Weekend update.

I spent the weekend playing tour guide again. A friend that I've known since elementary school is moving to San Francisco very soon, so we spent most of Saturday afternoon walking around different neighborhoods to help get her acquainted. I sympathize with how daunting it is to apartment hunt in San Francisco for the first time. It kind of feels like just closing your eyes and throwing a dart on a map. All of the neighborhood names are meaningless so you end up wasting a lot of time checking out dodgy apartments that you would never live at in a million years. I'm really surprised there aren't more people working as brokers for desperate apartment hunters in the Bay...maybe in a year or two there will be.



In any case, we started out the morning though with brunch at Absinthe. We amazingly got their before the restaurant even opened so I finally got to eat at one of the coveted sidewalk tables! AND...it was sunny after a rainy morning. I feel ridiculous getting exciting about something like this, but after waiting 1-2 hours on average for brunch, I'm sorry, but it's kind of a big deal! Two bellinis later, we set off for the Mission, Union Square, and ended up the day watching the Bay Bridge lights turn on at Chaya.

I also finally saw The Wolf of Wall Street. I never managed to watch all of the Best Picture nominees for this year (I still hope HER wins!)...but I'll get to all of them eventually. The Wolf of Wall Street was a great film. It seemed to be...furiously filmed if that makes any sense. And who knew Leonardo DiCaprio could do physical humor! I can tell  it's going to go down as a classic...in the same vein as Goodfellas. Poor Leo, I hope we wins an Oscar finally. All in all, a really fun and relaxing weekend. Should you ever find me complaining about something that is so #firstworldproblems, please pinch me and remind me that I am really lucky to be where I am.

Happy Weekend!

I went to Yoshi's last night to see Jon McLaughlin perform solo. He is incredible live. Just him and the piano. He's quite funny when he's just on his own without his band. I think it's pretty critical for a musician to be able to carry on good conversation in between songs at a show. I remember seeing The 1975 live and being so put-off by their performances because they just stormed through their set as if they had a plane to catch. Anyways. Back to Jon. We stuck around afterwards to meet him and get some stuff signed. It was so awkward. I am never doing this again with a musician or celebrity of any kind. I felt bad for the guy. He looked exhausted.

As of right now, I'm working out of Caffè Strada near campus. It feels so nostalgic to do this.  I really missed this kind of work environment. I don't know why I haven't done this more often. It's much better than working out of my apartment. I decided to spend some time today to do some trip planning, so I'll end this blog now with some of my favorite links around the web this week.

One More Thing by BJ Novak
I started reading One More Thing on my kindle. You can tell that it's written by someone who's accustomed to comedy writing. This book trailer is hilarious.

Stefan Sagmeister on How To Beat Your Cellphone Addiction
A great FastCoDesign article. I love Sagmeister's proposal for designating one portion of a live concert for photography, and banning cell phones for the rest of the show.

Adorable Penguin Chases Zookeeper
You're welcome.

Graced with Light

Sometimes the city really does outdo itself. Like this past Sunday, which was amazing after a gloomy day of rain. Day two of my brother's visit was spent brunching in Nob Hill and exploring the rest of the city until the evening. We ventured over to the Grace Cathedral afterwards to see the ongoing art installation "Graced By Light."

I still can't believe it took me this long to see it in person. Containing about 20 miles of ribbon, the installation mirrors the colors of the stained glass windows inside the cathedral. It is really gorgeous and a must-see because I think the installation is going to be taken down this month!

Beautiful isn't it? I wish I could make it out in time to catch the 6 PM yoga classes that they hold under the installation.

I'm as jaded as San Franciscans get, so I really appreciated the chance to see things I ordinarily wouldn't have bothered with had I no guests in town. Hurry up and go visit the cathedral before the installation is taken down and make a day of it! Go to Top of the Mark afterwards for a fantastic view of the city, or go to the Tonga Room around the corner. Classic San Francisco, that neighborhood.

Grace Cathedral

1100 California Street

San Francisco, CA 94108

b/t Taylor St & Jones St in Nob Hill

Healdsburg | Sonoma County

Healdsburg is a darling little town. I find comfort in the similarities between Wine Country and where I'm originally from, Orange County. There's something very familiar in the atmosphere of Sonoma and home.

I had visitors this weekend, so we ventured up north to go wine tasting. But first, we started the day with lunch at Bravas for tapas.

And holy crap, the food was amazing. We all had sangria and shared several small plates like this grilled octopus. So gorgeous, I couldn't resist sharing the food porn.

Our waiter was really friendly too. He lead us on to the two wineries that we visited afterwards.

Needless to say, I would most certainly come back. Until then, I'll be daydreaming about my next visit.

Bravas

420 Center St

Healdsburg, CA 95448

Tartine Bakery.

Finally catching up on some backlogged posts. I've had a lot of visitors lately. When that happens I typically find myself at Tartine Bakery in the Mission. I went here for the first time when I was still at Cal. I remember the first time I went, it was my first time exploring the Mission District with my boyfriend and it was such an adventure. We made a day of it and went to the symphony at night.

Needless to say, I love this place. It has deep ties to how I feel about the time I've spent in the city and I will always return to it with friends new and old. But enough of the sentimentality--this place is amazing for brunch or coffee with a morning pastry. Nothing quite like washing down a Tartine morning bun with a cappucino on a Sunday.

The shiitake mushroom croque monsieur is my favorite thing to order. It's a thing of beauty. The pickled carrots are the perfect compliment too. I ordered this recently when my oldest brother and his girlfriend came to visit for a weekend.

And here are the glorious loaves of bread that people line up for. I love stealing a glance each time I walk by the cashier to see the loaves being freshly pulled out of the oven. FYI, you need to call at least one to two days in advance if you want to purchase loaves. Isn't that crazy?

Tartine Bakery

600 Guerrero St

San Francisco, CA 94110

b/t 19th St & 18th St in Mission

Angel Island

Just as a disclaimer, I haven't intended for this blog to be so focused on hiking and the outdoors. That just happens to be what I've been doing these past few weekends.

Yesterday, I went out to Angel Island with Sofia to go hiking for the day. There's only one boat that leaves early in the morning and returns at 4 PM in the afternoon, so you're basically stuck on the island.

It was really beautiful out. It kind of reminded us of hiking in Strawberry Canyon in the East Bay because it was so dry out. But the views of the city were just so remarkable, it made up for the fact that we kind of came unprepared.

The island is only about 5 miles in radius, so it doesn't require so many hours of the day to explore. So we spent a lot of time essentially just watching the shadows grow longer. It was really relaxing and much needed since I haven't been getting much sleep all weekend.

I know I'll need to recharge and have lazy days occasionally, but I'd like to take a different stance to my weekends this year. If my weeknights after work are so mundane and uniform, I want to take the chance to do as much as I want and can on the weekends. Meaning, I'll see my friends, go out and explore the city, go hiking, and just try something new more often than I normally do. So far, I'm off to a great start.

After returning from the city, I met up with an old friend to see Spike Jonze's new movie Her. It blew me away. I haven't been this moved by a movie since I saw Lost in Translation, and it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the fact that Scarlett Johanson is in both movies. My favorite kind of movies are the ones where two lonely people miraculously connect by chance in a big city. Her brought up so many questions about where technology is taking us, and what exactly constitutes a real relationship. In one of my favorite scenes, the main character Theodore talks with his close friend about their relationships with their OS's (operating systems). And she basically just says fuck it, our lives are so short we should allow ourselves some joy. I liked that. Allowing yourself joy regardless of what form it comes in.

Anyways, I HIGHLY recommend going out to see the movie. If not for the content, just for the damn aesthetic of the movie. It was styled so beautifully--the colors, the costumes. Ugh, it was so good! Go see it, you won't regret it.

Summer in January

                

It's been an extraordinary weekend in San Francisco so far. It's summer in January basically. And while I sit here railing against my stupid iPhoto library for corrupting and deleting many of the photos I've taken today, I will have to say that I had a lot of fun. It's amazing what the outdoors can do for improving your mood.

We spent most of the day eating and exploring Land's End and Sutro Baths. Unfortunately, many of the photos from brunch today were deleted somehow by my computer. Sigh...But it's all right, I still have quite a few. First thing tomorrow night, I am purchasing an external harddrive and backing up all of my photos to my cloud.

In any case, if you're looking for a moderate hike--if you can ever call it that--Land's End can't be beat on a sunny day. You can stay on the wooden path for the most part or go down a flight of stairs to visit Sutro Baths. Not to be missed if you're visiting the Bay!

Sunday Exploring

In an effort to maintain my "new year, new you" illusion, I set out for Muir Woods this past Sunday to go on a hike to get some fresh air with some friends. After a really miserable day of cloudy skies and scattered showers in Berkeley, Sunday brought some much needed sunshine. Really, it was the perfect opportunity to go on a hike.

Now Muir Woods typically attracts hordes of tourists. Loud, DSLR-wielding, visitors who yell at each other in Cathedral Forest and have elaborate picnics in the park regardless of park regulations. Yesterday, however, was relatively quiet. And really, I can't criticize because I've since joined the DSLR crowd. Needless to say, there's a steep learning curve that I'm trying to overcome. But I humbly present you the photos I took on Sunday. Manual settings continue to elude me.