Sunday, August 17, 2008

Where to Begin...

Whew...new blog template = much excitement! I've had a few days for the new look to sink in and I'm really happy with the work Lena did and highly recommend her. She's got lots of freebie blogger templates and is great to work with for customs too.

Now that I'm back to reality, I've realized that I'm very behind on the posts that I've built out in my head so I'll blog about what I consider are the highlights. Starting with last weekend...yep, old news but still good stuff. Last weekend was fairly social. I decided to hit the Burlingame Festival which was very nice. Lots of vendors, lots of food, not much of a crowd since I hit it early and I ran into one of my favorite jewelry vendors who I acquired my thumb ring from. She's great and when I told her that I was contemplating getting a spare, you know, in case something happens to the one I have, she burst into a fit of laughs. Hmmm, I guess that's weird. Apparently no one else thinks of having backups but when I find something I absolutely love that I use over and over again, I worry about wear out and not being able to find it when I want it. Ok, so a tad weird. I also ran into a coworker and his son at the festival and it was nice to visit and chat. That evening, I had decided to meet the "self-centered guy" from an earlier post. Just for coffee and a chat. He stated that he was just a guy who was bad at email and dealt better with one on one interaction. I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Initially, it was difficult...I found myself asking a million questions and nervously babbling to just keep the conversation going. Silences straight off the bat is not really all that good. Again, I was the one asking questions and really not having any asked of me. I was feeling like this meetup was a waste of time. But as the minutes ticked past, he seemed to be more comfortable, opened up and asked more about me. That was good but I still didn't have warm fuzzies. I have the feeling that him being touted as a "cute, sexy eligible geek" on national tv may have gone to his head some. Too much to be able to deal with a simple *blue collar* girl who loves life and fun. Things shouldn't be as hard as they end up being and for the present time, I'm just content emailing with a seemingly nice guy. I don't know where that'll take me but it's simple and it's fun.

On Sunday, I met up with an old friend, Lien. Old coworker and old friend who moved out to Austin for grad school. I hadn't seen her in over a year!! It was fantastic to see here. We went to one of our old haunts, ChaChaCha. Wow, it had been forever since I've been there! Although the food is decent at best, the highlight of this little establishment is their sangria and omg, it is so worth going there...unless I'm, of course, making it myself. So after a long boozy lunch filled with eyeopening news and tons of laughs, we walked around Haight Street to see what was new and what was old. And despite being so close to Ameoba (oh, the tension was palpable!), I did not go in and buy out half the store. After our little quest for shoes and shopping, we heading into the park to go to the DeYoung Museum to check out the Chihuly exhibit. Dale Chihuly is an exceptional artist no matter what the SF Chronicle wants to say. I've made special trips to Seattle and Tacoma specifically to view glass artists in action and to the Museum of Glass to see the Chihuly team work in the Hot Shop. Just because glass doesn't have a major following does not mean it is not art. I could totally rip into this reviewer. Apparently I am an admirer of "empty virtuosity" and glass sculptors have no place in the art world despite the fact that the subject at hand is seemingly unpliable yet fragile and that person works under extreme heat and stress to develop the right shape, color and density. I'd like to see that reviewer try to recreate anything that Chihuly or his team can make. And as we strolled through the museum and saw other exhibits consisting of traditional 1800, tribal, modern and some weird stuff made with rock sugar and shellac, I felt that the Chihuly exhibit was 100% more beautiful and inspiring than anything else in that museum. I mean, yes, the rock sugar shallac chandeliers were completely interesting but what the heck?! A tad bizarre, no? Each room in the Chihuly was filled with light and color, shape and beauty. It left me feeling a lot of wonder and inspiration and filled me with questions of how and what. I actually want to go back before the exhibit ends so that I can admire and perhaps answer some of my own questions. It is truly worth it, no matter what some "art critic" thinks.

And that was the extent of last weekend. Lien and I parted ways and it was back to my weekly grind.

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