Raindrops Falling on My Head

Last night, it lightly rained, and I laid in bed under my warm covers, reading a book, and listening to the sound of the drops outside.

Is there anything more wonderful than falling asleep to the sound of rain, when you are safe and warm in your bed?

I guess sitting in front of a fire, reading a book & drinking hot chocolate is pretty marvelous, too. Hmmm, that's a toss up-- they are both rare treats for us Californians!

Here's to cool autumny days, rainfall at night, and the clean newness that comes afterwards! Cheers...

Welcome, Autumn!

There is something that sends a thrill up my spine when I see pumpkins at the grocery store, and I can fill little bowls around the house with candy corn, and Starbucks has pumpkin spiced lattes again (of course, the latter happens in like August, but I choose to ignore it until the appropriate time).

Autumn is a funny thing in San Francisco because some of the best sunny, warm weather occurs during the months of September and October. Winter comes in July (as Mark Twain so aptly noted), summer in October, and then I guess it jumps straight into winter and spring.

But today was crisp and chilly, and actually felt like autumn. I have my indian corn and mini-pumpkins and minimal Halloween decorations sitting out, and it brings me joy. It's not just that I love autumn & Halloween (I do), but that it marks the beginning of a whole season of joy & wonder & my favorite high-calorie foods. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and the day after Thanksgiving marks the official start of Christmas. Oh, it's a glorious thing.

Today, I welcomed in autumn with a pumpkin smoothie. Last year, I must have made 10 failed pumpkin smoothies, but today, I found a great recipe... which I will share with you now for your harvest pleasure:

• 15oz. can pureed pumpkin (chilled)
• 12oz. can evaporated milk (chilled) [I used regular milk-- didn't have evaporated]
• 1 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 small sliced banana (frozen) [it really helps to peel & slice the banana before freezing it-- I learned that the hard way!]
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• ice
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon [I added allspice & nutmeg, too]

Blend
I played around a little with the measurements & wasn't super exact. The whole orange juice & banana thing sounds weird, but it actually works. And did you know that 1/2 cup of pureed pumpkin has 300% of your daily dosage of Vitamin A?? That's a pretty healthy breakfast =)

Elote: What Not to Eat on a First Date

For only $2 last night, I not only had an amazing cultural experience, but I also discovered the Grand Champion of Things Not to Order on a First Date.

Chris & I got home around 8pm last night from a fun afternoon on a friend's rooftop, watching the Blue Angels (I actually ducked a few time, they got so close!). We were tired & hungry, and didn't feel like cooking, so we ventured out to Taqueria Vallarta.

Just to give you a little background, Taqueria Vallarta is a little taco shack in our neighborhood that sells brain, cheek, hip, tongue (and of course, chicken & carne asada) tacos until about 2am. They were shut down for almost a year for... drum roll please... excessive cockroaches and rats (among other things--but at that point, do you really need other things??). Usually, Chris only goes to Taqueria Vallarta when I'm not around 'cause greasy roach tacos aren't my all-time favorite.

For some reason, though, I was feeling adventurous, and I ordered Elote. Elote, it turns out, it a whole ear of corn, slathered in mayonnaise, rolled in crumbled Mexican cheese, and doused with chili powder. Like I said, I was feeling adventurous.

As luck would have it, it was amazing! The only thing, though, is that you should never, ever eat it around anyone who is not extremely devoted to you (or blind), because I literally had cheese and chili powder from the tip of my nose to my chin. My lips burned for at least 15 minutes after I had finished it, and I had to hold a wet towel against them to put out the flames.

But, after surviving almost 24 hours since I ate at the scary taqueria, and after the swelling in my lips has gone down, I would definitely say that I would order it again. Just not on a first date.

Being the School Bully

Everyone has memories of the school bully-- the kid who bossed all the other little kids around, or threw a tantrum when they didn't get things their way, or yelled, hit, kicked or bit until you cried.

For me, the school bully was this girl named Dana. She was big & mean, and her mom followed her from Elementary School through High School (and maybe college too-- I don't know!) working in the school's administration office and giving her everything she wanted. She was awful.

Most of us have also experienced the bossy, bitchy, mean & scary co-worker. We can all agree that they are no fun.

Well, today, that School Bully/Office Bitch was me. I don't know when I officially ran out of steam, but sometime this morning, when our staff team came over for our usual Friday Breakfast, I became that scary girl in the picture. I snapped at people; I was mean & critical; I was bubbling over with irritation. For some reason, every noise in the apartment seemed to bounce off the ceiling and echo in my brain. I was not pleasant.

Is it too much to ask to have the seven of us show up on time, organize breakfast in an orderly manner [in a kitchen that's about 10' x 1'], rearrange all our furniture, and sit down to eat [in our tiny apartment] in calm, peaceful silence?? Hmm, maybe it is =) For some reason, everything seemed especially chaotic, crowded, and insanely loud. But maybe that was just me =)

I wish that I was one of those laid back, calm, peaceful types. I wish that I was one of those people that you felt at ease around-- those types that exude a quiet confidence and breathe in Zen. I think that fiery Guatemalan blood prevents those moments from lasting long. I just wish I could hide it better when the scary school bully reared her ugly head...

Staying Afloat

Right now, I feel like I'm having a hard time staying afloat. I've been trying lately to live in a place that embraces both the hard things and the good things-- not being overwhelmed with the hard, but not trying to push them out of the way and pretend they aren't there, either. I have been meditating on Jesus' words (in The Message translation) "Make your home in me as I make my home in you." As things get stressful, or start to feel overwhelming, I try to center myself and find a home in Christ, and just feel at peace with where I am.
It feels different from just "pushing through", and dealing with my emotions when I have time. I have an image in my mind of holding sadness and joy and peace all together, and embracing them all as the stuff life is made of.

Yesterday, I was really struggling in this department. I was rushing out the door to get to Cal State East Bay-- one of my main campuses about 45 minutes away that was having their big club fair. My plan was to make a 5 minute stop at Kinkos, run a few photo copies, then get to campus & the club fair by 11am-- a half hour earlier than I needed to be there. I won't go into details (they just make me angry!), but it took 2 hours and 15 minutes for me to actually walk onto the campus. Let's just say that although it's listed as a Kinkos, a FedEx-Kinkos Shipping Center is not quite a Kinkos. It took me over 1/2 hour to make 40 copies on a self-serve copy machine. It also took me 45 minutes to find a parking spot on campus. Yuck.

The brilliant ending to my club fair was when I was talking to a thug-looking kid with gold chains galore, and my shirt broke. Yes, my shirt broke. I was wearing a stretchy tunic shirt with thick tank top straps, and one of the straps just broke while I was telling this guy about when we meet for prayer. I was so stunned, I just kept talking & pretended that everything was fine until he walked away. Luckily, we carry some cute little button pins (pictured right) in our tabling box, and my friend was able to fix my shirt, but it was one of the more awkward campus experiences (and I've had a few!)

I have to admit, I am living in fear that more great things will happen on campus (lots of great things have already been happening-- and no, my shirt breaking was not one of them, whatever thug-guy might tell you!), because I won't be able to handle the work it will create!

I am definitely looking forward to the weekend (although not with quite as much desperation as I was last week), and taking lots of deep centering breaths. But as I go to sleep tonight, I feel much more at peace than I did earlier. I think I'm going to make it...

A Street Car Named Desire

Yesterday, I [innocently] spent the afternoon shopping near Union Square, and [innocently] took the street car back (and No, I don't mean the cable car-- no one in SF actually rides those!).

I say "innocently" because I ended up in a situation that I definitely wasn't expecting: It just so happens that yesterday was the Folsom Street Fair-- and If you think that a Gay Pride Parade is over the top, you should never, never venture out of doors during the Folsom Street Fair.

Since I am afraid to actually look at the website, I will explain, from my observation what the Folsom Street Fair is: It is every gay man in San Francisco dressing in bondage (or less) and having a huge, umm, "party" out on Folsom. What I didn't know was that it also involves riding the F-Line Street Car home at approximately 6pm on Sunday afternoon. That's where I come in...

I was trapped in the very, very back of the street car when it suddenly filled up with men coming from the Folsom Street Fair. There literally was not an inch to spare in the car, and everywhere I looked, there were shirtless men in leather pants and various arm cuffs & bands & straps being very, ummm, affectionate with each other. Yikes! What's a girl to do but casually look out the window & pretend that nothing is out of place. That is, until my stop came, and I had to push my way through the crowd of sweaty leather-clad men with my giant Banana Republic bag. Excuse me. Sorry. Excuse me. Sorry. Hehe, sorry. This is my stop. Sorry.

Wow. Welcome to San Francisco

The Key to a Perfect Saturday

Let it be said that Chris & I love sleeping in. Until recently, I firmly believed that a perfect Saturday morning was sleeping in as late as possible & eating breakfast at noon. But I've had a change of heart.

Last weekend was cold & rainy, which was fun in that it started to feel like autumn (yes, I already bought a pumpkin!), but not so fun because it's hard to find something to do that doesn't involve paying $20+ at the movie theater.

So Chris decided that we were going to explore a new part of the City and go out to breakfast. Yes, my friends, this is the key to a perfect Saturday morning: going out to breakfast. My new theory is that there is nothing more luxurious than eating breakfast out.

Last weekend we discovered a Panera Bread downtown near AT&T park (where the Giants play). We sat for hours in front of the ginormous windows watching the rain fall (you could almost see the raindrops leave the clouds and fall all the way to the ground), sipping tea, eating bagels and reading & journaling. We watched the preppy rich folk who live in the high-rise condos downtown walk their mini-dogs, and the smart kids from Stanford step off the train to spend a day in the City. We talked and we read, and we prayed, and just sat & watched. It was a perfect rainy Saturday.

This Saturday was sunny and beautiful, and we woke up early and rode our bikes over to Tartine. For those of you who don't live in SF, Tartine is a local bakery with no sign out front, but an endless line out the door. It is always on the list of the top ten best places to eat. However, in the 2+ years that we've lived here, we've never ventured to Tartine (I think it was the line-- intimidating).

We beat the rush and sat outside, enjoying the most amazing bread pudding I've ever had, a scone & a Scharffenberger pan au chocolate. Yuuumm!! There are few things in the world that make me happier than really, really good food (especially when it looks pretty), and this made me really, really happy!

Eventually, we rode our bikes back home, and took a late-morning nap (best of both worlds!). I woke up and did Pilates/Yoga while Chris continued snoozing, then we went for a beautiful hike in Pacifica. It really was a perfect Saturday!