Top 10 Things I Love About the Bay Area
I compiled the following list for some colleagues who are trying to decide whether to move to the Bay Area, and I thought I'd share it here.
- The weather.
- The diversity (and all the good things diversity brings: great food, great cultcha, new perspectives, art movies... I could go on, but I won't). San Francisco is basically the New York of the west coast, only sunnier.
- The fact that you can start playing ice hockey at age 30 here, and actually have 100 other people your age to play with.
- Snow is only 3 hours away, if you want it.
- I don't feel like a freak (and this is not just about hair color). Everybody here is in software or networking or web development. An acquaintance once told me about a time he was sitting on a bench in South Park (in SF) at lunchtime. A guy on another bench let out an anguished "arrrrrgh!" and yelled, "does anyone know anything about blah blah blah system calls on Mac OS9?" Someone from across the park responded, "I do!" and went over to help the frustrated engineer. Pretty neat.
- It's fun to live on the political and social bleeding edge. We may have energy, budget, tax, and education crises, but California leads the way in environmental and social policy. Whatever we're doing now, the rest of the country will be doing 10 years from now.
- The food. Name a cuisine, we've got it here. And the variety of organic and vegetarian options is staggering.
- It's a travel hub. Three major international airports serve the Bay Area, and it's as easy to get to Hawaii, Seoul, or Tokyo as it is to get to Boston, New York, or Dallas. If you hate to fly, the wine country, the mountains, and the Monterey Peninsula are all within 1-3 hours' drive.
- Unlike in LA, it's actually feasible to walk here.
- My husband. We both grew up in Massachusetts, have friends and relatives in Baltimore and DC, and travel to Hawaii regularly, but we met here. It's obviously the place to be!
Bay Area Bullet Points
Greetings from the Apple store in Palo Alto, CA. Al is getting his hair cut, and I came over here to check e-mail, but the Apple store employees seem to have gotten wise to that ploy—they've stuffed and encrypted the Terminal program. Drat!
I wanted to record a couple of random observations that came up yesterday:
- During a discussion about outsourcing and the jobless recovery, Al noted that back in the 80s, when Japan seemed to own everything, Honda opened a plant in the U.S. Lots of folks boycotted Honda, despite the fact that they were creating jobs for U.S. workers. The reason? The profits were going to Japanese companies. Nowadays there's anger that jobs are being shifted overseas to generate profits for American companies. Which would you rather have in the U.S. if you had to choose, the jobs or the profits? I'm thinking jobs, but that's me.
- While driving back from dinner with our friends John and Kathy, we listened to election coverage on KQED. It was a good 40-minute ride from Palo Alto, where we'd eaten, to San Francisco, where we're staying, so we got to hear lots of news and analysis about the Super Tuesday results, as well as the results of ballot measures and Senate races in California. "See?" said Al. "We don't get this in Philly. I miss good election coverage and analysis." "It's not that Philly doesn't offer it," I replied. "It's that we don't drive in Philly." I'd been touting that as one of the benefits of living in the city—that Al's commute is a 10-minute walk, and I don't have one at all. Now I'm realizing that a small commute could be a good thing...
There was one other bullet point I wanted to share, courtesy of our friend John, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was now. I wish I'd followed my instinct and jotted down a note on my placemat at dinner last night. With any luck, John will remember what it was that made me say, "I need to blog about this" and comment on this post send me an e-mail. :)
Weddings
This weekend Al and I were in San Francisco for the beautiful wedding of two friends. When the officiant asked the bride's father, who walked her down the aisle, "who gives this woman in holy matrimony?", the father replied in a booming voice, "she gives herself!" All RIGHT!! As the bride and groom joined hands, the officiant said some things about marriage that I can't begin to articulate now but that were so true they made my heart burst and shoot into my throat—which made my eyes water, of course. Actually, the whole event seemed designed to make my heart swell and my eyes water. The reception was on the 32nd floor of the Westin St. Francis, in a room that featured panoramic views of a city I love (and that the bridge and groom do, too, of course), and the first dance was to I Left My Heart in San Francisco. <sob!> My heart is swelling now just thinking of it, just looking at this snapshot of love.
It was a perfect little weekend that reminded us of what we love and miss about San Francisco (just as we've finally gotten used to Philadelphia, ironically). We stayed in SOMA, near the ballpark, and it was cool to see how that area has grown and improved. We had looked at some lofts on either side or Pac Bell (now SBC) Park early last year, and it's still our first choice for where we'd want to live if we moved back to California. (I think it's more likely that we'll live somewhere else—somewhere other than Philly—before we make our way back to SF, though.) I got to see my friend Kristin and have dessert and coffee at an incredible bakery at 18th and Guerrero (Cafe Tartine—I highly recommend the vanilla cream fruit tarts and the rich chocolate brownies), and together Al and I got to visit our favorite place for dim sum (Ton Kiang) and stuff ourselves silly at the Indian buffet near our old house down on the peninsula (the name has changed from Swagat's to Dastoor, and the food is even better than before). Oh, and we also stocked up on See's chocolates, which can't be found here in Philly. (Is there any doubt now how I've managed to gain almost 30 pounds already with this pregnancy?) Walking around the city and snapping photos inspired me to rebuild the original about town database and add a few more photos to it; I'll add a few more over the coming days.
This coming weekend I'll return to another former home city—Boston—for another wedding. Two friends who have been together since I was a kid are finally getting married, thanks to the Massachusetts Supreme Court's recognizing their right to do so. It's a little shocking to me that so many in this country would want to deny others the love, comfort, and legal rights afforded by marriage. The idea that these two amazing people—who have already been sharing their lives for better and for worse, in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer, raising children and caring for aging parents, changing jobs and starting businesses, building a nest (and then expanding and remodeling it) for more than 20 years—would be denied the medical decisionmaking, estate planning and inheritance, and other legal rights of spouses is insane to me. Even heterosexual couples who never marry can end up with these rights in many states by virtue of "common law," for pete's sake. This couple's desire to marry *affirms* marriage, strengthens the foundation of our society, inspires others to live lives of love and commitment. I'm eager to witness this affirmation. And I fully expect to cry.
Food Finds
I wanted to mention a couple tasty items I've come across in the past few months and that I've enjoyed again recently.
The rootbeer floats at Taylor's Automatic Refresher in the Ferry Building in San Francisco are the best I think I've ever had. The rootbeer is delicious, with a nice peppery finish, and the ice cream is smooth and creamy and has a fresh, authentic vanilla flavor. Best of all, the proportions of rootbeer and ice cream are perfect; most floats I've found elsewhere have had too much ice cream and not enough rootbeer. At Taylor's, you have a chance to eat a few spoonfuls of the ice cream, but there's still plenty of rootbeer to quench your thirst—and your curiosity. I loved trying to identify the faint herbal flavors that lingered on my tongue after each swallow.
Taylor's also has excellent garlic fries—better than the ones at SBC Park, IMHO. They're a bit thinner than the SBC/Gordon Biersch variety, with a better distribution of garlic. The result is a more subtle garlic flavor and fries that remain crispy all the way to the bottom of the cardboard basket. They're well complemented by malt vinegar (which can be found near the ketchup dispensers) and a bit of extra salt. Next time I think I'll try the sweet potato fries for variety... as long as someone else at the table gets the garlic fries. :)
On the eastern side of the country, the white pizza with spinach at the Fresh Grocer at 40th and Walnut in Philadelphia is not only delicious, it's also an amazing value ($1.60 per humongous slice, including tax). The crust is thin, buttery, and alternately chewy and crispy (think of a very thin pita brushed with butter and lightly broiled), and there's plenty of yummy cheese, garlic, and fresh (not frozen!) baby spinach leaves on top. For me, it's totally worth the nearly 20-block walk each way—and I can usually pay for a slice with the change at the bottom of my backpack.
One word of caution about this Fresh Grocer: While I've found the service at the prepared foods counter to be fairly good, it leaves something to be desired in the rest of the store—especially at the checkouts and the "customer service" counter. Employees seem more interested in picking up their paychecks and chatting with their colleagues than in waiting on customers. The lack of service attitude is appalling, really, even by Philadelphia standards. I wouldn't recommend buying groceries unless you're feeling especially patient and in good humor. One way to put a smile on your face: Eat your pizza first. :)
Where's My Voter Information Guide?
When we lived in California, we got an official Voter Guide for every election—one that listed every candidate and every proposition on the ballot, including arguments for and against each. It also listed our polling place on the back, and usually included an application for an absentee ballot (handy if you knew you'd be travelling on election day). I've been waiting patiently for such a book to show up at my house in Philly, but so far, none has come.
The other day I happened to catch my friend Valerie, who moved from San Francisco back to Maine a few months ago, online. When I IMed to see what she was up to, she replied that she was taking a break from her violin practice "to see if I can find any info on our local bond measures so I can send in my ballot. Unlike SF, we're not inundated with info [here])." To which I replied, "Yeah, same here -- I'm like, 'where's my voter information guide?'" Valerie: "Exactly!"
I decided to try Valerie's technique and search the web for information. I found all kinds about how to register to vote, how to actually vote, how to determine whether I qualify for a provisional ballot, and what constitutes proper voter identification, but NOTHING ABOUT WHO THE CANDIDATES ARE. (Nothing at all about initiatives, either. Are there no ballot initiatives in Pennsylvania? Have my expectations been colored by living in proposition-happy California?)
When my searches of official websites failed, I tried the sites of local free weeklies. (In San Francisco, the SF Bay Guardian, a liberal free weekly, published a voter guide that was really useful; I remember voting a "straight Guardian ticket" one year, except for one proposition that I didn't agree with them on.) I even picked up an actual paper copy of Philadelphia Weekly yesterday, but alas, no voter guide. WTF? (I did find a couple of endorsements on the Philadelphia Weekly website, but they hardly constituted a guide.)
Today we received in the mail our voter information cards—which informed us of our polling place (I'd already panicked when one of the official local election websites said I'd need to check the newspaper (!) to find out where to vote, and subsequently followed a link from the Rittenhouse Review to Hallwatch.org, which gave me the scoop), our ward and division numbers, and the fact that we'd have to show ID because this is the first time we're voting in this district. It struck me as a little late to be telling us this stuff, but maybe the Voter Registration Office wanted to make sure we got it close enough to the election that we wouldn't misplace the info.
Along with Al's and my voter information cards, we also received one for the male half of the couple who used to live here; I guess he never re-registered when he moved (or maybe they finally moved out of state, as they intended to eventually, and word has not made it back to PA). In between the voter information cards were two slightly larger, four-color cards, one of which showed a photo of Yasser Arafat with the caption "Role Model and Statesman? John Kerry Thinks So." The other showed a nice Jewish lady by the name of Janet Kreisman, who, we are told, is a Registered Democrat, with the following quote: "I FEEL SAFE WITH PRESIDENT BUSH."
Once again I was left to puzzle, WTF? Why are we getting scare mail...? And then I saw the addressee. *We* are not getting scare mail; the former occupant, who happens to have a Jewish surname, is. I was pretty shocked, and yet glad for once that the former occupant's forwarding order had expired, while his voter registration had not—it gave me an opportunity to see some shady scare tactics that otherwise would have escaped my notice.
Here's my question (and at this point, I've obviously strayed pretty far from my original rant about the lack of voter information here in Philly, though I'll return to that in a moment): Does Bush-Cheney '04, Inc., which authorized the Arafat mailing, or the RNC, which paid for it, really think all American Jews vote based on a single issue—namely, Israel? I find that kind of hard to believe, but not being Jewish, I can't say for sure.
The other mailing, paid for by the Republican Jewish Coalition, focuses more broadly on the war on terror and 9/11 (though it also mentions "President Bush's unprecedented pro-Israel policies"). Ms. Kreisman goes on to say in the mailing that "I've always been a pro-choice Democrat, but party loyalties have no meaning when it comes to my family's safety." (I thought it was kind of interesting that the mailing would make reference to that other famous "single issue": abortion.)
Anyway, seeing Ms. Kreisman's smiling face over the Republican Jewish Coalition's pitch made me think of one more place to try for voter information: The League of Women Voters. Yay, women voters! While this non-partisan organization of course provides no endorsements, they do at least tell you who (and what) is on the ballot in your area. (Just enter your zip code into the box under My Races.)
It was so cool to at least see who was running in my district; now I can Google their names, look up their records, and check for endorsements by various news organizations. I didn't see any ballot initiatives listed, so to test whether (a) the LWV doesn't give info on ballot initiatives, or (b) there just aren't any here, I entered my old address in San Francisco to see what would come up. Sure enough, there was a huge list of initiatives for SF, so I now know that the answer is (b), there just aren't any here.
Now, go vote! (On Tuesday of course. Wait until Tuesday!)
Time Zone Trauma
We were hoping that somehow flying six hours across three time zones wouldn't affect Austen's body clock, but of course that was a totally ridiculous notion. The poor boopster is still sleeping at the moment, probably convinced that it's the middle of the night. He woke up at 3:30am screaming; Al hypothesized that he was just waking up at his normal 6:30am ET, but as the person he was sleeping closest to (he kept pursuing the boobs with such zeal, even in his sleep, that he had me hanging off the side of the King-sized bed), I can confirm that his nasal passages clogged to the point where he couldn't breathe. The scream was a scream of panic.
We've been humidifying his room at home for the past couple nights because he caught the respiratory infection I had, and the doctor said a moist room would help him breathe. I think between the airplane and the extra-dry hotel room, the snot in his nose solidified and his delicate nasal passages swelled to the point where it was like trying to breathe through a coffee stirrer. I got him up, steamed up the bathroom, and sat in there for a while with him, which seemed to help. I'll be buying a small humidifier for him today.
Oh, he just woke up. Good morning, sunshine!
Austen's also probably all out of whack because of the extra stimulation he got yesterday. Between smiling at everyone in the airport and on the plane and playing with half my former colleages at Macromedia (the other half were working at home yesterday), he was pretty exhausted by the time we went out for dinner at around 6. (A big hooray again for Taylor's Automatic.)
OK, the kid is now well and truly awake, so I'd better get on with the diaper changing. We're going over to Oakland today to see Morrisa and Miranda—yay!
Morrisa, Miranda, nj, and Austen
Had a lovely time visiting with Morrisa and Miranda (and nj, who was there for a few minutes before he had to leave for work) yesterday. It's so interesting for me to catch up and compare notes with my friends who've become parents in the past year or two (and there are so many of us!). I was so shocked to see Miranda walking and talking! Last I saw her she was only a little older than Austen is now. It's hard to believe that Austen will be at that stage someday... I try not to think about it too much, though, since living in the now helps keep me from being completely overwhelmed with parenthood.
Today I'm meeting Jean and Ellen for coffee/breakfast, and then I'll hop over to Macromedia for lunch with Winsha. Unfortunately, it's raining—AND I FORGOT THE RAIN COVER FOR THE STROLLER. I'm such a freaking idiot! I had had every intention of bringing it... I guess I just forgot to think about where I'd put it, and so I didn't put it anywhere. Fart! After running a couple errands in the immediate vicinity of the hotel while wearing the Baby Bjorn yesterday afternoon, I can say definitively that the Bjorn would not be a good substitute for the stroller on outings lasting more than an hour (especialy when I'm also carrying packages).
I'm hoping that the rain is more like a drizzle, and that the combination of the sunshade and the canopy will provide sufficient protection for Austen. Unfortunately, I'm also down a blanket, since he kicked off the one we brought, and it ended up going under the wheels of the stroller (and my feet) on Market Street. Ew. While we weren't in the urine-soaked stretch of Market between 5th and 9th, I'm still unwilling to put the blanket back on the baby until it's washed. I guess I will hunt around the hotel room and see if there's a suitable substitute, like a towel or something.
Dodging Downpours
Yesterday was a weird day weatherwise: It alternated between partly sunny and incredibly rainy. The valets/bellstaff at our hotel ushered me down to the garage to get into the car in the morning so I wouldn't have to load the baby and the stroller in a downpour (so nice!), so the only time I got wet was when I had to get Austen out of the car at Sally's. The rest of the day I managed to be outside only when it was sunny/cloudy, and not when the sky opened up.
Sally's was where I met Jean and Ellen for coffee, baked goods, and baby interaction. It was so neat to see Ellen in person at 7 months; we'd last seen her when she was only two weeks old, and I was at 7 months. :) I got advice from Jean about how to find a nanny to help me out one to two days a week (I think I'm going to continue contracting for a while, and the current system of Al working during the day while I watch Austen, and me working at night while Al watches Austen isn't sustainable), and we compared notes on everything from sleeping to soothing to installing car seats. We also did a lot of playing with the babies.
When Jean had to leave, I moved the car over to De Haro Street and then walked over to Macromedia to say hi to some friends and meet Winsha for lunch. On the way, Heather called, and we made plans for lunch on Monday. I love that we're here for a whole week! Incidentally, people keep asking why I'm here, and when I explain that Al came out for Flash Forward, meetings, and college recruiting, they seem surprised that I came along, too. One person even said, "well, at least you know people here, so you're not stuck in the hotel room the whole time." People, I wouldn't be stuck in the hotel room even if I didn't know a soul. If I don't stay in the house when I'm at home in Philadelphia, why would I do that here? I am someone who would explore any city I happened to be in, kid in tow. And as for tagging along with my husband, all it costs us is airfare and whatever I spend on food—and it doesn't cost his company anything extra, since they'd be putting him up in a hotel room whether I came or not. Let's see: Traveling with my husband to an interesting city vs. staying home alone with the baby for 8 days. Which would you choose? Throw in a ton of friends and former colleagues to visit, and if the choice wasn't obvious before, it should be now.
Anyway, there was a massive downpour while I was in the Macromedia building, but it stopped by the time Winsha and I went out the front door. We had lunch at Pazzo (tuna and avocado sandwiches for both of us) and caught up on work, commutes, and life in general while Austen kicked off his new socks, grabbed my napkin, fussed outrageously, and had his first taste of something other than breastmilk and Infant Tylenol: a bit of avocado smeared on my finger. (Seems fitting, no? :) We've never been able to get a good photo of Sad Face at home, but I managed to get one version of it here—I just missed the lower lip jutting out first. Austen's mood is no reflection on Winsha, whose cheerfulness and whimsy rank among the top things I miss about living here. I think Austen had just had enough of interacting with new people—and not quite enough sleep.
After lunch (which was fairly late), I drove over to the Herbst Theater to pick Al up from Flash Forward, and we had a little family time in the evening. We took a walk over to the Jamba Juice at the Macy's Cellar and to Starbucks for a Chantico, picked up water and wipes and a copy of Sideways on DVD, and then came back to the hotel. Al ordered room service, and I walked over to the Metreon with Austen in the Bjorn to get something for myself. (Our only complaints about this hotel are that the toilet seat is pretty cheap and ill-fitting, and that the room service menu is fairly limited and not particularly vegetarian-friendly. Otherwise, everything from the room to the bell staff has been fabulous.) I got some incredibly yummy (but at $9.49, outrageously expensive) udon with shrimp and tofu from the Long Life Noodle place. If price is no object, I'd recommend it.
We watched most of Sideways on my laptop before finally following Austen's lead and conking out. We finished it off this morning, and are now planning to head over to the Embarcadero for a walk before driving down to Los Altos Hills to visit friends for dinner. I leave you with this morning's cute-baby-in-bed photo:
Exersaucer!
As I mentioned at the end of yesterday morning's post, we headed down to the Embarcadero to see the farmer's market at the Ferry Building and to have some more sweet potato fries at Taylor's. Austen was great through lunch, but afterwards he got grumpy, and his mood rubbed off on me. (Add to that the fact that I had to pee, and the lines were so long at the Ferry Building bathrooms that it wasn't practical to wait with a baby for the handicap stall to open up.) We bought a bottle of wine to bring to dinner at Craig & Nico's and some oranges at an organic farm stand, and then we headed back to the hotel (well, after a stop at See's).
We were all a bit tired—Austen is sleeping in the bed with us, which means he wants to nurse every couple hours through the night—so we just rested for a while before driving down to Los Altos Hills. I think Al got actively sad as we drove down 280; the views were so spectacular that he couldn't quite believe we left them. This reminded us, too, that we'd picked up copies of the Real Estate Times to look through while eating at Taylor's, but we were so busy holding Austen while stuffing down fries that we never got a chance to open them.
When we arrived at Craig and Nico's, we found that Nico had gotten out some toys for Austen that her sons had liked but had mostly outgrown: a little tent to lie under, some colorful stuffed whoozits, and an exersaucer. Why it had never occurred to us that Austen might like an exersaucer—and that if he did, it could replace the swing and bouncy seat that Austen's now too big for—when his favorite thing is to stand up, I couldn't tell you. It seemed like the most obvious thing in the world as soon as we put him in it.
Al and I looked at each other and declared, "WE ARE SO GETTING ONE OF THESE." Nico advised us to borrow one, if possible, since it's only useful for a few months and then must be stored or given away (and the thing is huge), but we'll probably end up buying one and then passing it on to our friends who are now pregnant.
We had a lovely dinner with Craig, Nico, Stosh, and Rey, and then all the kids seemed to get cranky at once, so we went our separate ways to soothe. Austen fell asleep in the car on the way back, and a walk to the Starbucks at the Metreon in the Bjorn cemented the deal. Al and I were able to stay up for a little while reading the Real Estate Times and uploading images to the baby blog for the grandparents to see. As for the former, it seems that every time we visit we discover that housing prices have gone up AGAIN. We are starting to despair that we'll ever be afford to move back!
Today I'm planning to hang out with Kristin while Al hits golf balls. I'm looking forward to heading west in the city and revisiting some old haunts!
Available
I'll write more about what we did today in the morning, but I wanted to post a quick photo from the hour or so Kristin, Austen, and I spent in Dolores Park. Aren't they cute?
Sunshine (and Overstimulation) in San Francisco
Had a lovely day walking around San Francisco, eating incredibly yummy chocolate pudding from Cafe Tartine, soaking up the sun in Dolores Park, drinking cappucino at Squat 'N Gobble, and just generally enjoying spending time with Kristin yesterday. I had less fun trying to get Austen to nurse properly at practically every place we stopped, but I got him fed and calm eventually. Everyone (including us) thought the long plane ride would be the hard part about traveling, but overstimulation has been a much bigger problem.
We have loved introducing Austen to all our friends and taking him to our favorite Bay Area places, but we've learned that the little guy has limits: He can really only smile at so many new people each day before he melts down. By about 4pm yesterday Austen was done for the day, but we still had things to do and people to see. We drove to the Outer Richmond to see Beth & Matt (who served us wine and cheese in their lovely back yard), and then met up with Kristin again for dim sum at Ton Kiang. That's where the meltdown happened, unfortunately; the food was great and so was the company, but I felt bad for possibly ruining other diners' dinners when Austen started wailing. I know I would have hated it in my former childless life.
Today we're trying to spread out the activities and introductions a bit. After a quiet morning I had a really nice lunch with Heather and Derek down near the ballpark (it was my first time meeting Derek in person—such a great guy!); to my relief Austen was calm and smiley and sweet the entire time. I was glad to see that he could recover well from the trauma at Ton Kiang. Derek was more of a natural with a baby on his lap than he realized, and Heather impressed Austen with her knowledge of cartoon theme songs (I've now got the Banana Splits theme stuck in my head, too).
While I was lunching with people from my early Internet days, so was Al: He and his friend Morgen, with whom he worked at @Home (and later at OSAF), were taking on tapas at the Thirsty Bear. I stopped by the restaurant so Morgen could see Austen, and then we went back to the hotel so Al could work and Austen and I could rest.
I know we're pushing it going down to Palo Alto to have dinner with our friend Ken, but hopefully Austen won't go ballistic until the car ride home...
Reel Moms and Real Work
The Loews Theater inside the Metreon, which is a block away from our hotel, is a Reel Moms venue, and since today is Tuesday, I decided to go to the movies. The film was actually one I was curious to see—Fever Pitch—since I saw the original British version recently, and I like Nick Hornby's novels. The original was really only a 2-star movie, but I figured that left room for improvement, and making it about the Boston Red Sox seemed like a smart move.
Oh, how I wish there were anything else smart about this movie. I'm not sure I can adequately describe how awful it was, but here are just a few of my complaints:
- Is it really that hard to find someone with a Boston accent for a movie about the Red Sox? They explained Jimmy Fallon's lack of accent by making him a New Jersey transplant, but they failed to explain why everyone else sounded like they were from California or New York.
- All the lines (yes, ALL of them—at least, all the ones in the first half, which is all I stayed for) sounded like they were one-off statements rather than components of dialogue. The characters weren't talking to each other; they were just talking. Stiffly.
- There were several moments of what was supposed to be high hilarity, but since these were as ill-integrated as the "dialogue", they just made me wonder whether the people behind this dreck thought they were making a romantic comedy or a Leslie Neilsen vehicle. Also, note to writers: People getting hit in the head, dropped from a great height, and punched in the face? Not funny.
- The product placements (HELLO, MARQUIS JET!) were even more ham-handed and incongruous than either the dialogue or the moments of "comedy", which is saying a lot. What exactly does Marquis Jet's promising business outlook have to do with loving math and numbers in general? The company's mission statement is articulated more clearly than how Drew Barrymore's character is putting her math degree to practical use (the demonstration of which is supposedly the point of that scene).
- I've seen Drew Barrymore perform admirably in a well-written film, but I've never thought she was that great an actress—and she certainly can't make a bad movie bearable. Quite the opposite, in fact.
- Can there really be someone in Boston who doesn't know who Carl Yastrzemski is? Especially someone over the age of 25?
- Drew Barrymore's friends in this movie are positively TOXIC. It's hard to believe anyone could think that women are this mean, spiteful, stupid, and obsessed with "tagging and bagging" men... except perhaps this guy or this guy. I'm seriously starting to worry that it's becoming socially acceptable to trash women (again).
I could go on, but as I noted in #2, Austen and I gave up and left about halfway through. He was hating the movie as much as I was. The only interesting part was comparing this venue to our home theater in Cherry Hill. Apparently the Metreon doesn't enforce the "under 1 year" guideline, as there were several children in the 1-3 range running around the theater. When I asked one of the other moms where the changing table was, she seemed surprised; her friend said, "we should ask them to put one in!" I thought they were standard at Reel Moms gigs, but I guess not. One thing that was the same, much to my dismay: They forgot (or never had any intention) to turn down the sound. Note to Loews: Lower the fucking volume, already! The mooing of the cows in the THX intro nearly blew out my eardrums, and Austen positively writhed in agony.
We emerged from the theater to find like eight Bugaboo Frog strollers parked outside, and when we hit the streets, we passed two more. Al and I have been looking for signs that the Bay Area economy is picking up; there've been several, but this glut of $700+ strollers may be the best sign yet.
After a couple stops to pick up presents for friends here, I went into the office to meet with my manager (the person whose budget my checks come out of? the person who tells me what to work on? as an independent contractor whose full-time job is raising a kid, I don't really think in terms of managers anymore...). He wants to extend my contract through August, and I'm interested in doing the work he described, so Al and I have agreed that we will try to find a nanny who can come to our house a couple days a week (I agreed to 15 hours, which translates to about two full workdays). This is a big step for me, hiring a nanny; luckily we discussed the possibility a couple weeks ago (I vetoed it vehemently then), so I've had a chance to roll the idea around in my brain for a while. I'll probably have more to say on this topic when I'm less tired and have had a chance to comb craigslist looking for prospects. For now, I leave you with the cute baby photo of the day, and the news that Austen rolled from his tummy to his back for the first time (and then several more times, once he realized he could do it) this morning.
At Stanford
What I thought the sign said:
Meyer Lemon
White Pizza
What the sign actually said:
Meyer Library
White Plaza
We're Back
After spending a week in San Francisco with friends I dearly miss (many of whom also now have babies Austen's age), I've been having fantasies about moving back there. Upon landing at PHL, however, I learned that Philadelphia had a plan to win me over with the same weather we had in SF (upper 50s and low 60s, bright sunshine, low humidity), lower gas and food prices, and a house we love. Of course, then I did our taxes and discovered that in addition to paying local wage taxes, we were also on the hook for over a thousand dollars in Philadelphia school taxes—and the schools here aren't even that good. Harrumph.
Anyway, we were so busy cramming last-minute visits and activities into our San Francisco schedule (and the line for the computers at Tressider on the Stanford campus was long on Wednesday), I haven't had a chance to write about what we did on our last day.
Al was scheduled to work a booth at a job fair at Stanford, so we went a little early and had coffee with Beth, who's a professor there. She and Matt got a dog since we last saw them, and every day Moxie makes the commute from San Francisco to Palo Alto with Beth.
After coffee Al went up to the job fair, and I went to Stanford Shopping Center to buy Austen some more cute Gymboree clothes (thanks to Al's parents for financing the baby-clothes shopping spree). I found a great hat and onesie from the same robot line as the bleep bleep shirt—on sale!—and also got him another cute golf onesie. When I got bored at the mall I went back to the Stanford campus and noodled around until Al was finished at the job fair.
From Palo Alto we drove down to Los Altos, where we met John and Kathy for dinner at the Los Altos Grill (formerly Bandera). Kathy is pregnant with their first child, and it was exciting to swap pregnancy stories and show them what'll be coming their way soon. :) What I didn't intend to show them was my complete ineptitude when it comes to changing a diaper in public. I left the wipes in the car and didn't notice until I had Austen on the changing table and undressed; luckily, I hadn't removed the poopy diaper yet (mainly because I normally get the wipes out first before removing the diaper). I had to come back out of the handicap stall (one of only two) so I could let the next person in line pee and so I could call Al at the table and ask him to go get the wipes. Of course, I had the keys to the car, so Kathy had to come get them while I held a squirming, half-naked Austen. Al returned with the wipes a few minutes later, I waited in line again for the handicap stall, and despite the fact that I blocked the lovely spot lighting in the stall every time I leaned over to wipe Austen, managed to get all the poop out of his folds (I think).
Anyway, after the diaper incident, dinner progressed normally. I had a wonderfully tasty vegetable plate, the corn bread was delicious, and the conversations about Project Greelight and parenting were stimulating as ever, if too short. Wish we had more time to visit.
The Real Estate Reality Check
About once or twice a year, something will happen that makes Al and me consider moving back to San Francisco. Maybe not seriously, but enough to check the housing prices and to start having theoretical discussions about what would be lost and what would be gained by moving.
I usually start the housing price check by looking at condos in San Francisco and houses in Palo Alto, but Al's method for determining the true state of affairs is more foolproof: Just check the listings in our old neighborhood in Mountain View for a Mackay with the same floor plan as ours. We used to live in the Monta Loma section of Mountain View, which had a few Eichlers and many, many more Mackays. There were only a few different floor plans, so it's usually easy to find one just like ours on the market.
I don't want to live in Moutain View again (it's lovely, but it's a bit too far south for me, and there wasn't much to walk to in our hood), so I never think to do a search there. After doing several Palo Alto, San Carlos, Burlingame, San Mateo, and Redwood City searches last night, Al said, "just go to Moutain View and find a Mackay". I did, and sure enough, there was a listing on a street one over from our old one. Same floor plan, but not nice as ours had been, IMHO... and listed for $250,000 more than we sold our house for in September, 2003. Yes, you read that right: The house was *not* listed for $250,000, but for a quarter of a million dollars MORE than we sold our house for less than four years ago.
It really did tell us all we need to know about the cost of moving back.