Category Archives: Regional

Ah Well

Due to technical difficulties, the movie I planned to see this evening was cancelled. So I came home and had dinner with my husband. I was disappointed, but there will be another time. However, do not purchase tickets online for this move at the link I provided. Apparently there was a misunderstanding and the ticket agent is not handling the arrangement but will happily take your money anyway. It’s complicated. I’m out 8 bucks.

My car is six years old and almost at 50,000 miles. It’s never had a brake job. They are sqeaking (have been for awhile). It’s time. So I called the wonderful mechanic who fixed my car before to see when he could fit me in next week. When I told him I needed an oil change and a brake job and asked if I could come in Monday, he replied, “You can’t wait until Monday. You will probably drive the car over the weekend, yes? A car with that many miles that has squeaky breaks needs to be fixed immediately. I would not be able to rest over the weekend knowing this. Bring it in tomorrow.”

Yeah, I know I’ll pay him for the work he does. It’s just a business transaction. But the fact that he was concerned rather touched me. He’s a two-man shop with a lot of business and he’s going to work me in because his ethics won’t permit him to wait until next week. How often does that occur?

Looking for Something Fun to Do In the South Bay/Peninsula?

On September 16, Hands On Bay Area has several fun and easy volunteer projects that also help your community! We need your help. Check these out (the project names are links):

LEND A HAND with the “We Can” Expo (San Jose)
The “We Can” EXPO provides an opportunity for nonprofit & community organizations to receive in-kind donations that will be used directly by the people they serve & inform the public of what they do and need. Volunteers will help unload and carry electronic equipment FROM PEOPLE’S CARS. Rolling carts will be available, but some lifting (20-30 POUNDS) is involved.

SPRUCE UP the “Field of Dreams” at Vargas Elementary (Sunnyvale)
Help transform a promising little patch of land into a bountiful hands-on garden for the students of Vargas Elementary. Plant flowers and shrubs, remove weeds, and pitch in with seasonal activities. Wear close-toed shoes, gardening clothes, hat, sunblock and bring plenty of water.

A PLACE AT THE TABLE with Gateway Family Garden (E. Palo Alto)
Help families who live in low-income housing to build their community and grow their own healthy food! Volunteers work on starting seeds, weeding, adding soil amendments and bark chips. Assistance with art-in-the-garden activities is also welcomed!

LEND A HAND with Snuggles for Animals (Santa Clara)
Do you love to knit or crochet? Join with Hugs for Homeless Animals to make small blankets for animals living at the Humane Society of Silicon Valley. Volunteers should bring their own supplies (machine washable yarn, tools).

SPRUCE UP Half Moon Bay State Beach (Half Moon Bay)
It’s Coastal Cleanup Day! Join the efforts to restore this unique beach and dune ecosystem: work may include cleaning up beach debris, planting native plants, removing non-native plants, and maintaining trails. Afterwards, tour the beach walk or head into cute little Half Moon Bay for lunch.

Visit our website to create an account. Then look at our calendar for September and sign up! You’ll receive an email with location, directions, project time, and who your project leader will be.

A Must-See Film In SF

This indie movie is showing in San Francisco every Thursday this month. My co-worker’s brother is one of the co-writer/co-director/co-producers and a character in the film. Here’s the story behind Four Eyed Monsters from their website:

Arin and Susan both live in New York. Arin works from home with his wedding videography business documenting other people’s love. Susan is a waitress at an all-night trendy diner where she spends her Saturday nights serving chocolate martinis to women on diets wishing she’d get her artistic career in order. Both live lonely lives in one of the most populous cities in the world until they find each other online and begin their alternative courtship. Wanting to avoid a mundane date they decide to only communicate through artistic mediums and have no verbal communication while they work through the start up phase of their relationship. Communicating via note pads, emails and video cameras the question begins to arise, is their relationship just an artistic experiment or will they give into being a couple and become a living breathing “four eyed monster”.

But wait, there’s more!

Four Eyed Monsters has been in 18 film festivals in the US, Brazil and Germany from Slamdance to SXSW to Gen Art to Oldenberg Germany. In 2005 it won the special audience award at SXSW, best new directors award at Brooklyn International, a special teenage jury awarded our film with a jury prize at Newport International and we received an honorable mention from Sidewalk Film Festival in Alabama.

You can find out how to buy tickets here. I’m going September 7. Will I see you there?

Four Eyed Monsters Movie Poster

Take a Hike

On Labor Day, Husband and I went out to Henry Coe State Park for a hike. Measured by miles alone, the park is close to home, a 40-mile drive. We took 101 South to Morgan Hill and then headed 13 miles east. Once out of Morgan Hill proper, the road narrows to barely two lanes and makes its twisty climb into the hills. It takes about as long to cover those miles as it does to drive from Santa Clara to Morgan Hill.

The vista is amazing. With over 87,000 acres of wild space, Coe Park is the largest state park in northern California. The terrain of the park is rugged. When I say rugged, I mean it! The trail we hiked started out with a 600-foot climb in elevation within the first mile and a half. The hike down into the canyon eased a bit (gravity was our friend again) but my quads quivered the whole way down. It took us 75 minutes to hike the first 1.8 miles. The remaining trail was flatter except toward the end (which was an unwelcome surprise at a point when all I wanted was to lie down and never ever move again). We hiked a total of 4.7 miles in 2.5 hours. I’m good for about 5 miles and then I’m done. (Once we hiked 9 miles at Point Reyes and just about died.)

The trail reminded me of Texas hill country, actually. First, it was a really warm day (83 degrees); not unbearable, but certainly less invigorating than 63 degrees would be. At this time of year, everything is crispy dry, brown, and dusty. Much of the foliage was live oak and madrone. We didn’t see any wildlife on the trail, but on the drive out we saw a hawk, several deer, a covey of quail, and a tarantula sunning itself on the road. We will not hike that trail again, partly because of the elevation and partly because it wasn’t particularly scenic or unique. We’ll return to explore other trails. There are many.

This was the hike at which I christened the hydration pack I got for Christmas (!) from Husband. It holds 2 liters (70 ounces), and it kept me well watered. It lasted the entire hike; I ran out just as we got to the trail end.

After we finished we took a scenic road home and treated ourselves to Slurpees. I was so hot I didn’t get brain freeze!

Rush Hour

Rush Hour

The gray man in the next lane over
digs into his nose, oblivious
to the fact that there are six lanes
of witnesses to his nasal excavation.

The bumper in front of me touts peace
and the sun winks through a crystal
pendant hanging from the rearview mirror
while a leather-tanned hand dangles
out the window flicking cigarette ash.

Somewhere behind me the air
is punctuated by the seismic bass
thump of some cholo’s rap music.
Words are garbled but I can feel
the beat in my bones as Dr. Dre
and Snoop serenade us.

To my left a sleek black Beamer
shelters a woman who appears
to be talking to no one. Then
she tucks her hair behind her ear
and I see the earpiece. She’s not
insane (yet).

Weekend Update

On Saturday I led a team of 18 people in the establishment of a 7,000-book elementary school library. The library had been closed for over a year for lack of a librarian (funding cuts). The books had been boxed up and stored. The SF Connect project goal was to unpack those boxes, along with scores of boxes from another elementary school library, so that it would be open for school today. The volunteers did an amazing job of getting it all done in three hours. I ran my butt off and had a great workout. I would love to work in a library again. Maybe I will.

Later that day I played at the Exploratorium, and then I had dinner with friends at Andalu tapas restaurant. Husband and I got home and crashed around midnight.

So then, what did I do with my Sunday? I slept until 10:30 a.m. Then I talked with one of my sisters for 2 hours. And then I gave the cat a bath. Yep. One of my cats, Stella, just desperately needed it. I also ended up brushing half a pound of fur off of her. No joke! She wasn’t happy during the bath, but she loved the grooming and spent the remainder of the day on me, purring. (Sophie, however, hid most of the day; ever since Stella’s transformation Sophie won’t go near her without hissing. Apparently Stella smells unfamiliar and thus is the enemy.) Later I took a too-long nap (with Stella of course) and then got up to read. It’s been a lazy day. And no, I never did get to church.

This week will be a full one, but then I have three days off.

On a side note: three years ago today I started this blog. And now it’s the end of August. ?! Too fast. I must be having fun.

Where I’ll Be

Tomorrow I shall depart for San Francisco at 7:00 a.m. I’m drafted to assist with painting for Project Youth & Families Connect at an elementary school. Afterward, Husband and Newly Relocated Friends will pick me up, and we will go to the Exploratorium. One of the Newly Relocated Friends is having a birthday tomorrow, and this is what he’d like to do. (Me too!) Later we will change into slightly dressier clothes and go out for a fancy meal of tapas. Then they will go dancing into the wee hours, while Husband and I head home, where I will promptly pass out from exhaustion (the good kind, I’m sure).

Today I managed to knit a few minutes and to finish a historical novel by Anita Diamant, The Last Days of Dogtown, about a place that really existed in Massachusetts near Cape Ann (a pretty good read). I couldn’t get into The Onion Girl yet, so that’s on the shelf until I’m in the mood. The next novel I’ll dive into is Freddy and Fredericka, about which I know nothing. One of my co-workers handed it to me, and we have similar tastes. It’s described as “rollicking,” “a delightful romp,” “funny, antic, and purely escapist.” I could use a little of that.

Sunday I’ll try to attend the service at the Palo Alto UU church. (Famous last words. I’ve been saying this for months.) We’ll see.

Now I must lay me down to sleep.

Whassup

Yesterday I did something for myself. I took the day off from work. It wasn’t a restful day, but by the time I went to sleep, I felt more centered and less like I was running on fumes. By the end of the day, I:

  • washed four loads of laundry
  • cleaned the kitchen
  • sorted recycling
  • worked out at the gym
  • paid bills
  • watered the gasping gardens
  • organized my desk which was buried under mail and books
  • grocery shopped (at three different stores because this is California, where one is always treated to The California Shopping Experience, because no store ever has everything one needs)

The day flew by.

While the experience with AmeriCorps has been educational, I will be very happy when my term has ended. Had I known I’d be expected to work from SF so much I’d not have taken the position. I really dislike the city, and in part this results from the context in which I’m up here: always rushing to arrive on schedule, often trying to find my way around on public transportation with little information or time for miscalculation. SF is synonymous with stress for me. I find the city alienating, filthy, rough, and anonymous. People are cold and often rude. My colleagues who live here have a different experience, because they have found niches of friends. They put on their armor to deal with the city and find respite in their social lives. Because this is not my home base, I don’t have the community here. So it always feels like I’m doing battle, and I find that tiring. It’s at least as draining as the 90 mile drive or 2.5 hour train ride (round trip).

I’m working from the city today, actually, stealing a few moments to write this post. I am doing something fun up here this evening, though. I was given tickets to see the Giants play the Cincinnati Reds, and I persuaded a friend to attend with me (if not for the entire game, at least for the Gilroy garlic fries!).

Update, 11:58 p.m.:Too many garlic fries. Too much cotton candy. The Giants lost 3-6. Ugh. It was fun, though! I need to wear extra layers next time. I forget how chilly it gets after sunset. Fortunately my friend splurged on a sweatshirt and let me borrow it. What a mensch!

The Feel Sorry For Me Post

From August 1 to September 5, these are the days off I have from work:

Saturday, August 5
Saturday, August 19
Sunday, August 27
September 2, 3, 4 (Labor Day weekend)

Most of my workdays this month have been 10-12 hours long.

I am working so hard to make Hands On Bay Area better and better all the time. Doesn’t this inspire you, compel you, make your palms simply itch to support my effort to raise funds for them by making a donation? You can donate as little as $1.00. You don’t have to use a credit card online. You can also send a check or cash for me to submit to the agency. (Send me an email to get more information. The address is kathryn at pobox dot com.) You can be anonymous if you want, and you won’t have to provide your address and phone number (to protect you from future junk mail and solicitations).

You would make my day! And of course you want to make my day. Right?

Show me the money love!

Riches Found

Space is limited at Chez Mindful Life, and I have gradually filled the bookcases we have. Lately I wanted to read a pair of books that, while they were sure to be good reads, just weren’t worth spending money on, especially since I would only read them once and don’t have storage space. One copy was at my local city library. The other was listed as being “on the shelves,” but after repeated searches without success, I concluded it must be lost. So I searched elsewhere.

What I discovered amazed me. You see, some years ago a law was passed in California that removed residency requirements for public libraries. This means any person with a California residence and a photo I.D. to prove it can get a library card at any, and as many, libraries as she wants. This means I could actually get a library card for the Los Angeles library system. (Though that would be impractical, there is something tantalizing in the thought.) For years I have been a supporter (financially and civically) of public libraries, but I rarely used them. It’s time to walk the talk!

After discovering this mother lode, I’ve visited all the libraries closest to me to get cards (collect one! collect ’em all!) and thus was able to borrow the book I wanted (plus several more). In addition, each of these libraries offers inter-library loan services. Here is a list of my keys to free knowledge.

I could also get a card for the San Francisco Public Library as well as the East Bay (Alameda and Contra Costa counties), but I may hold off. I think 40 miles is my geographic limit for borrowing books, and those are well beyond! Then again, there’s a brand new branch of the SF library just across the street from where I park on those days I drive to the city (and it’s less than a mile from the train station).

And We’re Off!

It has begun! We start the countdown to Hands On Bay Area Day; October 14 will approach quickly. This is a day on which we aim to have 2,000 volunteers all over the Bay Area provide service on over 100 projects, from painting schools to rehabilitating gardens to sorting and packing food.

In addition, this is the day that the agency generates much of its funding. I’m joining in and you can too! The website accepts U.S. and international credit cards (Mastercard, Visa, American Express) on a secure payment page. You can donate any amount of money (even one dollar — every bit helps!). You can make your donation anonymously and/or keep the amount to yourself. Just look at what your gift will help us do:

If 2,000 Hands On Bay Area Day volunteers could give or raise:

  • $20 – 175 low-income youth would have help with their homework
  • $50 – 460 children and adults with special needs would learn a new skill
  • $100 – 600 lonely seniors would have someone other than their doctor to visit them
  • $1,000 – 25,000 homeless families could sit down to a warm dinner

If you want to pitch in, you can make your donation at my fundraising page. We need your help, and you can make an impact.

Not Crabby

crabby apples

A peek into my parents’ back yard in central New York last September. Summer wanders south for its date with the southern hemisphere. I can hardly believe that it’s been almost a year since my visit.

Not So Social

I did not attend the 1,000-hour gathering with my coworkers today. I slept instead. My energy levels have been low. For whatever reason, I find the commute to the city and the 10+-hour days taxing in a way that years ago I wouldn’t have. Tuesday evening at the SF Connect party I felt dizzy and queasy and had to find a wall to lean against. (No, I’m not pregnant yet. Just wrung out.)

Here’s the thing: I’m nearly twice as old as my colleagues, and some pastimes just do not appeal. The plan for today was to meet in Sunnyvale for lunch, then do a pub crawl through downtown Sunnyvale, and then hop on the Drink Train (a social gathering on Caltrain where people bring alcohol to imbibe and share) up to San Francisco. I don’t drink much, and an afternoon of ingesting booze doesn’t appeal, especially since my energies are focused on trying to get pregnant.

I don’t think it’s just age that plays a part, though, at least in my case. I never found the bar scene very appealing, and I rarely went out drinking. Whereas it’s a common weekend activity for lots of folks, I’d go once a year, if that. I’m not against drinking; I just prefer to indulge at home occasionally, or at dinner with friends in their homes. If I meet friends at a pub, it’s not for drinking as a marathon activity. For me, drinking alcohol is usually an accompaniment to activity and not the focal point.

In any event, I imagine they had fun. I sure hope they did. We’ve all busted our butts since January — 1,000 hours down, only 700 more to go!

Not Whining, Just Reporting

Tuesday was the launch of SF Connect, a volunteer program in the city that focuses on helping the homeless, improving city environment, delivering technology to low-income families, and mentoring youth. If you’re interested in helping, visit the site and see how easy it is to give a day to SF. Hands On Bay Area is playing an integral role in the roll-out and management of this program!

To that end, I’ll be busy. Next week I will help out at Homeless Connect, and later in the month I’ll work at Green Connect and Youth Connect (those will be weekend projects). In addition, there are several Hands at Work projects requiring help; these are service days we coordinate for major corporations. Somewhere in there I need to carry out my regular tasks, and we need to hire new Americorps members to begin work September 5th. We have seven positions. If you are interested in learning more, contact me and I can get you job descriptions. We’ll be advertising next week with goal of starting phone interviews mid-month.

Oh! Our friends who are relocating are on their way. One of them will fly out here Sunday to stay with us several days. She starts an academic program on Monday (yes, she’s brave to do all this), and until her husband, car, and household gets packed and shipped, she’ll be our guest. In all likelihood we’ll not see much of each other. Husband has a conference to attend all next week and will be in SF until late evening each night. She has night class. I’ll have a few evenings of work (the whole month will be thus for me).

Tomorrow afternoon my fellow Americorps and I will take off work early to enjoy lunch and celebrate the fact that we’ve completed 1000 hours of service. In less than three months I’ll be finished! Bonbons here I come!

I do feel I’m running on fumes lately. Never a dull moment, though.

The Real Taste of Summer

salt potatoes, yum!

This photo was taken last year in Syracuse, New York at Wegmans. Salt potatoes come in five pound bags; they are small new potatoes cooked in water with one pound of salt (included in the bag). The potatoes are then eaten with butter and are heavenly. Leftovers make excellent hash browns too.