Point of View

This morning around 10 AM, I joined the joggers, dog owners, and homeless people making their way around Dolores Park.  As I approached the lawn, I saw a small crowd around a couple painted white and wearing masquerade type masks.  I wondered what they were doing as Sammy and her 2 cousins, L, E and I made our way up the lawn.

As we got closer, I realized the 2 “people” that bystanders were surrounding and photographing were not “people”, rather they were an art installation made out of the material casts are made out of to set broken limbs.  I looked at them a brief second before L and E freaked out and started barking at them.  Obviously, L and E did not like  the people or the art.

40 minutes later, I came back sans puppy but with my camera and took another second to ponder the art that graced my morning.  The “person” on the right, had a bleeding heart and was kneeling in front of the person standing.  The person standing, obviously dominant, was holding a mirror that said “It’s worth the Fight.”  My first thought was fight = war.  But there were no weapons.  I wondered if the materials the people were made of, and if they had anything to do with the message.  I wondered why the people were wearing flamboyantly colored masks.

There were two guys standing near the installation, both shirtless, one black, one white, both carrying beers.  I asked them to please move over so I could take a picture and told the guys – “there have been people here stopping to take pictures all morning.  I can’t figure out what this all means.”  The white guy (found out his name was Joey said, ”well that’s the point, [for people to think] I made these.” The other guy, said, “isn’t it obvious… LOVE.  It’s worth the fight.”

E-Girl

First Project 365 post in a long time.  At the rate I’m going, maybe it should just be Project 100?

Anyway, meet Emmie.  Sammy’s Cousin.  Emmie is about 1.5 years old and is a mix that my sister Diana rescued from Wonder Dog Rescue when she was  just a little baby.  Emmie is a lover, and thinks she’s a lap dog, but she’s got a wild streak in her.  Emmie loves to play with her toys, growl, and bark and she also likes to go to Dolores Park.

Little Lovebug

Phone Karma

Yes, this is a term I’ve coined myself.  If you look it up on google, I don’t think you’d find a definition of it on Wikipedia or dictionary.com. 

Let me define Phone Karma for you myself: “the act of getting good vibes or luck, by returning cell phones to people, after you’ve found one”.

For New Yorkers, you might know better what I’m talking about.  I’m sure there have been times where you’ve either: 1) found a cell phone in a cab; 2) lost your cell phone in a cab or 3) know someone that has either found or lost a cell phone in a cab. 

If you are a “finder” the etiquette is as follows: 1) Look in the menu for the last number called, and dial it.  In the day of caller ID, the person you called with think it is their friend at which point you can identify yourself as the finder of their friend’s phone.  The person will then become your ally in returning the phone.  2) Look in the phone book for the entry “home” or “work”.  I have both of these in my phone book, and about 50-60% of other folks do too.  This would be the other logical place to find the person who lost their phone.  Finally, 3) Keep the phone “on” and answer it when it rings.  If you’ve ever lost a phone before you know you’ve called your phone back hoping someone will pick up.  And hope the person is nice instead of saying, “I want $500 if you want me to return your phone.”

During my 5 years in NYC I’ve found and returned 3 cell phones.  One person gave me a starbucks gift card another a box of Godiva chocololates, and a third tons and tons of THANK YOUS.  Later, when I lost my cell phone, someone followed the etiquette of #1 above, and I was happily reunited with my phone.

Last week, in San Francisco, I found a cell phone early one morning in Dolores Park.  I did # 1 above, and got a person who didn’t speak English.  So I proceeded to execute # 2 and #3 above.  Finally, when the rightful owner received their phone, I was rewarded with a Trader Joe’s gift card.  I’m telling you, Phone Karma.  It’s the best.

The Fanciest Street in the Mission

I want to start this post by telling you about a homeless person my sister named “No Way”.  No way, is a person that has lived on and about 18th street for the past 3-4 years or so.  PHD educated, and always sitting around and reading big novels, non-fiction, etc, we think it is interesting that a homeless person with such an affluent background chooses to live on one of the streets in the Mission with the best food.  We don’t think this is by accident.

For my New York readers, the Mission District is akin to Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  A place most people in the City hear about, but typically locals to the neighbor hood frequent the bakeries, coffee shops and bars.  The only difference is, in NYC, Brooklynites tend to be the ones that go out in Williamsburg at night.  In SF, people from all over the City hit up the Missions bars and resturants, but I digress.  Will save this for a different post.

Back to the fanciest street – in just one block, you can find the best bakery in town – Tartine, famous for their morning buns that you can smell baking at 7 AM every morning on the street and ham and cheese croissants.  There is Delfina Pizzeria and Resturant, as well as Bi-Rite Grocery Store and Creamery.  I actually told my sister Diana the other day that I would die if I left SF without going to the creamery.  

Tartine on the far left corner and Patrons in front of Delfina

Downward Dog

I realized today that two of my favorite things in the world have to do with Dogs.  Well, sort of.

Yoga, a practice that I have only started less than a year ago (think Downward and Upward facing dog) and I have great love of my dog Sammy, and my surrogate dogs Lucky and Emmie, who live in SF with my sister Diana.

Being on my blessed stay-cation is allowing me to spend time and really enjoy both things.  This morning, I woke up at my 18th street Mission apartment and walked the two blocks to the San Francisco location of my yoga studio Laughing Lotus .  This is a little haven in the center of the City chaos, walking in you feel a calm, cool, vibe and the people are relaxed and friendly and remember your name. I paid the $16 for a drop in rate + mat rental.  The studio is large and cool and projects a cleansing and relaxing atmosphere with skylights that allow you to see the sunshine or rain.  I love this yoga studio, I first started practicing yoga in the NYC location of Laughing Lotus on 19th Street at 6th avenue.  My favorite yoga instructor there is Jen G, and in SF, it’s a tie between Astrud and Keith.

This morning I had Keith.  After leading us through some mantras and meditation, we started the level 2 class.  It was challenging and Keith did a great job helping with adjustments and guiding us through poses with his voice.  After, the class, I felt sweaty, tired, limber, and calm all at the same time and looked forward to tomorrow’s lesson.

Later today, I took all the puppies to Dolores Park in the Mission (also two blocks from my apt).  This is a great park, spanning across multiple streets and it is generally clean and extremely dog friendly.  Walking up towards the corner of the park near 20th and Church, there is an area dedicated to puppies to run off leash.  I took the puppies up there today and they were greeted by about 7-8 small dogs, mostly of the rescue variety, running around and frolicking in the sunshine.  The owners sit around sipping coffee out of their re-usable tumblers and talking about resturants, dog digestive systems, and questioning why some dogs like to hump each other so much.  Who knows why?  It’s a dog’s life.