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Showing posts with label surprises. Show all posts
Showing posts with label surprises. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

The Staycation

Ahh, the commute. Where do I start? Nah, I'll spare you the deets. Let's just say I'm glad that the fur trim on the hood of rider next to me didn't get stuck to my lipgloss. And the girl that spilled the hot coffee didn't spill it on me. We were in some pretty tight quarters below deck, us swabbies.

At the Montgomery MUNI station, the United Arab Emirates and the Dubai Tourism Board have disguised lowly cement pillars to look like palm trees, and have covered the walls with posters reminding us that we can now fly direct from San Francisco to Dubai.

To be frank, it's not really something that's crossed my mind.

But I do have a vacation coming, starting on Friday (finally taking 2008's vacation)... for two whole weeks! I could use a change of scenery. (My boss is distraught, however.)

This is where I'll be:

It's hard to imagine a San Francisco before the Bay Bridge. But here it is, from 1929. And if you want to see how the bridge was built, check this out... it's really cool.

Yep, I'm having a staycation. One of those new dumbass phony words, right up there with play date and housemade.

Yep, I'm going to wear out my boots traipsing around town, and I'm sure I'll have lots of things to share with you. I just don't know what those things are going to be though. We'll both be surprised.

I have to admit that I was sad that I wasn't going to Paris like I had planned. I had hoped to spend some time with Tara, maybe swing over to catch up with Vanessa, and finagle a way to see Lala and Julochka. But the timing and the cash flow just aren't seeing eye to eye right now.

But given recent days here in my fair city, I think I'll find plenty of things to do.

I'm sure I'll do the cable car thing.


And it's not like we don't make our own fun around here, right?

***

I enjoyed an excerpt from this "Modern Guide to 'The City by the Golden Gate'":

“For women – suits, topcoats and small hats in the darker colors are appropriate. Light-weight apparel is seldom required. White shoes or slacks for street wear are not advised. For men – business suits, tweeds or conservative sports clothes are standard. White shoes, flannels or white formals are not in vogue.”

I will be sure to dress accordingly.

***

First travel poster available here.
Second travel poster available here.
I took that photo with the giant crazy legs on Haight Street (where else?). The cable car is on Powell Street.
Oh, and that vintage travel guide is from here.

And for the coolest time-travely site about San Francisco, check out Sparkletack. It's one of my faves and he has an amazing conglomeration of information for all San Francisco-ophiles.

***

ps.: I have a technical question for anyone who wishes to try to come to my rescue...
At home, I have an iMac running OS X 10.5.5 and for those of you bloggers who have the word verification text turned on for Blogger where the comment is embedded in the page, or Wordpres where there is a popup window (I know I'm confusing the hell out of you right now, sorry!), I can't see the gif to verify that I'm a human (I use Firefox but Safari does the same thing). Which means I can't comment on some of your blogs when I am at home, which is why you may have gotten an email from me with a pasted in comment. Or that you think I'm a diva who doesn't visit you. Because I do! I just can't say hi, especially if I don't have your email addy.

See how upset I am? It makes me feel like a slacker.

I can, however, comment from work, from a cheap crappy PC, but like I mentioned before, I won't be at work for two weeks. I tried going to some user forums and other people have the same problem, but I didn't see a solution posted.

So if someone can please help me out, that'd be super. Otherwise all of you out there can turn off your word verification for little ol' me.

ha ha. kidding.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Sikke en dejlig overraskelse!

What a lovely surprise!
(I am trusting Google Translate with the above text, to say what I need to say in Danish.)

***

Yesterday, a white puffy envelope was waiting for me on the porch...
It had traveled far and wide, covered with Danish stamps.

The envelope contained a delightful surprise from my namesake sister-friend in Denmark, Julochka.

I don't know about you, but I think just getting something with stamps on it from another country is exciting.

And then what was inside was even prettier than could be!

The cutest notecard you ever saw, one of Julochka's own special moleskines, and what might be one of the loveliest bound journals I have ever seen.

The fabric is the most amazing blue/green linen fantasy, from her favorite place, Bookbinders Design in Oslo. The book is so pretty that I'm almost afraid to spoil it!

How DID she know that this color book would make me swoon with delight?

Because she's fabulous... and so very smart!

Here's a little of what you need to know about Julochka:

midwestern girl grows up, meets lovely danish boy in fragment of former yugoslavia (as one does), follows him home and lives happily ever after, traveling merrily around the world and writing stories for a living.

She really is all these things, and much, much more.
So please stop by her blog, Moments of Perfect Clarity, and say hello. You will enjoy your visit very much and I promise you'll visit often.

***

Thank you, Julochka!

Tak, Julochka!
(did I say that right?)

xoxo