MUSEUMS!

Hello again. As promised, I am going to do a fun post. It's all about my favorite thing: the museum.

Not so recently, maybe a few weeks ago, Britt and I FINALLY went to the SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art). It was good, but we did not check out the Frieda Kahlo exhibit. It was great when Britt and I reached the second floor, we froze as we turned the corner. There we saw them, Joseph Stella and Charles Scheeler. Side by side. It was amazing. It had to be my favorite Scheeler I had ever seen next to one of the greatest (but not THE greatest) Stella's.

Britt in front of the Stella. I can't find any pictures of the Scheeler. Boooooo.

After spending a good long while staring at these paintings, we moved on our way past the Duchamp urinal, Cornell's shadow boxes, and this breathtaking Rothko:

It's 114 by 105", and dominates the room. You can feel the intense red vibrating. It stole the attention from all the other paintings in the room.

Then we came upon one of the greatest things I have ever seen. As most of you know, my favorite and most inspiring artist in my life has been Claude Monet. Well, if Monet and Shannon's favorite artist Roy Lichtenstein had a love child in painting, it would be this:

Lichtenstein's Rouen Cathedral Set V His interpretation of Monet's Rouen Cathedral Series. Up close, you couldn't see the cathedrals, and from far away, it blended beautifully. When you stood at the far side of them and looked acros the wall, you just saw lines, no image, no dots.

These images don't serve justice to seeing the real paintings (reason to come and visit??) In fact, we walked past each two more times. We probably spent the majority of our time staring at them. Our next goal is to visit the deYoung and become members.

Then on Sunday, October 12, I took Shannon on a surprise date to the Musee Mecanique. It's in Fisherman's Wharf (very touristy area and also very fun and scenic). It is just a huge room/warehouse full of antique video games and coin operated games. It had a bunch of old games Shannon used to play AND older. Much older, like the time of my great grandparents.

Ski Ball

Shannon mad at the Indiana Jones pinball game

Antique typewriter that types out your horoscope

Shannon doing the arm wrestling game.

An entire carnival scene made from toothpicks by inmates in the early 20th century

There were these scenes, such as this French execution, where you paid a quarter to watch a guillotine fall or a man hanged. While very disturbing, not gruesome.

Lastly, they had the "Test Your Love, Hotness, whatever" tests. In this one game, you had to hit a button as fast as you could to test your love rating. Here is what Shannon got:

And then here is what I got. I love it:

After a Long Hiatus...

...I should apologize. I honestly have no other excuse other than pure procrastination. So many things have happened since July...I think.

Let's see here,
After returning to Iowa, I never really came back from vacation. I remained lazy, obviously. Sue cooked great food and kept oatmeal bars on hand at all times. I had a better time than I could have imagined while I was home. Iowa City was beyond fun. The weather couldn't have been better. We celebrated my brother's birthday with a VEGAN red velvet cake. It was perfect. We swam a lot. I spent so much time with my nephew swimming and playing that I didn't want to leave. It was great seeing my friends. Liz and I danced more the night of the Buzz hair show than I had danced in a long long time.

Back in Berkeley, I spent most time at home trying to save money to move. Shannon and I managed to find a three bedroom apartment for an amazing deal, and now BRITT LIVES WITH US! She's finally here! We've been in our place for a month now, and it's going great. Decorating has been fun. We've been spending weekends in the city. Since her arrival, we've been to Ocean Beach, the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, the YBCA gardens, Fisherman's Wharf, and much more. Here are just a few photos:

Work is still going well. In fact, I got the design and arrange a direct mail piece. From writing the letter (with Kevin's help) to designing the artwork to sending it to the printer and post office. I've been learning so much.

That ought to do it for now I think. We're having a tiny housewarming party tomorrow. I'll post more soon! Really. I promise.

-j

Ten Days and Counting....

Hey Everybody,

I hope the holiday weekend was fun for all of you despite flood damage stress. Shannon and I decided to check out the San Francisco Independence Day scene. Lauren (our roommate), Shannon and I went into the city and did some fast shopping. I bought a swimsuit for Iowa, a "monokini" actually. Those are the swimsuits that look like bikinis except for the piece of fabric that connect the two parts in the front. Then we went to our beloved Golden Era Chinese restaurant for some vegan food. It was good food, as usual, except instead of my regular vanilla ice cream, they gave me mango ice cream. Yes, mango ice cream exists, and no, it does not taste good. I was, at the least to say, very upset. It was my holiday treat, and it was ruined by a mango. I asked the waitress if they had vanilla, and she looked at me as if I were crazy. I just let it go, but I pouted for a good chunk of the night about it. Afterward, we went to a bar called Blur to catch a drink before going to see fireworks. We met up with Lauren's friend Lindsay and her boyfriend. We talked about apartment hunting and the West Coast in general. None of us are from the west. After drinks, we hopped the bus until it could take us as far as it could go without getting stuck in miserable traffic. The bus driver was just like, "Last stop. I'm leaving," although there were a few more stops it was supposed to make. The traffic was insane. We walked to Ghirardelli Square and found a spot on the grass across the street. We then brought out some spirits for the show. I was content with my Amaretto and Diet Pepsi. The fog, unfortunately, is terrible in the summer in SF. The fireworks show last about half an hour, and the fog made it slightly less enjoyable. You couldn't see the fireworks really until they began to fall. I liked the noise though. The whole north coast of the peninsula was packed with people. We also caught glimpses of the fireworks coming from Hunter's Point (the area you typically want to avoid unless you like crack). We focused on the pier 39 fireworks. It made me a little nostalgic, of course. I thought about what the rest of my friends and family were doing back in Iowa. I thought about the year my relatives came to watch from our front yard, and Aimee was screaming celebrity names after every firework while my drunk aunt tried to do the same but instead just kept yelling, "TINA TURNER!" I also thought about my dad saying, "Oh, that was gawwwwwgeous!" Alas, I still had a fun time. Did I mention I lasted the entire day walking in my new 3-4 inch heels I bought the previous weekend? I was a trooper. They are great Guess gladiator-style sandals/heels.

I would have some pictures of all of this, but they are on Shannon's camera. They aren't the greatest pictures anyhow.

I topped off my three day weekend with another hike in Tilden with Lauren. We did the same route. It's so beautiful. This time I remembered my phone, so I could take pictures of the views. The fog was a little worse in the "happy valley" area and less bad in the bay but still not photo-worthy. Did I mention the Tilden hike from last time and "happy valley" from Mickey and the Beanstalk? Oh well, people who know what I'm talking about with understand when they see the pictures.

Can you see how the last two remind me of Happy Valley???

I hope you enjoyed those. It's a fun hike. You pass lots of other people and their dogs. One dog actually came up to me and let me pet it. For the most part, dogs in California are very well trained and don't need leashes, nor do they bother other people.

So that's it for now. I don't know if I'll post again before I go to Iowa. I can't wait to see you all!

Love and miss you,

j