing couldn’t have been better. He tossed me a line, I removed the boat from the buoy and clipped it to his line. He was underway at 8:30.

I locked up the beach house and drove truck and trailer to Redondo, had to wait for only 10-15 minuted, backed down the ramp, loaded the boat and was on my way to Auburn Sports and Marine. When I got there they told me I would have to make an appointment and that the next available was not until Oct. 17th. The guy at the counter said he would check with John and see if he had room for 1 more boat. I asked him if it was the John from Federal Way. He said it was, and when he came back he said John had chuckled a bit and said that it is good to know people, meaning that John knew who the poor boat owner was. John had obviously made an exception when he realized it was me, making room for my boat. I unhitched it in the parking lot, drove away and was having breakfast at Station Bistro in Auburn by 10:10 am. Timing had been perfect all morning – with a little luck, planning and knowing the right people.”

Fleet week and Oct. in SF

Ahh. It has become the San Francisco October that caught my attention almost a year ago. The definition of Indian summer, it is sunny, relatively warm and attracting ridiculous amounts of visitors! A quarter of a million visitors were supposed to be in the city as of today. Both local baseball teams, the A’ and the Giants, are in playoffs for their leagues. The 49ers have extremely devoted fans ( ok, not as devoted as Seahawk fans).

Today was the start of fleet week. I posted on Facebook as it was unbelievable. Boats crowding every inch of bay water, Navy ships coming into port, and the Blue Angels flying for so long I will confess I got bored and walked to Walgreen’s ( and got to see a large protest group go by with riot gear police keeping pace). I was afraid to try to take a bus anywhere as it is supposed to be a public transportation nightmare( with everyone convinced to NOT drive and park). I will venture out tomorrow…..

Many of you have seen photos facing the water from my balcony. Another wonderful shot is standing in a park below and looking UP at my building: the Pyramid is so close to the opposite side of the building that in the photo they look like they touch.

I know sometimes it might sound bragging to talk about this location. If you know me, you know it isn’t that way at all. I am in awe everyday of this location and the chance to stay here. I know Brent and I always felt the same about the beach house, and tried to share it with others as much as possible as our reflection of appreciation for having it. Many of you have done the same with your various properties.

life imitates Seinfeld episodes

So many people I know are very familiar with Seinfeld episodes. having been on in regular or rerun status for almost 20 years, some of us watched them repeatedly enough that we see how they were based on absurd twists to real life.

There are tomes, then, when some of us say, ” it is just like that time on Seinfeld when…” I know Brent, Dan H. And Elliott were famous for coming up with the ” showline” that fit any given situation. Similarly, Dar, Shelley and I started using the phrase ” YOU’RE bald!!” This summer to refer to people who couldn’t see they were guilty of what they criticized others of ( referring to George’s toupee episode).
In one of my earliest posts, I referred to the episode where Elaine goes to the nail salon and feels the technicians are speaking about her in their native language: I felt the same. i thought of it recently again when experiencing a shower head that came on with an unexpected forceful blast. immediately I could picture Kramer, interested in washing his produce while in the shower, buying and installing such a powerful showerhead that he is knocked to his feet by the blast ( don’t even ASK about the lettuce!)

Back when I taught in East Wenatchee, our classroom telephone identified the number: classroom room # or outside line. my friend Renee and I, if we were on the receiving end, each enjoyed answering the other with our most disgusted, ” Heelllllooooo, NEWMAN!!” As teachers, I sometimes wonder how many years later students might still remember and imitate any of our voices or idiosyncrasies. My friend and former colleague Liz as well as my late friend Cory were wonderfully accurate and hilarious at imitating people we knew.

Feel free to add your own Seinfeld connection.