Slide every mountain!

One of the joys about being unemployed is that I can do things like go on a hike early Thursday morning with my lovely friend Victoria. She'd found a route over at the base of Mount Tam (in Marin Headlands) at Stinson Beach. It was a good looking loop and since I can walk for miles with my now almost-healed hip, I figured, why not?

My attempts to get to bed early were only slightly successful - my friend Matthew and I discovered a great wine bar in Glen Park, Red & White, but hadn't gotten too crazy the night before (they only do small production wines, incredible service, truly a treat!). Still, I was ready to go at 8 a.m. (early on my clock) and we set out to cross the Golden Gate Bridge.

There have been some lessons. One is that if the directions to get to the trailhead aren't very clear, chances are the directions for the route itself also won't be very clear. We did find it with a slight detour along Highway 1 (but it's so gorgeous who cares?) and headed into the woods. Amazing trees, canyon with stream, gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. We were feeling pretty great and going up and up and up. Then get to an unclear fork. Looking at our directions we should have turned at Table Rock - Victoria swears she saw a sign farther down (I missed it) so what do we do? We check our position with the GPS on her phone (ah, the joys of the wilderness... cellphone signal) and it looks like if we head right going downhill we'll get back to where we should be.

So down we go. It's clear quickly that the grade is, ummm, steep. Sheer is another word that comes to mind. Lesson #2: stay on the bigger looking trails. The soil is sandy and prone to shift under our feet. We go very carefully. And then, about 2/3 down, I slip and slide on my problem hip maybe 20 feet. I go a little farther because sliding is easier than walking at this point. Wonderfully I'm not hurt, but now COVERED in dirt. And bruised a little more than I'd like. But I look totally badass. Victoria doesn't slide, but later trips over a rock on a level area of the path. Lesson #3: always watch your step. We are graceful hikers.

Eventually we find the path we'd been on, but below the turnoff point. Good riddance. End up trekking back down to the town of Stinson Beach and then along the beach itself. Snacks on rocks by the ocean are terrific things to have. Thus, we hiked, but not really where or how we had planned to. However, definitely worth getting back there better prepared and giving it another go!

C is for cookie

Job hunting is never easy, but I've landed another part time gig (to start) working at Paulette, a small place 5 minutes from my house that sells French macarons (delicious cookies). The owner is a Parisian woman who I talked to months ago about English classes. That's still a possibility, but as we talked more about food and my work in coffee and the neighborhood she asked if I'd be interested for working with her at the shop. Yum, yes! I start tomorrow officially and am totally pumped. Even if I will be working double shifts the next 2 days - 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. with an hour off in between. Woo!

The summer mural class I was co-teaching was a rousing success as well; we finished it yesterday even though our dedicated mass of students had dwindled. I'll try to get a photo up sometime soon; need to go and take one once we've finished the edges. And they've figured out where to hang it.

So times, they are a changin' for the better. I can't wait to speak French and English during a shift and work in a totally different service environment to see what that's like. I also interviewed with an international relocation company yesterday and will be put into their tutor network for working with their clients, it sounds much like what I was doing in Beograd. Good stuff...