Posts from May 2007

(Time to change my userpic. I think Il Papa is giving me a holier-than-thou rep I really don't deserve.)

Did I mention I got a letter saying the bail money had been received, but if I didn't appear in court on the new date (rescheduled for today because Monday was a holiday), I could be thrown in jail? Didn't take me too long to realize it was meant for my ex-tenant. I resealed the envelope and expedited delivery to his forwarding address. Nice to know someone else is in more trouble than I am, haha.

Met two craigslist guys this week. I've been exchanging email with the first one a couple times a day since May 4. That's a long time to put off meeting someone who only lives 3 miles away, and it was entirely my fault. Partly I just didn't have time. But I also enjoyed the email banter, and the possibility there might be real connection if we met in person. Problem was, I had the feeling meeting in person would kill both those diversions. Eventually it got to the point where I started beating myself up thinking, don't I already have more than enough pen-pals, what the hell am I doing here? Although so what if I enjoy a little anonymous pen-pal action on the side -- whatever gets you through the day.

Oops. Ron just called to make sure I knew my unit was on the real estate brokers' open house tour today. Nope. Had half an hour to run around like a maniac and hide any incriminating evidence of mundane life like dirty dishes, laundry, toothbrush, sex toys, drug paraphernalia -- you know, the usual stuff. So I don't really have time to finish this right now OR change the userpic. Hopefully my life will get back to it's usual mundane self soon.

I know I say this all the time, but it's been a crazy week. Granted, there are plenty of boring weeks in my life, but I usually don't post about those. And it's not for lack of crazy things to do -- it's just I get so caught up in my head (or on the computer) that I don't get out there.

To wit:

I had to vacate my home for two hours on Saturday for the second-to-last open house. It's so weird to feel "homeless" while dozens of strangers parade through my house deciding if they want to by it. Which reminds me, offers are due on Wednesday. Special consideration to peeps if you're interested! Either way, you're probably going to have to hear about it.

In any case, this was a good opportunity to enjoy another spectacular club sandwich at the Acoustic Cafe and catch up on my SF Weekly. Just as I was cramming down another mouthful of savory goodness, I flipped the page to a blurb about this event happening at exactly the same moment:

Ok, I don't know how I might have participated at that particular event if I'd known about it, but golly gee whiz! I have to catch up on my local news before life passes me by. And you thought the cost of living in SF was too high. It all depends on where you look.

Bay to Breakers was the same day as my first Sunday open house. Sweet! (p.s. to @j3sse, I caught Inki on camera...contact me for details.)

Had a free pass to Stinson this weekend. Can't believe this nirvana is only 23 miles from my house...



See that tower in the distance? That's Sutro Tower. A few peeps accompanied me up there not too long ago, although I guess I can't prove that now. But who cares. It's all good.

WARNING! The following post contains pictures of rugs that are known to be harmful to certain peeps in the state of California.


(p.s. -- notice what's on the Mac screen? Nice color coordination!)







Own your own little piece of San Francisco!

One of my contractors is about to father his third kid with his third partner. And he must be at least 10 years younger than I am. That freaks me out. Not because I feel like I have to "catch up" (on the contrary). I feel like I'm not sure what the hell is going on out there in procreation land.

In other news, Ron asked me to write an explanation about how my little plot of nirvana is chain-gained down the line. Here's my ego-centric (at this particular point in time) view. It's a long history, I can probably live it down, haha.

"F" Addendum

The 600 block of Buchanan Street is comprised of three pairs of 3-story properties each sharing common walls, foundations and roofs in the style of row houses.



618-620 Buchanan Street is connected to 622-626 Buchanan by a party wall, foundation, and roof. The two sides even divvied up space for utility meters (electrical meters on the 618-620 side, gas meters on the 622-626 side) back when same-family ownership made such arrangements a matter of convenience.

When I bought 618-620 Buchanan, the owner of 622-626 Buchanan and I agreed we would move the utility meters to each property's respective side. The electric meters were moved and approved by the city in August 2007. Once PG&E hooks them up, we can start moving the three gas meters for 618-620 Buchanan Street over to their rightful side.

I know, I know. You'd think real estate disclosures would be racier. I guess you'll just have to come to the open house and rifle through my lingerie drawer. Oh wait! You live 3,000 miles away! Don't worry, you're not missing anything.

To pass the time during my hour-long commute to Napa, I started developing OK Cupid tests. No one could be more surprised than I am, considering I've only taken three myself. (I totally aced the "Commonly Confused Words" test, by the way. That was satisfying.)

Anyway, I've got the "communication style" test and the "driving style" test in the hopper. Many more where that came from.

Also to pass the time, I've been listening to the radio without changing the station the second they start talking. So I caught an interesting tidbit about a study showing people who blog about their relationships are xx% more likely to stay together than those who don't. Now, I'm about as cynical as you can get about drawing hard and fast conclusions from so-called "studies." But I do enjoy exploring a theoretical question now and again -- as long as you don't take it too seriously -- and I can see this particular theory having some merit.

Anyway, this study also made me think of @jason. (Oh yes, all you e:peeps are frequently in my thoughts. You have no idea!) Of course, I would have rewritten the study to see whether blogging helps people resolve whatever the natural path of their relationship might be. It makes sense you have to be honest with yourself before you can be honest with someone else.

I actually have quite a bit more to say on this subject (surprise, surprise!) but I'm having a hard time concentrating right now because I finally broke down and bought a CD for the first time in ages and it ROCKS! (Listen to my new usersound.)

I ended up at Amoeba tonight because I thought it was the free Dinosaur Jr. in-house. (It's not 'til next Tuesday.) So I salvaged the trip by finally buying Razorlight. Even if you've never agreed with my musical suggestions before, this is a must-have! Ok, if you insist I'll upload it to Gather (tracking number: 0047419001178863042) so you can give it a proper listen. See for yourself.

just to clear up any remaining confusion.

More fake tales of San Francisco. Conan tries to visit a Medical Marijuana center:

For reasons I'd rather not go into right now, I found myself taking the OK Cupid personality test again. I wasn't expecting or looking for a different score, but was still surprised when I got exactly the same result as @twisted #36664. Maybe there is something to these tests after all? Anyway...

Even though it's been more than a year since I first took that test and filled out my profile, I picked two of the same adjectives to describe myself (philosophical and observant). I was completely stumped to think of a third one though, so I finally picked "indecisive." (That should get me lots of dates!) I wish I could say that was just an inside joke, but lately it seems all too true. It's not that I don't like making decisions, it's just that I hate closing out my other options. And that's pretty much what a decision is, after all.

Which may be why I'm still squarely situated in The Window Shopper camp. Although I really haven't had much time to do any window shopping since I moved to SF, which is a crying shame. I was just thinking how a little recreational shopping could be just the thing to celebrate finally moving into my own place and getting all my crap out of storage and getting my life back instead of spending every weekend at Home Depot. (I still have a few more Home Depot weekends to go, but the end is in sight.) As much as I love my contractors, I'm really ready for them to go away. It's like having four boyfriends wake you up at 7am every morning for the same thing -- just not the thing you want right at that moment.

Anyway, in a bout of sleeplessness left over from the nine hour Italy time difference, I was trying on a few imaginary candidates for size. (Let's face it, there are always options. Maybe options you shouldn't exercise, but there are worse ways to lull yourself back to sleep.) In any case, my mind is running through the drill when all of a sudden I flash back to one of the OK Cupid questions. Something like, "do you imagine breaking up with someone before you've even gone out with them?" Of course I answered no. Well, in the cold dark of night, turns out one of the scripts my mind plays out is the break-up scene. I know that sounds terrible, but I guess I want to have an exit strategy before I get involved in anything. Sometimes there's a good reason for that, like if you're thinking of dating a coworker or a neighbor -- someone you're going to have to see every day even if things don't go well. Better make sure it's worth getting into, and probably smart to lay the groundwork to get out gracefully. But I think I do it regardless. Which might be a tad cynical.

I honestly didn't know that about myself. So much for my powers of observation, haha.

p.s. -- The Kaiser Chiefs were fucking brilliant last night (new user sound). The Good The Bad & The Queen are on tap for tomorrow and Arctic Monkeys on Tuesday. Maybe that's enough distraction for now.

First of all, Italy <hearts> naked people:











Now that I got that out of the way...

It's pretty freakin' gorgeous too. Just about anywhere you look is a picture postcard. Where else can you step out of the Metro station and have your jaw drop at this awe-inspiring site?


The origin of stadium seating

The coast is beautiful too:





Reminds me of another hilly location with a Mediterranean climate on the coast. You'll just have to guess where I mean. Some people might complain about the hills, but I think they're worth it.

Ciao.