Beachcombing Find of the Day

My Dinner With Carol and Robin

This is my cousin, Carol. She's in town for a conference. She's staying at the Omni, so we met for dinner tonight at Gaylord, across from the movie theatre at the Embarcadero. I'm usually wary of anybody from my family tree, but we had lots of fun. She's a live wire, and doesn't she look young?

She brought her pal Robin along. We made Carol choose a couple bottles of wine, and then we made Carol pay. We laughed a lot.

I asked them if I had to download one song tonight or fall into the abyss, what song they would recommend. Right away, Carol, 55, mentioned Jack Johnson. Then Robin, 35, said, "Yes! Download Bubble Toes by Jack Johnson." Then Carol discreetly got out her cell phone and called her daughter Ava, 15, at home in Atlanta. She handed the phone to me, and I asked Ava the same question. Here's the weird thing. Ava suggested Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson. So now I'm happy to have Bubble Toes and Banana Pancakes in my library.

As we were leaving, I was getting ready to shoot portraits of Carol and Robin. I pulled out my camera, and on the screen was this little sun symbol. This means the camera is ready to shoot in broad daylight. But it was dark, and I couldn't make the sun symbol go away. (See the portrait of Robin, bottom left). Then Robin said, "Hey, I have this same camera. I can make the little sun go away." I don't know what she did, but when she handed the camera back to me I was able to shoot the professional portrait of her on the right, and the excellent one of my cousin (top left).
p.s. Just in case you're wondering why my cousin looks 40 when in reality she's 55 . . . She just called me, and I asked her that question. First she reminded me that I drank quite a bit of wine last night. "But even before the wine!" I insisted. So she divulged her secret. She uses these great skin care products by MD Formulations that she gets from her sister-in-law.

Not Your Mother's Bookclub

Sarah Dessen writes books for jr. high and high school kids. She spoke this evening at a meeting of Not Your Mother's Bookclub, whose slogan is: content may not be suitable for parents. It was held at Cafe Lo Cubano. Tons of snacks were served, along with a fluorescent red beverage. The club members, some of whom are shown above, were inspiring. Smart and very articulate.

The shoe below was my favorite of the evening. The owner removed one to show me the hidden storage coffin inside the sole. I asked her what she kept in there. She said when she goes to concerts or shows, sometimes she puts her rings inside the coffin.












Sarah read a little from her new book Just Listen. I asked her if she ever showed her writing to anyone as she was writing. She said, "Never. Not until I'm finished with the story. I've tried showing it, but little comments people make will sometimes get me way off track. They'll say something like, 'That flower doesn't bloom in June!' and I'll be thrown completely off. So I wait until the book is completely finished to show it. As I'm writing it, it's like my own secret."

Amazing iTunes Discovery

After using iTunes to burn cd's for Leslie and Barbara, I made a sensational discovery.

If you go to file at the top of your screen, and then down to print, iTunes will compose a label for the cd you just made. Not only will the songs on your cd be listed, but iTunes will gather album cover art from songs on your list and create a mosaic from it. This takes all of three seconds. Then all you do is print it out, and use the trim marks to cut it out. You fold it, then slide it into your CD case. Phenomenal.

Probably you already knew this! But I didn't, working as I do in a vacuum.

Friends with Money

Last night Tom and I actually went out on a date to a real movie in a real theatre. We took 2 little water bottles and poured wine into them. (See photo). The little bottles fit easily into a medium bag, along with your glasses and lipstick. By the way, pictured is the lipstick that makes your lips puff up–it's called Lip Injection. I wore it along with my cowboy boots. I had a medium popcorn; Tom had a large.

I felt cheated when the movie ended. Later I realized it was because I liked it so much that I didn't want it to end. Joan Cusack! Catherine Keener. Frances McDormand! Jennifer Aniston was good, too. It's a very human movie about some human beings who have money.

A nice note from Roger:
You know that picture of your house and the wine and those colorful towels -- is everything in your place so attractive?
Me:
No. I just put out the towels in order to style the photo shoot. And I tried to wipe off the counter. But if you & Jose come back up, I'll put the towels out and clean off the counter again.

Leftover Easter Candy

Just because I didn't buy the chocolate eggs on sale for 10 cents apiece, doesn't mean I didn't buy other leftover Easter candy that was on sale. I bought all these Peeps Bunnies for $1.20. I'm trying to learn to use the macro setting, and I bought them strictly to photograph. I did drool on them while I was trying to focus the camera, but I don't think it shows up.

From Sal:
did I send you this recipe?

Slime

This is the way I feel today. It's always a comfort to get outside and find your mood reflected in nature.

When I feel this way, I try to think of 3 things that happened during the day that I'm thankful for. OK. Ready?

1. Yellow curry from King of Thai Noodle for lunch.
2. Today was the deadline for final mechanicals, and I actually got them FTP'd. At first my art director called saying she couldn't find them on the FTP site. She asked, "Did you use Fetch?" I assured her that I had, but I could tell she didn't believe me, because she said, "Did you see that little dog running on the screen?" "YES!" I insisted. Then suddenly, as we were talking, the files appeared on her computer.
3. At Walgreen's they had all the leftover chocolate Easter Eggs on sale for 10 cents apiece: chocolate-covered pecan caramel, chocolate-covered brownie, chocolate-covered coconut, and chocolate-covered truffle. I grabbed a cart and set a whole cardboard display of eggs inside it. $4.00 for a whole flat! I told myself that Evie would really like to get a flat of chocolate eggs as a study treat. But then I took them back out. I knew down deep inside that Evie wouldn't eat them; I would. I'm thankful I didn't buy the eggs. But if I had, I would have gotten half pecan caramel and half coconut.

Licensed psychotherapists say that when you feel bad, you're really not supposed to think of things that make you happy. They say it helps if you stay with the negative feeling–slither on down into the slime.

Anne Lamott

And then, guess who was at A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books tonight? Anne Lamott. Absolutely one of my favorite writers. She wrote Bird by Bird. Tonight she was reading from her newest book, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith. As I was taking her portrait (above), she happened to say, "My shoes are great. They are so comfortable." I asked her what kind they were. She said, "SAS. They're size 8–do you want to try one on?" So I did, and I took the picture below just to prove it. I told her mine were really comfortable, too, but she didn't jump at the chance to try on my blue shoe.



Though Anne has written a couple of books specifically about faith and her relationship to God, Christian bookstores refuse to carry her books.

Dwell Magazine

This is Lara Deam. She started Dwell magazine, and spoke at the Apple store this evening. Because I have fear of leaving the house, I'm often a late arrival at things like this. I ended up having to sit on the floor, which made it easy for me to shoot this picture of Lara. She wore these shoes while standing upright for an hour, talking and answering questions. She would pace from one side of the room to the other, and sometimes even stand on one foot. I also was impressed by her good nature and by the fact that she used no notes for her talk.


















This is my dream house. I like Dwell because they believe in a future for nice prefabricated homes. They don't believe that mass production and beauty have to be mutually exclusive.

But back to shoes for a moment. Today I got an envelope in the mail from Butler Shine Stern & Partners. I ripped it open and was taken aback to learn that my entry in the Converse sneaker competition had not won the $10,000 grand prize. But I did win a free pair of Chuck Taylors. I can choose either hightops or lo's, from a wide range of colors.

Diamonds

From Evie:
How are you managing without your car? Do you miss it much?

It's funny what you see when you have a new camera, and no car. This house is half a block away, on Balboa Street. I had never noticed these windows before. When I had my own personal car, I always drove three blocks to the beach (so I could jog three miles on the beach.) Now I have to WALK three blocks to the beach in order to jog three miles on the beach. Not only that, but I have to walk three blocks back. It's a new experience–actually kind of nice.

p.s. Well, I think I'm jogging on the beach. To other people it appears that I'm just walking. Once when I thought I was jogging, this guy stopped me and shoved a camera at me. He said, "Will you take a picture of me and my girlfriend? We've been waiting forever for someone to walk by."

Cash Register

After all this talk about money, can you believe that I would find an old cash register on the beach today? It was too heavy for me to carry, so I had to come back to get the car. After dinner we'll go get it. Once we haul it home, we'll break it open and pour all the money out. Then I'll be able to pay you all the money I owe you–but probably not until then.

What Washed Up

Happy Easter