Earthquake?

I was awakened late last night, early this morning by a jolt which in my dream translated to a colleague inappropriately touching and ultimately breaking an antique table. Was it an earthquake? Here's what I found at USGS:

Earthquake Details

Magnitude	2.1
Date-Time	Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 01:44:42 UTC Monday, June 14, 2010 at 06:44:42 PM at epicenter
Location	37.716°N, 122.545°W
Depth	7.8 km (4.8 miles)
Region	OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Distances	4 km (2 miles) WSW (244°) from San Francisco Zoo 8 km (5 miles) WNW (292°) from Daly City, CA 9 km (6 miles) WNW (298°) from Colma, CA 13 km (8 miles) WSW (239°) from San Francisco City Hall, CA
Location Uncertainty	horizontal +/- 0.3 km (0.2 miles); depth +/- 0.5 km (0.3 miles)
Parameters	Nph= 25, Dmin=11 km, Rmss=0.05 sec, Gp=104°, M-type=duration magnitude (Md), Version=1
Source	California Integrated Seismic Net: USGS Caltech CGS UCB UCSD UNR
Event ID	nc71415376

Back in Sync with my "Stuff"

In the next couple of weeks my "stuff" is being transported from the Houston storage facility to one in San Francisco. This is a big commitment to staying settled in the Bay Area. For the past nine months I've questioned my next steps - should I stay or should I go? I am going to stay. This is such a great feeling!

So, three giant storage containers are being reduced to one. The items I'm keeping are all my kitchen stuff, books, CDs, art, photography equipment, and some favorite pieces of furniture. These items are going into immediate storage here in the Bay Area since I don't have room for them in my current housing. But just knowing that my favorite cookbook is a quick City Car Share ride away eases my mind.

All this stuff has been in storage since June 2006 when I relocated to Connecticut, then London, followed by DC and then back here to San Francisco (Alameda Island to be specific). Whenever I thought about this stuff my reaction was, "throw it over a cliff." But now I am excited to have it back. Perhaps I am reclaiming my history and am ready to get back in sync. As my friend Lucy says, life is a series of chapters in your œuvre and the items/experiences you carry along are the stanzas.

Vintage Swatches

Matt and I purchased "new" vintage Swatches at Union Station in DC.

Mine is called Vintage 1995 SWATCH WATCH new Kimiko GR123
Here's what Matt found out about my Swatch:

"Kimiko" is Japanese for "your girl". So the Japanese lady on the top part of the golden strap is your girl. On the bottom side a Japanese text and a red design are depicted. The red transparent case has a golden sunbrushed dial with no further markings. Blue hour and minute hands and a red arrow second hand mark the time.

Here's info on the artist, Jennifer Morla of San Francisco, who created Matt's Swatch Dotchair GR115.

We scored in a very big way as we only paid $35 for these watches.

A Moment in Time

This afternoon I took the transbay bus home from San Francisco to Alameda. Usually I'm traveling in the late evening with commuters. As it was still daylight and the middle of the work day my fellow passengers were a different sort of lot.

Whilst waiting for the bus I noticed a dapper elderly man at the front of the line. Next to him was a rickety old bike and I just assumed it was his. However when the bus arrived he left the bike behind. I found a seat near to his and said that I thought that that was his bike. He was quite amused. "I've not been on a bike in over 60 years." That was the opening to a ride-long conversation, mostly one-sided. He proceeded to tell me the story of his career in the military, women he met in his travels and a particular event that had clearly impacted his independence. Over and over he told me how his son had invited him to come to Alameda for two weeks to visit. To the man's surprise his son packed up his father's belongings and moved them from LA to storage in Oakland. That was seven years ago.

It was clear that that was a pivotal moment in this man's life. Perhaps his loss of independence? He wasn't angry about it but rather a bit stunned that it had happened. "He wouldn't tell me why the truck was there. He put all my things in storage. He sold my car. I need to get a new one so that I can get back down there. I should just fly down and not tell him. He doesn't know I went in to San Francisco today."

Fascinating and heartbreaking how we can be so impacted by an event like this. It becomes our reference point moving forward. I didn't ask him any questions or try to rationalize that he was probably in a better place up here with his family. It was the story he needed to tell and perhaps just sharing it would be enough for him to move on.

New Old Friends

When I lived in Houston I had no idea that just a few miles away my classmate from elementary school had settled her family in the same city. Through the power of Facebook we reconnected and today I was able to visit Roberta. She looks the exact same after all these years. Amazing reconnecting first with Hal and then Roberta. Next Stephanie who lives in San Francisco.

Cafe Trieste North Beach

My cousin ZBo (aka Michael Zisman) and Ned Boynton at their regular Wednesday night gig at Cafe Trieste. Their band is called Cafe Americain.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Pulling Myself Together

Yesterday I rented a Uhaul and picked up my final two moving boxes from San Francisco and brought them to Alameda. It was like a right of passage riding my bike to the Uhaul place, renting the truck, sitting in Bay Bridge traffic, paying the toll, working my way across San Francisco, picking up the boxes, again sitting in Bay Bridge traffic, dropping the boxes off at my new place, returning the truck and then riding my bike back home. This was bookended with my favorite yoga class and seeing the movie Mama Mia.




Unpacking the boxes this morning I discovered all the little bits and pieces that make a place feel like home. These are the collections of things I brought to London and continued to grow over the years. A collection of glass hearts, hand crafted eggs, my etchings, scarves, and ceramics. Placing them around my place I instantly felt like this is home. Unfortunately there were a few broken items but not bad considering they were shipped from the UK to DC and then on to SF.


Seeing Mama Mia with Rachel and David was the ultimate ending to the day. Meryl Streep, as always, is an inspiration. Clearly I identified with her character as I dreamt last night that I had her long, long blond hair. More than her hair I felt touched by the duality of her character's strength/vulnerability, calm/panic, age/agelessness, creativity/practicality. This photo captures it all, especially the setting - her bedroom in Greece.



After leaving the film we chatted about saving for the future. What is it that I am saving for? Rachel reminded me, the farm and continuing my work in international civic leadership. How quickly I was distracted from my clearly-stated goals during my whirlwind reconnection with Bay Area life.


This image of Meryl stretching herself apart and at the same time pulling herself together while jumping madly on her bed is how I'm feeling these days.

Fitting Out Ike

Ike the Bike arrived the other day and I gave him an intro tour of San Francisco and Alameda. Here he is all fitted out from the Alameda Bicycle store with his new water bottle and locks. I like Ike.

You can see by this post and the previous one that the houses and businesses here in Alameda are located in old Victorian buildings.