Friday Evening Stroll

Friday evening!  Yes, even we searching for work types like knowing it is the weekend.  What to do?  Why not head over to Off the Grid at Fort Mason, the weekly festival of food trucks and music just a short walk from me?  Sure, I know, food trucks.  Trendy, almost annoyingly so right now.  But the food is fantastic and cheap and the walk pleasant--no fog, high 60s and light wind.  Slightly uphill through Fort Mason, but manageable.

Top of the hill at Fort Mason, OTG trucks crowd below to the left.

I'm so very indecisive at these things, everything looks good, no fantastic.  But I had a big lunch and it's only 5:30PM.

Some chai banana fritters with coconut jam sound good.  I'm a shameless wimp when it comes to sweets, though I did avoid the cupcake truck and creme brulee stand this time.

And yes, they were as good as they look.  Not too sweet, a nice 5PM snack.

Time to head home. 

It's hard to believe that I am in a big city as I walk through the Bay side of Fort Mason.  It feels very much like the national park that it is.

 Trees!

 Some bridge or something, Fort Mason piers in the foreground.....

 Trees. 

Lots and lots of trees, birds chirping  and an island.

But before I knew it, I was on the other side of Fort Mason and on the Wharf.  Seeing the Bushman, I decided to stop and enjoy the show:

How was your Friday?

15 Years Ago

This year marks a milestone: my 15th year in San Francisco.  It seems like just yesterday that I accepted a job on Alcatraz Island, packed up a suitcase and moved into the Hostel on Union Square.

Yes, a hostel.  My first home in the city was a place vacationers stay, my first job working with those vacationers.  It was quite a shock to this then-23 year old who had gone from the family home in Fresno to a safe, cushy dorm at Santa Clara University where 60 of us had our own rooms and a chef.  My life in the hostel was an adventure, from sharing a room with four others to having to fend for myself for breakfast, lunch and dinner while learning to navigate a major city.  Living with those on vacation while having to get up and head to work is a challenge, though I had little competition for the shower early in the morning!

But I wouldn't have had it any other way.  From the hostel, I moved into a residential hotel in the Tenderloin--with a Mongolian roommate who wanted to use my cell phone to call home, to a fantastic sublet in Cole Valley (near the Haight for you non-San Francisco types, a cute little neighborhood), back to the hostel and then to the house at 1906 Great Highway overlooking the ocean with 4 roommates---and from there to my two weeks in Oakland (meant to be longer), my first solo apartment with bigtime wiring and construction issues, to my 250 square foot gem in the heart of North Beach (I had to open the door to smile) to my current very comfortable and big apartment near Pier 39.

I feel as if I earned my way in the city and look back on my early days with wonder: could I do it again?  Would I?  Yes, to live in the city I love.  It was an adventure, every minute of it and I know I can stand on my own and handle a living situation where all I have is a bottom bunk and a suitcase.

Though I do I like my balcony, two cats and 500 square feet.

Videos from Nightlife at the Academy of Sciences

In my previous post, I mentioned Nightlife at the California Academy of Sciences.  This is a truly "only in San Francisco" event every Thursday.  A DJ comes in, cocktails are served, there are special lectures and planet viewings on the living roof and the museum is open only to those over 21 years of age--no strollers!

I've been to several Nightlifes, including the very first one where there was no line for the Rainforest and a relatively sparse crowd.  Nowdays the crowd is bigger but just as much fun.  And the price is right--half the daytime entry fee.

Here are some videos from most recent one I attended.

Water spider!  A big guy, I was happy for the glass between us, though I couldn't stop looking at him/her(?).  Though I have yet to see it, he/she walks on water.  So long as that doesn't happen in my bathtub, I'm cool with him/her.

Sea Dragons!  Though they look like seaweed, they are in fact animals, like even more magical sea horses.  Someday when I am fantastically wealthy I will have a tank of these.

80-something year old Giant Sea Bass.  This guy is enormous.  And awesome, if slow moving.  Sorry for the length of this one, but I had a front row view of him turning around.  Rather like watching a semi-truck turn.

Finally, this funny guy is a Frog Fish.

Reading and reading

Being unemployed, I have had a good amount of time to delve into some books--all from the San Francisco Public Library, most requested, then sent to my branch library for pick-up.  Whatever did we do before we could request books online?  Here in San Francisco, we have a population that uses its library, oftentimes new titles can have a wait list of 80 or more people.  But it doesn't take long for the books to come to me as the library buys multiple copies.

So, on my reading list right now are:
The Tell Tale Brain, V. S. Ramachandran--fascinating look at how our brains evolved.  It does get a big medical at times, but is overall a good read.

206 Bones, Kathy Reichs--the only of Reichs' books that I have not yet read.  She is the one that the show Bones is based on.  The books are quick reads, delve quite a bit into forensics and have no characters from the show, thank goodness...even though I enjoy Bones, I wouldn't want to read books that are the show in print form.

Packing for Mars and Bonk, Mary Roach--I am catching up on my Mary Roach after seeing her lecture earlier this month at the California Academy of Sciences Nightlife.  Bonk is about sex research and Packing for Mars about the questions we'd all like to ask about space travel.  Roach is irreverent and fun, her lecture was fantastic.  As is Nightlife at the Academy of Sciences, the weekly cocktail party at the California Academy of Sciences for those of drinking age.  Highly recommend it if you find yourself in San Francisco on a Thursday night.   Fun to walk through the Academy, the aquarium with a cocktail in hand!

The Ex-Boyfriend's Handbook, Matt Dunn--very funny fiction about a man who has let himself "go" during his ten-year relationship with a woman who has let him go and run off to Tibet.  He, thanks to his local TV star friend, gets himself back in shape.  I'm about a quarter of the way into it.

So, that's on my reading table these days, what's on yours?  What can you recommend?  My request list at the library is always needing new material!

Enough with the Plywood

This is merely an amusing sign that was placed on a building in North Beach that has been covered in plywood forever.  I like the sentiment.

My Favorite Place in the 'Hood

A sunny day!  Hooray!  I gathered up my book and heading across the street to my favorite reading perch, the Big Wooden Box Thing Near Pier 41:

 I love reading here.  The views are million-dollar, it's sunny and oddly uncrowded, even when Fisherman's Wharf is busy.  I discovered it when I first moved to the city and worked on Alcatraz as the boats we went out on were right next to it at Pier 41.  Many days I would arrive early to spend time here...can it really be 15 years since those days?

The book:

The Best American Science Writing 2010.  I enjoy non-fiction and this series is fantastic for an overview of the year's best science writing.  Geeky but fascinating.

However, the reading was not to be today as the wind was fierce, a risk one takes on a pier in the Bay. 

Whitecaps:

It's not always so frothy, thank goodness! 

So I said hello to the sea lion neighbors and headed home:

Hello world!

Welcome to my spot on the Web.  I'm not quite sure where I will be going with all this...a little about my wanderings in San Francisco, a little about my cats, a little ranting about being unemployed for the zillionth time, a little about the treats I find in my City by the Bay. 


Who am I?  Well, those of you who are quite lucky know me as Gretchen J.  TheJonesGirl.  Gumdropgirl.  I'm a thirty-something woman living very near the Bay in San Francisco.  Living near the Bay is great.  Well, unless one's father is calling her at 6AM to warn of tsunamis predicted in the next couple hours.  But that it more than made up for with the sounds of foghorns and sea lions most every night.

Why San Francisco?  I fell in love with the city as a child, going to visit my Great Aunt Martha and Great Uncle Bob in, first, their big house in West Portal...it was so exotic to a Fresno kid.  Up the hill from a MUNI station, lots of small, interesting restaurants and shops a short walk away, the fog in mid-summer.  Later, they moved to a building near the Castro which was a dream to the teen me.  A roof deck!  Close to everything I could want.  After college, I did everything I could to move to the city and fifteen years later, I am living my dream.

For work, I am an Executive Assistant.  I like it, and it allows me free time, to not be wed to my job.  I love politics, taking classes at City College for fun, reading and playing in the city by the Bay.  I live with two very big cats and am happy as can be.

Hope you enjoy my ramblings and photos as they come, can't wait to share them...