Category: Friends

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Awesome Being a girl Family Friends Memoir Sentiment

What’s “film”?

Also in the boxes from my room at my parents’ house – 3 rolls of undeveloped film.

One of the rolls is not a typical canister, and Walgreens told me they don’t develop that stuff anymore.

One of the rolls ended up being blank (bummer).

The third roll (or the first roll, depending on how you look at it), ended up being random pictures from…2001? 2002?  Who knows?  It’s all pictures around my house, or Kirsten’s (my high school bff) house, those are her ducks, that’s my brother on the ground, having apparently been bested by Kirsten’s dog…I don’t know what this is.

Actually, this is the exact reason that I’m so grateful for digital cameras.

And no, I did not get doubles of this.  (I actually just got the negatives and a photo CD – yay 2011!)

Enjoy.

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Family Friends Religion

Christmas 2010

This year we did Christmas Eve with my parents, and then Christmas dinner with Drew’s family.  On Christmas Eve we went to my family’s church for the candlelight service, and I met their new pastor.  She seems cool and new.  I think she’ll be really good for their congregation.  Being at church made me really want to go to church regularly again.  So I think I’ll add that to my New Year’s resolutions.

Christmas night, after dinner and everything, we went to see 127 Hours.  Every year Drew and I have gone to the movies on Christmas day, and I’m really glad we were able to keep that tradition alive.

2005 – The Producers (we didn’t yet know the tradition would be “movies that come out on Christmas day)
2006 – Dreamgirls
2007 – Sweeney Todd
2008 – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2009 – Sherlock Holmes
2010 – 127 Hours (nothing came out on Christmas this year!)

127 Hours is not the most Christmassy of movies.  But it was good.  I see how it’s a good movie.  There was a part where I felt sort of sick, and I covered my eyes for a minute, but then I thought, This is practically the point of the movie, I don’t want to miss this.  Then a little later I cried a little bit.  Because it was either that or throw up.  It was good though.  I kept thinking about it the rest of the night.

This afternoon while driving to Fort Funston to walk with Erin, Drew said something about today being Monday.  Then I got to tell him today is only Sunday.  He was so happy!

That cat so does not care about me.

We are one week into Christmas Break and this is what I’ve accomplished of my Christmas Break Resolutions.

-Hit the gym 6 times.  I’m up to 4 so far.

-Do some deep cleaning of the apartment.  We even fixed our toilet by ourselves!  The tank’s had a slow leak forever, and we’ve just been cleaning up after it.  But then we finally teamed up and fixed it.  What a rush, right?

-Organize my iTunes and sync up my iPod.  Done!  I got lots of new stuff.  Including podcasts.

-Manage to make a dinner that makes Drew go, “Mmm!  This is DELICIOUS!!”  Does reheating the leftovers from his mom’s Christmas dinner count?  I did make my own mashed potatoes.

Categories
Awesome Drew Friends Sentiment Sleep talking Theatre

Potpourri

Molly and I were talking about seeing Giselle or Coppelia at the SF Ballet.

Me: I know the story of Coppelia, but I don’t actually know what Giselle is about.
Molly: It’s…basically like Swan Lake, but she’s a nymph.  And she drowns herself at the end.
Me: Spoiler alert!
Molly: What, they all end with the main character killing herself!  Except The Nutcracker, which you find out at the end is all Clara’s dream.
Me: SPOILER ALERT!!

Drew and I saw The Nutcracker last night and loved it.  I know that kids are a given at The Nutcracker, but I still got a little annoyed when the little boy behind us explained every “magic” trick to his grandma in a loud kid-whisper.  I know it’s not really magic, because this is theatre.  But please tell your Nana at intermission.  But you know who was adorable?  The little little girl who I could hear somewhere in the grand tier, who, when the ballerina dancing doll came out in the first act, cried, “Look, mommy!  A ballerina!  A ballerina!”  Awww.

After we were home, Drew and I were dissecting the show.  He decided that when ballerinas walk, all turned out and pointy-toed, they look like ducks who are trying really hard not to walk like ducks.  Then we cracked ourselves up saying, “Not like a duck, not like a duck, walk like a person, walk like a person…remember, they’ll never let you in the restaurant if they suspect you’re a duck.  Make eye contact and don’t fumble with the money.”

Then Drew went to sleep while I read Eclipse, and at one point I noticed he was making a lot of noise rummaging around his pillow.  I asked him what he was doing and he said he was checking his pillowcase for money.  I said, “…What?”  and he said, “The pillowcases are full of money.”  “Yeah,” I said, “that’d be nice.  Go back to sleep.”

Today we went to the Dickens Fair and almost right off the bat saw this random chick dressed like a ballerina.  One of her arms kept fluttering around.  I think she thought it was bewitching.  She did get major bonus points when she went en pointe for someone to take her picture.  But every time we saw her (and if you’ve ever been to the Dickens Fair for a day, you know how often you see the same people), we looked at each other and both thought, “Not like a duck, not like a duck…”

Otherwise, the Dickens Fair was Dickensy.  And fun.  And busy.  Erin’s dad does single stick fighting and was doing several demonstrations during the day, and asked Drew to come take pictures of him.  I took video.  So we would meet Tom at 2:20, then go wander around the Fair, then meet up again at 3:30, etc.  I actually think it’s the only way to see the Dickens Fair.  No one can just meander around and look at things for six hours.  The structure was nice.  I wanted to buy a mop of curls to wear over a bun, but Drew wouldn’t let me.  Also, we couldn’t find where they were being sold.  I also wanted to buy a nightlight, a Christmas ornament, a feathery head ornament, some fudge, a gyro, some popcorn (by the late afternoon we were both starving), and a flowery circlet headpiece thing.  Luckily we only had $10.  Because what do I need with any of those things?

Finally, here’s a nice thing I do.  The Opera offices are on the 3rd floor of the building (which is the top).  Basically no one on the 2nd floor uses the elevator, but in the morning Opera people will use it to go up.  I always do because I’m usually always carrying my purse, my lunch, at least one water bottle, and a cup of coffee, and I’ve just walked from Bart and don’t want to take the stairs.  But the elevator is super slow.  So whenever I take it to the 3rd floor, I always press the button for 1 to send it back down for the next person.  That’s a nice thing I do.  I just wanted to mention that.

Categories
Awesome Beauty Being a girl Friends Memoir Nature Nonfiction Sentiment

50 Reasons I’m Thankful To Live In San Francisco

In November, the Village Voice published 50 Reasons To Be Pretty Damn Euphoric You Live In New York City.  I’m not arguing with them – God knows I miss NYC – but I immediately started thinking about a similar list for San Francisco.  I haven’t been here too long, and my activity in the city is limited, so this is just one person’s very specific list.

(I gladly welcome input on this, especially when it comes to something I’ve left off, which will probably be because I just haven’t experienced it yet.)

50 Reasons I’m Thankful Every Day To Live In The San Francisco Bay Area

“San Francisco is 49 square miles surrounded by reality.” -Jefferson Airplane

50. Apartments come stocked with dishwashers. Not necessary, but very convenient.

49. It’s easy to avoid Starbucks and patronize independent coffee shops. (But it’s also easy to find a Starbucks if you need that peppermint white mocha.)

48. The carousel at the San Francisco Zoo.

47. There is always someone crazier than you. Always.

46. The view from the Golden Gate Bridge.

45. The many views of the Golden Gate Bridge.

44. Cable cars: the city’s moving landmarks.

43. Driving around the city and realizing you’re on the street where Full House was filmed…or Mrs. Doubtfire…or Invasion of the Body Snatchers. You know, any of your childhood favorites.

42. You don’t have to be a kid to love the Exploratorium.

41. Or, for that matter, the California Academy of Sciences.

40. That sense of superiority when you get to tell someone, “Don’t call it ‘Frisco.’”

39. Because the city is not strictly a grid, the feeling when you conquer the streets of San Francisco is one of invincibility! You are now unstoppable!

38. I’ve never seen curved escalators anywhere else besides Westfield Mall.

37. Some people are into tea. Those people love Lovejoys in Noe Valley.

36. “It’s an odd thing, but anyone who disappears is said to be seen in San Francisco. It must be a delightful city and possess all the attractions of the next world.” -Oscar Wilde

35. I’d rather have a spider or two in the corner, than a kitchen full of roaches (yuck).

34. Just south of San Francisco is Colma, where dead people outnumber the living.

33. Watching the fog creep in. You know it’s ruining the sunny day but you can’t stop watching.

32. Baker Beach (under the Golden Gate Bridge) is “frequented by clothing-optional sunbathers.” Our very own nude beach, so close to home!

31. Napa Valley and its myriad vineyards and tasting rooms are but a short car trip away.

30. The Crème Brûlée Cart: food always tastes better when you’ve had to hunt it down.

29. The other day, I saw a homeless man with a cat carrier. And he opened the door and a chicken walked out. And the chicken was on a leash and pecked in the grass while he smoked a cigarette. This was at 8:30 in the morning, and set the tone for the rest of my day: bizarre and wonderful.

28. Spending a summer afternoon browsing the boutiques. Even if you don’t spend anything.

27. There are streets, where you can look up, and even though you’re within the city limits, you’d never guess it.

26. On paper, it sounds kind of pathetic to take a number and wait in line for a half hour for an ice cream cone. Yet at Mitchell’s it’s worth it.

25. Descending into SFO through the fog and over the water…always takes my breath away for a second.

24. You gotta love friendly small talk with your Target cashier.

23. Checking out the pre-Broadway runs of shows that will be Tony winners in just a few years. Oh, to be able to say, “I saw it when.”

22. The Stairway Walks.

21. How many cities have built their own island, just for entertainment purposes?

20. The Giants winning the World Series – if you were in the city that night, you really felt like part of a 1,000,000-person family.

19. Can’t afford tickets to the SF Opera? No problem. They perform for free in Golden Gate Park, and simulcast certain operas to the big screen in AT&T Park.

18. Who needs Missed Connections? We’re not afraid to just talk to each other.

17. Visit the Dickens Faire at the Cow Palace in December, to get your 19th-century-London fix.

16. Sourdough bread is everywhere. Often scooped out, with soup in the middle.

15. If someone says, “How are the reviews for that show?” a valid answer is, “The little man is sitting up straight and clapping.”

14. If you don’t mind battling the tourists…a hot fudge sundae at Ghirardelli Square sure hits the spot.

13. San Francisco is like a thumbnail version of all the things that are awesome about the state of California.

12. Having the choice between taking public transit or driving yourself. San Franciscans love choice. You might even say we’re pro-choice.

11. Even the homeless people are friendly. San Francisco has some of the most polite homeless people ever.

10. You gotta give this city bonus points for springing up on those crazy hills.

9. I love me some shopping in Union Square. Especially at Christmas time!

8. The BART platforms have marks on the ground where the doors will line up. Make prewalking even easier.

7. Right across the Golden Gate Bridge from the bustling city, you can visit ancient, immense sequoias in Muir Woods.

6. This week, State Sen. Mark Leno introduced legislation that would require history classes to teach LGBT history, in an effort to increase awareness and thus reduce bullying.

5. 60 degrees year round, with a week of summer and a week of winter. Just enough time to enjoy the heat or the rain, and then back to regularly scheduled programming.

4. Drinks and dancing in the Castro.

3. After the 1906 earthquake and fire, Jack London said, “San Francisco is gone.” Well, we certainly proved him wrong. We are a resilient city of tenacious people.

2. I mean…I’m here. : )

1. In fact, lots of people leave the Bay Area…but lots of people come back home. There must be a reason why. I suppose it’s because it’s awesome!

 

Categories
"Other people" Being a girl Friends Memoir

My Friends…Cut Yourself Some Slack.

I think there’s an epidemic afoot.

Yesterday, two of my best friends each brought up the same concern: a feeling of failure or being tried and found wanting, compared to other people of our same age and background. 

One referred to herself as suffering from the “never enough” syndrome.  She suggested that this was the fault of the feminist movement: since now women can “do it all,” now we are required to do it all.  (This is actually what Lucinda Coxon’s play Happy Now? is about.)

My other friend just started a chat with me out of nowhere, saying that she needed to get off Facebook because all she could see was high school friends getting engaged and having babies.

They both speculated that maybe Facebook is causing the problems, and maybe the answer is just to stay off of it.  (What’s funny is that each of these conversations happened on Facebook.  Hm.)

Having two of my best friends bring this up – in the same day, no less – really made me think.  After all, who doesn’t Facebook stalk and then envy other people?  That’s the great thing about Facebook: the low-key keeping in touch with people.  It just means that you get to see every time someone makes good, gets married, has another baby, gets another promotion.

Both friends seemed kind of bleak about it though.  Which I get.  We’re 26 years old and all three of us feel like we should by all rights have our careers, our relationships, and our lives in order.  None of us have managed to go 3 for 3, although none of us is doing too badly.  But there are people out there with houses, careers, marriages, kids, dogs, cats, car payments, iPads, vacations, gym memberships, and 14-foot Christmas trees.

They’re not the only friends to ever have this conversation with me, which makes me think that it might be a much more widespread thing (hence the “epidemic”).  There’s pressure on us to be amazing, because we’ve been told our whole lives how awesome we are.  Then at some point each of us ends up leaving our small pond and realizing that we’re not really the giant fish we thought we were.

I think that one reason that I’m a lot more comfortable with my “ordinary” life, is that during my freshman year of college, I lived in a dorm with a bunch of smart geeks – we’re talking math, physics, computer science, engineering, hella smart geeks.  I was one of two English majors in the entire dorm (and the other girl changed majors).  So I figured out pretty quick that I wasn’t going to impress everyone anymore.

(This is the part where I tell the story about the guy in college who, while telling me about his plans to get his physics PhD in the next couple years, said to me, “You’re not smart enough to get a PhD in physics…I mean, I’m sure you’re smart in English or whatever.”  We did not end up dating.  It may have had something to do with that conversation.)

So I’m not having to learn, post-college, that I’m not a unique and perfect extraordinary snowflake.  I figured that out already, and I know how to own it and be happy even if I’m not rich or famous.  I think all my friends who are learning that now are having a harder time with it.

The funny thing is that I have a pretty healthy level of self-esteem.  I know I’m pretty cool, and I know that if we hadn’t gone to New York for 3 years, I could have set up a career for myself in California by this time.  But the time out there, and my adventures and experiences, were totally worth it to me.  I also would rather spend the extra years scraping it together now, while I’m still only 26, than be trotting along in my mid-30s and have everything suddenly swept out from under me.

Both my girlfriends are the same way.  They’ve each had kind of a bumpy time since college, with graduate schools and moves and relocations and other graduate programs.  Give us a few years and we’ll all have things figured out…or at least more figured out than they are now.

In the meantime, I told each of them, maybe staying off Facebook is a good idea if it’s bothering you so much.  But what’s even more fun (and doesn’t require limiting your social networking) is just to practice making fun of other people instead of envying them.  Hey, I too stalk other people’s pictures and feel jealous of how pretty they look or how nice their vacation was or how big their new house is.  But the percentage of people I envy is only, like, 25.  The other 75% of people on Facebook is just begging to be mocked.

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"Other people" Friends Home improvements

Payback

I have kind of a grudge against our upstairs neighbors.  They can be loud, both speaking (shouting?) and stomping.  Plus they have this dog that loves to whine loudly, and run back and forth through the apartment, especially late at night.  For some reason that sound travels right through the floor, which you’d think the carpet would help.  This is not some New York City parquet floor.

Also, their dog definitely goes crazy barking at people when they take him out for walks, which bothers me, because we all lived here first.  We got a flyer from the office on our door yesterday reminding us that everyone needs to pick up after their dogs, and in my mind, I’ve accused the upstairs neighbors of making those flyers necessary.

So on Monday night I was getting uptight because of all the yelling, screeching, and pounding going on up there.  We finally realized it was probably a football thing, which meant it went on for like 4 hours.  Annoying!  Please don’t disturb our 2-hour game of Super Scrabble.

But last night we got sweet sweet revenge, when eight of us piled into our living room to watch (and loudly approve of) the season 2 premiere episode of Glee.  Take that, tough-looking upstairs neighbors.

Categories
Fiction Friends Sentiment

Finishing

Katie found this in her house.  It’s from Music Circus 2004.  Don’t have any more background than that, but I kind of like it.  At least it’s not angsty, right?

Categories
Beginnings Exercise Friends Work

Opera, free weights, and gyoza, oh my

Today was notable for a few reasons.  I’ll go chronologically.

First of all, I started my new temporary part-time data entry job at the SF Opera today.  So far, I love it.  I really like every single person I met today, and the environment seems friendly and comfortable.  I love the office (the admin offices I’m in are on Ivy Street, not in the Opera House) and it reminds me of New York lofty spaces, like the TACT (The Actors Company Theatre) office.  For that matter, I love the Opera House itself, and will try to go there as often as possible.  I like taking BART into San Francisco and walking a few blocks through the city.  Granted, the job is not particularly challenging, but I don’t mind data entry, and there’s enough information that it’s not just like typing and hitting return, typing and hitting return.  I like the Tessitura database system.  I am happy.  My new goal is to impress the pants off of them in the next 6 weeks and get a real full time job there.

 

The second notable thing was that today was the last day on my one-week free pass at 24 Hour Fitness.  I celebrated with strength training, which the internet tells me burns more calories than cardio. 

When I went in last week to 24 Hour Fitness, the woman I talked to was very nice and encouraged me to take advantage of their membership offers, but understood when I said I wanted to wait a week.  She also revealed that if I have a friend or family member with a 24HF membership, I can piggy-back on their membership and get a discount.  So…I will be doing that.  (Thanks, Molly!)

I actually like the 24HF facility better than Bally.  There are more women working, which I appreciate, and everyone has been friendly when I show them my pass and then they leave me alone.  Oh!  And, each machine has a little box on it, and you plug your headphones into it and then you can change the station so you can listen to whatever’s on TV. Instead of just reading subtitles.  So the other day I watched this episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, slash, Real Housewives.  The questions were themed accordingly, and each contestant was a “housewife” and then had a Real Housewife as her partner.  No one won more than $10,000.

So I’m happy there and I am going to sign up for membership…but there was a crazy long line at the front desk today, I think there was some kind of mother-and-child Zumba class.

The third great thing about today: I think I can say with conviction that I have been fully accepted by Drew’s friends.  I was invited over solo tonight (Drew had to work) for a ceremonial watching-the-making-of and assisting-in-the-eating-of gyoza, accompanied by rice and (inexplicably) meatloaf.  Once everyone was gathered we all partook of the sacred Strawberry Shortcake, and there was much cheering.  I think I can say I have fully infiltrated now.

This was the second batch.
Categories
Beginnings Drew Friends Memoir Religion Sentiment

Wives and husbands

Yesterday was the wedding of our friends Laurie and Dale.  The thing about weddings is, no matter how prepared I think I am for them (for instance, having been at the rehearsal), I always get emotional.  There’s just something about the intimacy of seeing the ritual of two people promise themselves to each other.  When Laurie entered I kept looking from her face to Dale’s face to her face.  It was like they didn’t even know anyone else was there.  In a good way.

I did the Scripture reading, which Laurie approached me about a couple months ago.  Initially, I was a mix of honored to be asked, and terrified to be in front of all those people, and I was honest with her about that.  But I also know that what the bride wants, goes, and I was honest with her about that too.  She was honest with me about appreciating my honesty, and repeated her request.  I worried about the reading, especially as it got closer, because I’m just not a performer, or even a read-out-loud-to-other-people-er.  But I kept the verse forefront in my mind and practiced it when Drew wasn’t home, and just concentrated on generic public speaking tips: take a deep breath before you begin; keep your feet flat on the ground (when I get nervous I tend to roll them to the outside edges); read slower than you think you need to.

Some people might laugh at me because I know this is kind of an irrational fear – but it was a challenge for me. ( Hello, do I not still have dreams where I have to take an actor’s place onstage and it ends up being  just awful?)

But I am very glad I did it.  I was very flattered and honored to be a part of their ceremony and their special day, and I would have really regretted it if I had chickened out and had to watch someone else take my place.  So, Laurie, if/when you read this, thank you for asking me!  I hope you guys liked it.  (Although, if I remember correctly, when you’re up there in the dress and the makeup with the jewelry and the guy, it’s really hard to focus on anything else.)

At the reception, we were at a table with 3 friends of Laurie’s we didn’t know (but I think they traveled from afar), and 3 friends of Laurie’s that we did know, plus a boyfriend and a fiance.  Ten people…and only eight little pats of butter.  Luckily the travel-from-afar friends didn’t seem to care about the butter, and the people on the opposite side of the table didn’t even see the butter.  So there wasn’t a scene.  But there could have been.  Joe P (who we moved to New York with oh so long ago) and Drew and I made up the plot to a blockbuster film that I think could be a box office hit:  it revolves around the fastest, slickest pickpocket in the world, who goes around to weddings and sneaks the garter off the bride when no one is paying attention.  Then, when the groom goes to get it for the garter toss, there’s no garter there!  That’s when the pickpocket casually walks by and drops the garter in the bride’s lap.  The movie begins at the wedding of Luke Wilson and Dakota Fanning, and she’s got the last garter in the world.  The pickpocket is played by Colin Farrell, possibly doing an accent, but not Irish.  He and the bride originally hate each other, but by the middle of the movie have fallen in love.  At the end you find out that Luke Wilson, who has turned out to be a drinker, didn’t sign all the papers correctly and so they’re not technically married.  Then she’s free to marry to the pickpocket, who turns in his…tool that pickpockets use, and vows to walk the straight and narrow.  I may be forgetting something, but this is the gist.

At one point Joe P asked Drew and me what we were thinking while watching Laurie and Dale make their way around to each table to say hello.  He asked if we were reminiscing about our wedding.  Well, I don’t know how you can go to a wedding and not reminisce about your own, especially when it was fairly recent.  I just remember how surreal it was: an event that we had been planning for and paying for, for almost a year, and it was over in a day.  And it was a trip to see people from all different parts of our lives together in one room, sometimes at one table.  And from everyone – from our parents down to the computer teacher at my high school whose class I was never actually in – there was just an incredible amount of joy. 

I feel like, even though this year has been rough with the job searching, scraping and saving, and not always knowing how we’re going to be able to pay rent, that joy has stayed with us.  I’ve heard that the first year of marriage is actually pretty hard, because there are bank accounts to be combined and new rules to be established, but the last 8 months has felt easier in a lot of ways than the 5 years that preceded it.  Or if not easier, then happier.  Surely, more joyful.

So, while I will forget the anxiety of always feeling like there was no money (and I am assuming Drew agrees), there has been plenty this year to make up for it, that I won’t forget.  Here’s a little jewel I’ve been saving up:

There’s a path down by the ocean by the Pacifica pier, and you walk out parallel to the beach for maybe a quarter mile, and then up a staircase to the top of a crest, where you can pretend to push each other off into the ocean.  This spring, on top of this crest, hidden back in the grass, were three large puddles filled with tadpoles.  We checked on them a few times over a couple weeks, getting nervous as the water levels went down and the tadpoles didn’t seem to diminish in number.  We encouraged them to sprout legs and leave their overcrowded quarters. 
          One morning, Drew got up before me, and I dozed until I felt him sit down near my feet.  “It’s raining,” he said.  “Mmmmmm,” I said.  Then he said, “It’s good for the tadpoles.”  And I thought, Awwww.

I wouldn’t trade that kind of relationship for years of paid rent.  I’m not sure I’m saying that right, but the cheesy theme has probably rung true, so I’m going to shut up.

Categories
Awesome Being a girl Friends

Alcatraz

When you haven’t seen your bestie in 6 months, and she schedules a trip home with her boyfriend so he can meet her family and see California for the first time, and she makes plans to be in your zip code for a night and a day, what else can you do but agree to go with her and her boyfriend wherever they want?  Even if “wherever they want” turns out to be Alcatraz.

I learned a lot of things, that day, about the history of Alcatraz and its many uses and purposes.  Here are some interesting facts: 

In the 60s, Native Americans took over the defunct prison and lived there for 19 months, claiming the land for Indians.  In fact one of the first things you see when you pull up to the dock on the boat is “Indians Welcome” which I thought was some kind of prison threat, but was actually totally sincere. 

They do not sell souvenir shot glasses, which really surprises me, as they sell a wide variety of other things, including tin cups (“replicas” of the ones issued to prisoners) and Alcatraz salt and pepper shakers.  Also lots of cookbooks, including non-Alcatraz themes.

The corrections officers used to live on the island, with their families, and the kids would take the boat to school in San Francisco, and come home at the end of the day.  They basically never saw the prisoners.  But I think I would be nervous to have my family there, because if I was a bad guy, and I had a lot of anger, and I broke out of prison, I wouldn’t bother trying to swim to shore – I would just go to the families’ houses and take them all hostage or something.  I don’t know if that whole concept would fly nowadays anyway.  Do corrections officers’ families live on Rikers Island?  I just wikipediaed it, and while there is nothing about families living there, it does say Rikers Island is “the world’s largest penal colony” as it contains within it “schools, medical clinics, ball fields, chapels, gyms, drug rehab programs, grocery stores, barbershops, a bakery, a laundromat, a power plant, a track, a tailor shop, a print shop, a bus depot and even a car wash.”

But this isn’t about Rikers, this is about Alcatraz.  Alcatraz now is all about tourists, and flourishing flora and fauna.  Here’s a picture of a seagull real quick, just in case you’re getting bored.

The day was warm and overcast, not a great combination, but at least it wasn’t raining.  We pulled up to the dock, walked uphill for what seemed like a long time, and got to the main jailhouse.  We picked up our audio tour headsets in the shower room (they even had put in prop soap in the soap holders, to really drive home that this was where prisoners took showers in rows), and started off.

If you are planning a trip to Alcatraz, well, the headset audio tour fee is included in your boat fee.  But if for some reason you were thinking you’d go it alone, working out of pamphlets and handouts, and explaining to your pre-teen children what you think each new room is, let me just make a suggestion: pick up the headsets.  I cannot imagine walking through that building and not having the information from the source like that.  It is narrated (allegedly) by 4 corrections officers and 4 actual prisoners, and they have sound effects and stuff.  It’s actually really cool.  They take you all through the building (although when we got to the outside part we all paused our tours and took a little break) and it only takes like 45 minutes or something like that.

(At some point when you’re in cellblock C, slip your headphones off and listen to the faint echoes from footsteps and rustling bodies, but it will be the only sound, because no one is talking.  It’s kind of eerie.  Now, put your headset back on, you’re missing the story of how the one guy starved himself to fit through the bars and almost got out.) 

We kept being surrounded by the same people: the obnoxious guy who’s filming everything, and keeps just walking in whatever direction he wishes to go, without looking around him because he’s too busy staring in the viewfinder; the fiesty looking kid who chose to forego the “I’m stuck behind these bars!” shot and instead marched right over to the toilet and sat down, doing a Rodin’s “The Thinker” pose instead; the mom-and-daughter team wearing scrunchies and oversized t-shirts, who were buying armloads of stuff in the gift shop when I passed them last; the bored looking 12-year-old kid wearing a Donkey Balls t-shirt.  (I gather Donkey Balls is some kind of gourmet Hawaiian chocolate?)  Actually, I saw that kid (again) in the restaurant we finally landed in on Pier 39, and I thought, what a tacky shirt (again).  I kept wondering what brought those other people to Alcatraz.  Where were they from originally?  Were they bummed out that the weather was so gray?  Was that kid as bored as he looked or was he doing that 12-year-old thing, where everything is boring?

On the boat on the way back, the weather cleared up and San Francisco looked really nice with a backdrop of blue sky.  Don’t worry though because it definitely sprinkled a little later that night.  We got it, San Francisco, you’re famous for your fog, I know.

The best part of the entire day was getting to see Megan and meet Dennis (and then, to steal his pictures for this blog post, thanks Dennis!), oh, and also to eat clam chowder sourdough bread bowls.  I hope that it doesn’t take another 6 months to see them again.  Maybe NYC next time?

(That’s our guardian in the background.  You’re never alone.  You’ll never be alone.)