quarter life coe

on crashes

It’s been quiet around here lately. 

I sit down to write and the page stays blank. The cursor blinks. I tend to move on. 

Beyond just getting to know SF, some fun personal projects in the works (more to come!) and our weekly trip to the mountains that has become our ritual, lately there have been some unfortunate real life interventions as well.

First this crashed… 

Sad mac! I sat at the genius bar and physically held my breath as they told me it was irreparable without erasing every stitch of everything that was on my computer. You know what my technological worst nightmare is? That. I carried it home and then prayed that my time machine back ups had actually worked. After literally 2 whole days of reloading (how could it possibly take that long?) and a few very sad hours where I thought ALL of my photos from the past ten years were lost and gone, thank goodness it appears to all be there (mir.a.cle). Let this be my PSA to all of you today, back up your shit. Like now.

Then this crashed…

The verdict after a particularly epic run which involved hiking over the mountain top then up higher still, dropping in over a cornice, a discernable pop in the knee and then skiing down on one leg, was a torn ACL for my man… very unfortunately.  Doctors have been seen, surgery is imminent but until then, as if something that small (ha!) could keep him off the mountain. With a brace he was already back up top last weekend but taking it easy thankfully. I have a feeling this isn’t going to end his ski season quite yet, against all odds.

We’ve been spending nearly every weekend up at Tahoe. Joining that ski house has to be one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. We’ve been meeting so many new people. It really is fun. Now if only it would snow… 

That’s one thing I like about moving though. It tends to evoke a ‘season of yes’ if you will. You show up somewhere new and don’t know anyone and just start saying yes, to everything. 

Want to go to a trampoline park?

Rock climbing?

Join the Junior League? (no pearls, but for serious actually)

Head out for a drink at 10pm on a weeknight and stay out until 1:30 instead?

Hike up an urban mountain?

Go to a 2 year old’s birthday party?

Drive over to Mill Valley?

Run up to Napa for the afternoon?

Swing by the Ferry Building? But actually get caught in an environmental protest instead? (hello California!)

Good, because that’s what’s been on my agenda the past several days. All over the place is an understatement. 

There was a moment earlier here where I got a bit blue about missing the little pockets of life I used to come upon, the ones that so vividly colored our time in New York – the random performance, a ticket to a documentary, a reading at a bookshop or (especially) a gallery with a good show on view. I knew they must be here somewhere too, maybe in a different way, but alive and well and just hidden for the time being from me. Then last week I was leaving a meeting at Fort Mason and happened upon a poetry reading in a little library bookshop – an old man bobbing and weaving to the cadence of his own words, dressed head to toe in a million patterns and bearing approximately 5 teeth. Barely pausing for breath he was all rhythm and spit and spatter. And my god, I loved him for it. That same night I passed by a photography exhibit not 50 yards away, took a spin around the room and then made my way home into the night, feeling cheered. It’s here. I’ll find it.

How a Working-Class Couple Amassed a Priceless Art Collection

thekimenator:

Herb Vogel never earned more than $23,000 a year. He spent nearly 50 years in a one-bedroom apartment with his wife. They had just one indulgence: art.

via mentalflossr:

‘Herb and Dorothy’ might just be the best documentary I’ve seen on Netflix yet. Literally an inspiration. Happy weekend watching!