This is where I spent my evenings after I finished my work in the State Archives. What a relaxing, beautiful space.
This is the view from the inside, with the evening light filtering in:
I don’t understand why contemporary builders no longer emphasize front porches. Perhaps it’s because people spend more of their time watching TV and less of their time watching the world go by their front door….
I learned that this little shop above, Temple Coffee, used to be a bookstore. I’m thinking that’s one reason it has such groovy karma. So far I’ve started every morning in Sacramento in this spot: free wi-fi, delicious fruity scones, and hearts on my latte.
Now just wishin’ the books were still here, too :)
Yesterday I tried my hardest to convince John that this town was worth a family visit. Oh, how he resists. So now I’m asking myself: is this a particularly charming place or is it just me??
Some notes on other recent adventures here: eating lunch in the Secretary of State dining room. Button-down shirts were the de-facto uniform and the menu was sorta ‘meh,’ but I met the most dynamic line-cook ever (damn it’s fun to meet someone who’s truly passionate about their job) and he did fabulous work with my veggie burger.
I walked a few blocks out of my way to find the closest used bookshop. Loved meeting Raffles, the resident kitty (and she tolerated me). Loved that they had a “Happy Hour” 10% discount, loved that some of the books I bought were only $1, loved meeting a young art teacher buying a stack of threadbare hardbacks for altered books, loved walking past the fortune cookie baker (oh, what a smell!) on the way. Why (oh why) doesn’t OC have a decent bookstore–esp a used bookstore? (Acres of Books, I miss you, too). I need such spaces to feel alive.
Last night I sat in the parlor of the old home where I’m staying, working on my conference talk for tomorrow(!). To try to avoid the skeeters I opened the windows wide for the evening breezes (rather than sitting on the veranda) and was charmed that I could still hear the sax player practicing nearby, well into the wee hours of the night.
For those of you who might find yourself in Sacto anytime soon, some pertinent links:
Sacramento Hostel
Beers Books
Temple Coffee
Pyramid Alehouse
PS: To the dissertation gods that have arranged for me to have the funding necessary for such adventures while I’m working in archival repositories. Thank you!
Note: trip pics to come soon–I’m using my ASUS laptop while traveling and I can’t get it to read the SD card from my camera–any advice on how to fix this??
If, today you had a long day working in the State Archive, all the while wondering why (oh why) archives always have the world’s most uncomfortable and unergonomic chairs, you realized that you had no plan whatsoever for after 4pm when all good state offices close. So you looked up the Pyramid Alehouse that your teammate recommended and realized it was on your way “home” for the evening, so you decided to go and discovered while you were sitting on the patio watching the trains go by that the apricot ale really is as good as they said it was. Then you had a tasty meal and still had hours to go before it was dark so you decided to take the long way home to see what adventures might be in store.
So it’s really no surprise that a young boy holding a sign saying “Urban Farm Stand” caught your eye. And when you walked that way you discovered two tables with some fresh-picked organic produce and a charming community garden. So you bought some fresh berries for breakfast tomorrow and then noticed a woman with a massage chair set up nearby.
So if this is you, your entire body started wanting a massage right at that very moment, and when you walked over you were swept off you feet when she told you that the massages were complimentary because she was trying to find new clients. Oh my. The best 15 minutes of the day as all that stress melted right off your shoulders.
And as you walked the remaining blocks home and then sat on the large verandah of this historic home where you’re staying (in the 3rd-story attic room–so romantic and with a staircase to rival that of the Pilgrim Inn at Canterbury), you realize that life just goes better when you open yourself up to taking the long way home. And also…you’ve fallen in love with yet one more city (a city with light rail that I will plan to take somewhere tomorrow–another adventure to be had!)
A teammate leading me in a guided meditation/relaxation prior to our race. I really had the jitters and was quite exhausted due to recent travel and general lack of sleep–not to mention the emotional drain from my grandma’s funeral the day before.
As always, I just had to remember to breathe to find my strength.
PS: John’s composition with this photo really captured the beauty of the moment…
Originally posted May 13, 2007:
The celebration of Mother’s Day originated with poet Julia Ward Howe, as a movement for women to fight the devastation of war and to show the way towards peace. Today’s sentimental-flowers-&-Hallmark-card bedecked event hardly measures up to the fiery rhetoric of the day’s founding mother…
Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation – 1870
Arise then…women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
“We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”From the bosom of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: “Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”
Blood does not wipe out dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace…
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God –
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.
As I was showering after returning home from my first-ever outrigger canoeing race and reflecting a bit on how much fun I’m having with this sport…I couldn’t help but think back to where I was a year ago: in the hospital agonizing over an infection in my left leg that just wouldn’t heal.
Many of you probably remember the entry I wrote after that night I spent in fear of losing my leg and the hope I had as I was slowly recovering. Back then I had no idea that my battle with the infection would flare up again while I was visiting Denver, or would last well into August.
So as the hot water poured over my head and back I cried a few tears of joy…they were just about as salty as was the water that I swallowed after falling into the San Diego Bay this morning (boo on that nasty red boat who steered their nose under our ama!). But you know what–it didn’t matter that we tipped. We recovered quickly, got our wits about us, and still ended up passing many other boats to a solid finish in the race (and I tell you, when we came into the home stretch and heard hundreds of people cheering us home, it didn’t matter one bit what place we were in that race). We paddled our best and gave it our all. We had fun. I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else but out there this morning! (note to self: adrenaline is a magical drug–I leapt right back into that boat with nary a thought about my inability to do a pullup).
As a Mother’s Day/birthday gift John bought me a fancy new steering blade(!!!!). What a great partner he is–seeing me through thick and through thin for the past two decades. That man, he is pure magic–I knew if from the moment I first saw him and he proves it true again every day.
When I had my surgery at the end of last summer, my doc told me it would take at least a year before my leg would be healed through and through. But he was wrong. The healing…it’s all done now.
:)
Grandma with her sisters (she’s on the far left). She looks so much like my older sister in the pic that it’s almost uncanny to me.
And, oh, aren’t those hairdos something else?
PS: I belive that the caption on this photo misspells some of the names. Did I do this caption over a decade ago when I was compiling my family history? I can’t even remember now…
Our view off the left side of the boat while coming back into the harbor last night after about 45 minutes of ocean paddling (the outrigger is the thing on the bottom of the pic).
For a view of the best-ever novice outrigger canoe team, click here.
Pic taken by a teammate
Isn’t she gorgeous and what a wedding dress!
Do you see any family resemblance? :)
LVII
SOME keep the Sabbath going to church;
I keep it staying at home,
With a bobolink for a chorister,
And an orchard for a dome.
Some keep the Sabbath in surplice;
I just wear my wings,
And instead of tolling the bell for church,
Our little sexton sings.
God preaches,—a noted clergyman,—
And the sermon is never long;
So instead of getting to heaven at last,
I ’m going all along!
~Emily Dickinson
Picture taken on a rambling walk in Julian, California.
Life has had its share of stresses and frustrations lately, so much so that for about the past three months I’ve had to put effort into finding space to “get away from it all for awhile.” Though I love the work I do as a PhD student, it has a way of filling up my mind and my life in ways that make it difficult to ever feel like I have time off.
So Saturday was one of those moments when John and I were able to escape for a bit of a date night (time for just the two of us–yay!) and chose to watch a friend’s Roller Derby team match. It’s a pretty unlikely event for me to attend, so the novelty made it even more fun, I’d say.
I really loved this picture of me with Alicia (wearing her cute roller derby uniform)–it’s so spontaneous and happy.
Pic by John
“Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?” –Mary Oliver*
Three of my grandparents died when I was fairly young. So for many years my GrandmaB (my kids called her “Candy Grandma,” can you guess why???) was my only grandparent.
She passed away this morning after suffering from dementia for several years. Of late she didn’t even know her own name, much less the identities of those who came to visit.
I have many memories of her, perhaps the most distinct being her pain as she watched her oldest son–my father–die of cancer. I can only imagine how deep her suffering was, and remember her saying that she’d never expected to outlive my father.
So I’ll travel to Utah to join the family in celebrating the life of this beloved woman. It will be a thrill to see the extended family, as I suspect that it might be a very long time before we all have reason to gather again.
*Thank you, Deborah, for this bit of poetry.
