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!

Some writing from before...

So, I wrote this piece for a modern music festival in April and never posted the link here. I liked it, especially the snarky bio at the end. Volià!

It's over 70 today in San Francisco. Summer? Really?

Transitions - round 832

July was a busy month. I entertained the fabulous Michael D, cheered on roommate at finish of San Francisco Marathon (she ran 2nd half) and cooked pancake breakfast for 6 afterwards, went to an oceanside cabin on Bodega Bay, swore I would freeze to death in San Francisco's chill... and lost my job.

So now I'm yet another statistic. Luckily I was already one week into teaching European teens English at a language school (run by Canadians!), a course that lasted 2 weeks total. Being back in the classroom was challenging, but using my gray matter to bend teens to my will was entertaining at times, rewarding (yeah, it's hokey) at others. I learned they ride penguins in Spain. And the koala mafia fights with the butterfly mafia in Italy. When a kid said "2 butterflies came to my grandparents house..." then trailed off and looked at the ground in obvious sadness, reliving the painful memory it was amazingly hilarious. They were a creative class, that's for sure. I've also been teaching more French privately and finding that while French grammar trounces English in terms of complexity, I can still make people understand it. Mostly.

Job hunting isn't my favorite activity. But one gig I'm starting on is working with ConferenceHound.com; I have my first blog post with them up now. Their aim is to be something between kayak and yelp for conferences, a pretty cool idea. I'm working on other writing projects, trying to keep the resume factory productive, and learned the basics of driving stick shift so I could commute to another short-term gig last week. Joblessness finds me with so many things to do I wonder how I spent 40 hours a week working in the shop.

I also got my hands on The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. And read it all in less than a day - fabulous ending to a great, thrill-packed trilogy. I love it when the operations kick in and they outline all the clever steps involved so that justice can be served. He was a huge women's rights guy it seems as well from looking at his characters and plots.

Also discovered Porchlight, a local storytelling group here in SF and am looking forward to going to more of their events, maybe trying to tell a story or two of my own. My sister Cassie comes tomorrow morning for fun and fabulous times before she starts college - glad I have time to spend with her!

The visit of the young D...

My lovely brother Michael D came to visit for the first week of July and it was a blast. We walked around a bunch, I got some extra time off so we could go to Muir Woods and along the coast, museums, fourth of July party at Jaylan's place...

And we ate. A ton. Mike and I realized that we can pretend to be totally VIP since we know enough folks in the restaurants we frequent. Which is pretty cool. D seemed to be down for sushi, Indian, Asian fusion, whatever we fancied and thus we ate our way around the city. And then ate some more. And walked some more. I enjoyed going to the California Academy of Sciences for the first time and walking through a rain forest, even if the tree frogs in one part were fake. They were in reach of the walkway, I suppose it makes sense from the frogs' perspective, but odd to see a lady snapping a photo right after we'd ascertained they were, in fact, not breathing.

Also we figured out a good way to rig sheet over big bookcase in the living room for projecting movies. Die Hard 1 & 2 were great to see big. Great in that terrible way Die Hard movies are, that is. Power mullets are crazy!!!

It was lovely. I can't wait to do it again.

Also, happy Bastille Day a day late! Yay for freedom.