Fleet Week 2018

A slew of photos from one of my all-time favorite days I’ve had since moving here - my friend Kevin and I attended the Fleet Week Air Show a few Saturdays ago and it was outrageous!

San Francisco Fleet Week is an Event with a capital E, guys. Millions of people flood the cities - bars and restaurants and streets are filled with men in naval uniforms, there are countless parties and festivals, and it’s all capped off with a full weekend of air shows featuring the Blue Angels as the marquee performers. As I love few things more than parties, men in uniform, and unbelievable feats of daring aviation, this was right up my alley.

Kevin staked out a flawless viewing spot for us at the St. Francis Yacht Club’s beach…

Campers, I knew the minute we got there that this was going to be an outstanding day. I still get touristy shivers every time I see/cross the Golden Gate - it’s one of those things that I don’t think will ever cease to trigger wonder that I actually live here. I’ve spent fairly little time by the Bay, so sitting on the seawall watching kids and dogs play in the water, Alcatraz to my right, the skyline behind me and the Golden Gate looming on my left felt almost fairy tale-like.

We staked our spots out around noon, and the show started shortly after with trick flying by old planes, a “sky parade” of old WWII planes, a Coast Guard helicopter water rescue demonstration, and a super-low fly-by of a United 747 - they sponsor the air show, and were sure to get their bang for their buck! I felt like a kid in a candy store watching - the Bay at my feet, the sky as blue and fog-free as I’ve ever seen it here, kids and dogs all over the place…it was pretty heavenly.

Kevin, and Charlie and Tessa once they arrived, had a blast making fun of my excitement over the trick flyers. The pilot would kill the engine and death-spiral down toward the bay, so low that it looked inevitable that he’d hit the water, then pull up in a near-vertical rise. I clapped like a kid every time he’d reverse the fall - the novelty truly never wore off for me.

After several hours, it was finally time for the main event - the US Navy Blue Angels!

Guys, words and still images can’t do justice to how insanely cool it was to be where we were for this portion of the show. The six-man squadron looped the Golden Gate, spiraled all over the bay, and seemed sometimes to come truly out of nowhere. Every time they split up and went their separate ways for stunts, our crew would nearly dislocate our necks swiveling around and trying to spot them, yelling “THERE! Over there!” every time we saw a plane, or two, or four coming back over the ridge or around the coast.

The skytrail heart was one of my favorites…

As was this completely over-the-top (pun definitely intended) stunt - the photos don’t capture just how high they actually soared before flipping over, or the unfathomable synchronicity of the five planes. It truly boggles my mind, even now, to think about the precision, timing and sheer familiarity with each other these pilots must have mastered to be able to do this - in planes that are so high-octane that we had to hold onto the seawall to stand up straight as they buzzed our spot from a mere 100 yards overhead.

Their 45-minute show seemed like it went by in the blink of an eye - by the time it ended, I was hoarse from yelling, teary-eyed from staring straight up into a sunlit sky, and absolutely fried on the random patches I’d missed with sunscreen. It was beyond worth it - truly one of the most memorable experiences I’ve ever had in San Francisco, and one I’ll be repeating with just as much juvenile enthusiasm every year for as long as I live here!

Bookworm: September/October 2018

"Books, the good ones, the ones you hold on to and come back to, they never disappoint. They're the best kind of escape because, instead of leading you away from yourself, they end up circling you back to yourself, nice and easy, helping you see things not just as they are, but as you are too." - Sally Franson

Loved:

Everyone Brave is Forgiven, Chris Cleave: I first read Chris Cleave nearly a decade ago when I studied in London, and I remember being stricken to the core by the brutality and beauty with which he wrote. This latest offering is no exception - a gut-wrenchingly lovely, painful, breath-stealing World War II love/friendship/hate/endurance story that I could not put down, even through the haze of NyQuil. Absolutely gorgeous, a true must-read for anyone who appreciates being simultaneously warmed and burned by literature.

Dear Evan Hansen: The Novel, Val Emmich: Oh my god they turned one of my favorite musicals into a novel, and I adored it. Honestly, this isn’t writing that’s going to set the world on fire or win a Pulitzer - I loved it moreso for the expansion of the characters’ backstories, for the glimpses into the motivations, causes and effects that just can’t be illustrated in a musical. Definitely recommend for fans of the musical, for young adults, for anyone really. (Bonus: it’s an incredibly fast read - at under 300 pages, I finished it in about 3 hours with breaks!)

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid: This was SUCH a charming read - mashing up aspects of Marilyn Monroe’s film career and Liz Taylor’s myriad marriages, this story of Hollywood’s golden age and a movie star who played the game better than anyone was a quick, unique and delightful read.

Enjoyed:

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, Jenny Han: I had to read it after the Netflix movie-fication became the breakout hit of August. It was charming, sweet, undemanding young-adult chick lit, with a good female role model and well-drawn love interests and supporting characters. Sweet.

P.S. I Still Love You, Jenny Han: Who knew this was a trilogy? Pretty much more of the same - I would have loved this series a decade-plus ago.

Always and Forever, Lara Jean, Jenny Han: In which our characters finish senior year and prepare to go to college. Again - written SO for teenage Lizzie it’s not even funny.

Three Wishes, Liane Moriarty: I’ve always been a fan of Liane Moriarty’s particular universe of writing - it’s different and interesting while simultaneously unchallenging and quirky and kind of escapist good fun. This offering wasn’t my favorite of hers, but I enjoyed the story of three adult triplets seeking their own identities while dealing with myriad personal and familial demands and complications.

Wideacre, Philippa Gregory: A sort of Georgian horror/mystery/murder/insanity novel chronicling the lengths to which a young gentlewoman will go in order to inherit/keep her family’s estate. Lots of grisly incest-y murdery darkness - it fucked with my head quite intensely and I can’t say I loved it.

The Favored Child, Philippa Gregory: The next generation of the Wideacre story - again, more incest, murder, insanity, screwiness. A good suspenseful read, but it really messed with me.

Meridon, Philippa Gregory: I preferred this to the first two installments of the Wideacre trilogy - the third generation, and the only one with a happy ending.

A Simple Favor, Darcey Bell: I read this because I haven’t yet managed to see the Blake Lively-Anna Kendrick moviefication of the book, and it was DARK, campers. Twisty and rife with plot points I didn’t see coming, and yet at the same time, somehow not actually that well-written. I feel like it was kind of a cheap rip-off of “Gone Girl” and its ilk…hmm.

Tolerated:

The Confession of Katherine Howard, Suzannah Dunn: Eh - this was terribly insipid. I read it in the thick of my Tudor phase, and it hammered home how much more masterful Tudor experts like Philippa Gregory, Jean Plaidy, and Hilary Mantel are at painting a vivid (albeit slightly historically inaccurate) world.

Re-reads:

After my little delve into the world of well-written YA literature, I revisited a favorite YA writer, Emery Lord, who I’ve followed for nearly a decade (she used to write on a blog I read, and was one of the few original and lovely voices there). Her books are just beautiful YA lit - complex characters, unafraid to tackle weightier issues, and deeply textured and specific and place-aware, if that makes sense.

Open Road Summer, Emery Lord: Two best friends on a concert tour deal with their demons.

The Start of Me and You, Emery Lord: A junior in high school works her way back to being okay after her boyfriend’s death.

When We Collided, Emery Lord: Bipolar disorder and depression in a coastal town in Northern California - beautifully handed.

The Names They Gave Us, Emery Lord: Crises of faith and stage 4 cancer. I’m aware I’m making these books sound really uplifting, but I think that’s one of the really great things about YA lit - when it can take things that teenagers actually do face and deal with, and make them both relatable and…tolerably packaged? I always really did well when books captured and distilled a particular intersection of my angst and inability to express myself, essentially doing that work for me. I think Emery Lord is a master (mistress) of that and that’s why I would recommend her highly, whether you’re a young-adult reader or not.

I also continued on my binge of Philippa Gregory in chronological historical order and finished out:

The Boleyn Inheritance: Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and nasty Jane Boleyn - one of my favorites.

The Taming of the Queen: Katherine Parr, and another of my favorites.

The Queen’s Fool: Judaism, the reign of Mary I, and the loss of Calais.

The Virgin’s Lover: the early years of Elizabeth I’s reign, very Robert Dudley-heavy.

The Last Tudor: Eh, I re-read it to complete the cycle and regret that - this story of the three Grey sisters is just as insipid the second time around.

101 in 1001 #30: Hardcore clean out my wardrobe.

You didn’t really think I bought a bunch of new clothes without doing a major closet refresh, did you? I’ve had #30 on my 101 in 1001 list in my sights for months now, and with a move coming up, what better time to do a deep cleanout of my closet?

The problem, campers, is that I am a clothes hoarder. I inherited the Mariani woman shopping gene with a vengeance, but I also got the Schwegman sentimental/practical gene…meaning I could convince myself that there’s definitely a reason to keep all the suiting dresses I wore to EY in 2011-2013, the five different white buttondowns, or the (admittedly egregiously excessive) 27 different striped shirts I’ve amassed over the years.

I didn’t do a full KonMari thing, but prior to the move, I worked my way through every segment of my closet and drawers and did a deep cleanse. Criteria to toss:

• Is this item damaged/stained/worn out in any way? If so, BYE. (I went through a phase of convincing myself I’d figure out how to fix hems, stitch rips, etc, and let’s just say that never came to pass and never will.)

• Is this item from college or earlier? If so, BYE. Unless you truly truly love it (hello, Anthropologie watercolor silk top from 2010 that I will legit never get rid of).

• Does this item fit? If not, BYE.

• Is this top polyester? If so, you know you will NEVER EVER EVER WEAR IT because you are legitimately incapable of wearing a polyester top without being disgustingly sweaty, staticky and uncomfortable, so, BYE.

• Is this skirt shorter than 19 inches? Because that’s the limit for being able to wear in public without worrying about indecent exposure. If so, BYE.

• Do you have this item, basically, but newer/nicer/cleaner/etc? (I’m looking at you, five different navy/black cardigans.) If so, BYE to all but the nicest.

• Do you actually like/wear/feel good in this? If not, BYE.

• Finally, and this is a weird one, is this an item of clothing associated with a situation that made you sad? (This sounds weird, I know, I know, but bear with me.) I have a lot of clothes from the period of my life when I was dating Jon/freshly single and grieving that relationship, and some of them are, as silly as it sounds, kind of viscerally associated to him because of things that happened or pictures that were taken or what have you. It’s ridiculous, I know that. But anything with those associations - boy, BYE. Life’s too short and he sucked/sucks.

I ended up with three shopping bags and two boxes full of stuff to donate or trash, and ran several loads to our local donation drop box - clothes go to shelters, foster kids, and other organizations, so I felt decent about the donations. I freed up a whole bunch of space in my new California Closet - I can actually see all my clothes, I actually wear more of them now, and I figured out where the gaps in my wardrobe were so I could fill them!

Total win! For more 101 in 1001, go here, and for more shopping-related chats, check out yesterday’s post here.

Cheap and chic shopping lately...

There are few things I love more than an affordable product that looks and feels high-end. I’ve been really trying to curtail my shopping habits lately, focusing on replacing worn-out basics (goodbye, beloved Liberty London ballet flats from 2007!!) and spending my money on furnishing a new apartment instead (stay tuned!). Lately, though, I’ve found a few total wins for less than the price of a few pumpkin spice lattes…

• Target is smashing it out of the park lately in pretty much all departments…I’m particularly impressed, however, with their “A New Day” line. I got a beautiful, mid-weight olive-green belted sweater that I’m bringing to Italy with me for sure, along with a bunch of basic t-shirts. I usually stock up on J.Crew or J.Crew Factory t’s when they run those crazy sales over the summer, but I’ve been underwhelmed by the quality of their knits lately - it seems like the hems unravel or I get little holes along the seams after just a few washes/wears. Target’s t’s are a heavier weight (less see-through!) and, clocking in at around $10, I can’t complain.

• I do tend to love J.Crew Factory’s shoes, however. I’m notoriously hard on my footwear…I have narrow heels and high arches, so my stride is weird and I wear the heels of shoes out like nobody’s business. I’ve purchased and re-purchased Factory’s classic ballet flat for years - it’s polished, inoffensive and basic enough to pair with just about anything - but I recently bought a pair of their new leather loafers in light gray during a 40% off promo, just to shake things up a bit. They’re a gorgeous color, incredibly comfortable and versatile.

• I badly needed new workout gear - especially while moving, I realized that my leggings have absolutely passed their prime, and I’m getting really sick of the “oversized white V-neck Hanes cotton T” approach. I got rid of legitimately everything in my workout drawers and replaced it with Old Navy’s leggings - high rise, 7/8-crop, and full crop. I’ve been a long-time devotee of Target’s basic C9 sports bras, so I bought a rainbow assortment of those, and also purchased a few new yoga tops at both Target and Old Navy. To cap it all off, I had a promo code for Nike and got myself an utterly obnoxious pair of Frees - they’re the most heinous shade of neon coral, they’re comfortable as sin and they make me incredibly happy every time I wear them.

• Old Navy in particular has been running insane promos lately - in addition to totally redoing my gym gear, I also bought a couple fresh pairs of pants (all I wear to work, I swear, is their ankle-length Pixie pants in a variety of colors, usually with a buttondown and sweater layered up top because I am oh-so-boring.).

• Another entire category of clothes I sorely needed a refresh on was underwear, ooh OOH. Victoria’s Secret did a promo for buy 2, get 1 free bras, and 5 for $25 underwear, and yours truly literally threw out all her old undergarments and did a full refresh. And THAT is all you need to know about that, you creepers. ;)

• I don’t know if I can call it cheap, but Anthropologie just did an Anthro Day 25% off weekend and I went NUTS. I really love longer pullover sweaters, and this one is the perfect combo of cozy and lightweight (I bought it in the emerald green, because I’m currently obsessed with that color). I also treated myself to a gorgeous silk top for Tuscany, because, really, why not?

Inventory: October 2018

Before I hop in, HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Papa Bear!! Check out a quick little love letter to him from years past here…can’t wait to call him and serenade him (badly) with my froggy/phlegmy cold voice!

Making: time this weekend to write in earnest, per yesterday’s personal call to arms.

Cooking: soups and chicken in the Crockpot – hopping back on the meal prep train with a vengeance. 

Drinking: green tea with honey and lemon by the quart trying to kick/ameliorate this heinous cold.  

Reading: “Everyone Brave is Forgiven” by Chris Cleave, and it’s luminous. (I’m on a serious World War II fiction kick right now…why has all my reading lately felt so thematically driven?)

Wanting: more hours in the day, or fewer lines on my to-do list. Either’s fine with me.

Looking: forward to catching “Waitress” and maybe “Tosca” this weekend – I caught the performance bug again after Tuesday’s spontaneous trip to “Miss Saigon” with Dave!

Playing: catch-up on life in general after the frenetic September and October I’ve had so far.

Listening: lately, to a playlist I call “morning music” that’s heavy on Norah Jones, Lake Street Dive, The Lumineers, The National, Josh Ritter, Okkervil River, Bon Iver, and The Oh Hellos, among others.

Wishing: that I was a morning person.

Enjoying: NorCal’s temperate fall weather.

Waiting: for the chesterfield of my dreams to be delivered sometime this week – hurry up, Pottery Barn!

Liking: the quiet of a blissfully empty, cool, clean, unpacked and (mostly) settled apartment.

Wondering: why I perpetually put off the un-fun tasks – I have a bunch of random shit I planned to do yesterday, didn’t do, and that I now have to deal with on Monday…oops.

Hoping: that my “Dear Evan Hansen” novel (they made it into a novel!!) comes on time YAY Amazon same-day ordering!

Marveling: at Amazon same-day ordering, duh. How lucky we are to be alive right now.

Needing: to get my ass in gear and hang my gallery wall as soon as it’s socially acceptable to wield a hammer.   

Smelling: Target’s Pumpkin Bourbon candle – I’ve already burned through a whole big jar and we’re well into our second. It’s insanely scented olfactory crack and SO cheap and festive, pick one up!!

Wearing: hilariously oversized pajama pants, thick cozy socks, and my grandpa cardigan. Very sexy Saturday morning over here.

Following: #frenchiepuppy and #dogsonswings on Instagram – the happiest inundation of preciousness, several times a day.

Noticing: silver linings everywhere.

Knowing: that I need to stop having cheese and crackers for every meal…thank god we finally have pots, pans, and a Crockpot to break the endless cycle of Brie.

Thinking: about packing for Italy – less than a month, less than a month!!

Bookmarking: Christmas gift ideas – how is it already late October?

Giggling: at what an absolute idiot I am over certain things.

Feeling: better about a lot of the stress/angst/frustration I’ve dealt with lately.