Kids In a Candy Store

Cocoa Bella, 2102 Union Street

Uncanny

© Linda Davick
I did this sketch yesterday morning before the bowls arrived. Something dotty must have been in the air.

Early Christmas Present

Deb and Eric, our friends from Boston, are coming tomorrow. I went out the front door to wash off the steps. There was a big box!

This is what I mean by support. (Previous post). Barbara (middle row, left), and Larry (top row, left) sent us our Christmas present early. They knew Deb and Eric were coming, and that we wouldn't have enough ice cream bowls. They also sent a container of Cocoa Dusted Chocolate Almonds.

The only disturbing thing: The container of cocoa dusted almonds had been tampered with. By Larry. He ate the top layer of almonds before he was able to part with it.

My Support Group

© Linda Davick
left to right: Larry, Gene, Gwen, Barbara, Matthew, David, Tom, Aggles, Katy. (Not available for photo: Evie, Luci, Nina, Sally, James,
Mom, Emmy, John, Janet, Dorothy, Cheryl, Georgia, Roger, Frank, Susan, Scott & Spots, Lee lee, Deb)

You Can Worship a Giant Bird If You Want...

© Linda Davick
Jung was adamant that among his patients thirty-five years and older, "there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. It is safe to say that every one of them fell ill because he had lost what the living religions of every age have given to their followers, and none of them is really healed who did not regain his religious outlook. This, of course, has nothing to do with a particular creed or membership in a church."

I read this in Arianna Huffington's new book

Ok, those were my two favorite parts. I'm through with the book now. Let me know if you want it and I'll send it to you.

Dog-Eared Page

© Linda Davick
Love cures people. Both the ones who give it,
and the ones who receive it.
-Mad Psychiatrist Karl Menninger
I read this is Arianna Huffinton's new book

Not a Pretty Story

my awards

I walked out the front door yesterday and Emmy was watering her garden. I told her about the 5K. She said, "I'll go with you! I don't jog, but I'll do it with you and keep you company."
"Oh, but Emmy. I'm going to jog. I really want to see how fast I can go. But there are walkers, too, so you can walk. And we can meet up before and after the race." Somewhere in here I should say that Emmy is 58.
So this morning, there she was, out front waiting. We drove to the polo field to register, and started at the back of the pack. Emmy said, "There aren't any walkers! I don't want to get left behind!"
"Emmy, it doesn't matter. Nobody knows us!"
But she started jogging along beside me. She had some jingling things in her belt that jingled as she jogged. Soon she asked, "Do your legs hurt?" Then she said, "I'm not used to this."
I told her not to hurt herself–to please stop jogging and walk. So she started walking. After a while I didn't hear the jingling sound anymore, so I knew she was way back there. When I had jogged about 3/4's of the route, I came to a sharp turn by Crossover Drive that I was afraid she might miss. I decided to turn around to see if I could see her and to point out the turn to her.
Here's where the story gets kind of bad.
I turned around. She was walking 3 feet behind me.
She just wasn't jingling anymore, maybe because she wasn't jogging.
To make a sad story short, she reached the finish line before I did. But we each got a ribbon for finishing. The good part is, I didn't come in last in this race. Another woman crossed the line after I did.










Emmy and me

5K Race Tomorrow

After reading Nina's blog yesterday, I decided to make running a 5K race one of my goals. To prove my earnestness, I googled "5K San Francisco." One of the first things that came up was the Dolphins South End Runners Web Site. Damn! There happened to be a 5K this Sunday (tomorrow) in Golden Gate Park, which is walking distance for me. I thought, "No way. This is too soon," and went to bed.

Today I woke up and thought, "Oh why not. I'll be jogging Sunday anyway, and I can get it over with early in the morning. Nobody will know me." (Have you heard Nobody Knows Me At All by the Weepies?) It's very comforting to live in a big city where nobody knows me at all.
It was too late to sign up–but just to prove my earnestness, I e-mailed the race director. Double damn! I found out that if I showed up at 8:00, I could register on the spot.

The race is tomorrow morning at 9:00. Tonight I prepared by carbo-loading. I ate half a leftover burrito for an appetizer, then half a pizza for dinner. I also drank half a bottle of red wine, since red wine is on the highly beneficial list for my blood type diet. So if there are lots of misspellings in this post, that's why. I can highly recommend Ravenswood 2004 Napa Valley Zinfandel to you, unless you're Scott, my wine aficionado friend.

This won't be my first 5K race. I ran one 18 years ago when we lived in Tennessee. I came in last. But I still won a 3rd place trophy, because only 3 women in my age group signed up.

Lee lee the Psychic

You're feeling kind of blue, then your e-mail beeps, and you get a message like this from Lee lee:
Here's a spread from the book "I Can Fly." I bought because it reminds me of you. I keep thinking how much opportunity there must be for art (to hang on the walls, and for California, screened on canvas so it doesn't crash down on your kids in an earthquake) for kids' rooms out there. I don't find anything I really like, and nothing is big enough. Wouldn't this be adorable huge on a wall (illustrated by Mary Blair, copyright 1951).

Dear Lee lee: Yes! I worried about the same thing. Art crashing down on Tom and me during an earthquake. This picture is actually printed out from an Epson printer on paper, and folded around lightweight stretchers. When it falls off the wall, it won't give us a concussion.

And I thought it was funny because the picture you sent is so similar (in spirit & subject matter) to one that I recently finished. Only mine is more feline.


© Linda Davick

chalk4peace

© Linda Davick
This was my beach find of the day. When I got home, I looked up chalk4peace.com and here's what I found out:

CHALK4PEACE is the young person's global arts project that took place September 15-16-17, 2006. Thousands of young artists of all ages around the planet created sidewalk chalk paintings that focused upon peace.



















© John Aaron

A Precious E-mail

My friend Luci–who you might know as Platitudinal–who is just a kid, really–sent me an e-mail after I asked her if she liked her jobs. She has two jobs. This is only part of her message, in which she describes one of her jobs. She gets upset when I call her "wise beyond her years." She's from Indonesia, and has a great accent:

I give piano lesson in the afternoon. I enjoy teaching. It improves me as a person. Some kids practice, some listen and follow instruction, some are good natured and positive, and there are some to be so unfortunate to possess no will nor motivation, and threadbare manners. The parents are a funny bunch. Some are kind, some are thoughtful, some are easygoing, and there are some that are high strung or easily stressed, some are flaky, some are thoughtless.

The problem I have with piano teaching is the one to one contact exhaust me. I need to recharge my battery by being alone afterward, and that leaves nothing for my family. Since the extra income is needed, I had to learn to deal with it. Still learning. What I learn is people ... be them children, teens, or adults ... they are individuals that crave recognition, acceptance, and compassion. Even the seemingly rude or selfish adults (parents) actually are good people that are just thoughtless. They are so busy thinking about their work, chores, errands ... so consumed by their lives that they forgot that their action effect others. My task is to deal with this "effect." To keep on reminding myself that my worth and my self does not come from their validation. I have another source for that: a reliable and unfailing one. I also learned that what I had previously termed as being intimidated is actually more like ... unpleasant company. Some people's company is unpleasant to me. So, in a sense the problem is I don't like them because I don't enjoy them. I change my attitude to ... oh, how can I enjoy this person today, how can I treat them as a special person and hopefully that they get the message that they're enjoyable and special ... then each encounter/lesson is less intimidating/unpleasant. When I try to look at it that way, it is not so exhausting to be with them. I certainly like my teaching days more now that I focus on enjoying my student and their parents. Some are more challenging than others, but that's just like working on Sudoku problem, isn't it? There are different levels: gentle, moderate, tough, and diabolical. And I like doing Sudoku :) It is one way to be creative, to find things from a person that I can enjoy. And it does have a side effect benefit that I really like, I don't get butterfly jitters in my tummy as I wait their arrival and the day is more pleasant. It's not a nice way to live when one only get excited for Fridays and weekends (I don't teach on Fridays and weekends) ... it's far nicer to enjoy the whole 7 days, yes?

Recess

This afternoon for recess I went next door and played with Ryan, Emmy and John's grandson. He's strong. For example, once he asked if he could see John's watch. When John handed it to him, he smashed it instantly in his bare hands.

Today, he chased me around the house with a big slimy rubber centipede, after I begged him not to touch me with it.

Move Over, Mick.

Before and after application of Lip Injection lipstick
Yesterday when I unveiled my desk, I had no idea it would unleash such a torrent of professional questions. Many of you have written in wondering if the Lip Injection lipstick next to my Wacom tablet truly works. "Does that lipstick really make your lips look like you just got stung by a bee?" Luci asks. You be the judge.

Have a Field Day, Aggles

My sister Aggles had never visited us here in San Francisco before. When she walked into my studio, she burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?" I asked.
She pointed to my monitor. "That."
"So it's an antique! You don't have to make fun of it."
Aggles gleefully: "I can't help it!"

I thought I would offer a tour of my desk and give everyone the opportunity to have a few laughs at my expense.



1. Blue antique
2. My bible (process color manual)
3. Lip Injection (lipstick that makes your lips puff way up)
4. Cry Baby button from Barbara
5. Grocery list: printer paper, 8 1/2 x 11 photographic paper, ink, swiffers, peanuts
6. Work papers. On top: Recipe for Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache.
7. $50 in ping pong table cash. (We weren't able to wrestle the table out of the living room, so we Craigslisted it. It was gone in 20 minutes). Mom, when you visit us again we'll Craigslist it back.
8. My old beloved Swatch watch. The battery died at 5:05. I like that time, so I keep it nearby.
9. White noise machine. When Tom shouts at his computer in the next room, I can turn it on.

e-mail from Aggles: You know, it wasn’t that the monitor was antique – I don’t know enough about hardware to know what’s humourously outdated and what’s enviously hip ‘n current – it’s just that the thing was HUGE!!! I mean really, really HUGE!! Honey, it’s so big you have it over two tables!! That thing is HUGE!!

Another Superhero

Superhero Jewelry

I found Andrea Scher's tremendous Superhero Journal last night, and I've been reading it off and on all day. She makes jewelry and takes photos and writes and coaches. Here's an entry from March 30:

I was fascinated to discover from my friend Gene {who ordained as a Buddhist monk and lived in a monastery in Thailand for a year} something about monk life that I didn't know. What I did know is that it is customary for the monks to wake up every morning around 4am, collect their alms bowls and set out into the community to receive whatever offerings they get. Some rice here, some curry there, they graciously accept whatever they are given. What I found interesting is that the monks never actually ate what was placed in their bowls. They accepted it graciously, but had plenty of food back at the monastery. This tradition was kept alive for one reason and one reason alone- to give their community the experience of giving.

What do you think of this?

Andrea, I want to give you the experience of giving me one of your Superhero necklaces. Joy, to be precise. And I'll even pay you for it in order to give myself the experience of giving. (Or would that be taking?)

My Brilliant Professor

© Linda Davick

I'd never done this before: I signed up for an online class with College of Marin. Last night was my first meeting. I had to use the phone and dial a number and punch in a code. Then I sat down by my computer and entered our "class room." When I said "hello," and heard my teacher's voice on the other end, I felt like Alexander Graham Bell must have felt the first time he got his phone going. For a minute or so I forgot that anybody else might be on the line, and I monopolized the conversation. When I heard other voices, I had a rude awakening: I wasn't the only student in the class.

The online class is a great thing for me because:
1. We're a one-car family now, and it can be difficult scheduling the car.
2. I don't have to drive across the bridge every time class meets and use my lunch money for the $5.00 bridge toll.
3. I can ask dumb questions without being identified by the other students.

Here's why I admire my teacher: He had been asked to speak at the Flash Forward Conference in Austin, Texas, and that's where he was last night. That very day, his laptop had died. On top of that, the internet connection in his room didn't work. It turns out he was sitting down in the hotel lobby on a borrowed computer, with a phone in one hand, giving the class. Pretty classy, huh?
p.s. Next week we'll be using USB mikes, so we won't have to hold the phone and the mouse at the same time.
p.p.s. It's OK if I call James Gonzalez "my brilliant professor" because I'm taking the course for noncredit.

Our Mabo Tofu Dinner

Thank you for a wonderful dinner, 'Tude.

We Made $40 Today

© Linda Davick
We remembered to move our car for street cleaning day today, so now we have 40 extra dollars. What should we spend it on?

• 6 tubes of paint
• dinner at the Sea Breeze Cafe
• Swatch watch
• a visit to Kinokuniya Bookstore in Japantown
• 6 1 lb. bags of Community Coffee

Just think. If we save the 40 dollars we made this week, and remember to move the car again next week, we could buy this. Added later: Forget that. I'm going to make a poster to remind me to move the car next Wednesday, and order this prematurely.

Migration

© Linda Davick

Deflated

Why is it that I always have to feel down after I feel good? I don't like this "balance thing," where supposedly you don't appreciate the good times unless you endure the bad times.

Always been behind
Always been behind
Always I've been out of line
Always I've been behind

From "End of Autumn" by Sasha Dobson. It was playing as I was downloading my pictures from the beach this evening. And it's not even the beginning of autumn yet.

Egg Carton Law

Jean Gonick is my hero. She writes the Failing At Living column for the San Francisco Chronicle. Two weeks ago she wrote about buying a basil plant for $2.99 at Trader Joe's. So I had to go to Trader Joe's and buy one, too, and I had to put it on our coffee table, too, just like she did. Only right now our coffee table is underneath the ping pong table, so I had to put the basil plant on the ping pong table. Tonight I decided to pull some leaves off and make Deviled Eggs á la Potato Chips for dinner.

Don't you think all egg companies should be required by law to have the recipe for hard-boiled eggs printed on the egg carton? That way you wouldn't have to run down to the basement, find The Joy of Cooking, and turn to page 22o every time you want to boil an egg.

All my cooking adventure photos are starting to look alike. Next time I'll make something really different that doesn't involve boiling an egg.

fatphotographer

On August 31, Tom and I got an e-mail from Deb. She said there was a package on its way to us. Blackberry preserves from her backyard. And sweet dill pickles, too, that she and Eric had canned. For eight days we sat out by the curb waiting for the UPS truck. It finally crawled up the hill this afternoon and we opened our treats. I love the little jar!
Professional question: After a photo shoot, is it the duty of the food stylist/photographer to eat the setup? Is it considered cheating to add on after the photo is taken? (peanut butter, a couple of chocolate truffles, coffee?)

fatboy

This green thing is our first new piece of furniture in a long time. It's a fatboy. We ordered it for Aggles to sleep on while she and Mom were here. Of course, it came the day after they left. But still, it's very exciting!














p.s. If you're a basket case after your guests leave, you can mold it into a kind of soft crib to sit up in (above).

Gift of Elegance

Aggles flew back to Chattanooga with Mom today. She left this book for me. I turned to the chapter on "Shoes" right away. Here's what I learned:
With sports outfits, it is preferable to avoid high, slender heels and to choose medium, stacked, or even perfectly flat ones–provided that, with the latter, you do not wear a hat.
Why didn't somebody tell me? From now on, in the interest of elegance, I'll leave my baseball cap at home when I wear my sneakers.
On the other hand, black patent-leather pumps can be worn with almost everything...they harmonize with the colour of any outfit, including white, navy blue, and brown. They combine very well with a black alligator handbag, if you do not care for matching alligator shoes (which should, moreover, be worn only with a casual ensemble).
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
e-mail from Katy: I like it that you have the book on elegance---I ran across the original in a used book store last year and gave it to James. I enjoyed what I read of it in the store, but the jacket photo of the author convinced me that pursuing elegance, to the point of being an authority on elegance, had made her rather miserable. That, of course, increased the pleasure of the book.

Company

hi guys,
we had a most deeeeeeeeelightful time with you all, last evening. it was so wonderful to see Martha, once again. she is so vibrant, so sweet, so intelligent and, so witty. may g-d bless her in every way.
and what a treat it was to finally meet Margaret. she is a smart lady with a fine personality and charm. we thank you for the delicious food; the cake was phenomenal. the company was special and so fine. happy labor day.
thanks, again, friends/neighbors.
love,
em and john
Before dinner Tom took us on a motor tour of the Marin Headlands. In the photo he's admiring his new hiking boots he wore while driving.

Baking Day

The chocolate cupcakes are for my sister, who flew in tonight. Her birthday was 2 weeks ago, so she got a bottle of bourbon to go with them.

Tom finished a project yesterday, so I made a skyscraper cake for him.

The Coldest Winter She Ever Spent...

...was a summer
in San Francisco.

When Virginia found out that Mom didn't own even one pair of shorts, she gave her a blue and white checkered pair to take to San Francisco. So far she hasn't needed them.
Here we are at Moss Beach this afternoon.

Champ

When Mom comes to visit, we shove the couch up against the wall and bring the ping pong table up from the basement. Yep. I push her all around the museum in a wheelchair, then we come home and she beats me in table tennis.