where i live

This week's Totally Optional Prompt is about places. I decided to write a few haikus to give you a glimpse of this multifaceted city I now call home:

stack of houses
on a photogenic hill --
tourists gaze in awe.

* * *

café in North Beach
poets meet and write --
bikes wait outside.

* * *

downtown train station
bearded man plays guitar --
young girl looks away.

* * *

streetcar crawls
up and down steep hills --
the fog is lurking.

small pleasures

"Maybe happiness didn't have to be about big, sweeping circumstances, about having everything in your life in place. Maybe it was about stringing together a bunch of small pleasures... Maybe that was all you could ask for." -- Tibby from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

I just love this quote. It is a gentle reminder to be grateful for those little pleasures in our lives that we often take for granted. And so today here is my string of happiness:
* Sunlight coming through the blinds and bathing my books by the window.
* Finding a perfect parking spot without having to drive around my neighborhood in circles.
* Taking a short nap at the end of an exhausting work day.
* An evening walk around Duboce Park and Lower Haight.
* A poem following me around and never letting go until I finally sat down and wrote it. (It's still very raw and scattered but I might post it later).

a lazy, feist(y) day

Here I am listening to Feist and the pitter-patter of rain. Perfect excuse to stay in and lounge in my pajamas, don't you think? I actually saw her concert last night and oh, it was soooo good. So much so that I'm still floating in the wonder of it all, inspired to do something that I can pour my heart and soul into. Watching Feist perform onstage does that to you - she's a truly gifted singer and boy can she play the guitar!

And she sang this song that had me grinning from ear to ear:


If Feist sounds vaguely familiar, that's because her song 1234 is actually featured in the new iPod Nano commercial. I can't say anything about the Nano because I don't own one, but I would definitely recommend her new album The Reminder, easily one of the best ones this year.

so true

"We need experiences larger than our problems. We need to see we're wearing the ruby slippers all the time." ~Richard Bartlett

Photo taken at Half Moon Bay, November 3, 2007

swing's eye view

I was once a therapist in a clinic full of swings and they did wonders to the children that we worked with. Now, more than ever, I need something to lift my spirits up and thought that a ride at the swings might just be the cure that I need. So off I went to my neighborhood park by the hill where I can see the city's skyline just in time before dusk slowly settled in.

And yes, I realized that I still have a lot of things to be thankful for. The gift of solitude, even for an hour. How the golden sunlight made the city glow in the distance. The crisp autumn air as I went up and down the swing. Breathing in and out and not thinking of anything else. Being able to wear flip-flops in November. Oh, and some bit of sand between my toes. =)