It’s a confluence of things going on right now that is contributing to a feeling of disorientation. Of course, since moving to L.A. this word could be applied to my general state of being; if I were to get a personalized license plate it would be DISORNTD. It seems to have worsened lately. Switching to daylight savings time definitely did not help; I’m having a hard time adjusting to the darkness every night when I leave work.
Its little things that are making me feel disoriented, like the removal of two large storage cabinets from our department making our whole space look and feel differently. And big things too, like frequent migraines and the medication that I take to treat them; I often feel off balance, literally and figuratively.
This feeling is particularly ironic due to the fact that I am on a new medication as prescribed by my neurologist at UCLA. It is used in older patients to treat Alzheimer’s disease. I couldn’t make this stuff up. It was slightly amusing to see the pharmacist try to come up with a tactful way to ask why the hell I had been prescribed this medication.
I am also on some new vitamin supplements (GNC just reeks of good health when you walk in. Disgusting for us who aren’t members of that particular club). I had to buy a bigger weekly pill holder to hold all my pills. Not exactly a shining moment. I got a break from my disorientation then, I just felt pissed off.
The last few weeks my schedule has been different, with our trip to San Francisco and doctor’s appointments. And honestly with multi-day migraines and struggling to get to work, the days are just blurring into one long slog. Sorry to be the downer, but there it is.
Fearless Hero deserves like a medal or new cape or utility belt just for putting up with my moods and symptoms and crying jags and general bitchiness. (We just bought him some new jeans at Kohl’s last weekend, do you think that will do?)
Oh, and he hurt his knee while saving a busload of children from being buried in a mudslide (or playing volleyball, I can’t remember which) so he is limping around . We are like a hospital ward around here. Or, considering the size of our apartment, the hospital utility closet. No, we haven’t found a new apartment yet. We are still being thwarted.
But on to the fun stuff…
Fearless Hero and I recently spent a long weekend in San Francisco. We had such a great time on my first visit to this city. We arrived in the late afternoon on Thursday. Fearless Hero has been to San Francisco several times and was a great navigator and negotiator of traffic during our stay.
On the afternoon that we arrived we got to drive around the Presidio. We went to Old Fort Point, mainly because it is a beautiful spot seen in the movie Vertigo. The Golden Gate Bridge was overhead. The waves were crashing against the giant rocks on the shore. For the first time in recent memory the sounds of nature blocked out all human noises - the sounds of the traffic, conversation. I didn’t realize how much I had been missing that. I thought of my fellow LA transplant friend Traci and knew that she could relate to the moment. We took the first of many pictures of the sights in San Francisco. The Golden Gate Bridge is a truly impressive sight.
Before we checked into our hotel, we got to see the nearby Palace of Fine Arts which was originally built for the 1915 Pacific-Panama Exposition. It looked lovely at night. We made another stop there the next morning to soak in some of it’s peacefulness during the daytime. After checking in, we met up with our friend Haideh, who lives in the area, for pizza and ventured into another local spot for desserts.
Friday we spent a perfectly lovely rainy day in the North Beach neighborhood. It is full of cafes and bakeries and shops and Italian delis and eateries. It is also home to City Lights Bookstore, which was one of the centers of the Beat movement. I sat in the rocking chair in the hushed upstairs poetry room and listened to the rain outside while reading. It felt like the first time I was able to relax in a long time.
I found Fearless Hero in the basement room, which had section labels like Commodity Aesthetics (no, I don’t know what it means, but I love it). We headed back into the rain and made it to Café Trieste, one of the more well known cafes. This is where Francis Ford Coppola reportedly wrote the screenplay for The Godfather. There is a framed picture of him and Martin Scorsese on the wall, amongst many others. A cartoon posted by the register claimed that their coffee is as ‘bitter as life’. It wasn’t bitter, but it was strong and seriously kicked my butt.
We stopped at every pastry shop in sight and then eventually made our way up Telegraph Hill to see Coit Tower. The rain had let up a bit and we took the hill slowly. We paid our fare to ride the ancient elevator to see some amazing views of the city.
By the time we walked down the hill and made it back to our hotel we had each lost about 6 pounds. But Fearless Hero has this habit of eating, like, meals, on a somewhat regular schedule. So we went to Fisherman’s Wharf to get him some clam chowder in an authentic San Francisco sourdough bread bowl. I, of course, had to follow Haidaeh’s recommendation and get a hot fudge sundae at Ghirardelli. I don’t think I slept that night, it was more like coma.
Saturday we went to Golden Gate Park. We first had breakfast at the nearby Ferry Building, which is full of various food and gift shops and walked around the farmer’s market that was set up outside. We had picked up sandwiches at one of the Italian delis in North Beach the day before so we brought those with us to the park that is called San Francisco’s backyard.
We went into the Japanese Tea Garden. Fearless Hero proposed to me when we were in the Japanese Tea Garden in Balboa Park in San Diego so I patiently awaited another ring. To no avail. Sigh. (You see now why he deserves a new cape or utility belt? New jeans definitely aren‘t enough.)
After walking around several of the parks beautiful areas, including the Conservatory of Flowers, we searched for a place to picnic. We found the small Shakespeare Garden, which is full of flowers and plants referenced in his plays. It was a relatively quiet spot. We didn’t linger too long after we scarfed our sandwiches (amazing!) as they were setting up chairs for a wedding that would be taking place soon. There was so much to see but we sadly did not have the energy for either the art or science museum in the park.
We drove through the remainder of the park on our way to the Haight. We drove around this neighborhood for awhile, seeing the cool old homes that line the blocks. We even found the house where the Grateful Dead lived back in the day.
We eventually made our way to a very cool store called Cookin’ Gourmet Appurtenances. This store deserves a visit based on the use of that great 25 cent word. The shop is like someone’s basement or garage, packed full of old and new kitchen gadget, pots, pans and dishes of all kinds. I bought an antique whisk and a Madeleine pan and chatted with the slightly grumpy owner. When you enter the store, she wants to know what you are cooking that night and what pan or gadget you need to make it. There is so much stuff packed into the little place there is a good chance you will need help finding what you want. We stopped at a cool comic books shop before we made our way back to our car to head out to Ike’s Sandwich shop in the nearby Castro area.
We stood in the line that had formed outside and read the 8 page menu of sandwiches. We heard about his place while watching the show Man vs. Food with my brother Judd. The host goes to various cities in the US and eats the regional specialties. He also engages in some food challenges, usually eating an enormous amount of something.
The episode we saw had him going to Ike’s to taste one of their sandwiches that have mozzarella sticks and jalapeno poppers in the sandwich. You heard me. It was the size of his head. We were smart and did not indulge in that level of sandwich craziness. They make their sandwiches ‘dirty’ which means they ladle on some of their special sauce with garlic and herbs and god knows what else. It is amazing. Seriously. We are both ruined for sandwiches for a good long while.
We were going to go have a drink at the rotating restaurant at the top of our high rise hotel but again with the coma. We spent Friday and Saturday night at the Hyatt in the Financial District. Fearless Hero got us a good deal on Priceline.com so we got to have a little bit of luxury during our stay.
Sunday we had to pack up and check out before taking the cable car to Chinatown. We walked around the unique neighborhood, went into the touristy shops, bought some tea, stopped at the fortune cookie factory. Fearless Hero got some noodles at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant that we read about, which made him happy.
We then drove down the coast (after sampling an amazing donut at Bob’s Donuts and buying some char siu bao buns to bring home at an Asian bakery Fearless Hero had been to on a past visit to the city) to have a last bowl of chowder at Sam’s Chowder House. After seeing another lovely sunset on the water, we drove the rest way back that night.
Monday morning found me disoriented as to where I was and what day it was. It was great to get out of LA. I saw much less Botox, a lot more sensible shoes and North Face apparel. The Victorian homes, the hilly streets, the beautiful trees and plants, the people watching, there is so much that we didn’t’ get to see and do. I would focus more on the superb quality of the pastry but I am trying to control my hunger since I‘m blogging and not eating. There was this chocolate hazelnut croissant at La Boulange that I am having dreams about. Clearly I need to live in a town with a higher café to people ratio than the one I live in now. As I wrote in a couple of postcards, why is drinking coffee/eating pastry/reading/writing/walking not a viable career choice? I’m so good at it.
On Tuesday I received a care package from my friend Jerry, baker extraordinaire. He sent some of his amazing macadamia nut white chocolate cookies which I had told him that I had been missing. No pastry shop can make those cookies as good as he does. It was deliciously disorienting to be eating his cookies sitting in my apartment in L.A. But in a good way.
It finally feels like fall here. I know, I know, a little late. Do you see why I’m feeling disoriented? The air is feeling cool and I’ve even seen a leaf or two flying around. I have Macintosh apples in my fridge that I have yet to make into applesauce. Though I did use a couple yesterday to make some apple crisp, which was the most comforting thing I could think of. It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is next week already. And then it is time to start the countdown to Christmas!
Lunch time is almost over, back to my non-imaginary career. This blog posting brought to you by the cd Machine Dreams by the band Little Dragon, pumpkin latte (half caf please, to avoid a repeat of the Café Trieste experience) and the number 5 (the time I get off work) (Happy 40th Birthday Sesame Street!) Wishing you many similarly happy and relaxing lunch breaks!
Be sure to check out the slideshow of pictures from our trip!
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