Musings on Dance, Food, Geek Stuff
I just realized I am already into the middle of week three of my work sabbatical! This is really the first day I have had completely schedule-free since I finished work at the Cal Academy. So far it has been completely wonderful to have this time to take a break and take stock of things….
I got to practice changing my self-talk yesterday, after I picked up my scooter from the shop. When I arrived, what I thought was a $500 set of repairs and a tuneup turned out to be closer to $700. That was a lot more money than I had hoped to pay. During the scooter ride…
The other night I was was having dinner with a new friend in a dingy but comfortable Mexican restaurant in Oakland. Over veggie tacos, she was telling me about a project she was working on, one that she moved to the Bay Area specifically for. She recounted how much work had already gone into it,…
An older figure I know has devoted his entire life to his profession. He’s excellent at it. It’s also the only thing he has practiced with any kind of dedication or passion for the last 40 or so years of his life. So now that he is in retirement age, he doesn’t have much else…
I just finished Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. A present from a good friend (Thanks, Barry!), it comes at a perfect time in my life, as I contemplate a career shift. Designing Your Life is essentially a guide to applying a design-thinking process to career planning. As someone who has done…
Today on my lunch break, I was walking to a restaurant in the Inner Sunset when I came upon two older men kind of sprawled on the ground on top of each other. There was grunting and grappling, one with his arm around the neck of the other. A nearby bike was knocked over on…
Okay I am WAY late to this, but I felt compelled to throw something together tonight. Here’s my 2017 year in review. Quick 2017 Stats Freestyle Dance Videos Shot: 7 Number of Marches and Protests: 3 Number of Pies Baked: 5 New Hobbies Acquired: 1 (rock climbing) Dance Competitions Entered: 5 Countries Visited: 1 (South…
Voon and Veronica at Central Park Swings, 2008 Every once in awhile I feel guilty about all the time and energy I spend on dancing, when I could be out fighting injustice, building homes for the poor or lobbying Congress more. And then I finish a kick-ass dance weekend and head off to my job…
Looking back on my life, I would say that most of it has been spent as a single person. Across the span of nearly three decades as an adult, I’ve only had a few instances where I was in a committed relationship. And for the most part, I’m just fine with that. Recently this article…
I'm an old fan of Anne Lamott, a writer's writer and a constantly inspiring figure in my life. So I was so pleased to stumble across this TED Talk she did earlier this year on "12 Truths from Life and Writing." I need to watch this every morning of my life.