dale chihuly

Posted on by
9


San Francisco, in typical big city fashion, has a number of museums. When Sarah was in town, we went to the SFMOMA and I got to see the art of Frida Kahlo which was incredible. It was really fun with Sarah because she, as the artist type, knew the back story of the artist, making the art that much more interesting.

Well, there was another exhibit I really wanted to see at another museum that didn’t seem to make it into the “tourist” weekend, so on Friday, I had some time to kill in the city before dinner (Erika and I went to Boulevard…which should get its own post, but probably won’t, as my sister says I’m “not allowed” to take pictures in uber nice restaurants), so I decided to head over to the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park to see Dale Chihuly’s temporary exhibit.

For those of you familiar with the Bellagio in Las Vegas, he is the artist who did all of the glass work on the ceilings. Amazing, but nothing compared to his chandeliers…holy cow! It was absolutely incredible. And sometimes it’s really nice to be at a museum on my own, so I can just sit and stare for as long as I want.

After I saw the exhibit, I watched a film about him that the museum had on a loop. Glass blowing is absolutely incredible. I would seriously love to see his team of glass blowers in person. I ended up buying the DVD because it was so amazing.

Here are some of my favorite pieces. (Sorry the pics aren’t great…low light, no tripod, not happy).







This last piece was for sale…$5000. Oh, to be rich. And totally without a conscience for what that money could do, besides purchase a piece of art. Maybe if I was rich enough to feed a village country in Africa for a year and purchase the piece? Maybe?
And (I think) this one is permanent…this is a view from the observation deck of the museum.

breakwater

Posted on by
10

This is the only picture I took and it’s from the parking lot…I didn’t think leaving my camera unattended on the beach was a good idea.

When this summer started, my plan was to drive out to my sister’s in CA, and then drive from here to AZ, making a quick pit stop in So.Cal to visit a friend and go diving at Catalina. Well, plans changed. It didn’t make sense to drive all that way by myself with gas prices being what they are. When that happened, it looked like diving was out.

I’m not sure why this didn’t occur to me earlier, but upon my return to NorCal after the family reunion I realized that I could still go diving, it would just have to be up here.

I just want to share with all of you that, while I might seem to have zero fear at times, it’s totally not true. I am regularly scared of life…I just push through it. What I find amusing is that I wasn’t at all scared of the SCUBA diving, even though it’s been six years since I last donned a BCD. No, the diving itself has never scared me. I don’t worry about the possibility of sharks or other marine life that might kill me. I don’t worry about oxygen poisoning or the bends (aka decompression sickness). Nope, what do I worry about? Looking stupid.

It seriously took me an hour just to call up the dive place in Monterey. I was nervous about the questions I needed to ask. I was nervous about telling them that I hadn’t been diving in six years. I was seriously terrified. What kills me about this is that I know the people are going to be nice. Divers and runners are very similar…they’re a bit intimidating, but they are more than happy to be of service.

Well, I got my dives all set up…relatively painless…and then the fear of the actual experience started to set in. I’ve gained weight since the last time I went diving. What if there wasn’t a wetsuit big enough (yes…I know I need therapy)? What if they laughed when I told them how much weight I was going to need just to sink my buoyant body? What if I can’t remember how to hook everything up? What if I use my air too quickly? What if I can’t get my wetsuit off (yes, I have a serious fear of the wetsuit, but when you’re diving in 50F water…it’s a serious wetsuit)? What if? What if? What if?

Do you feel like I just let you in on a secret? I seriously walk around constantly worried that I look dumb. Every. Day. First time I went into a running store to get shoes? Terrified. That cooking class two weeks ago? I almost didn’t go. Voice lessons? Scared every lesson. School this fall? I can’t even think about it.

Well, I got there this morning and I was fine. They had a big enough wetsuit (I have serious issues). Rather than fumble through hooking everything up myself (and possibly doing it wrong), I just turned to one of the very nice, very helpful employees and said, “Hey, it’s been six years since I’ve done this. Would you mind helping me out?” And, surprise, surprise, it worked…and I didn’t look stupid.

The dive itself was fantastic. It’s the best visibility I’ve ever had there (Monterey isn’t know for it’s great vis). There was more marine life than I remember, too. Minus a little issue with my first descent (which stressed me out big time because, once again, I felt stupid), all was well. And the dive master/tour guide I was with kept commenting on how she couldn’t believe it had been six years since the last time I’d been diving. That was the biggest compliment she could have ever given me. I so needed to hear it.

So…all in all, I’m really glad that I managed to push through my fear, once again. I had a great time! And the bonus, the other two divers with us were from Lyon, France, so I got to help play translator (I love any chance to speak French) and talk about Lyon with this cute little couple.

family reunion in photo form

Posted on by
2

























Are you wondering what this picture is? If you look closely, you will see nail marks (as in “fingernail”) in both of our arms. This is what happens when sisters fight…they revert back to the most childish versions of themselves and dig nails into arms. And just to be clear…I was the mature one who started it.






A few pics are missing because I can’t get one of my disks to upload and I didn’t take any race pictures, so I have to wait for my sis-in-law to send them my way…sad!

family reunion – summary

Posted on by
1

This weekend was the second occasional (as opposed to annual) family reunion for my mom’s side of the fam. The last one we had was 12 years ago (we’re tight like that…actually, I really do see them all relatively regularly, just not all at the same time). Two of my cousins couldn’t make it as they are one missions for our church, and my uber pregnant wasn’t able to attend, but otherwise we were all there. I got back to P-town Sunday night and had a week full of fun and activities including Lagoon, model plane flying (I only observed), running, picnics, Seven Peaks, shooting, a talent show, and fireworks.

I have about 500 (literally) pictures to sift through, but for now, I’ll leave you with a few from my shooting experience with my two brothers. It was quite fun. I must say that I’m a fan of shooting…especially once I managed to finally pull the trigger.






I only shared this last one because we all got such a good laugh from it. Yes, both my eyes are totally closed. I tried to keep the one open, but only managed to on occasion. I’ll get better.

playing the tourist

Posted on by
8

I’m a little late in posting these, but better late than never. As I might have mentioned, I’ve been staying with my sister in California for a bit (I’m not there currently, but will be back on Sunday) playing personal assistant. Well, since Sarah had never been to “the city”, as any NorCal resident calls it, she decided that she would come visit me while I was there.

It was four whirlwind days of tourism, but really we got a lot accomplished. I got to revisit some of my favorite childhood places, spend lots of money at H&M (my favorite store ever) and a few other places, visit the SFMOMA (I’d never been there), actually eat in Chinatown (something I’ve always wanted to do), etc., etc. It was so fun to reconnect with my favorite city ever (yes, it beats New York, Chicago, Barcelona, Paris, Florence…all of them). I do hope I get to move back there someday. The ocean, the culture, the people, the food, the parks, the hills, the bridges…it really is the perfect city.

Anyway, here is a glimpse of our trip in photo form. Really, we got to see so much. I was kind of amazed, especially since we squeezed in a movie and spent a good chunk of time just chillin’ (like villains about to start killin’…I’ve been spending a little too much time with my 14-year-old nephew this week).

This first picture is actually not in SF, it’s in Oakland, but it is one of my favorite places. And the beautiful Rodin was actually at the Stanford Art Museum in Palo Alto. Otherwise, they are all in or of the city.