Little Bit More

Well..I am under the weather so this post is going to be short.

This weekend I went to SF to have brunch with a coworker and made a bunch of pancakes to take over!



We were happy ladies after a delicious brunch of orange pancakes and basil/goat chedder/apple salad! On the left in the green shirt is my coworker, Liz Kee who wants to start her own NGO maybe in Thailand to aid people through architecture. She is only 24 and has had the same boyfriend for 9 years, needless to stay she is a fine example of sticking to her goals and is a delight to hang out with.



After brunch we went to a Carlo's Bar in the Mission to watch the US vs. Ghana game. The Mission is the Latin American neighborhood in SF and is overflowing with colorful religious and political murals.



What I personally love about the Mission is the same thing I love about small towns like Castro del Rio in Spain or even Austin: the community is the heartbeat of the place. People are outside constantly, they live their lives in contact with their neighbors through street markets, open patio bars, chairs on the sidewalks...etc. The place is the people and vice versa. Compare this to a city that stands apart from it's 'community' like Las Vegas or even New York in some parts which seems to exist no matter who lives there. Maybe because there is a constant flux of new people in these cities there isn't enough time to build rooted social practices that encourage neighbors to network with each other. My desire for the future is to live in a place with such a strong community spirit and am reminded once again of how happy I am to have moved to Austin.
I encourage my ENTIRE family to move down there when you all retire.

Anyways, the US team lost the match.



So we decided to quell our sorrows with some HOT salsa.



And stop by PRIDE..which was not all it's cracked up to be. There were 90% less naked people than I expected to be there but there was this guy...



...who looked like the kind of thing that could ruin a vacuum cleaner after a wild New Year's Eve Disco



And a '200 lb. cock' .........DON"T WORRY it's only a ROOSTER!...



And my favorite thing to wear during negotiations of any kind: Lucha Libre Masks.
These are the theatrical masks that luchadores wear when pro-wrestling in Mexico and other Latin American countries. Erik if you read my blog I am thinking of buying one for you, let me know if you are interested in being a luchadore.





Aye Aye Aye!

The next day I was supposed to meet Shannon for the PRIDE parade but I was too sick so I went to a cafeteria in Berkeley conmismo to watch the Mexico vs. Argentina game.



I was for Mexico and we lost. A mi fui muy triste por Mexico!

As sad as I was I immediately cheered up upon finding this gem of old-timey humor on Berkeley's campus. I was just waiting for one of the Marx Brothers to come out and make a joke about how it's dangerous enough having 'wet floors' INSIDE a building but now...


( on a side note I have been watching large quantities of old cartoons and comedy troupes so my pop culture references are currently severely dated )

That is all. I hope everyone has a liberating Fourth of July!

Also, please remember Nanny Edwards and the way she would daintily walk to the water's edge smiling all the way or slam a PBR like a 16 year old girl at the drive-in movies. This lady taught herself to sew from a book, had the highest G.E.D. score in all of Mississippi (?) and raised a real empire of a family. She also was in love and loved by her kindred spirit and now they are together probably line dancing with a bunch of shooting stars.

In California there's something for everyone

For instance...

Do you love sushi but you actually love fried meat by-products? That's OK!
Spam sushi for you.



Have you been traumatized by a rough and tumble hairdresser? Never again!
Gentle Haircuts for you.



Do you know a nine to twelve year old boy who is low on street cred. We can help!
Mob jr. suit and hat for the little guy.





Are you a woman who would like to visit a building only for women and decorated with beautiful women inspired murals?
Well yes, of course. Thank you.






Here are some more beautiful Berkeley colors:





And on another note:

I already have a little place I go to eat called UDUPI. It's a Southern Indian restaurant and one very nice Nepalise waiter has started to treat me like a regular, he even procured me extra soup once when I complimented the chef.



By the way eating alone is no fun. But. I am becoming a master at having fun alone and I have a word of advice for my solo-dining compadres. LEAVE THE BOOK AT HOME. Reading at a restaurant is like trying to do yoga on a roller coaster, just pick one experience and experience it to the fullest degree.In landscape architecture we use a convention called the 'borrowed landscape' which means that you can experience something that isn't yours as if it were. For example, say your neighbor has a lovely Magnolia in their yard. You can create a frame from trees in your yard to capture the view of the magnolia and suddenly that's your tree too. Well I think when dining alone one must borrow conversations, jokes, smells, and dining companions from the other tables, otherwise I wouldn't really feel like I left the house at all.

Well that's a glimpse from Berkeley. Hugs to everyone!

El Fin de Semana - Weekend : Food and SF!

This weekend I decided to start Saturday off right with PANCAKES! This was a concerted effort to both thank my room mate Angela for being such a friendly hostess and to experiment with orange and cranberry pancakes, breaking away from previous dabblings with chocolate chips or blueberries.

The chosen method was to use half milk/half orange juice for the liquid and then fold in some trail mix of pecans, cranberries, and pumpkin seeds. Wonderful! Citrusy, fruity and moist pancakes for all! (next time I will add some orange zest too)
We had a slow breakfast chatting the morning away.

Here are my room mates: Angela and Pixel (the cat)



And here are the pancakes. No the third plate isn't for Pixel, much to his utter disbelief, it was for Angela's boyfriend, Mike a PhD student in Ethnic Studies.



After that I went out to explore and found myself in the midst of a high-price farmer's market.






I kind of felt like that scene in Pinocchio where he goes to Pleasure Island only to find out everything there is an unpardonable vice. The food was so wholesome looking but the price tags where pure evil. Somehow I managed to grab a bunch of fresh lemon tagliatelle and two zucchinis for $ 6.50! Also, in a sudden burst of wind I reflexively stopped a vendor's sign from blowing over and an observer told me to try out for the Oakland A's because 'they could use someone like you.'

Here is my lunch:




In the same day I went to San Fransisco for the first time! My host was a UT Austin classmate, Shannon, who is also here on an internship and is from the Bay Area. Shannon is crazy about SF so she felt it was her personal obligation to make me fall in love with this fine city. Like an experienced tour guide she took me to a taqueria, a bakery, a Grease sing-along in Dolores park, a house party, and an extremely questionable bar in the Mission district all in the span of about six hours. And yes I do have a special place for SF in my heart now.






This face is in response to Shannon asking me if I too wanted to wear a large sparkly party hat. Not today, buddy.


So that was the weekend. I love you all and hope you had a great weekend! Happy Father's day to my Dad, Grandad, Farfar and Duane.

Newly Arrived

Well folks I'm here. The gold-rush state is my new home for the next two months.


My neighborhood is Berkeley a little town on the bay which is home to the University of California, Berkeley and a plethora of gems such as amazing Indian restaurants and exotic plants. Berkeley seems to be in a bit of a idyllic time-warp and remnants of earlier days can be found around every corner.




Old cars aside, the real Berkeley surprises are the gorgeous plants that are bursting from every street corner, window box, and fence in town.







Guess where I am now? No I am not in a national park or forest. I am on Berkeley's campus! The entire campus is woven in and out of these groves of Eucalyptus and other California botany. Live eucalyptus leaves scent the air with the most soothing sunny fragrance, I wish I could summon that scent whenever I wanted to relax.


For the benefit of curious Berkeley students this charming fixture on campus showcases the daily news from various newspapers.






These mohawked plants are the most birdlike birds-of-paradise that I've ever seen, I literally tripped because I thought a flock of orange plumed ostriches were barreling out of someone's front door.




One of my goals for this summer, and life, is to fill my free time with simple pleasures such as walking, laughing, eating healthy foods; the kind of pleasures that add sustenance to life as opposed to sheer entertainment which usually leaves me, personally, anxious. Just as I was thinking about that I looked up and saw this sign. Needless to say I decided to take that street for the rest of my walk.


I love and miss all you guys.