Surprises and disappointments

So much of our happiness in life depends upon our expectations. The Prom is really just a nice dance - but if you stress about making it the most important night of your life - well then you are setting yourself up for failure. A wedding day is hopefully not "the happiest day of a bride's life". And if it is, that is pretty sad.

So yesterday was a day of disappointments for me. Not that I had any big expectations about anything. But as I was leaving the house yesterday I realized that my sunglasses were no where to be found. So I began checking the guy from the SF Band who gave me a ride home. He found sunglasses in his car, but not mine. I wonder what that's about. So I called someone else who had given me a ride to the restaurant and I'm still waiting to hear from her. Today I stopped by the restaurant and they didn't have the glasses. Sigh...

So yesterday I met a new friend who works at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. He showed me a couple of very cool exhibits and told me about his work there. Very ineteresting.

After lunch I took off in search of a couple of Victorian homes that I had read about. My trek - and it was a trek - 20 blocks each direction - took me past the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption. One friend had referred to it as St. Maytag's another called the Agitator. It is a monstrous concrete structure that looks like the agitator from a washing machine. So hideous that it didn't warrant any photos. Suprisingly the interior has an imposing grandeur and allows for some quiet reflection. But they could have accomplished that with a lot less concrete. But it has survived one earthquake so far.

So off I went and found two of the houses that I had read about - neither were open for tours - I missed one by 20 minutes. But I got some good photos.


Atherton House - 1990 California Street


Haas-Lilienthal House - 2007 Franklin Street

The Atherton House is supposed to be haunted - I was hoping to find out if they were friendly spirits.

So minor disappointments that I wasn't able to tour either of the houses. But worse was my poor tired feet.

That evening I met up with fellow librarian Craig Cruz for a delicious dinner at Caffe Delle Stelle at the corner of Hayes and Gough Streets. Craig went off to hear the San Francisco Orchestra perform the Poulenc Organ Concerto. Another friend came by and gave me a ride home, taking me past the Painted Ladies of Nob Hill, through Japan Town, and then to the ocean and Cliff House.

So not a bad day after all.