last week g asked me to make her some flatbread for her birthday. i decided that it was a good time to get back into baking so i went to ross and loaded up $65 worth of bakeware: a pot, a skillet, three cookie sheets, four cake pans, and a snazzy orange silicone muffin mold.
before
then i went to trader joe's and scolari's and loaded up over $100 worth of baking ingredients, enough for flatbread and:
chocolate creamcheese brownies
bacon cheese and chives biscuits
double chocolate cupcakes
chocolate chip cookies
blueberry muffins
after
i burned half of everything i baked. the first batch of flatbread set off the smoke alarm at about 8 in the morning. about noon i managed to turn the biscuit mix into twelve smoldering chunks of coal, which promptly got squashed to bits, mold and all, by the right front tire of my car.
before the fire+tire
i only gave g what i didn't burn or run over. she thought everything tasted great. she was popping two vicodins on the hour so it could have been the drugs talking.
i was on state street this morning, first for a meeting, then for some coffee. i went to the nearest starbucks, the one on victoria, which is a skip and a hop from the arlington theater.
i had heard about this event last thursday but i completely forgot. it was pretty neat to see the marquees. i took a whole mess of pictures.
here is where i spoil this post by recounting a hateful incident. it happened while i was taking these pictures. i think it's worth telling but please don't proceed if you aren't up for it.
after starbucks i hopped over to the arlington and began taking pictures. it was still early so there weren't many pedestrians. i had the sidewalk to myself for some time before a caucasian couple appeared. they struck me as foreigners, european even. the guy had a huge but tidy backpacker's pack on him and the woman had a regular backpack on her right shoulder. they were walking at a pretty good pace so i moved to the inside of the sidewalk to make space for them. i really didn't need to; the sidewalk is at least 8 feet wide.
so, after i moved out of the way, i went back to taking pictures. i was thinking what a beautiful morning it is with pretty clouds, blue sky, sunshine, and
BAM
i was hit square on the shoulder and my coffee was nearly knocked out of my hand. a few seconds after i regained my footing i realized that the woman with the backpack had walked right into me. it took me a few more seconds to realize she had done it on purpose. because she really had to go out of her way to hit me. plus she kept on moving as if nothing happened. she showed no signs of being sorry.
all i could think of was: what did i do to warrant that hit? should i not have smiled when i first saw them? was it my camera? (i did not take pictures of them.) was it because i was holding a starbucks cup? was it because, i don't know, i'm asian? the kneejerk part of me wanted to run up and push her back twice as hard after i sock her in the face. another part of me just wanted to catch up with her and ask, "why did you do that?"
i did neither. i just shook it off and continued running around taking pictures. when i got back inside my car, i noticed my hands were trembling. i guess i was more affected by this incident than i thought. it was so minor, this simple act, but it was just enough to make me lose faith in people.
speaking of losing faith, check out the name of one of my current projects.
i have been working on it off and on for about a month. my boss assured me that it is not mark's residence. i don't care whose it is. i just hope we get paid.
i found that image while digging through my picture archive. it's a scan of a magnolia leaf cut out. i pressed it in a book and let it dry before i sent it to my friend m. it fitted perfectly inside a 5x7 (clear vellum) envelope.
that was over three years ago. i forgot where i got the idea but i really wanted to create the entire alphabet. with different leaves.
the b side
i would still like to carry out the alphabet idea. at least a few pertinent letters. i would be depriving trees of their parts, but it would sure be neat to send every one of my friends a letter.
meaty calves and santa ynez mountains
taken at caprinteria bluffs 18 oct 2006 at 9:16 am
that's my shadow. doesn't my skirt look disturbingly tattered? i went to the bluffs this morning. i meant to take pictures of the islands and the water but ended up with pictures of snails, weeds, and everything but the ocean.
i also went to starbucks this morning. while no one walked into me on purpose, i did overhear an interesting order made by the lady behind me:
venti decaf nonfat miso
first, i don't understand people who go to starbucks to order decaf. and nonfat! why not just drink water? but that wasn't what made my ears perk. it was the miso bit (in which case a decaf nonfat order would be sensible).
at the cream and sugar counter, the same lady stood next to me. i couldn't resist asking, "please tell me what you just ordered."
"venti decaf nonfat misto. it's just house coffee with steamed milk. it has no [espresso] shots in it so it's cheap. it used to be on the menu but they took it off. probably because it didn't make money."
i was pleased to detect her contempt for starbucks. but i was sad that it wasn't miso she ordered. because it would be awesome if i could get miso soup in a to go cup. at starbucks!
i'm in san francisco. i dropped everything i was doing in sb last friday to come here. and i'm still here. you would never guessed it was (and still is) against my will.
some fun images:
goofing around at the deyoung museum food court
sunday 22 oct 2006
seen at faux farmer's market on geary+fourth
i love kirby, too
next stop, pomona. can't wait to resume normalcy on sunday.
