confessions of a. field

I don’t know where Krazy Glue or super glue or whatever you want to call it came from but how did I survive this long without its powers! I just saved a favorite pair of earrings and a cutting board! All for $2.19 (the cost of the glue) and I still have more where that came from. Hopefully I can find other items for its magical powers. Let’s just hope I don’t glue the dog to anything. Haha

Can you believe it’s May already? April was a whirlwind of activity that found me far away from the internets and my blog. Well, not that far away, but really no time to update the world on my travels abroad. Wait for pictures and a wrapup, OK?

But for now, it’s back to reality and San Francisco … looking ahead to the future and what it could hold for me. All my favorite things about Spring/ Summer are beginning to inspire me — the days are longer, there’s a new list of restaurants to try and places to see and new people moving into town. I have a feeling this is going to be a good one.

One resolution I made after traveling to Japan was that I would take some time to be a tourist in my own city. It was so stimulating to learn about Japanese history and go sightseeing, it made me sad that I didn’t know more about the city that I spend most of my days trudging through. There is definite beauty here, one just has to have the time to find it. So on that note, I will use my free time to do that touristy things like the Academy of Sciences, or Lombard crooked street or even ride a freakin cable car. At least I’ve already been to Alcatraz.

Expect updates and pictures soon. For now, I’m still trying to kick this jet lag. I guess I should stop napping and just suck it up!

It is a dark and stormy day in San Francisco, the kind where you get frozen face walking two blocks to get a decent breakfast. It’s cold up in this City and winter doesn’t seem to want to release its grip yet. Heaven for snow lovers, hell for sun worshipers. I wasn’t even expecting the rain - good thing I looked outside before I ventured. If it was anything like this past week, it should’ve been sunny at 70’s. What’s up Mother Nature? Mood swing much?

So from a lazy Sunday afternoon, a few random musings that will hopefully calm my brain after three cups of coffee …

• Even after waiting 15 minutes for the rain to die down before I left the house, it was still coming down in buckets. But I could wait no longer. I must eat. Or The Incredible Hulk aka Hangry Angelee will rear its not so pretty head. So I grab my umbrella and head to Chloe’s Cafe. No turning back now, my brunch buddy is waiting. After a very wet three blocks and a little wait we are sitting inside, dry, with coffee in the cutest polka dot mug and all the delicious possibilities in front of me. After much debating and vacillating and wanting to order everything on the entire menu (my usual M.O.) my friend decides on the banana walnut pancakes and I get the ham, cheddar and mushroom scramble with walnut wheat toast. The coffee kept coming and the catching up on each other lives always entertaining — a great little find in Noe Valley. Next time I return, I think I am going to take advantage of a random weekday, sit with a book and be one of those people who I usually am so jealous of as I pass by on the MUNI train.
• I leave for Coachella/Japan in 4 days. O.M.G. I am getting a little nervous just because there seems like there are a million things to take care of - I have them under control and as soon as things are picked up, mailed, etc. my To Do list will seriously die down. But then on to the dreaded packing. Plus we still have some accommodations and planning to take care of. The first couple of days in Kyoto/ Osaka/ Kobe are pretty set and we have places to stay, we need to figure out Tokyo plans. We are going to be roaming that city for 5 days, we should definitely have a plan of attack (and a place to stay!). All in all, plans should fall together soon, and then it’ll just be a matter of time before we are on the plane to Tokyo. Which reminds me, I need to find some sleeping aids, or maybe some dog Xanax. Hah.
• I still have no idea what I’m going to do when I return from Japan. It’ll be a new month of rent in May, so I can really move out or sublet, but I should really think about what my next moves are. If  I need to save money and budget and be all adultresponsible, then I should really start looking for a job right when I get back. But there is such this wanderlust in me right now that I feel like I need to take advantage of my newfound freedom and travel all over this planet while I still have the chance and am not chained down to some crazy career type job. Where to go though? Anywhere where there’s a couch I can sleep on! Hawaii. New York. India. Boston. Chicago. Paris. London. The possibilities are endless!
• I have an addiction to the shows such as Hoarders and Intervention, and I think I am learning a lot about myself and the human condition through these shows. Crazy, I know. Seriosuly, though, it has made me think about cleaning up my mess and maybe even making a few bucks of it. Think of the $$ and the good karma. Worth a shot, right?
• I really wish it weren’t so cold outside. Summer I am ready for you!

Inventory is the road to organization and happiness. Sounds like a crazy idea, right? That’s what I thought when I first read about the concept. Could it be physically possible to inventory every single thing that I am in possession of. And is that weren’t nuts enough, but this was somehow going to help me declutter and organize my life? There’s no way this is going to work.

The more I sat in my somewhat unorganized room and reflected on my mother’s famous mantra — “a messy desk is a messy mind” — I began to think that there could be some truth to this. Honestly, there are things in my possession that I didn’t even know I owned or still existed. And if I haven’t wondered about them in this long, do I really still need it? Conversely, there are  things that I lend out to people and when I need them, I don’t have them. An inventory would show me exactly how much stuff I have. Every single item in my closet would have to be subjected to a)keep b)sell c)donate d)trash. And everything except for trash and donate needs to be documented. Like get all nerdy with your Excel skills and make a spreadsheet of every single item. Complete with prices paid if you can remember. That’s where I started to lose it. Does this person know how much stuff I have? Obviously not. Seriously guys, stuff with the price tags still on.

But as I kept reading this crazy nonsensical guide to organization, it hits me that they’re right. Making a list of everything you own is not just a tedious torture task. It’s a way to see how much your worth — and decide how much you can gain from yourself. On top of that. its meant to shock the pants off you so you see how disposable you are treating your income. (Does that make sense?)

I contemplated this while remembering a scene from Sex and the City*:

Carrie has just broken up with Aidan (why I will never understand. John Corbett is god, but I digress) and she needs money for a down payment to buy her apartment back from him. As she tries on shoes with Miranda, she wonders where all her money has gone.

Miranda: How many pairs of those do you think you have? 50?

Carrie: Come on?

Miranda: 100?

Carrie: Yeah, OK.

Miranda: At $400 dollars a pop,  that’s your down payment.

Carrie: That’s only $4000. So?

Miranda: No that’s not, that’s $40,000.

Carrie: What?!!? Seriously. Oh. My. God. I am literally going to be the old woman who lived in her shoe.

So in an attempt to only be Crazy Cat Lady, I am going to try this theory out. We’ll see if this wacky new age organizational guru is right and I will be on the road to wealth and happiness and zen in no time. Plus, what else better am I doing with my time?!

*I love pop culture. This will be one of many references. Get used to it.

Think whatever you will of public transportation but in some cities its a necessity and not just an option. San Francisco is one of these cities. There are just some neighborhoods that absolutely cannot support any more vehicles that you will end up circling blocks upon blocks in near tears. Yes, I own a car and yes this has happened to me (in multiples), so I suppose you could say that I am part of the problem. Normally though, I reside in Noe Valley, which offers a notasmuchapainintheass parking situation and aside from parking restrictions for street sweeping, etc., you can park virtually free and not too far from your flat. But I digress because this was supposed to be about the wonders of public transportation. Which has saved me many times from doing what I call The Parking God Sacrifice Ritual where you drive around in a test of your wills.

$2 is the adult fare for the MUNI for 3 hours and that can pretty much get your around The City. I’m not a frequent enough of a rider in one month that I would get my money’s worth out of the $70 pass — but I aspire to one day. For the occasional ride, its quite the steal. And sometimes (like today) you score extra when the driver gives you a transfer receipt for the whole day — maybe by accident or maybe not, who are you to judge — and you can spend the entire day roaming the city via public transport.

Really, I had to head down to the Department of Parking and Traffic aka BigBadScary Ticket Office to appeal a ticket. Its like the equivalent of begging for your life — the guy it totally judging you while he looks at your entire nefarious parking career in black and white on his computer screen. Yes, I can pay more attention to parking restrictions and that would save me money. But I didn’t come here for a lecture, buddy. I came here for you to refund my $53. And that he did. Angelee: 1! So, lest I get a parking ticket for fixing my parking tickets, I decided to take MUNI and run some other errands in Downtown. Now I’m no math expert but I think that decision was a no-brainer.

• By car: $.2.38 = 2.5 miles at $0.15 a mile = $0.38 + 1 hour parking meter at $2.00
• By MUNI: $2

After a few more errands and a trip to my Thaihouse Express for lunch (which I rarely get to enjoy because the parking is such a PITA), I would say that I was very pleased with my use of MUNI today. And I felt good, like I was doing something good for the environment. OK, you got me, I also had a good parking spot in my ‘hood, and I will not move my car until Friday at the last possible second if I can have anything to do with it.

Marveling at the wonders of public transportation in San Francisco, I find myself thinking about my upcoming trip to Japan — a country that has undeniably one of the best public transportation systems albeit sometimes pullyourhairout confusing, it does its job and it does it efficiently. Trains are what make the world go ’round there and thanks to a J-Rail pass, it will my our trek through Nihon go ’round. Excited does not even begin to cover what I am feeling for this trip. But those butterflies in my tummy also remind me that I am leaving in 12 days and I need to get things in order. Really it’s only 10 days because I am also going to Coachella prior to our departure. Whoa. I really should stop babbling and start planning out our trip before we find ourselves homeless and sleeping in the streets of Tokyo.