Pull up pant leg, check lights, and generally warm up while biking on flat blocks near Powell, Mason, Chestnut, Francisco, untitil you need to go by the Post Office relay station, eying the 45 on the way to the MUNI depot. Merge quickly onto Bay St., battle Marina girls driving their Audis to the Bay [...]
Posted by banane on September 8th, 2009 — in nostalgia, travel
I was shocked, when I was 22 and flew to Paris, that it wasn’t like I’d read in the expat novels of Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Instead, it was kinda like home. Grunge was big there, like it was in Seattle. Hip hop was emerging there, just like it was in San Jose. Everyone spoke English, [...]
My host in Sweden, Ingrid, served me horseradish soup one of the last nights, and I loved the peppery creaminess of it, so I roughly recreated the recipe yesterday for my Dad. From Epicurious and altered. Ingrid said she bought it at the store and re-heated. 1. The hard part is finding fresh horseradish. Whole [...]
(a novel in progress) “Remember when Atari was big? We went to that place, I forget the name, but you have to ask for ‘the library,’ and it was the place everyone from Atari went.” My mom told me, across the table at Ideale, an Italian place in North Beach. “Well, we were there for [...]
Before I went to Portland, I wrote this long post that I deleted about problematic feelings regarding that town. Then, I went, had a great time, and now I’m back to thinking of why I don’t live there. So, this is a moment I experienced on the third morning. I dragged my ass up a [...]
Posted by banane on September 22nd, 2008 — in nostalgia, travel
I wrote a long post about nostalgia in Portland, and just deleted it. Why? Because I can! Alright. I’m going Thurs-Sun and will doubtless blog about it. Things to do (besides college conference): – Twit-up/FF-up somewhere downtown – Hang with Dylan of eROI – Thrift hard-core for some good fabrics!
Posted by banane on August 30th, 2008 — in nostalgia
Reading a friend’s post on a recent failure and lessons learned reminded me of my best failure, living in Paris after college. I got in a program that would give me a work Visa in France for 5 years. I’d studied French for years so felt well-armed. After a month of successful home & work [...]
It’s been my unofficial goal to be absent every weekend this summer. So, for Labor Day, I’m driving to San Diego for a week. My preparations: Drop car off at mechanic. It’s like asking for bad news. He calls, $1200 work done on car. I check, and it’s all kosher. Shit. Buy new music for [...]
I just came back from a 4 day camping trip in the El Dorado Forest – great alternative to Yosemite, by the way! As I was comparing my gear to my sister & her husband’s, I started a mental list of vast improvements in camping technology since the stuff my parents had in the 70s. [...]
This Thursday night begins… Girl Weekend! I was invited by one of my sisters to attend the conference of girls in our family up in Seattle. It’s going to be fun. Unfortunately one or two can’t make it, but we’ll do the best with our small numbers. I have a few surprises in store. The [...]