Aw!!!
Susie sent this to me today and I couldn’t help sharing. Now I KNOW that I can have a pet elephant. Thanks, Susie!!
Take me to the ZoOoOoO!!
I’ve been on the Pediatric Rehab service for over a year now and we finally had the perfect group of kids for a trip to the Oakland Zoo. In fact, the last time any group that had gone to the zoo was over 3 years ago so this was indeed the “Perfect Storm” of kids, staff, and weather. The group photo above is really cute in real life but I’m not allowed to post recognizable photos of the kiddies.
Last Friday, we packed up our outing bags, slathered sunscreen on all their faces, and piled 4 kids all in wheelchairs and 5 adults in the Adventure Van. Just the week before, we had a big car wash with the same four kids so the van was squeaky clean and ready for the outing.
The weather was perfect and all the kids (and grown-ups) were giddy with excitement. Lots of the kids propelled their own wheelchairs but there were a few steep hills that really got our hearts pumping. We headed over to the African savanna area and saw elephants and giraffes right away. One of my kids is hard of hearing and has been learning all the different signs for the animals. He brought pictures of the animals and each time he spotted one, he would point to the corresponding picture and we’d all make the sign for that animal. It was like animal sign language bingo all day long.
The Oakland Zoo is such a great place to visit and I would have loved to stay longer to see everything. We had to cut out some of the park so that we could take the long-awaited train ride around the secret exhibit filled with emus and wallabies. By 2:30, we had to get everyone back in the van and head back to the hospital. Our cheeks were all pink from the sun and we were exhausted but it was such a worthwhile trip when you have the right group of kids.
SO CUTE!!!!! EEEEE!
Baby Elephant’s First Swim! from Zoos Victoria on Vimeo.
As most of you know, I love elephants and baby ones are even cooler. Look at this baby elephant running around and splashing in the water! I want one!!
Sunday Outing
For the past 2 years, Jes has said that his company has special membership privileges at certain museums in the city. We finally used it today to visit SFMoMA. Fortunately for me, there were lots of photography exhibits on display this weekend. It was also the last day of the Richard Avedon exhibit. He’s a well-known photographer who took lots of black and white portraits with plain white backgrounds and also shot fashion photos for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.
Dovima with Elephants
Carmen (Homage to Munkacsi)
These two were my favorites, which also happen to be soe of his most famous ones that are also displayed at The Smithsonian.
Afterward, we took walk around Union Square to find lots of holiday shoppers, lights, and signs of Christmas all around.
For dinner, we had some Thai food and just the smell of the restaurant made me happy. There’s something so comforting to me about the smell of garlic fried in oil. Reminds me of Mommy.
Anyway, this evening was a nice way to end this year’s Thanksgiving weekend…especially since I spent most of if at home in my pjs. 🙂
Forgetful, not irresponsible.
For the past 2 days I’ve been scouring my brain, my house, my car, and everything else I’ve touched over the last 64 hours. On Tuesday morning as I was heading out for work, I couldn’t find my house keys. I swore that I had them the night before but didn’t have the time to really search as I was hurrying to catch the train.
Yesterday I still didn’t have my keys and had to sit outside of Jes’ office building for an hour as he finished one of his meetings. I sent him a text message saying “I’m downstairs” but didn’t really know if he had received it. He finally came down to hand me the keys and that hour of waiting certainly felt like an eternity. I would suck at being homeless.
I gave myself one more crazy search tonight and went through the trash, the dirty laundry, all the bags I had used within the past two days, and the coats and jackets that I had worn. Nothing. Finally, I had an epiphany. As I was going through the coat closet for the 3rd time, I remembered that I put on my snowboarding jacket on Tuesday morning to walk the dog in the rain. As I was heading out, Jes offered to walk the dog and I gladly hung up my jacket and went to work instead. THAT was the moment when I couldn’t find my keys!!!! I had put the keys in the pocket of the jacket (that I haven’t worn in months) and forgot to take them back out in all the excitement of not having to fight the wind and rain at 6:30 in the morning!!! So when I reached into one of the many jacket pockets and felt the squishy elephant keychain, I thought my heart was going to leap out of my throat and I yelled, “I FOUND IT!!!!!” Aaaaah…I had the biggest sigh of relief of my life. I was also confused as to why I didn’t find them the first time or second time I went through the closet. Oh dear. Perhaps my brain was trying to make me suffer a little so that I wouldn’t do this again. I was SO close to calling it quits and Jes was dreading the pain of forking over a bunch of money to get our locks changed.
I really hate myself sometimes.
The Marina District x2
The Bangs live in the neighborhood called The Marina. They have a gorgeous view of the GG Bridge and have lots of cute stores up the street from their apartment. Unfortunately, it’s also deep into the city and parking is really hard to find. As a result, we don’t venture out there much and the Bangs get sad that they have to come out to our ‘hood most of the time.
So, on Friday night, we went out to their area for Happy Hour and dinner. Bang, Jes, and I took the bus over and we had an evening at The Tipsy Pig. We snagged a table out in the patio (without a reservation) and convinced the manager to get us an order of bacon mac & cheese from the kitchen. We also tried the pulled pork sliders and a couple of salads. They were all pretty yummy.
The next morning, I rode the same bus and met up with Vyl near her apartment. We walked over to Fort Mason and checked out the Renegade Craft Fair.
They had a lot of really cute things and we also went to visit Eleen at her booth that was tucked away in the back. I picked up a few gifts and also got a cute elephant wallet from Eleen! Yay!
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