My grief is a teenager that could drive a car

I'm having a melancholy day. My mom died 16 years ago today. And it's making me sad thinking about my 16th birthday. I totally though my mom would get me a car. I had NO reason to think that - we didn't have much money and it really wasn't her style, but I just wanted one so desperately. Instead, she gave me a typewriter. She said that some author (of course now I can't remember who) had said the best gift she had ever received was a typewriter. So that's what I got for my 16th birthday. I can see the beauty of that now. But at 16, I was profoundly disappointed. I literally looked inside the typewriter to see if there were car keys hidden in it. Kinda funny to think about it now. How clueless we can be when we're young. And unappreciative. If I would have known then I'd only share the planet with my mom another 9 years. Gulp.

Easter

Growing up, I looked forward to easter for two reason: Chocolate and a new dress. I've lost touch with Easter, the most important thing I've looked forward to the past few years around this time is coloring eggs at J&Ns. And this year, we didn't get an invitation to do so...

In thinking about Easters' passed, I've posted this image of Paul's SFMOMA drawing done in honor of the holiday, years ago.

Pretty pretty San Francisco

I took this last year, still continues to delight...

Walking with my friend Denie

A true friend is the rarest of all blessings. After our three+ hour walk & talk, on our way back along Crissy Field, this was our view:

And I received this later in my inbox:

let yourself be silently drawn
by the strange pull of what you really love.
it will not lead you astray.

-rumi

I can't believe we're having to re-debate women's rights

If my mother were in a grave, she would certainly be rolling over in it right now. Maybe I need to join in, and escalate the conversation to the level of acknowledging the benefits of women's health and reproductive rights...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/womens-reproductive-rights_b_1345214.html

Am I too...

I made this self-reflective video a few nights ago. It's not really a personal inquiry, but a human inquiry.

Today 3.3 miles, yesterday 9.5

My gift to myself, in addition to the exercise and fitness of the walk itself, is to listen to a delicious audio-book as I walk. I am more than half-way through The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo, and going back into the lives of Bloomquist and Lisbeth inspire me to get up and going out into the world, earphones in my ears.

Today I walked to 26th & Bartlet, after passing by Valencia WHole Foods to pick up some pad thai rice noodles. I carried them the entire way, continued on my walk, and looped up around Dolores Park, and came back down Church St.

Yesterday Val & I walked a mean 9.5 miles, all the way to Ft. Mason, around the Embarcadero down to South Park, and back home. I was sore when I got home. But felt much, much better after a hot bath. Then settled in for the red carpet lead-up to the Oscars.