Ladies Night at Dominique's

Our friend Dominique threw a Ladies Night gathering last Friday night. Bringing together all different types of women and creating new relationships between them over wine and loads of good food is sort of her specialty. Dom has one of the most amazingly deep, giving, and loving spirits of anyone I know.

Mulford Point, Marina Park - San Leandro, La Estrellita - Oakland

Mulford Point, on the North side of Marina Park in San Leandro. Not done exploring this park yet :) On the lower side is this really amazing looking walking trail that curves waaaay out into the bay. It looked like a huge, curved, manmade pier or wave break. There were a quite a few people walking with their families, dogs, friends and the wind!!! Being surrounded on all sides by the San Francisco Bay pretty much guarantees you'll be windblown, but the views and the experience of feeling like you're walking on water must surely trump all that!Hoping to make it out there to take the long walk as soon as possible!








Day 5, July 27th: La Estrellita - Oakland

Checked out a new-to-me margarita spot a few blocks from where I live in downtown/Lake Merritt are Oakland. La Estrellita is a favorite happy hour spot for Jenn and Gretchen, and the fact that they can bring their dogs makes it that much better! I'm a fan of supporting little local restaurants, especiallhy when their staff is extra friendly! Many pitchers and many laughs were shared and enjoyed!

Reflections

Good afternoon!!! Life has brought about quite a few amazing experiences lately. Little things, small occurences, minute details. People and information coming into view, sharing time, opening my eyes. I have an overwhelming sense of calm like I haven't felt in a very long time.

Sonny is still in Europe, until mid July. Being away from him for this long has been hard, but has also been, and continues to be, a pleasant walk down a path of self discovery and reflection for me. It's been years since I've been away from the person I love for any amount of time close to this, and this is the first time we've been without communication on a regular basis. Every few days or so he'll get to write me a few lines in an email...and wow, how I look forward to even that! I think it sort of forces you to really consider everything typed out to be important, and positive, and full of as much love as can be jammed into those tiny black letters on the screen. His words, his encouragement, and even his ramblings about how much fun they're all having, is total motivation for me. Why can't I live every day of my life to the absolute fullest? Why can't I chase my dreams, big and small? Why can't I be absolutely true to myself and openly cherish the people and things around me that make life worth living?

The answer is I CAN! And so should everyone else! I'm taking this mindset and running with it!!

Some of the people and things that mean so much to me right now:

Jenn and Scotty. These are two of my closest friends. They live an absolutely magical life that is full of love, laughter, and utter simplicity, in the smallest apartment I've ever been in. The size of their wonderful abode however, is no match for Jenn's fierce desire to have it be constantly filled with amazing friends, fresh homecooked meals, and thundering motion and dancing! The very definition of heart on your sleeve, they'd both drop everything in an instant if a friend was ever in need.


My lovely Katie...oh what I owe this lady! The first to welcome me with open arms to Oakland, and to take the time to tuck me under her wing and make sure I met all the amazing people that now fill my life. Another golden soul, I can count on Katie for anything...and I mean literally anything. She's also with a dude that is in a pretty successful touring band, and has been invaluable in teaching me how to hold on to the spirit of who I am during the tough times alone. Love her.


I've only just started this book, and already I can tell it will be one that makes a lasting impression on me. The author's struggles with ending relationships, depression, spirituality, and self image are already resonating deeply with me. Not to mention her writing style is incredibly fun and engaging! More thoughts on life's many quests of self discovery as I get deeper into this story...

I recently took part in a day-long training course written by The Arbinger Institute, which is entirely focused on helping individuals and groups to resolve conflicts within themselves and within interactions between individuals. They believe that conflict arises from a person's inability to view those around them as people, rather, they are viewing anyone that causes distress or disagreement as an object to be removed or broken, as a means to a selfish end, or as completely irrelevant to their life. The day was long and intense and brought up a lot of very strong emotions for me, as I applied the concepts to areas of my life where I'd consistently been blocking people out and deceiving my better intentions as a means of self-preservation. I took a lot from what I learned, and can literally already see small differences in the way I'm viewing those around me....all totally positive.

As well as getting rid of a lot of figurative baggage lately, I've also been trying to keep busy by parting with a lot of literal baggage. Life is so, so not about the accumulations of things, and I was beginning to get really bogged down walking past the same "stuff" piles everyday. Long put-off plans of living lighter are now coming much easier...and are actually pretty enjoyable...more to come on that a bit later.

For now, tell someone you love them today, and take a minute to thoroughly enjoy something simple :)

Wandering Eye @ Oakland Metro

The other night I went to keep the dude company while sound engineering a Pirate Cat Radio sponsored show at Oakland Metro Operahouse. The company was great, but all of the bands spoke Spanish, the crowd was mostly teens, and the music was primarily blah..

naturally my eye and mind began to wander around the space.

Under the Sea, or, work with the Bee

Problem:
I share this place with 3 boys..one bathroom. Space is at a premium. I desperately needed a girl corner; somewhere to keep the jewelry, makeup, hair-stuff, etc. We didn't necessarily have space in the room for a desk or vanity, so I came up with something different.
Solution:
I found a guy selling big floating shelves for CHEAP, that he had used and gotten tired of. I snapped them all up and have found quite a few uses so far! Two are painted red and hung in the kitchen to hold glasses, spices, etc(pic to come), two will be art shelves over our bed, two will be a makeshift linen rack outside the bathroom, and the last two I painted the same deep blue as our accent wall and did this with!

The corner space is only about 3 feet long, so we did have to cut them down a bit, but I really like the snug, unobtrusive look! I get the combined storage of a bookshelf and a little vanity table all in one. For so little money! As part of the little vanity nook, I needed somewhere to hang the miscellaneous jewelry. My little rack was overflowing, and I had all this open wall space...sooo.... Bees!

Hammer, nails, superglue, leftover Bee buttons!

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The green stuff is all comin up nicely!








Our goals are modest...this is a first time effort! I do have some big plans for fall planting though!
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Jon Choi's going away party..."Under the Sea" theme...









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My detailed list to the guys what can and cannot be composted...and tips on recycling.

if you give a mouse a cookie...

So, so, so, what have we been up to? The fourth of July has come and gone...that fabulous American celebration day where we all gather in groups to burn meat (or in our case fake meat) over a flame, fill our bellies with booze and then play with matches and explosives...Ah, America! Land of the free, home of the eyebrow-less...

I met a couple of Barrett's skate buddies
Walter

Mike


Walter hosted a pretty quiet little get together in the backyard of his Oakland home. The crowd was interesting...it was pretty fun actually! Barrett rode a fixed gear bike and didn't eat shit! I got to try out a pesto recipe, with almonds, and everybody loved it. We drove home right before dark, and got to see the different fire works shows in every city on the way. Syrus had some sparklers and little fireworks when we got home so we promptly lit them...





Nobody was harmed..
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We started our worm bin! Doesn't look like much but the little guys are going crazy for our veggie trimmings. I read an article that equated composting 1/5 of your trash to taking your car off the road for more than a year! And, just think what the benefits of the compost will be once the container gardens get planted..
It's pretty much just a plastic bin with air holes cut into it, packed with the right amount of wet paper, worms, and food.



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The Santa Cruz farmer's market has been treating us so very right...


This lovely meal was prepared by Barrett, with ingredients from the SC Market..Portobello steak sandwiches with grilled onions and asparagus!

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When all else fails....sack out.

first post 'o the year..a looong one!

OH my goodness its been over a month! You all know how the holidays go...crazy crazy. Between driving all over california and adopting a million animals out at work, I have been TIRED! So here's a sampling of the past month's activities..I promise to never get so far behind....(lets hope)

these two are a little older....some interesting things Barrett came across at work



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some craziness at that special time of year
beer-pong @ mona's


asshole parkjob


santa on the brain


tuckered out kitten


mustache makes a comeback

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Maggie the border collie pup











and a seriously comfy cat

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found a rad pizza place with a giant screen for watching Sharks hockey...and fabulous veggie no-cheese pizza!




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Barrett and I drove down to the San Diego area for Christmas to see the fams. We had to take seperate cars since our work schedules were different. Now, the drive down the 5 is treacherous enough, but monotony gets an entire new definition when meant to describe 8 hours on the 5 freeway on Christmas Eve.
the reason for the season, so eloquently mentioned on a gas station t-shirt

driving myself literally crazy

and then resembling one of the Children of the Corn


then....after the settling in..we finally got to the important stuff. COOKIES! Britt made yummy vegan friendly sugar cookies and frosting....

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Moving on to New Years. Nichole had a rager at her humble abode in the Mission. From East Coast frat boys to Santa Rosa thugs...we had it all. I spotted an actual keg-stand or two. Mostly it was just crowded, though.









nothing a few drinks can't fix...or just blur

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and tell me what the significance of a clown in an old-school football get-up is?