The month

My birthday month is on its home stretch. I can't say that it's been wild, but it has been mostly nice, save for the part when the friend-boy broke up with me three days before my birthday. Sigh. It was a good run while it lasted.

To sum up the month so far:
- hair still blonde, gonna rock it to October as I'm getting even more compliments with the dark roots.
-spent my birthday-eve on a [rebound] date. exactly what I needed (truly).
- gigi cheered me up for my bday and planned everything out: dinner reservations for our group, found a dance club to go to, made sure I got home safely. he's become quite a good friend.
- danced a ton on my birthday! saw a mash-up band. so good!
- bought new makeup, but not much. the freebie perfume samples is a nice bonus.
- read a couple books: 1) the new (or rather, old) Murakami book(s), and 2) soon-to-be-movie, The Martian.
- started knitting
- applied to a job (but haven't heard back this week, so seeming less confident about even getting to a phone screen)
- getting more responsibilities at current job, which is mostly nice.
- spending time with friends
- my favorite dancer (Bboy) was on a reality show about his startup on the SyFy channel, call the Bazillion Dollar Club (check it out free on iTunes!). and my photos of him were on TV!
- I decided I want to update the art on my walls with my friends' photography. I just had my Brooklyn Gentleman Friend's photo printed out and mounted on a bamboo panel. It looks fantastic and I'm so in love with that photo. We had the following [texting] convo:

Me: is it creepy that i want to print out your IG post of those mountains? It seriously is so dreamy. I could stare at that for hours. 

BGF: If I didn't see it myself I wouldn't have believed it
Nothing like that here on the east coast
People don't even know
They think there's nature here and but west coast will always win
No contest

What else....
- might go to Yosemite this weekend. but with three other families (Yoshi's good friends)... and Tom. Our annual family "camping" trip (more like, renting a nice AirBnB in a gated community near a lake). But spending my so-called parent-free weekend with my Ex isn't an ideal way to spend my time. Oh, the sacrifices for The Kid.
- more good times with friends before the month is up.

So this low-key month has me hankering for some more excitement. I want to go to NY again, but when it's cold. Maybe January. Plus I need to deliver Nicky some granola! :)

Speaking of cold, I'm looking forward to the brisk fall. Is that going to happen here? It's too damn hot in San Francisco these days. My face feels like melting off.

Paper Plates for Pelosi

Every Friday morning I volunteer in Yoshi's classroom. Today, I helped with a project called Paper Plates for Pelosi. The first task was for the kids to write a simple letter to Nancy Pelosi to request healthy food for their public school. The letter was glued to a paper plate. Then kids used colored paper to create healthy foods like sushi, fruits, veggies, chicken.

The teacher offered me a plate too and encouraged me to create my own Plate for Pelosi. Usually when I volunteer it's one-on-one testing with vocabulary, math, or reading comprehension. But to be given paper, scissors and glue and told to participate in arts and crafts while also writing to my congresswoman?! Awesome! I wrote a short and sweet letter saying how the food in SF public schools are terrible and we need her help to make a change to healthy and tasty foods. Then I went about cutting out paper grapes with a curly vine, a carrot with a bushy stem, a puffy strawberry, and some other fun foods.

One kid said, "Wow! You're like a paper artist!" Always looking for validation, this pretty much made my morning. I said, "Cutting paper and gluing them together is my job."

I need to hang out with first graders more often.

Hearty heart heart

I've seen some photos on Flickr where the shadow cast by a lens or ring creates a heart on a book. I decided to experiment and try it myself. I used my wedding band and a book of Emily Dickinson poems that Tom gave me when before we even started dating. Such a romantic! Or a fatalist.

Happy (early) Valentine's Day!

October update

It's been over a month since I last blogged here. Things have been busy, moreso than usual. We moved to SF. We actually closed on the day of my birthday so my present was the keys to our new home. Awesome! I can't wait to see what next year's birthday will bring.

My computer hard drive died twice, so I was without a computer for two weeks. It's fixed and running smoothly now, but not all my files were recovered and they're not in the right place. I was unable to get much work done and felt pretty dumb telling my main client about my computer meltdown and lack of meeting the deadlines, which could have been avoided if I had regularly backed up my hard drive onto the external.

I'm in my office full time now, which is nice. It's about 3/4 of a mile from my house which is pretty convenient. The office itself isn't anything to write home about, but it is nice to have a separate work and living space.

I have another art show coming up next month so I'm busy making collage pieces for that. I inhaled a lot of glue fumes today. Mmm... plastic.

Last week I went to a fundraiser luncheon for the non-profit I do graphic design for. It was held in the grand ballroom at the fancy schmancy Fairmont here in the city. A great band played, choir sang, Mayor Gavin spoke (shellacked hair and all) along with an inspiring keynote speaker.

Last week I also went to the Art for Aids auction that benefits AIDS research. Tom was in the minority being one of the only straight males in the building, which is fine by him because he gets more attention that way. We bid on two things, but got outbid. Still, it was fun to hold up the number with the caller speaking fast. Kettle One was a sponsor and they created a bar made entirely out of ice with four giant Kettle One bottles also made out of ice. A tube went from the top where the cocktail was poured and went down to the bottom where the martini glass caught the drink. It was impressive, but never had I waited such a long time to get a drink. When it was my turn I got two drinks and double fisted. Needless to say, I was pretty tipsy by the end of the event.

We're still in the process of getting settled, unpacking, getting rid of stuff, buying more stuff, figuring out the neighborhood, etc. I figure by the time the holidays roll around, our house will really feel like our home. And who knows, maybe even clean.

Birthday gift

My mom's 60th birthday is this Saturday. I never know what to give her when it comes to gifts. I usually resort to craft/art because I like making it even though most of the time it ends up sitting in her closet somewhere for years. I painted a series of watercolor flowers for my parents as a thank you gift when Tom and I married and told them that when they finish remodeling their house they can hang the paintings up. 5 years later the paintings are still not up, the house still not finished.

Perhaps this is a hint that I shouldn't make anything for them any more. But I honestly think that they like getting handmade things from me. Perhaps it's vanity, perhaps denial on my part. They have kept all the handmade cards I gave them when I was a kid. Granted, they have kept boxes of Jell-o from 1980 as well.

Still, 60 years is no small feat. So I made my mom another art piece. I'm not original to come up with an idea on my own so I based this collage on a late 18th century Japanese woodblock painting called Beauty Waiting for a Boat, by artist Chobunsai Eishi. I used a couple hundred tiny pieces of paper in about 20 different colors.

Here's a side by side comparison:



Here is a closeup of the collage:


Today I bought a frame for it. Please pardon the glare in the photo:


Detail of the frame:


My Japanese signature stamp:


I can't wait to give it to my mom so she can stow it away!

Hoot!

On Tuesday I hung out in SF with my good friend Naomi. Her art showing had ended and so I helped her transport her art from the venue back to her house. I bought one of her owl paintings. I love the teardrop shaped leaves in various shades of green (and one orange!). I hung it above the shelf in my office, which suits the space perfectly, but that meant moving the pre-existing painting (another Naomi creation) to a location that's yet to be determined.