Thoughts for Grand Central

Yesterday I spent sometime paling around with an old friend in Berkeley. We had dinner at a place called Cafe Gratitude (http://www.cafegratitude.com/); which, to be honest, was a little too granola even for this San Francisco lefty. All the food was Vegetarian and raw--don't get me wrong, it was tasty but not at all filling or nourishing. I'm certain I've never had a stronger craving for hot dogs than I did after dinner last night.
However, the decor and environment are of note. The room was brick and cozy, complete with a fireplace and with large tables sitting 6 or so. The tables are shared spaced (but you can opt for small private tables) so you are encouraged to sit and interact with strangers. There are cards on the table with questions to get conversations going. I'm not sure how well this concept translates to a small town where people are likely to know each other anyway, but it is nice in cities where eye contact is not the norm.
All the dishes on the menu have names like "I am sensational" and "I am generous", so when you order you say something like "I'll have the 'I am sensational'". The waitress then repeats each loudly and with a smile: "YOU ARE SENSATIONAL". This happened twice before I turned to my friend and said something along the lines of "Isn't this kind of weird? and awkward?" Her response was to joke, "what? people being happy and friendly?" --"Yes"
Like I mentioned above, the food was tasty but not "complete". Like all raw food, you can't eat too much of it without feeling bloated, especially if your digestive system isn't used to it. There are people who swear by the health effects of raw food, but I'm pretty sure that's only because you can't eat a lot of it without feeling ill. We had a kind of mushroom bruschetta for an appetizer. I liked it a lot, it was basically mushrooms on a type of pounded nut/grain bread with whipped mozzarella on top. I like the whipped mozzarella, but my friend didn't. She had basically a salad with some grains for dinner, I had a pizza that was entirely unlike pizza. It had the same nut-type bread with whole tomatoes, some kind of sauce, and a giant salad on top.
Here are some pictures I took, sorry some are blurry:

Annual Christmas wishlist

It's that time of the year again! The rain has start coming down and the stores have switched to Christmas window displays, so it must be shopping time. To simplify things for friends and family, below is a list of items I could use this year. Please don't feel compelled to get any of the below, I completely understand if you send a lump of coal.

• A passport holder--something small but big enough to hold my passport, ids and credit cards. I already have a wallet that I really like, so don't really need another wallet. Something along the lines of this: http://www.executivegiftshoppe.com/211-5.html but not necessary in leather. Bonus points for something fair trade or eco-friendly.
• A guillotine--but not the one you're thinking of. One of these: http://www.paper-source.com/cgi-bin/paper/item/12-Guillotine-Trimmer-Wide-Base/2903.013/489967.html I've recently gotten into bookbinding as a hobby and have most of the supplies I need, but it turns out bookboard is really hard to cut with normal scissors.
  
• A cd wallet--I need to organize my cds and dvds. (http://www.amazon.com/Fellowes-Nylon-Wallet-224-Disc-Capacity/dp/B0000326O1)
• a heavy duty umbrella--not necessary a big one (smaller is better for traveling) but something that can last forever and ever. I have a couple but they're pretty shoddy.
  
• General stuff: sustainable, fair trade items; gift certificates (esp to sf or vancouver spas); donations to worthy causes; books (as always)

Thanks, and Merry Christmas!

Welcome to the new blog!

Its hard to believe its been almost two years since my last post at sleepdeprivedzombie.blogspot.com. Not surprising (especially if you know me), I forgot my username and password for the site. Anyway...I'm back.

I was reminded of a post from the old blog the other day when I had a "Bokononist" moment. I'll get to that in a minute, but first, the original post:

I got my first San Francisco Voter Information pamphlet the other day. For all the Midwesterners out there, California sends out a booklet chock full of information pertaining to the election: local candidantes, voting location, sample ballots, and ballot propositions. I was excitedly read though it when I came across proposition I, "adopting a policy that the mayor appear monthly at a board of supervisors meeting". I flipped the page and the next one was "adopting a policy calling for the impeachment of president Bush and vice president Cheney". While I revealed in the irony, I studied the cover of the booklet carefully. It had the most famous picture of San Francisco: As I studied it, a sudden realization swept over me: that's the office building of the client I just finished working for. The fifth window from the left is the window I've been sitting at for the past two weeks. And then I remembered how, in ninth grade, I was working on a jigsaw puzzle in Mrs. Peterson's home room of the first photo above. I tried to imagine me handling the puzzle piece with the window I was sitting at and got dizzy with the coincidences. It reminded me of a passage in Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle. "The room seemed to tip, and its walls and ceiling and floor were transformed momentarily into the mouths of many tunnels--tunnels leading in all directions through time. I had a Bokononist vision of the unity in every second of all time and all wandering mankind, and wandering womankind, all wandering children. "

My recent "Bokononist" moment happened while I was shopping at a consignment store yesterday. (As a side note, this is a really cool consignment shop. If you're ever on Fillmore street, stop by Seconds-To-Go.) Near the back in the corner with the books was a shelf of glassware and Christmas decorations, including this:


Which I'm 99% sure is the same decoration we had every Christmas until it accidentally broke one year. I plopped down five bucks, now its sitting on my side table next to the radiator.

More pics: