Crayon therapy

I did survive my vacation. I had a wonderful time in both San Francisco and Seattle as well as my brief visit to Portland, Oregon. I reconnected with several friends and made some new ones. I also ate a lot of good food and saw the sights in both cities.

On May 2nd as I made my trip back to the east coast - I had 2+ hour layover at O'Hare Airport. I almost said Chicago - but I was far from Chicago! So I looked for a restaurant that would allow me to sit down and relax with lunch. I even had a glass of wine.

This was a restaurant that has paper over the tablecloths and provides crayons. Not only am I presented with a blank canvas, I am given some colors - a very limited palette - to work with. And I have always found coloring to be a very therapeutic activity.

Just the smell of crayons will take me back to my childhood - when my life was simpler and involved lots more playtime than my adult life allows. I had forgotten how wonderful coloring is until several years ago I was on a work assignment in another city. I was there for two weeks. I had taken books to read etc. but that wasn't doing it for me. I was alone in the evenings and there wasn't much to do but watch television. So I walked to the nearby department store and bought a box of crayons and a coloring book. So each evening after dinner, I sat at the table in my room and watched television and colored.

Now I have a couple of coloring books and on occasion I will sit and color while I'm watching tv. it is very relaxing.

So back to the layover in O'Hare. My first drawing was of a village next to a lake. And then I drew the parrot above. I decided to keep that drawing and share it with others here.

If you are ever feeling overwhelmed with life - sit down with a box of crayons and a coloring book. Don't worry about coloring inside the lines. (Okay - I stay inside the lines - but not everyone needs to do that.) Color a few pictures - don't worry about where you start in the coloring book either. Find a picture that you want to color - one that says - this person is wearing a blue shirt and in no time at all you'll feel more relaxed.

I stole art from the SF Museum of Modern Art

Well - before the Feds come knocking at my door - what I really did was take a few photos of some artwork at the MOMA.

I got there just in time for a guided tour of the William Kentridge exhibition. He is a South African artist who is multi-talented. A friend told me that she had heard a definition of a genius as one who looks at things and imagines them for other purposes. In one of Mr. Kentridge's film works his coffee pot turns into a spaceship. He works with a lot of commonplace items that were in his studio.

The museum also has paintings by Klee, Mondrian, Miro, Braques and Picasso. I took photos of Diego Rivera and Frieda Kahlo paintings.


Diego Rivera painting The Flower Carrier


Frieda Kahlo self portrait with her husband Diego Rivera
So I didn't really steal anything - and I paid admission and I bought a couple of things at the gift shop. So please, don't arrest me.

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.

San Francisco - by the Bay

Greetings all - I am in surprisingly hot San Francisco, California. I arrived on Sunday afternoon and have been playing tourist and generally having fun.

On Sunday after an early flight that took me to Dallas and then over some beautiful desert and the Grand Canyon, I arrived and made my way to my temporary home in SF. The shuttle driver had other people to drop off so I had a scenic tour of SF, including Lombard Street.

Once settled in the Sunset neighborhood - west of downtown, I rested and then ventured out to meet a friend for dinner and we walked around the Castro neighborhood.

After a good night's sleep, I took off on Monday morning for the Mission District to tour the St. Francis Mission and the Basilica. The interior is quite impressive in an understated way.

That was the end of my sightseeing on Monday - the rest of the day I hung out with some friends.

Tuesday was a full day of sightseeing. I walked the Golden Gate Bridge (1.7 miles across). Then, if that wasn't enough, after lunch I walked from Fort Mason all the way up Russian Hill, then down and then up Telegraph Hill to the Coit Tower. Believe me - it didn't look that far on the map - and the map doesn't indicate the scale of the hills. My feet are still sore!

So today is going to be another quiet day!! I also managed to get some sun - thank goodness I bought a hat otherwise my little bald head would be burned!!

I'm a Hero

Last Friday I was a hero. Okay - I didn't rescue a sea captain from pirates and I didn't rescue a baby from a burning building. I didn't even call 911 to report any number of crimes that were probably going on around the city.

I was a hero in the late 20th and early 21st Century sense of the word. Since we're all entitled to our 15 minutes or so of fame - heck if a psychotic woman can be famous for being Octo-Mom then I deserve fame for my heroic act, don't I?

Yet I didn't call a press conference to announce my act of heroism - I'm doing that here now on my blog. I figured I'd wait and let the rapture of Easter pale a little before taking the spotlight for myself.

My act of heroism? The noble deed that I did? I was walking into the Brookland Metro station and saw a cellphone lying on the ground. I picked it up and handed it to the Metro staff person in the kiosk. (I like the word kiosk.) I'm expecting Pat Collins from Channel 4 News to contact me soon for an on-air interview.

Speaking of Octo-Mom -- didn't Spiderman defeat her? Or am I thinking of someone else?

Homily at Diana's Funeral

I was looking around and the Holy Cross Brother, Robert Sevensky, OHC, who preached at my friend Diana's funeral on March 28, 2009, has posted the homily he gave.

It is a thoughtful homily, not a sentimental one. I was most touched by this observation.

Diana was indeed that. An integer. An entity. Complete. No matter how much or little you knew of Diana or about Diana, what you always got was… Diana.

It is worth the reading.

I'm a Libra Man

Last Saturday George and I went to see After the Garden. During the show, Little Edie talks about how she is looking for her Libra Man - her ideal lover. She even searched the audience looking for a Libra Man - I didn't raise my hand in time for her to see me. Whew!

Last night I was at Urban Outfitters in Gallery Place and I was looking through a horoscope book reading about Libra - my zodiac sign. Amongst the many flattering things that are written about Librans - we are truly wonderful - I read some uncomfortable truths.

One of those is that we need friends and fear being lonely. Okay, I deal with lonely pretty well - but that is part of the problem for us Librans - we cope well enough that we don't tell our friends that we need them. And I have been feeling particularly friendless lately.

Friendless isn't the right term - forgive the hyperbole. I just don't feel very well connected to my friends. And there's what I call the Facebook effect.

This morning on my walk from the Metro I was again thinking about my friends Jack and Lorraine Hall. They moved from Baltimore, Maryland to Berkeley Springs, West Virginia in the mid-1970s. I met them through a church choir. Jack and Lorraine were the same ages as my parents and they were lots of fun.

From the time I knew them I was spending many weekend evenings at their home. There was usually a big group of us - playing games - Jeopardy, Scrabble, etc. and laughing, singing and talking. It was never a big deal party - chips and sodas and cookies.

How does one do that? How do you make yourself open to friends so they want to come and visit? My family home was like that - people would just drop by. I talk with George about this - I want to have people over - but I want it informal - hanging out, playing the piano. Not something that requires three days of shopping and cooking.

Ah the irony - a couple of days ago my daily horoscope said that I should seek isolation. Good thing I don't believe in horoscopes!