Around Town: Easter Weekend (2/2)

Donuts.  Look yummy.  Taste less.  Oh well.

Part 1

Where did I leave off?  Right.  Sunday.  So, while the farmer's market may not be a tradition, Easter Sunday Resurrection Rolls most certainly are.  Basically they are sugar dough wrapped in marshmallows and when they bake the marshmallow melts leaving the dough hollow on the inside.  Yummy, but almost too sweet if such a thing exists.  Tradition I will carry on to infinity?  I think yes.  Just as soon as I lean how to make them...

Anyway, church this year was a combined service at Davies Symphony Hall. <dork> It was amazing! I always hate that they don't let you sing in concerts, but since this was church I could sing all I wanted.  Sweet.  We sat in orchestra which was indescribably cool other than that I was taking a picture before we started and then a man sat directly in front of me.  </dork>

I am purposely not talking about the camera debacle, but there was one, and these will be the last pictures from this camera for a while.  </idontwanttotalkaboutit>

After church we went home to change clothes and then went to go see/participate in Bring Your Own Big Wheel.  Basically, it's a "race" down one of the steeper hill in the city that includes around seven hairpin turns.  I went down on a tiny plastic motorcycle which was awesome, but did not have a way to steer.  Let's just say I didn't win in the traditional sense.  Or in any sense really.  There's a reason there are no pictures of me in the race.

Home.  Dinner of yummy food that I appreciate more and more the longer I have to feed myself.  The rest of the day was uneventful which was actually probably not good considering that I had (have) so much work to do.  It's beginning to be time for mantras and all-nighters.  I cannot even describe how much I'm not looking forward to that part.

In unrelated news I am still somewhat stunned that I had to break this up in to two posts.  I probably didn't HAVE to, but on some level I'm kind of impressed with myself for being able to eek this out for content... I mean.  I could have...  It was...  I talk too much.

By the way: church was at Davies Symphony Hall.

No big deal.

Sister Emma's pic: Mom at BYOBW.

Sister Emma pic: Me and my not very big wheel.

Sister Emma pic: Trying to get through the BYOBW crowd.

Around Town: Easter Weekend (1/2)

San Francisco airport.

So, in all the craziness that was the past few weeks I completely forgot to share pictures of going home for Easter.  It was absolutely lovely.  I got to see some of my favorite people and do some of my favorite things.  Just enough to tide me over until summer... granted, now "summer" is in two weeks, but still.

I flew in on Thursday night after a crazy day full of Freq Out rehearsals and worrying about getting to the airport.  Thank goodness I got there early because I then found out that my gold status expired last month, so I'm back to being a regular old passenger.  Poo.  I did get to use my backpack for this trip though.  Even if it was probably a bit of overkill.  It's good to use to practice with.

Friday I went to yoga class with my mom.  It was... well, it wasn't the first time I'd done yoga, but I think the last one was a fluke, so this one was better.  Granted I was not at all prepared for it clothing-wise.  Which doesn't explain how I was completely prepared gear-wise for an impromptu climbing session with some youth group friends after the Good Friday Tenebrae service (which was inexplicably held at noon).  Just go with it.

To say that the Saturday morning farmers market is a family tradition might be a bit of a stretch, but it is by far my favorite Saturday breakfast and everyone in my family knows it.  So usually, when I'm there for breakfast they indulge me and we go for a farmer's market breakfast.  Not that they hate it, but I get the sense that when I'm not around they typically go to sit down restaurants with waiters instead of pigeons to take away the leftover food.  Yeah.

In the afternoon I went out to lunch with Trevor & Co. in the sunset.  Just the beginning of the long list of people I miss terribly when I'm away.  We then trekked out to Stonestown for browsing and wandering, waiting far too long for a bus.  Ahh Muni, predictably unpredictable.

Of course then there was Sunday... but this post is getting quite long, so I'll stop here and make this part one of two.  Who knew I was going to have so much to say about a weekend.

Waiting to be picked up.

Pretty lights

Dad at the Farmer's Market.

Emma, before her wanting to kill me stage.

Trevor with the bright red hair.

Taking a picture of myself in the mirror -- lent is over so I can use mirrors again.

Around Town: Friends and Newness

The Embarcadero at Christmas time.

Just a collection of pictures taken over winter break.  Soaking up San Francisco, spending time with friends, and getting ready for the newness of the coming semester.

The roommate took me out to sushi.

Waiting for the fireworks on New Year's Eve.

Around Town: Climbing SFMoMA

I've got climbing on the brain.  After a trip to Sports Basement last week all I can think of is when I'll get a chance to climb again.  I haven't been since October, and I'm really itching to go.  This lead to a lengthy discussion of instillation piece that's in the atrium of SFMoMA with my Grandpa.  I'm still a little puzzled as to the exact logistics of how it was done, but I think it's one of the coolest things there.

Of course, the exhibit we went to see, on Richard Serra's drawings, was no photography allowed.  I was a little ticked, but it was still a great exhibit.  Richard Serra is one of my favorite artists, because he forces you to experience his work, not just see it.  This showcase of his early work was a bit different then what I'm used to, but it was beautiful nonetheless.  One room in particular had two black canvases stretching to the ceiling.  When you enter the room completely you can feel the walls grow around you.  So cool.

These pictures are just general around the museum pictures.  Mostly the aforementioned instillation piece, and the sculpture garden.

Around Town: Old Friends

Friends come to town and good things happen.

I feel woefully inadequate for creating this post now as opposed to when it happened just over a week ago.  Part of the reason for this of course is that I took no pictures.  I am horrible at remembering to take pictures when clearly pictures should be taken.  Though that's not to say that the weekend wasn't documented.  There were many pictures taken, just not by me.  (Pictures can be seen on my roommates blog HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE)  But regardless of the lack of pictures on my end, we all had a blast.

He was in Chicago to look at a school (I don't want to say which one because I haven't actually told him that I'm writing about him) that he may be coming to next year.  In Chicago!  Near me!  I'm trying not to be super excited about this, because I know college admissions can be tricky, but nevertheless I am very excited about the possibility.

Long story short the weekend was filled with staying up late, getting up early, eating out, the Girl Scouts (more on that in a later post), playing Nintendo in Wicker Park, wandering the city, good conversation, and frozen yogurt.  I wouldn't change anything.

It was strange to see him here in Chicago since I'm so used to him being in San Francisco.  Very strange.  Fun, but odd at the same time.  I miss him a lot since he's still in San Francisco and I'm here in Chicago, but that may change next year (*maniac grin*).  Of course all these people visiting this month has gotten me extremely behind on my chores and some of the homework things I should have been doing, but that's only half relevant, so we choose to ignore it.

Around Town: Austin

So, in keeping with tradition, I will do a post on my weekend trip out to the Austin neighborhood for my InterVarsiy chapter's retreat.  I feel like I should put a disclaimer here that this isn't a normal "Around Town / Around the World" post in that I didn't go to Austin for a vacation like the other places I've written about so far.  Also, I am notoriously bad at remembering to take pictures, and since the weekend was so short I have no pictures whatsoever.

Now that all is out of the way let's get down to it.  I went to the Austin neighborhood with a handful of other members of my school's InterVarsity chapter.  We meet up with a handful of students from DePaul University's InterVarsity chapter as well.  On Friday night we spent time getting to know each other, eating way too much cheep, off-brand candy, and talking about what God is doing in Austin.

And God is doing so much.  Austin is a neighborhood that was radically changed in the 60's with white flight and is now a heavily black neighborhood where a significant percentage (I don't remember the number) of the population is living under the poverty line.  I struggle sometimes with how I should be dealing with race in my daily life and this retreat was occationally uncomfortable in that I was usually the only white chick there.

Being the minority is a switch for me as in most other places I am the majority.  I was a good experience for me to be the one that looks out of place.  My school is big on diversity and is always bragging about our amount of diversity, but I find that it isn't mentioned much outside of the admissions process and the office of Multi-Cultural Affairs.  The thing is though, that we are all broken people.  "Black", "white", "red", "brown", "yellow", what-have-you, we are all broken somehow by the pain and hardships that come with living.

The amazing thing is the community that grows when people are in such tough situations.  On Saturday I went with a small team to a local church and we helped them with cleaning their sanctuary; sweeping, mopping, cleaning bathrooms and polishing pews.  I learned that the church building is nearly a hundred years old and was built as a catholic church.  The current owners of the building are a Baptist church, and they've been there for 18 years.  The church congregation has been meeting in some fashion for nearly 50 years in the same neighborhood.

Saturday night we went out for Soul food (am I spelling that right?), and debriefed with each other talking about what we'd done in the afternoon.  Once again we ate too much food.  This time it was more nutritious than candy.  That night I sang hymns because I freaking love hymns.  Love 'em, love 'em, love 'em.  Apparently this is abnormal for a person my age.  I don't even care.  I could also talk for a very long time about stained glass windows, but I'll spare you.  For now.  I feel like there will be a post about one or both of these subjects at some point in the future*.

My love of hymns was actualized even more so when we sang a few in church Sunday morning.  I was in awe of the love and peace that surrounded the church.  The sermon talked about a lot of things, but the part that especially stuck with me was the mention of tithing.  I needed that reminder and still do as I figure out my finances for the rest of the school year half based on the atypical month of September.  Which is now October and feels to be very officially fall.

The chill in the air followed me back all the way to the Loop as the whole lot of us took the green line home again, home again.  Beginning again with "normal" life was a bit of a strange experience.  There was homework to be done, dishes to be put away, and Doctor Who to watch (Umm, guys?  Doctor Who? Anybody?).  Good-bye Austin.  You've taught me much, and I wait to see what else I have to learn.  Thank you for letting me stay, and bringing me back.

*But I also promised a post on farmers market meals and an "Around the World" post for my Denver / Boulder.