ode to the bay

This weekend alone there was at least this happening:
-Manu Chao, Greek Theatre
-Kite festival, Berkeley Marina
-Jazz festival, North Beach
-Movie in the park showing Indiana Jones, Mission Dolores Park
-Free opera, Stern Grove
I managed about 2.5 of these + Laurel's going away gathering in Faculty Glade and a Dirty Dancing themed room for our house party.

Then yesterday was Free First Tuesday in the city and I treated myself to a day off and a solo adventure taking advantage of free museums. I took the long way up a hill with an amazing view of the Golden Gate and Marin to the Legion of Honor, where I bypassed the obscene line for the Monet exhibit and enjoyed a little abandoned room on Picasso's work as a book illustrator instead; had a mediocre sandwich and a very nice cafe au lait in what claimed to be a cafe but was really just a woman's flat and garden; checked out the Cartoon Art Museum for the first time; and finished off at MOMA, where I much preferred Shomei Tomatsu's photography to the hype surrounding Matthew Barney.

And today I took the morning off to go to beloved Trader Joe's one last time. It feels ridiculous recording this, but leisurely wandering down each aisle, splurging on treats I've always wanted, and consuming free samples of coffee and french toast quite lifted my spirits.

Meanwhile I'm reading Dave Eggers' thorougly entertaining Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and am relishing descriptions of Berkeley and San Francisco of the likes of "...of course there is no logic to San Francisco generally, a city built with putty and pipe cleaners, rubber cement and colored construction paper. It's the work of fairies, elves, happy children with new Crayons. Why not pink, purple, rainbow, gold..."

I have a list with frantic scribbling of things I want to enjoy here before leaving. I've hardly started and will definitely not finish, but it doesn't matter because it feels so good to be re-enamoured of this place, because it's the first I chose.