A year ago today

Where were you a year ago today?

I was in San Francisco. Ruby was left with Grandma Tena and Grandpa Ron for 5 days (ah...those pre-Diabetes days were bliss and I didn't even know it then. I cannot picture myself leaving her for 5 days now. I can barely leave her for an hour or two without calling and asking what her blood glucose level is.) Brandon and I took off to go to San Francisco with May in tow since I was still nursing her (which is why I am so chubby in all of these photos.)



We fell in love with the city and decided that we would eventually move near there--south of SF, far enough away to not live in the city, which is flooded with plastic surgeons but close enough to go there anytime we want to. Anyway, we stayed in this funky boutique hotel, ate FANTASTIC food (that's a whole other blog entry my friends), perused art galleries (not stuffy ones, our favorites were the student shows), caught the very last day of the Chuck Close exhibit at the SFMOMA which was UNREAL, nursed May in the most random places, my favorite being a cathedral near China Town. When we arrived, it was empty and quiet and very peaceful. I enjoyed all of the stained glass windows, flying buttresses, candles, etc. We were sitting in one of the back pews while I nursed May and in walked about 10 "brides" followed by about 20 people with cameras around their necks. It was a bridal/wedding photography class, so that was entertaining watching the many photo shoots going on all around us. Hope they didn't mind the chubby girl breastfeeding her baby in the background of their photos.



We did some cheesy tourist stuff like went to China Town, took a "cruise" out beneath the Golden Gate bridge and Alcatraz (nursed May in a Gap dressing room across from the pier), road the trollies, etc.


My favorite memory was one night we decided to walk around down by Ghiradelli Square. After eating chocolate and finding the rest of the square pretty vacated, (nursed May in an abandoned office building) it was very dark and we were getting hungry for some real food. It had started raining and SF was experiencing record wind speeds. We went to get on the trolly to take us back up but they were shut down and most of the taxies weren't out either - unbeknownst to us, there was a severe wind advisory advising everyone to stay inside. So, we were forced to walk back up the very long and very steep Nob Hill (nursed May on one of its park benches one sunny day) but it was so fun. We couldn't believe how hard the wind was blowing, we were sopping wet. It was so hard getting up the hill, we looked like those mimes who pretend to walk against the wind. The pictures that are at night and blurry were taken that night. The wind was blowing so hard we couldn't keep our hands still enough to take a decent picture. Halfway up, we needed sustanance and a major breather so we took refuge in a Japanese restaurant. We were the only customers and filled up on sushi and great Miso soup while the waitress held May and danced around the empty restaurant with her. Then we headed back up the hill. It took us about 3 hours all together but it we had a great time.

The whole city was so alive and stimulating, I felt very inspired and like anything in the whole world was possible. While in SF, I bought a book called The Creativty Book: A Year's Worth of Inspiration and Guidance. But really, just by visiting the city, I was totally jumpstarted creatively. If I had followed the book's program religiously, it would have ended today. So what were you doing a year ago?