I’ve had a productive and social couple of days. Thursday was a cloudy, foggy day. It was nice to be bundled up and walking on the waterfront – saw lots of cool sites.
I was in San Francisco to meet a friend from my MNA cohort for lunch – we haven’t seen each other in person since we graduated three years ago. In fact, we didn’t see each other at graduation since that was online, but most of our cohort got together in person in Golden Gate Park a few days later to celebrate our hard work. I still can’t believe it’s been three years! It was fantastic to catch up with Aki and learn about what she’s doing now. Part of the reason I wanted to chat with her is because she is the grants manager at a small foundation and that’s an area that I’m interested in. After talking to her I am even more interested that sort of position, it seems like a good combination of the technical and social skills that I have and enjoy using. The most challenging part is getting an initial role in the foundation world. We had a good time catching up on each other‘s lives and it made me want to reach out to more folks for my program and stay in better contact.
In the afternoon, I went to my sister Christina‘s place as I was looking after her dog Javi for the night. I had an onboarding zoom meeting for the Interim Executive Director job I’m taking on. I’m very excited to be able to support this organization during this transition. I spent most of the time with the outgoing Executive Director, but also got to meet the two directors who will be reporting to me. It seems like a very positive organization, people with a lot of passion and enjoyment for what they do. Javi stared me balefully during the entire two hour meeting, so when I was done we went out for a walk to the park where he could run around. Luckily, he had been out earlier in the day with his dog group, so it didn’t take too long to get him tired out.
On our way home, we passed some beautiful flowers as well as a free little library with Fourth of July related quotes on it. What used to be a yoga studio at the end of my sister‘s block is now a pottery studio – there were about a dozen wheels and all kinds of clay in one room and another room was set up for glazing. It might be something fun to do sometime.
I just finished listening to a podcast about the making of the movie Speed called 50 Miles Per Hour. I decided it was a good night to watch that movie. It’s been at least 10 years since I’ve seen it and I was not disappointed. It is such a fantastic movie, nonstop action and excitement. Well, it was exciting for me to watch, Javi got bored and slept on the bed while I finished watching the movie.
On Friday, we got out for an early walk because I was headed to the State Bar for my JNE Commission meeting. It was great to see everybody. This was the first meeting that the new commissioners participated in and I could sense their nervous energy. I remember being in their place this time last year. Both of my reports came up early in the day, so then I was able to relax and focus on everyone else’s work.
After heading back to my sister‘s to take Javi for a walk, I met everyone for dinner. On the way to the restaurant I looked up and saw Salesforce Tower lit up from the sun and wisps of fog swirling around which made a really cool pattern in the sky. One photo I took had an unexpectedly cool composition.
Dinner was yummy, at a Mediterranean place downtown where we sat outside under nice warm heat lamps. I bowed out of going to karaoke as I needed my sleep. The fog was so heavy on the Golden Gate Bridge my car was literally getting rained on. Insane!
On Saturday morning, I was back in the city for the rest of my meeting. One of the commissioners always brings donuts for our second day of meetings and today another commissioner stopped at her favorite bakery for the most amazing almond croissants. They not only looked beautiful, they tasted better than any I have ever had in my life. I’m really glad that the bakery is only located in San Francisco because if there was one close by I would be spending a lot of time and money there!
We got done in time for me to be able to stop by the O’Hanlon Center for the Arts and check out their fiber arts exhibit. There were some fantastic pieces, and some very strange ones too. I was really impressed with a basket made of zip ties, bread bag twisties, bungee cords and rubber tubing. It wasn’t until you looked closely that you realized what it was made from. There were also some fascinating wall hangings and a gigantic floor to ceiling apron made up of magazine ads copied onto fabric and stitched together. The ads featured very negative images and wording about women. from the 1940s until the present day. It was quite jarring to see them all together like that. Unbelievable that people thought it was OK to make those kind of advertisements, glorifying violence and treating women like idiots.
Some of the artwork work was very, very delicate and fragile, including one called ‘Waterfall’. I can’t figure out how the artist was able to do such delicate weaving. Other pieces were more substantial, like the basket decorated with shoelaces and zippers. I have started making regular visits to the O’Hanlon Center as their exhibits only last month or so and they are just fascinating. I also love that they exhibit pieces from all types of artists – from beginners to long time established artists.
When I was leaving, I saw a flyer for the ‘Fly Story Slam’ – billed as Mill Valley‘s version of The Moth story slam. Lol!
