It was a lovely morning here in San Franciso. I started out with a little journaling on Susi's back porch - it was actually warm and sunny enough for just a t-shirt - then I heard splashing noises and there were these little finches bathing - I couldn't quite capture the splashing, but if you look closely you can see water droplets.
I hooked up with Jake in the afternoon and headed to Chinatown for a taste of Chinese New Year. The streets were buzzing and everything smelled like incense and gunpowder - doorways were littered with the debris of exploded firecrackers. Jake hadn't spent a lot of time in this part of town so we had a good time checking out the herbal shops and the markets. The butcher shops and the bakeries were packed, many with lines heading out into the street. All around us people were bustling with their pink plastic bags of New Year purchases - in pretty much every bag you could see the oranges people will place on their altars.
I know I've talked about this before, but...I do love this City - I do - it's so fun. I'm sure I'm having these heartfelt moments because I don't have to live here 24/7 - but boy do I enjoy spending time in the middle of it on these visits.
I mean, I was walking through this nice quiet neighborhood by Susi's house this morning and I smelled this lovely incense and I look over and there was an elderly Chinese couple creating a beautiful altar in their garage. That's how I clued in to the New Year thing and kind of focused my day from having Mission Burritos to hitting Chinatown - and I loved that I had such vibrant choices from which to spend my day.
So, Jake and I were standing on the street corner, listening to this old man playing the Erhu and heard drumming coming from down the street. We followed the rhythm to a small kung-fu studio where a posse of brightly costumed young men were jumping around practicing their moves for their Dragon Lion presentation later that afternoon. They let us watch them and one of the guys came out and asked if we wanted to see the Lion head and wear the costume. "Yes!" we both said.
So, here's me with the Lion head - he got into the costume as well and showed us how to move the mouth around- Yay for San Francisco!
So, we had a lovely afternoon - and now I'm hanging with Sus - and BTW - I've gone 48 hours at this point without smoking. It's uncomfortable. Not horrible. It's okay.
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