Tag Archives: san francisco

afternoon at the zoo

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Justin and I went to the San Francisco Zoo today. We traveled from the East Bay on Bart, then took the Muni straight to the zoo. It is right on the coast and was a quite a chilly day. We ended up getting yearly passes to the zoo so that we could all come back and visit. The zoo itself is a beautiful place and it was not crowded. We saw flamingos, peacocks, an eagle, a brown bear, polar bears, kangaroos, penguins and giraffes. I took lots of pictures of the animals, some at the beach nearby and even got one of a rainbow! It was a good photo day. Afterward we headed back to Market St. and went to the Camper shoe store where I bought myself a Christmas present (from my Mom and Dad).

CC celebrates at the minna gallery

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Thursday night maiki and I attended the 6th birthday celebration for Creative Commons at the Minna Gallery in San Francisco. It was super fun and I always enjoy the vibe at CC events. People that like to share and embrace collaboration are progressive and fun folks to be around. I have been walking past the Minna Gallery for over a year wanting to go inside and I finally got my chance. DJs ripley and Kid Kameleon and dublab were mixing the tunes. dublab had a set up to record eight second audio loops of the crowd as part of the Into Infinity project. dublab created a emergent sound scape of music for us to enjoy with the visual part- the circular canvas art pieces- projected onto a screen. maiki and I were dancing all night for it was hard to be still with so much great music playing. Good times!

making the most of my time

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Everyday I have a list of what absolutely needs to get done to get through this semester (and hopefully pass). The great thing is that I am learning new things everyday and am enjoying myself even if it may not always seem like it. I am very fortunate that maiki is so supportive and making time to work around my hectic schedule because he is the comic relief that is so very important in my life! Ah, he is a best friend that I cannot imagine living without! _ Cloud Ninth is also continuously supportive and I know that I could not do this without them. My life is so very fun and filled with friends that really inspire me.

Luckily I have had some cool adventures squeezed into my down time. Justin and I made a trip to the Samovar Tea Lounge and it was so wonderful. I got their signature smokey black russian tea and it was strong but I enjoyed the flavor. We sat in the sun overlooking Yerba Buena gardens and spent a couple hours out of our busy school day just relaxing and sipping tea. I also have gone to the movies a few times and saw Bottle Shock, Burn After Reading, and Religulous at the California Theatre here in Berkeley. It is an old independent theatre like the ones I loved in Santa Cruz. Last Saturday maiki and I walked to a Utrecht that I had never been to in the city on Van Ness and then wandered to Japantown. I picked up an art book from Makoto Shinkai. I am always so inspired when ever I go to Kinokuniya. I always want to either move in or bring all the books home with me. It is hard to not purchase art books and I have such an amazing library now full of design and art books of all kind.

my golden birthday

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My parents came up to Berkeley to spend my birthday with me and were here Wednesday and Thursday. It was really fun to show them around my neighborhood but I am not used to navigating Berkeley as a driver and giving directions. Also I drove my dad’s car which felt so different since I am used to being on foot or bicycle. My mom and I shopped around on Wednesday and I took her to 4th street and showed her my Pasta Shop where we ate alfajores cookies. They are definitely the best thing that we sell! My dad went to Golden Gate Fields, racetrack that is right on the bay, where you can see the Golden Gate bridge from when it is not foggy. For dinner that night we went to Temari with maiki and they ate Japanese food for the first time. They seemed to really enjoy the food and hopefully they will find a place in L.A. to eat at when they return.

The next day was my birthday and I woke up super early with excitement. We went to Ihop for breakfast because I love their butter pecan syrup. Then my mom and I took the Bart from Berkeley to the Montgomery station in S.F. I wanted to show her my school buildings and the area around there that I frequent. We went to Anthropologie on Market and I got some flower rings and glass bear shakers. We had lunch at ‘wichcraft and shared a piece of Schoggi hazelnut chocolate and an vanilla eclair from Beard Papa’s. It was the best b-day dessert ever. We went to the MOMA store and both immediately regretted not having time to go to the museum as well. It was a lot of walking and more standing around would have been too much for my mommy to handle. We had lots of fun though! It was funny to me how since my mom is left handed that she held on (with a death grip) to the left side of the railing on the escalators and stairs. People are used to passing on the left and she was definitely throwing a wrench into that system. We do live in right handed society. _

When we got back to Berkeley we had dinner at a Chinese place on Shattuck called King Dong. It is a favorite for their hot & sour soup and mu shu vegetables. Afterwards we said good bye to my parents and walked back to Cloud Ninth where we drank Pyramid Hefeweizen and watched a week of the Daily Show. It had been a wonderful two days off work and I was happy to be with my mom in person rather than being on the phone with her doing those things like I normally would. We really are pretty close now and I call her almosr everyday to say hi and check on her. Now she has seen the area places that I’m always talking about. _

Lunch dates

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I have gone a couple of super fun lunch dates this past week. The first was with Jon in San Francisco where we had lunch in a cool German pub that reminded me so much of my dad it was weird. They were even playing Bing Crosby tunes and showing the horse races for Hollywood Park. It was a trip! Next he showed me the houseboat that he is staying at. It was so awesome but as much as I adore the idea of living on a boat in the SF Bay, I was not used the constant rocking. He said that he acclimated pretty quickly but after five minutes I had to move back to solid ground. I took a bunch of photos of the Bay Bridge and then headed off to school.

Saturday I took the train to San Jose to meet Adrienne and Katherine. We worked together at a preschool several years ago and have stayed in touch by getting for together for coffee dates and hanging out. This time we had to do a bit of traveling to meet up. Luckily we found a great place downtown that we could sit and talk at without feeling bad for camping out. I of course always love to take public transportation and for me that was half the fun. I took the Amtrak, CalTrain, and Bart to travel back and forth.