The Trip
Monday sailing trip.
Under the Bay Bridge two times.
Good times had by all.
The Boat
Make sure you steer straight.
Look out! We are going to tack.
Smooth sailing from here.
The Experience
Sail beyond ball park;
Great views of San Francisco;
Ignore cold weather.
The Others
Found: pirates on ship.
Big red sails keep them moving.
What’s their business here?
Happy Leap Day everyone!
I wasn’t going to write today, but I figure, since February 29 only comes around once every four years (as we are all well aware) I have to write because, well, not every day is Leap Day. Then I was going to write about the nostalgia of childhood because I’ve been feeling it lately, but that didn’t seem to be enough.
Morning bun from Starbucks trip #2 (see bottom of post for more details)
You see, today isn’t just Leap Day… today is my very dear Aunt Judy’s birthday. She would have been 56 (or 14) today had she not died from cancer 11 years ago. I miss her every day.
Aunt Judy was unique. I’m not talking the way we are each our own people and different in our own right simply by existing or having variances in our DNA or whatever; I mean that Aunt Judy was a really special and amazing human being. She genuinely cared for every person she came in contact with every day.
I wish I had a photo to share with you, but I don’t have any on my computer. She passed away before digital cameras were a “thing”.
She lived across the country so we only saw her once or twice a year when we went to visit her or she came out here to visit us, but those visits were full of exciting adventures and parties. Tea parties, beanie baby parties, scavenger hunts, pool parties, picnics – you name it, she made it incredible. She couldn’t have children of her own so she treated her nieces like princesses. She would have been a wonderful mother – her child would have been the luckiest kid in the entire world. Unfortunately, she never had that chance.
When my grandmother stood up at my aunt’s funeral and spoke about her daughter, it broke my heart. I couldn’t tell you what she said (I was a wreck and hardly remember anything that anybody said to me that day), but what I can tell you is that my grandparents’ hearts break every single day from the loss of their daughter.
beautiful leap image (via vi.sualize.us)
The past few days have reminded my family, in very real ways, how short life can be. Yesterday, my step mom got news that her step sister passed away from a bad case of pneumonia (sadly, my family members are no strangers to how devastating pneumonia can be – and how awful the ICU can be for months on end). Last night was the first time my step mom had ever heard her step dad cry. Talking to her about it this morning broke my heart.
No parent should ever have to bury a child – no matter how young or old that person is.
Losing people who are close to you really makes you value how important every single day is – sometimes things happen that really make us open our eyes and take a good hard look at the world around us and realize how incredible this world is. Sometimes those things are good (like getting an apartment and a job all in the same day), and sometimes those things are devastating (like losing a loved one – especially when their life is cut short by tragedy); What’s important, though, is that we don’t take life for granted and that we really appreciate everything that surrounds us.
That is why I have spent today being thankful that I have one more day – one extra day – to appreciate the people in my life. Even though it seemed like just any other Wednesday – I got up, went to work, stressed about deadlines, came home, ate dinner, and now I’m sitting in bed – it really was so much more than that. It was one more chance, 24 more hours, to hold my head high and live life the way my Aunt Judy lived it all 45 years of her life – with passion, excitement, love, and hope that I can (somehow) make the world a better place.
Of course, now I’ve turned my “Happy Leap Day” post into a rather sad post, but sometimes that just has to be done. Because I made this post so intense, here are some happier Leap Year thoughts to end you with:
Leap Year Fact #1: Did you know that, because we have Leap Years, the calendar year and the solar year are just about a half a minute off. At that rate, it takes 3,300 years for the calendar year and solar year to diverge by a day. That should help you sleep at night 😉
Leap Year Fact #2: A New Jersey woman and her daughter were both born on Leap Day. The odds of that are 2 million to 1. That’s pretty crazy, huh?
Leap Year Fact #3: All of us in my mom’s immediate family were born in Leap Years. Pretty crazy, huh? What are the chances of that?
(To see which name corresponds with which person, visit the Characters page)
Besides valuing the extra day, I celebrated in a few other ways as well:
First I went to Starbucks three times before noon. Can you say addicted?! (Soy latte, morning bun, and iced coffee with nutmeg…. YUM!)
Then the Cupcake Fairy came to work today – something that only happens once every 4 years – and we were all pretty excited.
Present from the Cupcake Fairy
And, as if today wasn’t unique enough, there were actually open seats on my bus ride home. That is unheard of at 5pm on a Wednesday in San Francisco.
Empty bus seats 🙂
How did you spend your Leap Day? Did you do anything special?
Normally I don’t post twice in one day, but earlier today I said that I would do my Picture-A-Day post that I neglected last week. I wasn’t about to go back on that commitment.
February 18 - our first home made meal at the apartment (of course it was spaghetti)
That is something I’m trying to work on – sticking to things that I say I’m going to do. Now, I’m not a complete flake, in my professional life I’m very good at getting things done by a deadline. I’m dedicated to my work, and I come by that naturally (both of my parents are very dedicated to their jobs – it’s genetics). But in my personal life, sometimes I say I’m going to do something and then end up getting too tired, or I forget, or whatever, but I’m trying to work on that. It’s something that bothers me about other people, so I feel as though I should change it in myself as well.
February 19 - my receipt.. I've never seen my name spelled like that... ever.
Here’s another confession, as if I haven’t revealed enough of my shortcomings today, I didn’t take a picture one day last week – February 20 to be exact. I could come up with some sort of excuse about being ridiculously busy and having a bunch of other stuff to finish (like finally getting my apartment completely set up and worked out), but the fact is, I simply forgot.
So sue me.
There’s no reason to beat myself up for missing the photo opp. In order to make up for it, though, I tried to take more pictures throughout the rest of the week. I’m disappointed in myself that I broke my new year’s resolution, but it was just one day and the point of the exercise isn’t necessarily to take a picture every single day – it’s more to use a camera more, whether it be my Canon Rebel or my iPhone.
February 21 - a rip in my tights 😦 and I love those tights! oh well
February 22 - I decided to walk to work and took pictures along the way
February 22 - China Town
February 22
February 23 - the staircase in my building
February 23 - one of my favorite buildings in San Francisco
February 23 - view of Alcatraz from Union St
February 24 - my new friend on my desk at work
February 25 - "breakfast" at Ikea (before we went shopping to finish decorating our apartment)
February 26 - meet Teddy, I've had him since I was 25 days old 🙂
February 27 - "because the best monsters are actually good on the inside" (makes me think of Monster's Inc.)
And a bonus one from my wanderings around San Francisco.. just because I like this one 🙂
How was your weekend? Did you do anything special?
I hope your Monday went well!
Wow, I haven’t been doing too well on this whole “post every Friday” thing… but to be fair, I was going to post my weekly photos yesterday, but I am still trying to get the internet in my new apartment figured out (the apartment is set up down a long hallway and I am on the opposite side of the apartment from the modem which doesn’t make for very fast connection speeds).
Anyway, this week was my first full week at work. I actually had my own responsibilities, figured out how to do certain things in the industry, and learned a lot from my coworkers. I won’t get into everything from my week, but if you want to read about it, you can check out my post here: Things I Like About My Job, part 1.
Because so much was going on this week I took more pictures than my normal one-a-day. Well, let me rephrase that – I always take more than one picture a day, but I don’t always like them. This week it’s different – I like more of the pictures I took. It was kind of exciting. Not to mention the fact that my obsession with Instagram has gone from the minor leagues to the major leagues (if you have the app, follow me – my screen name is rockegan 🙂
February 12 - my old room... now a guest room at my dad's house (that kind of made me sad to type)
February 13 - basically tells you how my Monday morning went - (don't worry, only one of them was a latte, the other was a peppermint soy hot chocolate)
February 14
February 14 - Happy Valentine's Day! (can you tell where the Valentine's cards are located?)
February 15 - bagels and lattes for breakfast 🙂 two of my favorite things!
February 16 - my new bedding! red sheets with a red and white patterned comforter (it's gonna take some getting used to - so girly!)
February 17 - cool 80's style boombox left on the sidewalk
February 17 - awesome graffiti art in SOMA
February 17 - happy hour with my coworkers at Sens
I hope your week was wonderful.
What are your plans for the long weekend? Do you have anything exciting going on?
AKA Save Me San Francisco
You’ve been sitting there with bated breath, waiting for me to write about the big things that have been happening over the past few weeks. I’ve been so secretive, keeping you in suspense, driving you crazy with all the mind games. (Just go with it…)
Bay Bridge
The past few weeks I have been spending a lot of time in San Francisco. I have been driving out there (and BARTing out there) at least 3 times a week for many different reasons – coffee with friends, doctor’s appointments, apartment showings, meetings, interviews. I have been applying for jobs, talking to companies, scheduling informational interviews, and a whole lot more. It has been getting exhausting, not to mention expensive.
Baby, whatcha doing today
What are you doing later?
I don’t know my way through a maze
Of gray skyscrapers
But I’m willing to learn-“Manhattan from the Sky” by Kate Voegele
But as of last week, all of my hard work paid off. In a matter of 24 hours I not only got a call that the apartment we saw on Sunday was ours if we wanted it, but I also got a job offer! On Thursday I signed a lease to an apartment in Russian Hill and then, on my drive home, I got a call that SHIFT Communications wanted to hire me for their three month internship position. It was the best day of my life. (My dad argues that the best day of my life was the day I was born, my counter argument was that Thursday was the best day of my memorable life.) By Friday I had signed a lease, signed my offer letter, and started packing for my new apartment on the fourth floor of a 1920’s style building with no elevator.
Yesterday we got the keys to the apartment, showed Christine’s parents and my mom and step dad, and moved some boxes in. We will get all of our furniture into the apartment next weekend. I can’t wait!
Every day’s so caffeinated
I wish they were Golden Gated
Fillmore couldn’t feel more miles away
So, wrap me up return to sender
Let’s forget this 5 year bender
Take me to my city by the Bay-“Save Me, San Francisco” by Train
I can’t wait to move to The City! My mom saw my apartment on Saturday and a) didn’t have anything bad to say about it (which was a HUGE deal) and b) she almost cried because she was so nostalgic about the nine months she lived in San Francisco. She said that she absolutely loved living in San Francisco and she was so happy that I was going to live there now. I was shocked.
If I could wish upon a star, I would hitch a cable car to the place that I can always call my own. - Train
Since I’ve been in San Francisco so much lately (and permanently starting this upcoming weekend!) I have been able to take a lot of pictures on my iPhone. Some are of pretty views, some are from Christine and my accidental trip into the Marina, some are from walking around, and others are just random. Here are some that I’ve been saving up to share with you, they all make me so happy.
I sent this picture to my friend Kara telling her that our apartment is right over this club.. she believed me. Nope, it's definitely not.
BART on my way to my interview!
Take me to my city by the bay - Train
I can’t believe I will be a City Girl in less than a week! I have never lived in a big city like San Francisco, and I just can’t wait to move in and figure out what the city life is all about.
Now the big question: to match or not to match my bedside tables. (I know, I know, really? That’s my big issue now? Life is pretty great!!)
But in all seriousness, should I match my bedside tables or not? Different colors and different styles? Same color but different styles? Same style but different colors? What do you think? Seriously.
This week was pretty crazy! I’m still not ready to share all the news with everybody out in Cyber Land… but I promise I will fill you in this weekend or on Monday. I promise.
But before my photos and Tweets from week 5, something adorable:
And now for the photos:
January 29 - the touristy part of San Francisco
January 30 - sometimes Target has the coolest pillows
January 31 - basketball game at my high school alma mater, things sure have changed
February 1 - my dad brought my Aunt Judy's Tiffany engagement ring back from Pennsylvania. She passed away 11 years ago. (No, I'm not engaged)
February 2 - I love arm chairs. They are so stylish and comfy. At a café at Polk and Washington
February 3 - tea time at Sideboard Coffee
And finally….
**Squeals!!**
Rachel Discovers Happiness 