Coming Home to the OC

The flight home was uneventful. For dinner I had an apple and a bag of M & M's. I felt sad leaving my sisters. When I was younger and we all lived with my Dad, it was a love / hate sort of thing. It has evolved into a love thing. My sisters are my best friends.

Going back to work was a real chore. Waking up at 5:30 this morning left me feeling tired until 3:00 pm. I adapted quickly to the hard as rock bed that allowed me to sleep for 10 hours each night. Oh how I long for the lost days of unemployment. Here's a big F - U to the almighty dollar. I am so not into this.

A Rainy Day in San Francisco

The plan was to go Thrift Shopping which normally is pretty good here because there are a number of Thrift Stores within walking distance of Suvanna's house. But today was not meant to be that day. We got started on our sojourn but Mother Nature brought cold rainy weather and we ended up in the video store instead. Being from Southern California and not wanting to pay to check a bag, I did not have the accoutrements for rainy and cold. The video store here is not like the Blockbuster Stores of old. They are dens of old and new, esoteric and eccentric, foreign and domestic. The folks behind the counter are hilarious. We wanted something light, preferably comedic. Suvanna picked 50/50 which neither of us had seen. An uncommon phenom. It was about a guy (who was the younger brother on Third Rock From the Sun) who gets cancer. Great subject. Not.

Suvanna is kind of a Nurse Jackie afficianado (read "freak") so we watched season 3. What a trip. Her drug addiction and outright desperation were done well but they made some mistakes. For instance: a sherm is a Sherman cigarette dipped in PCP. They said it was a cigarette dipped in formaldehyde. Maybe that was done in New York but as far as I know formaldehyde isn't that great of a buzz. Maybe a huffer would know, that wasn't my thing. After Laura got here, we rented another movie called "I think I'm a Cyborg" which was in Korean with subtitles about a young girl committed to an institution. I don't recommend it, couldn't get through it.

There's a place on the corner of Barnett and 22nd street called Jay's Philly Cheesesteaks. They make the best seitan (gluten) sandwiches. It tastes so much like meat but isn't. Love it! Dinner was leftovers including mounds of brocolli
with homemade cheesesauce, soybean and potato curry, and brown rice.

An interesting thing has happened since I've been here. I go to bed at 10ish and wake up at 9ish. I'm sleeping on a futon that is hard as a rock and was convinced this was an untenable sleeping situation but usually I don't sleep that great and I do on this rock-like bed so should I get rid of my memory foam mattress at home and buy a rock? Decisions, decisions.

San Pedro Valley Hike

I went on the most fantastic hike today with Suvarnaprabha and Mike. About 4.5 miles round trip in the beautiful seaside town of Pacifica, near Rockaway Beach. The trail was recently rained on but not muddy nor was it dusty. At the top we dined on granola bars, apples and almonds which after trudging uphill for a couple hours felt like a royal feast. While hiking, I had some thoughts of wanting to stop and turn around. When I contemplated this, I realized I have a difficult time deciphering my wants from my needs. I resolve to pay attention to this.

Later on we walked up 24th street to Firefly where we had a fantastic birthday dinner with Jules. I ate seared yellow fin tuna, lamb soup and basmati rice pudding for dessert. The bill came to an astonishing amount and is still quite shocking to me. Recovery is slow. We meandered down to the Whole Foods Market where I became fascinated with the machine that grinds almonds into almond butter.

I truly love San Francisco and the life Suvanna has built for herself here. It makes think about the life I've built in Orange County...

Thai Massage

The last time I had a proper massage, I was in Malaysia and it lasted for 2 hours. Now normally this would be a good thing but I was unable to relax which is sort of a requirement to enjoy a massage. Being tensed up and worried about getting hurt it not the right attitude to have. Nonetheless, that's the attitude I had, and needless to say, I did not enjoy that massage much. Today, Suvarnprabha and I went to La Nee Thai Massage in the Mission and I was a little nervous to try it again but it has been 7 years and I have learned to relax much more during this time. The masseuse worked on me at medium intensity and I feel like a million bucks.