Rainy Day Blues, not quite

This morning awake to rustling outside my window that sounded something like cars driving on wet pavement and drops hitting the gravel driveway... the sound of rain. I turned to look outside, and was surprised by how light it was. In fact, it was that crisp and winter angled morning sunlight against blue sky. And the sound I heard was dried leaves being blown around by the wind whipping around. I new it would be a cold, wintry day, perfect for an adventure.

I got up this morning with the goal of exploring a new area of San Francisco. I often go to SF because of the unique neighborhoods and mix of urban areas and parks within a small 7 mile square. I started to think about why I am drawn to the city and think I've come up with an explanation ( it may also explain my love of maps and geography). Here it is in a nutshell (I'll try my best to explain).

I value so many aspects of memories... I think they remind me of who I am and who I want to strive to be. The smells (diesel fuel= London; cold rain on plants= Salem), the sights/places, who I'm with, weather (see "rafting weather" from previous blogs), and the emotions I feel from all of these outside stimuli, all influence my perspective on the world and how I see myself fitting in that world. All of those experiences and memories have contributed to making me who I am. By looking at a map (let's say of SF) I don't just see lines and points, but I see places I've been and am reminded of those memories, smells, feelings, and people. To me a map doesn't just show me how to get from point A to point B, rather it is a network of plotted memories and experiences. Rather than thinking of my life chronologically, it makes more sense to think of it spatially. Now when I look at a map of SF and I see the intersection of Columbus and Union St. , I don't just see lines, I am brought back to watching Il Postino on a giant screen in Washington Square Park on a summer evening with friends, or going across the street to Mara's, our favorite Italian bakery, or going on a walking tour of North Beach with my mom, and even getting my picture in the paper when my boss and I were sitting at a sidewalk cafe on a random trip to pick up his car from the mechanic. All of that from just one point on a map!

I think this way of thinking helps account for my passion for maps and geography, and it certainly helps that I have a good sense of direction. I was trying to think of places in SF to go where I haven't been, but often my attempts fail because my default trips are to places I have been. I created this map on Google Maps to help me with this problem. I decided to plot points where I have been (lines represent walks or places I have driven when walking wasn't so convenient) in order to see areas that I haven't really explored. On the map linked to below, the shaded areas are places lacking points, thus, places I haven't really been to. Right now the points don't have descriptions, but I will try to fill them in with restaurant names, or fun stories about my visits. http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=h&msa=0&msid=112124917024774758311.00045ddce7beb4fe8f46d&ll=37.7737,-122.392502&spn=0.254549,0.615234&z=11

Anyway, long story short, this blog was going to be about how it started pouring and I couldn't decided if I wanted to go to SF to walk in the rain. Instead, I sit here now, bundled up on the couch, writing about how I can see my life through a map.

Fun in SF

On Friday night my office had a Tree Trimming party, and as office go-to girl, I ran errands, cleaned and best of all, tried to make treats for 35 people look yummy! Below are pics of the fruit plate, desserts, and cheese plate with other appetizers. It's fun to have a boss with good taste in food.. it gives you a lot to work with!

Yesterday after cleaning up the office, Erica and I decided to head to the city on a whim and see where the day would take us. We started over in the Marina district, eating at a cool spot called The Grove, then headed out to the Presidio for some quiet trails and great views.

The winter sun was at a great angle giving lovely shadow in the Presidio cemetery. We then walked through Crissy field to Fort Point, the only Civil War Fort that was West of the Mississippi (we learned fun facts like this.. in addition to getting great shots of the Golden Gate Bridge)!

We have some great views of the bridge at many different angles. A couple of hours later we walked back through Crissy Field and the Palace of Fine Arts.

Later that evening, a bunch of us headed back to the city to go ice skating in Union Square. It turned out the skating session was sold out, so we booked it down the hill to Yerba Buena Gardens to check out the full size indoor rink. Turns out a session was about to start and we were about 15th in line. It wasn't skating outside under the twinkling Christmas lights, but we had much more room to skate around. Someone then had a hankering for chocolate so we hopped the cable car, hung on tight and wove our across town to Ghiradelli Square for some ice cream!

Sadly, I didn't get any shots of the delicious ice cream, but here we have Doug and Amanda on the front of the cable car, and Warren and Ben hanging on behind! After our rich treats at Ghiradelli we walked down to Fisherman's Wharf, jumped on the Embarcadero Streetcar, took BART back to the East Bay, and headed to the Kona Club, the local tiki bar by my house.

It ended up being an amazing day full of adventures discovering new places and spending great time with great friends. Every time I visit San Francisco there is something new and beautiful!