Newish Year

Larrabee State Park, WA

It's halfway through February, and I think I am finally ready to say Happy New Year and make some goals and plans for 2015. There have already been so many lovely moments: a lot of giggles, hugs, sights, good food, and important time with family & friends. I've made an effort to exercise, read, and spend time outdoors. But there have also been illnesses, uncertainty about if, when, and where we might settle, financial questions, and just general overthinking and stressing out about all the everything. The ups and downs have challenged my brain and body the last two months, culminating in a big, fat, 2-year-old-style, all-day, crying tantrum last week. For real. I couldn't pull it together that day. I can't change what happened, but it was another 'woah' moment that tells me (again) I need to take better care of myself. 

With that in mind, I feel I can't quite get a grasp on how to "do" this year, whether to make ambitious goals and plans, or just continue quietly and somewhat safely moment to moment. Be satisfied with things as they are, or make big changes? Or should I aim somewhere in between? 

I'm curious, what are your top goals for the year? Are they bold or gentle? Complicated or basic?

Austin is for friends.

Texas state capitol dome

We recently went to Austin, Texas to visit friends we hadn't seen in awhile. It was our first visit to Texas. We consciously decided to do no research and make no to-do lists....well other than eat BBQ. It was refreshing to have no other agenda but spending time with good people. And I think that's exactly what Austin is good for. It's got the quirkiness of Portland mixed with Southern hospitality, so everyone can feel at home...everyone is nice. There are a lot of outdoor spaces at restaurants, a river to play in and walk along right thru downtown. I get the feeling that early summer would be a great time to go...play outside, swim, see a million bats, eat outside, hear good music, and hang out with friends. 

Some highlights from our trip that you may enjoy: 

• Dahlias Cafe for crazy good breakfast (this is actually 35 miles away in Liberty Hill...I would say it was worth the drive. They also have a playground for the kiddos).
• Texas State Capitol for history and architecture and a reminder that Texas was a Confederate state
• South Congress neighborhood to wander around for quirkiness, shopping, and food
• BBQ, preferably at Matt's house (invitation only)

It does feel like you need a specific reason to go to Austin...a festival, friends, college, a job, or that sort of thing. Will we go again? Probably...we really like the people we know who live there (they all petitioned us to move there, but...no). Next time? There were vague mentions of caverns and "mountains" and lakes that would be fun to explore. I would love to see the bats fly out of the bridge. Maybe take a side trip to NASA in Houston.

opie's bbq, spicewood, tx

Distractions

Inside 'Three Gems, 2005' by James Turrell @ the DeYoung Museum

Two Dots -- I am completely addicted to this puzzle game on my iPhone. I honestly don't know whether to tell you to clear your schedule and start playing, or run screaming for the hills. The game is free, but there are in-app purchases that can help you through frustrating levels...thus, I have spent more money on this game than I care to admit to anyone. The sound and graphics are great, too.

Humans of New York -- A collection of real stories from real people seen on the streets of New York. If you've never looked at HONY, as it's known, you'll end up binging on it for a couple of hours. The stories can be funny, heartbreaking, and unbelievable. I very highly recommend scrolling through the archives to August/September when the photographer went on a trip with the United Nations.

Making Wax Food (via Colossal) -- I appreciate restaurant's fake window food a lot more now. What a strange and specialized craft. Fast forward the video to 3:31 for the magic cabbage. 

On NOT going on an adventure...

Little one taking a little break on Angel Island/Photo Credit: Scott Mansfield

I think that adventure is the right choice 98% of the time. Even small adventures like a walk in the rain win out over (some) responsibilities or laziness. Adventure refreshes the soul and makes you feel like you can tackle the rest of life.

Sometimes your guts cry out to stay home and you have to have a chat with yourself about the benefits of going out. You KNOW the adventure will be fun and good for you, you just have to get out of bed or away from the computer. But sometimes you DO have to listen to your guts. Sometimes your guts know that you are avoiding hard tasks. Sometimes your guts know you are fragile.

I've been dealing with some anxiety issues lately. I won't bore you with details...I just have some work+healing to do. But my brain+body issues mean that I'm hovering closer to my limits and do need to pay attention when my gut says "don't go!" If I push past my mental and physical limits I get cranky and tired and withdrawn...in other words, no fun to be around. Staying home and staying quiet can really help bring me back to a little closer to normal. Sure, I might miss out on a special moment, but I know I'll hear stories about it and see pictures, and I know I'll be ready for the next adventure.

Cycling cyclist?

In September I got a fancy new bike. Well, it's fancy to me, anyway. It's a silvery grey Jamis 2014 Coda Comp bicycle. I test rode several bikes and this is the one that felt best, so I went for it. It feels fast and agile and completely comfortable. I use it to ride a couple miles to work one day a week and I try to go on a longer "fitness" ride one other day. Note the gentle quotation marks. At the moment I want to gain more riding experience and confidence. I do have my secret mind's eye on doing a triathlon one day/someday. 

Do you ride? Any advice? I feel like I have so much to learn...new lingo, new muscle uses, new routes around town... 

A few thoughts on cycling so far:

• My neck gets crunchy, so I need to remember to use my eyes more than my neck to look forward
  
• Still learning bike posture and needing to strengthen my core
• At what point do you purchase padded pants? 
• When do I switch from being a bike rider to being a cyclist? 
• Still perfecting my hand signal technique
• I've seen cops pull over cyclists for running stop signs. 
• Now that my bike is kind of broken-in I need to take it to the shop for some adjustments. 
• I need a bell and some lights...Daylight Savings is over!
• I want one of those shirts with the pocket in the back. 
• If you're riding in the street, how the hell are you supposed to get over to turn left?
• Bike riding (cycling?) is fun!  

Two little birds...

Two little birds arrived on our doorstep.

My crafty mother-in-law has started working on mixed media works of art, and she sent these lovely pieces to grace the walls of her granddaughter's room. Our little one admires them everyday and reminds us that GramSam made them just for her. I am grateful that every single person in our family pursues their interests and sets a good example for our girl. I try to do the same. 

Book Report: Recent Reads

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. A page-turning, he said/she said tale of a wife gone missing. I might be the last person to have read this book...but just in case someone else out there hasn't read it, I'm not going to say much more. I enjoyed the page-turning quality of it, but I might have known too much about the plot to have been dazzled. I'll probably watch the movie when it is online, though. Ben Affleck is  perfect casting.

The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood. This is a story of a dystopian future, one that could be even more relevant today than when it was published in the conservative 1980s. It's a chilling story of religious extremism and the oppression and exploitation of women.

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. This is a very good book which novelizes the lives of two female fossil hunters living on the coast of England in the 1800s when paleontology was really just beginning. The story is enriched by talk of gender, science, and religion without getting too heavy and only a tiny bit soap-opera-y.

National Geographic. I got hooked on the @natgeo Instagram feed and had to get a full issue after seeing great photos and sneak peeks at articles. I read the issue cover to cover and got another the next month. And again today. When is the last time you looked at one?

Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin. After nearly 9 years in "The City" I though it was time to read this book, especially since it is the 2014 choice for the San Francisco Public Library One City One Book program. It originally appeared as a serial in the newspaper in the late 70's, so the chapters are short and the story feels a little choppy, but you definitely want to know what happens next. It's kind of amazing how much San Francisco hasn't changed at it's core. I'll eventually read the sequel.

I'm currently reading a non-fiction selection: "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth" What have you read lately? 

I link to Green Apple Books because they are my fave local bookstore...the only kickbacks I get from them are when they give me store credit for used books!

Trick or Treat

This girl is always a treat...and today she's a sweet little homeybee. Although this year I had to make a trip to Old Navy & the fabric store for supplies, we continued our tradition of a homemade costume. We're heading out in a few hours for her first trick-or-treat trip to houses (last hear we did shops on a local street). We live fairly close to a "fancy" neighborhood, so we may wander that direction to see if there are fancy treats...they have to be split three ways, after all.

Have a happy and safe Halloween!

Summer is gone. Long live summer.

Woosh. No...more like clackity clackity clackity clackity. The sound of the calendar days turning over quickly like a train station schedule board. It's mid-September already and the calendar says summer is ending. But in San Francisco it's really just beginning. The fog lingers less each day. It's a bit disorienting...beach weather is coming soon. I'll get my apple cider on ice. Travels and visitors and new work schedules and new nap schedules and new ideas swirl around me even faster than my daughter does. Blink and it will be fall. Take a breath and it will be Christmas.  Wake up and find it's a new year. I must rememeber to keep my eyes open. To jump in...participate. Choose. Take pictures...unless I'm just enjoying the moment. You never know, I might find someone small took the perfect picture for me.

Hike: Ring Mountain

Today we did a quick 2 mile hike at Ring Mountain Open Space in Marin County. It was just enough to shake the fog and stretch our legs...perfect after a long and slightly lazy holiday weekend. Ring Mountain (also known as Turtle Rock) is one of my favorite quick escapes out of San Francisco because it's five minutes from the freeway, has beautiful views all around of the bay, the city, and Mt. Tam, and the geology and plant life are really interesting, too. I highly recommend exploring here. It's a great spot to take kids, too. Park on the north side to head up the loop trail and you'll get a good climb up to the summit through wildflowery grasslands and California bay laurel stands. As always in this part of the word, do watch out for poison oak! 

Outdoor Women...and girls!

Last fall I read a post on Not Martha about her participation in the Washington Outdoor Women annual Weekend Workshop and immediately signed up for the WOW mailing list. Awesome outdoorsy classes in a beautiful place with a group of interesting ladies...in my head, I was already planning my trip there for 2014. Last week I got a note in my inbox that registration for this year's weekend workshop was open...with a twist. To attend the WOW workshop this year you must bring along a young girl! If my daughter or any kid I knew was the right age (9-12 years old) we'd be there in a heartbeat, signed up for classes about navigation, rope-making, or using wild plants. Oh well...I think it sounds like a lot of fun so I wanted to pass the word along...check out the Washington Outdoor Women website and the weekend workshop brochure. I'm pretty sure anyone from anywhere can attend...although space is limited. Anyone know of similar programs offered elsewhere? 

let kids run wild...but with respect

Emma Marris recently posted an article on Slate, speaking with a former park ranger Matthew Browning and others, and arguing in favor of letting kids explore nature however they want, whether it's climbing trees or collecting rocks or building forts or digging holes, wherever they find nature...even in a national park. At first I was like, "Yeah!" Then I was like "Wait a second..."  

Kids AND adults do need to explore and investigate nature. It's good for the soul and creates a tangible connection between ourselves and the world. BUT national parks are set aside for a reason. And the large numbers of visitors to these popular destinations means the "nature" within a national park is automatically more highly impacted than other natural areas. No one can selfishly treat these places as belonging to just themselves. Public lands must be shared, and they must be left how we would wish to find them.

But after millions of kid-hours of use by children gleefully doing their worst, these play zones remain functioning natural areas. The damage wrought by kids was comparable to that from hiking or camping. 

Letting kids "do their worst" is not teaching them to respect and admire nature.  Nature CAN be a playground...but it is so much more. The article implies that national parks are stuffy with a policy of Leave-No-Fun.  The counter-offer is the creation of designated free-play areas within national parks where kids could do whatever they want to the plants, animals, and earth found in the zone. It's an interesting idea, but perhaps one that should be applied in cities, residential areas, and in place of structured playgrounds...the places kids explore everyday.

Kids do need unstructured playtime, and they do need to experiment and explore...but we humans spend so much time bending nature to our own desires, it's valuable to teach children to stop and quietly observe what's going on around them. Watch, listen, smell. Be IN nature, not ABOVE nature. National parks in particular provide this opportunity, and were in fact created for it. Stewardship, preservation, sustainability, and conservation are the words and actions children need to learn, but first they need to understand why. To understand why they need to see it and experience it as it is, not as an amusement park. Furthermore, they need to see the adults in their world respect and SHARE nature. There's plenty of wild on-trail and within the rules.

it had our name on it

I spotted this under a table at a flea market last year. Even though it has our name on it and a "Lifetime Warranty," I couldn't quite justify bringing it home. Scott isn't really a "motion picture" photographer anyway (not yet...?). Pretty cool packaging though...I can definitely picture an excited 50's kid unwrapping this on Christmas Day.

Diatoms Floating in the Interwebs

Rarely I mention that I work in the geology department of the California Academy of Sciences. In most museums these days there's a push to digitize the collections...photograph and database all the specimens for modern record keeping and to provide global access to holdings (among other reasons). One of my main tasks at my day job is to photograph specimens within the Geology Collections (Thanks, Scott Mansfield, for mentoring my photographic efforts). Awhile back I photographed some interesting microscope slides. These slides contain arrangements of microscopic algae called diatoms. The arrangements are generally meant more for beauty & novelty than for research (though arrangements sometimes show all the species found in one location, which could potentially be useful). I posted the pictures on Flickr as usual and they've...well, they've gone viral. This week I was surprised to open up my feedly reader and see the pictures posted on one of my favorite blogs, Colossal. Woah. I've had inquiries about prints...we're looking into logistic and copyright issues...stay tuned!

UPDATE: Prints can now be ordered. Send me your email and I'll send you an order form.

Wordless Wednesday

December, 2012

Elephantitis

Elephants have been lurking about lately. It started with the appearance of my childhood stuffed elephant Mr. Nibbs. It's about the same size as Abigail. Then we taught Abigail how to make an elephant noise. She's pretty good at it, and does it whenever she hears the word elephant or sees one in a book. Sometimes a whale warrants an elephant call, too. Here are some other elephants that have been on my brain:   

Infantino's Elephant Teether Kiki

Tippi and her "brother" via Bored Panda

Heartbreaking & Sweet Dumbo ♥ Mrs. Jumbo 

Ar-teest

We carved pumpkins this year and we though it would be fun for Abigail to paint her little pumpkin. On Halloween I got out all the stuff. Smock, check. Paper drop cloth, check. Paint & brush, check. It got a little messy after that. Mostly she wanted me to squirt more paint out. And walk around. In the paint. After 5 minutes I came to my senses and cleaned up myself, my baby, and my floor. Then I found some Jolly Roger stickers which Abigail thoroughly enjoyed sticking to her pumpkin. Also, twenty minutes before nap time was probably a little ambitious for this adventure. I think with better timing, a high chair, and maybe another parent we could really accomplish some great artwork, or at least have some more great laughs.

Yoga Studio

I'm still trying to find my way back into an athletic routine after having a baby and being a new parent, plus dealing with some mild injuries. An app I love right now is the Yoga Studio app by Modern Lotus. It's easy to use, it's pretty, and I've already learned new, useful poses...especially some hip opening ones. It's got a great pose library for reference and classes with different ability levels and styles. You can build your own class or use pre-made routines, which come in as little as 15 minute chunks...perfect for balancing yoga with a busy toddler. It's also a great app for folks who have gone to some yoga classes, but struggle with doing it on their own at home... and the Yoga Studio can go anywhere with you...because you know you take your iPhone everywhere. I think it could get your blood moving on a chilly morning while camping. FYI, the makers of this app have no idea who I am....I just though you should know about it.  What are your favorite health and fitness apps? 

Bargains

There was an estate sale on our street today. Estate sales always make me feel a little funny. You're walking through a home, seeing and feeling the stories that surround and connect all the objects. Actually, that part I love. It's like a museum exhibit or an old photo...but it's a snapshot of a whole life. The part that's weird is watching shoppers rifle through it all and haggle. Anyway, I bought an old hand-crank egg beater and a pretty tray, and I'll add my own stories to them.

Outside Wins Again

A week ago I took the little one to Breakfast With Enzo (a fun music session for kids) at Sports Basement. Rather than race home for nap time, I put Abigail in the stroller, crossed my fingers, and took off down Crissy Field for an urban hike. I never get tired of the views and the non-city feeling there. We're lucky that Abigail has always been good at napping on the go...and this day she surprised me by sleeping for two hours. That meant that I ended up walking Crissy Field to the end of the Marina Green, back down to the Warming Hut, back again to the Wave Organ, and then back to Crissy Field...I think it was six or seven miles. My legs were achy and my ears were cold, but it was so worth it. Yes, I stopped for coffee and a Dynamo Donut, but what really made the morning was just being outside, getting air, and observing. I saw 19 different species of birds. I watched the fog break up. I listened to the crunch of gravel underfoot and the sploosh of waves on the bay. When Abigail woke up we walked and explored together a little before taking off for lunch. It was joyous and refreshing and I'm wondering where we should get outside this weekend. Where will you get out?