scenes from my hood

friday! (the IKD edition)

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:44:41 -0800

when L. and i were little

every year on our birthdays

my dad would send my mama flowers with a card from the birthday girl that said “thanks, mom.”

it’s a pretty cute thing.

she did birth us, after all.

now that we’re older, the onus falls on me and my sister to make the call and select the flowers.

as it should.

the “thanks, mom” flowers i sent just arrived at my childhood home, and, according to my mom, they’re quite beautiful.

on this day, the anniversary of the date that i made L. a big sister, and my parents the protectors of two little girls

i say thanks mom, thanks dad, thanks L.

who i am is because of who you are.

and i love you.

this is where we ate lunch absolutely did not eat lunch today. i...

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:14:00 -0800

this is where we ~~ate lunch~~ absolutely did not eat lunch today.

i cannot believe this place exists in the ferry building.

we went to taylor’s automatic refresher (that’s its real name) and i had:

onion rings

sweet potato fries

a veggie burger with cheddar and pickles and special sauce

a mint chip shake

and now i have:

a stomach ache. but a happy one.

on the way back from lunch we passed a bunch of pigeons in a...

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:11:16 -0800

on the way back from lunch we passed a bunch of pigeons in a puddle, with a sea gull standing in the middle of them.

the pigeons were really chubby.

lauren said: “look at those fatties!”

it was funny.

so then i piled emotional abuse on the pigeons and said “get a job! stop living off my dime!’

and for whatever reason lauren and i found this absolutely hilarious.

((image via))

friends, thank you SO VERY MUCH for all of the birthday...

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:27:29 -0800

friends, thank you SO VERY MUCH for all of the birthday wishes.

it is hard to simultaneously sound like a normal person AND to express how much it means to me to have you all in my life. you guys warm my heart.

writing this blog, and reading all of yours, is a truly happy thing. i never would have predicted that starting scenes-from-my-hood would be such a life changer, but it has been, and i owe that to you.

thank you!

((image via))

this is my first birthday present and SWOON i am in love. lauren...

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:08:05 -0800

this is my first birthday present and SWOON i am in love.

lauren fetched for me this beautiful, ornate beaded headband and this glimmery clutch. i feel i will be stealing glances at them all day long!

the special outfit of the day is hanging in my closet in...

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:05:00 -0800

the special outfit of the day is hanging in my closet in anticipation of tonight’s birthday party.

today’s outfit is… typical friday. however, i love this sweater enough to write odes to it.

embroidered cardigan: nanette lepore, via ebay. the trick with expensive designer duds is to figure out what size you are in that maker, and then scour ebay for it. that is how i have acquired the 4 items i own by nanette.

long sleeved shirt: j crew.

jeans: gap 1969 bootcut. i need to get another pair of these. easily my favorite jeans these days.

boots: nine west from several seasons ago. so comfortable.

very basic, but the day is young, and this is a day that is going to have many different chapters.

good morning flowerbox on the sidewalk. these purple and white...

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 09:59:24 -0800

good morning flowerbox on the sidewalk.

these purple and white ones looked like they were on springs, boinging around in the wind.

veronicalovesarchie: So, everyone surely knows that today is...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:49:12 -0800

veronicalovesarchie:

So, everyone surely knows that today is IKD (International Kate Day) or if you wanna be superbly boring about things, Kate’s birthday.
Her wish for this special day, from me, was to hear L speak “in an adorable Aussie accent”. So here it is. I coached her to say some really lame Aussie-isms but she kinda just made it her own. I requested:

“Happy Birthday, Kate. Put another shrimp on the barbie. Love ya, mate”.

BTW, the fatal flaw in this is that a true Aussie would never say “shrimp”. We say “prawn” instead. So there, Paul Hogan, was your fatal flaw.

alright guys, we can close up birthday shop before it even opens. my wishes have been delivered.

thursday, revisited.

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:40:00 -0800

so there was a woman flossing on the bus. it was fucking horrible and you’ll read about it below.

but then, after moving away from the offensive flosser, i sat towards the back of the bus.

i’m wearing a hat, because it’s cold. and because i love my hat.

so i don’t have my peripheral vision.

i got off the bus, pleased to be away from the mouth debris

and i looked up, at the lit bus, from the dark sidewalk

and sitting right behind where i’d been sitting was the ex, looking like he’d been stored in a little blond time-capsule since i’d seen him last. preserved exactly.

i haven’t seen him in at least a year.

i realize it’s a small city

and that these things are bound to happen.

but it didn’t happen for such a long time,

and his reappearance, in the flesh, was a little bit shocking.

that said, not as shocking as the flosser.

and in the end, this day will not be the day i saw the ex on the bus

it will be the day that i realized how wide the gap is

between civilzed behavior

and flossing on public transportation.

In which I die a little bit inside

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:19:00 -0800

Sweet baby jeebs, woman next to me on the bus is flossing and flinging her mouth nast around. Dis-fucking-gusting.

thursday.

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:49:00 -0800

i was totally NOT just on getsnuggie.com

because that would be stupid.

if i HAD been on there, i would totally have been looking for a snuggie for roo.

but, i mean, that’s not at all what just went down.

theoretically, though, if one does go to getsnuggie.com

they will learn that snuggies are good for the following:

traveling in the car!

nighttime pub crawls! (REALLY?? i agree but they’re ADVERTISING SNUGGIE CRAWLS NOW?)

chilly office buildings!

sporting events! (i’d rather die)

cold movie theaters!

and much, much more!

amazing. thank you, america, for all of that. every single moment of it.

and happy IKD-eve.

this is my happy-early-birthday floral bouquet from my office. i...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:42:30 -0800

this is my happy-early-birthday floral bouquet from my office.

i don’t fancy myself much of a ‘ballet pink roses with baby’s breath’ kind of person, but these are really very pretty.

"this particular picture has me concerned that he contains trace amounts of douche."

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:09:00 -0800

“this particular picture has me concerned that he contains trace amounts of douche.”

- a lady-friend of mine, on her blind date for this evening.

sfhaps:San Francisco Bay. Shot from Oakland hills (via Liêm Phó...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:05:00 -0800

sfhaps:San Francisco Bay. Shot from Oakland hills (via Liêm Phó Nhòm)

it’s a beautiful landscape; it’s a city; it’s home.

this is the saddest sign ever, encountered at lunch at boxed...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:37:18 -0800

this is the saddest sign ever, encountered at lunch at boxed foods with lauren.

in the year 2000 when i was young and agile i went to madrid for...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:18:00 -0800

in the year 2000

when i was young and agile

i went to madrid for spring break with about 10 of my friends.

it was the single most exhausting vacation i’ve ever been on.

it was sophomore year in college, and my good friend rachel was studying abroad there.

so a whole crew of us went to visit.

we stayed in world’s nicest hostel, with granite floors and chandeliers.

we went out to 6 and slept until 11 and went to museums, or shopping, ate, and ate, took a siesta, and did it all again.

i subsisted primarily on chocolate croissants. i would have developed scurvy if not for the fruit in the sangria. i learned on that trip that the fruit soaks up the alcohol. woops!

i was in some state of hungover-or-drunk-again, in parks in the mornings, wandering, speaking ridiculously, the entire time.

i was most amused that the posters for ‘dude, where’s my car’ were translated as ‘colega, donde esta me coche?’

i said that line over and over.

we drank at a bar owned by gloria esteffan where there was a man wearing only silver glitter.

i ate a lot of cheese products. we went to vips quite a few times.

one early afternoon, at a bar, i hung my red bag on the back of my chair.

this, friends, was a bad call.

and i’m a city kid! what was i thinking?

there was a clamoring behind me

a gentleman knocked over his chair.

he leaned near me to pick it up

and smiled apologetically.

when i turned around a few minutes later he was gone

and so was my wallet.

when he had knocked over the chair, he had swooped in for the kill.

i found a payphone and called to cancel my cards. i probably left a less than coherent message on my parents’ voicemail. i bet they really appreciated it and didn’t regret having birthed me and sent me into the world at all.

my friends covered me for the rest of the trip, and the wallet-less-ness served to curtail my european shopping in a way that was probably good.

the trip was an absolute blast.

about a month later, i was safely back on campus thinking wistfully of all nighters spent on the cobblestones of madrid eating churros con chocolate for second dinner at 5am, i got a call from my parents.

the wallet had been returned, mailed to my home address in san francisco.

the only thing missing was the spanish cash. the american cash, all of my cards, the sentimental junk you keep in your wallet, and my drivers license were all included.

there was a note that someone had found it atop a garbage can and returned it to the american embassy, who sent it to me.

it was such a nice thing. and such a surprise! isn’t it the best when life surprises you by being easier than you anticipated? isn’t it spectacular when strangers do kind things like return drunk, over-privileged college students’ stolen wallets to the embassy from the tops of trash cans?

there is no deeper message. i was, as stated, a hot mess that week. it was an amazing time. i did a stupid thing and some spanish turd stole my wallet. and then someone did something truly nice and returned it.

but it’s a good memory, and we ought to bask in those every single day.

"Sorry that you were/are so stressed. Those times come and go. Like a kidney stone, they do pass,..."

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:30:38 -0800

“Sorry that you were/are so stressed. Those times come and go. Like a kidney stone, they do pass, albeit occasionally painfully.”

- my dad. once he compared a guy i dated in college to a ‘weigh station on the highway’ and said that ‘a better one would be open down the road.’

i love my dad. he’s the best.

julie sent me the link to this, which she posted in july, since...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:53:37 -0800

julie sent me the link to this, which she posted in july, since she noticed i’ve been glum lately. marmoset song=panacea.

(via tiffanyhoran) things i love: the tube. london. it’s...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:40:33 -0800

(via tiffanyhoran)

things i love: the tube. london. it’s weird to love public transport, i understand. but it represents the place, and i miss the place very much indeed.

well good morning, friends. last night when it was bedtime, the...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:05:00 -0800

well good morning, friends. last night when it was bedtime, the doctor and i made a deal; he would take out the trash, and i would take roo out for his nighttime ritual.

when i took roo out, i saw that our kindly upstairs neighbor had already taken our trash for us, thereby negating the need for the doctor to do so. and i was so pissed that i was out in the cold and that he did not have to share that misery with me.

i half wanted to go inside and tell him that i had changed my mind, and that i would ‘take out the trash’ instead.

but i didn’t. and i walked roo around the block until his bladder gave way.

and that, my dears, is love. not scheming so that your sick boyfriend has to go out into the cold in pajamas and a puffer jacket=love.

anyway, the point is, that whole process took longer than usual (ro-sham-boe to determine who was taking the trash out, etc) and i did not have any time to scope my closet for today’s outfit.

this is what i came up with, bleary eyed, this morning.

embellished cardigan: sparrow, from anthropologie.

layering tank: target.

skirt: banana republic

boots: steven by steve madden.

bubble necklace: etsy.

headband: american eagle.

i feel a little bit like a second grade teacher today, you guys. that’s not a bad thing, but it’s somewhat atypical. since i’ve been, ahem, in a bit of a mood lately, i feel i am off my shoe game. look for me to rectify this in my 29th year of life.

how do you break out of sartorial ruts?