And the days go by...

My only excuse for silence has been adapting to this early to bed, early to rise schedule that is then complicated by my attempts to continue having a life and look for another job. However, the time passes so quickly only because it's so good (we'll think on it that way).

Thanksgiving had me working in the morning, then heading to Oakland with Mike to celebrate at Harry and Michael's house with Nate, Alojzya even came down from Tahoe. We ate some excellent chicken (there were 3 of them, a decent ratio), enjoyed delicious sides and even apple pie (courtesy of Harry, a musician magician). The evening ended with a string jam session - ukulele, guitar, 12 string guitar, and bass, which kept the spirits up even as we got stuck in Bay Bridge traffic trying to get back to the city (I had to work at 6 a.m. the next morning). The next day Mike and I road tripped (so California) to North Hollywood to spent time with his folks. It was quite the adventure, our rental lady talked faster than I ever can imagine doing myself and warned us about cows equalling tickets and cops, that we'd need a tank down and a tank up. Overall she was right, though it made for a long day. The weekend was chill fun, Mike got a suit for interviewing, we all went out to dinner, I heard family lore. A very different kind of holiday cheer than the usual Qualls clan gathering, but a decent holiday nevertheless.

I am trying to stay culturally sensitive as people keep trying to convince me that it's cold. It's in the 40s as a low, damp, but still. There's no wind chill. I point this out not to flaunt but to give context - I've started asking where people come from before discussing the winter. Mike and I couldn't believe it the other week when we went on this nice long bike ride through Golden Gate Park all the way to the beach (where there's ocean!). And all this in December. We then biked up a HUGE hill to cut back into the city, went down Geary to find a yummy Chinese place with Dim Sum (he'd never had it) and restore the tissues. Yum. In total the loop was about 15 miles - that and my biking the Berkeley hills last weekend is making legs try to complain though it's a good kind of pain. Standing at work was a bit dodgy but one survives.

Espresso bar is a stressful job; I've been training and it wears me out. But I can now make delicious drinks, which is pretty exciting, and my colleagues have been great helping me out when I am trying not to flounder. I also have discovered the San Francisco Center for the Book, full of binding and printing classes, studio space, and various other amazing things. I've started volunteering there this week with an eye to get into a class (you can trade hours for workshops) and manned the front desk as well as sorted spacers for 24 pt font. I can now tell you the difference between a em and a en space (the first one is square, the second exactly half size), and loved getting my fingers dirty with type once again. Tomorrow there's a Holiday Craft Fair that I'm going to work at - it's been also a fun way meeting new people (like a conservator at one of Stanford's libraries and a woman who raises her own silk worms).

I can't believe it's almost mid-December.

you've been out of the country too much when...

I just got an alert from the US embassy in Serbia about Georgia having a runoff election and my first thought was that it was Georgia the country, confusing me as to why US citizens in Serbia would need to know about such an event.

Also, today I entertained (at least I hope so) a colleague at work with my exclamations over the "new" nickels and George Washington dollar coins - there are vikings thinly disguised as Lewis and Clark on our money. Curious. Her "where have you been?" was abruptly stifled when she realized that, in fact, I've not been here.

Oh, and it's been in the 70's this weekend.

Other exciting news has me hanging out with a Serb (from Belgrade) I met at the coffee shop a few weeks ago, he's working in catering so we munched on leftovers from his most recent job as I tried to put the past few years into a succinct chronology without too many digressions. I'm excited to have someone to chat about Beograd with, he's not been back for awhile so hungry for news. Plus he knows about a big gathering that happens monthly with trumpet music, the whole party atmosphere. Woohoo ex-pat communities!

And Mike is here this week - what joy, what bliss.

Election euphoria

I'm so excited and giddy, what an incredible time. I'm glad I could be in the US for the election - walking around with my dad last night in the Mission was crazy in terms of people's excitement levels. I stayed up late to see that INDIANA IS BLUE for the first time in my life.

Apparently that absentee vote counted.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

It's madness to see so many smiling, happy people in the streets. I've never seen anything like this; makes me proud. Incredible.

These are a few....

Some things I have done:

-Worked morning shifts at a coffee shop for a week, starting at 5, 6, or 7 a.m.

-Bought a bike (that wasn't stolen) and subsequent gear (helmet, lock, lights)

-Seen Halloween costumes throughout the Mission District and had Snickers bars thrown at me in Oakland.

-Had lunch with Barb (stopping by on her cross-country trip) and Sarah at 900 Grayson in Berkeley. Chicken and waffles with gravy equal incredibly good.

-Biked practically across San Francisco (over 4 miles, it's roughly only 7 by 7 miles square) in the rain becoming super-saturated with water (I dumped water out of my boots where it was standing inside at the end), though my trusty messenger bag stayed dry on the inside (huzzah!).

-Had a job interview with a fairly major publishing company for their World Languages division (also on Halloween).

-Raided thrift stores for interview appropriate clothing that fit and came away victorious.

-Ate peanut butter M&Ms.

-Turned the clocks for daylight savings and was NOT late to work.

I'll leave you to decide what I'd do again and what I'll try to avoid repeating. Feel free to post your guesses.