Last Minute Snowboarding Trip

Ming once said, "I hope this will change your negative perspective on rain: when it rains in San Francisco, it's snowing in Tahoe." Fresh snow is what every snowboarder/skier dream of, day and night. Obviously, there will be no winter sports without snow, and the more snow the better. Snowboarding was never a sport I considered trying, sure it looked cool enough. It also requires much investment, clothing, gear, time, courage... Ming has a long love affair with snowboarding for many years, it was also why I thought he was cool when we first met. And now, he got himself a psyched beginner, tumbling the mountain run behind him :)

Unfortunately because of work, we couldn't go snowboarding during thanksgiving break. But the craziness of working in a shopping mall through Black Friday finally made me snap. And out of the blue I texted him, 'Lets go.' And we went. It was a long tiring drive, but for a day, we had blue skies and white snow.

Last year was my first season, everyday after we finish, I would be black and blue all over. Last Sunday though, I came home totally unscathed except for a couple of sore limbs. I'm glad the hard work last year paid off, and looking forward to the new season with utmost excitement!

And... since this is a short update about my life, allow me to complain about one thing, just this one thing. Why is the San francisco public transport soooooooo unreliable? When half the city depends on this system, how can it be late/early/full/not appearing at all?! I'm either super early to work or five minutes late. Stuck in the underground because of traffic, slow traffic in an underground train? I didn't know this concept can exist! Last time I was late because someone died in the muni tracks, but guy or no guy, I can still be late because of various muni malfunctions. Just ranting, yes, I should just grow up and leave the house earlier so I wouldn't need to stress out if there's a delay in traffic... Haha, good luck with that, I'll just keep on ranting about it :)

Date Night!

Friday was definitely burn out, one of those days when you go home, curl up on the couch, and just stare up at the ceiling... for a long time. As Thanksgiving and christmas gets closer, work at the chocolate shop gets busier, and crazier.

Even though I am not working on Saturday, I could not sleep in. The Annual Anthropology Association annual meeting was commencing at downtown San Francisco, and it's just too great an opportunity to miss. When I was in school, academia has always been a serious career choice for me. I am a wonderful student, I love anthropology, and I see my professors as mentors and heroes. But I decided not to go back to school immediately because I want to experience life without school for once. 

Looking back, that dream of one day being an educator, maybe college professor seems so distant, yet endearing. And that emotion became the force that pulled me out of bed, got me on the bus, and journeyed to the AAA meeting. What an impressive sight! The hotel lobby was full of anthropologists! Every conference room has presentations and panels going on one after the other. I chose a couple to go to, ones about food, of course :) And I am glad that I still understand the concepts and theories. Later that day, Ming joined me, and we attended a couple of presentations about education and diversity. 

The experience of going to an AAA meeting was certainly great, but it doesn't answer any of my doubts and questions about my future. Do I want to go back to school? Is anthropology the best tool in solving social conflicts? Is there a line between academia and activism? If I can answer them right now, I wouldn't be a 24 year old fresh grad, would I? So after leaving the conference, I did what I always wanted to do as a kid: not go home :) Remember as a child, once you get to leave the house, for a day trip, run errands, anything, you just don't want to go back? Because it's boring back home! Now finally we are adults, and we can have it our way. We went to the movies! We took a walk in a park, and we went shopping. 

Let's take things easy.

Powerpoints, presentations, panels, all reminds me of school

There was wine, and there was pumpkin...

The whole point of writing this blog is to give family and friends t a brief update to my life in San Francisco. But then what if I myself don't really remember what really happened last week?!

Seriously my mind drew a complete blank,  partly because work was kicking in full gear, and Ming and I are still struggling to adjust our family and social lives alongside with it. And the other part was we celebrated two dear friends' birthday last weekend, one involved an elaborate wine tasting trip at apple hill. That party was yesterday, and afterwards we had to make a long drive home; then I proceeded to wake up at 6.30am this morning for an 8am dentist appointment. What was I thinking? So at this point my brain is pretty toasted I have to ask Ming what did we do last week.

One of the many Vineyards at apple hill

Our wine connoisseurs with fine taste

By the way, the dentist said I should get both my wisdom teeth removed soon :) Five years ago when I removed one wisdom tooth, that night I fell asleep curled up in my parents' bed with an ice pack on my cheek... I am not thrilled about this.

So Ming reminded me, there was a pumpkin, we got a pumpkin from our CSA box last week. Yay! But when it comes time to eating it, we then realized our eyes are way bigger than our stomaches. So throughout the week, we had pumpkin scones, pumpkin curry, and finally pumpkin chili. Fearing that Ming might turn yellow one day, I decided to pause the pumpkin menu for a while. And right now, the pumpkin chili lingers in our fridge like a halloween ghost.

And you know what? I think that was it, the things I prefer to remember from last week. I tend to keep my eyes forward, looking into the future, or more precisely, looking at things I don't have or want. So throughout the week, I was thinking of how can I improve at work, I was thinking of how can I meet new people and make friends, I was thinking of what housework I should be doing when I get home from work. And in the end, my plate was full but I'm empty, and tired. I think, I'll start eating what's on my plate now and enjoy it. Because it's too delicious a meal to miss out.

To the man in the Subway

Last Friday was not a good day...

Got up at seven to get ready for work, once I got on the light rail train (MUNI) the driver announced that the underground subway to downtown is shutdown. Frankly I have no idea how to get to work other than the subway, so I checked on the internet to see when it would resume. Once I started reading, my heart sank.

A man was walking in the subway tunnel and later fatally hit by a train.

No one knew who he was, and why he was walking in a subway tunnel. It's tragic news, and I would never remotely think anyone should leave the world this way. For the next hour and a half, I battled chaotic ground traffic with a herd of bewilder commuters, arrived to work an hour late, and barely had time to open the shop. My heart was heavy throughout the day, I kept checking the internet to see if they had more news about what actually happened that morning. If I was young, I might misunderstand my actions as being nosy. Now, I interpret that as finding closure. Sometimes we just want to know why, listen to the story, and let the matter rest. But no such closure can be found, so I kept praying all day.

Hey guy in the subway, although you caused me a lot of trouble this morning, I won't hold it against you. I hope you are in peace now, and on your way to your next journey.

After putting so much thought to life, love, happiness, and tragedies. The day was somewhat heavy, wistful, and exhausting. For the first time since working I felt burnt out, my head hurt, my eyes hurt, my whole body hurts! 

I thought this heaviness would be the general trend of the day, but life has plans... Finally when work was over, I sat at a food court to wait for Ming to pick me up to leave town for the weekend. A man approached me and said something like, you are very cute, what do you recommend to eat at this food court? That caught me completely by surprise, but as he was speaking I started to scramble for a graceful, kind, polite decline... as soon as I open my mouth, my phone rang. So I uttered the most efficient, blunt, snobby reply, "Sorry, my husband is calling." After this incident at the mall food court, I concluded my day, and my life, as ridiculous.

On a brighter note, spending the weekend in Tahoe was an amazing experience. The weather and natural scenery really reminded me of Saratoga Springs, and fall in upstate New York, not to mention how much I miss it. The leaves, the breeze, the food, the smells, the farmers market, and the beautiful pockets of nature in Saratoga Springs. Now I'm ready for another week :)