San Francisco observations

I just got home from 2 great weeks in San Francisco, and oh, did I see some things.  Here's the wrap-up:

• I flew Virgin America in and out of SFO, and their new terminal at the airport is awwwwwesome.  Clean, modern, light.  They have a yoga room.  Yup.  They had live music playing when I flew out last Friday, kind of Lumineer-ish or Head and the Heart-ish.  Food by Cat Cora, Pinkberry, lots of outlets to plug in your electronics, and big comfy chairs.  If I could fly out of SFO's Virgin terminal every time, I'd love it.  I'd even get there for my flight earlier than necessary.  Plus you're flying Virgin, which is my 2nd favorite airline (after JetBlue).
• San Fran taxi drivers are NUTS.  Like, seriously nuts.  We took them in the city a couple of times, and they went 45mph in a 25, swerving around other traffic and pedestrians.  It felt like cab drivers in NYC or Shanghai or Seoul.  Fun.  And efficient.  (And only a little scary.)
• While I could probably live in San Francisco, I'm not sure I could live elsewhere in California.  Yet I still find reasons to love California, like this:

This little kitten was parked in the Financial District

Meow!

• We have a fair number of homeless people in Seattle.  If they ask you for money, and you respond (even with a "sorry"), they accept that.  But in San Francisco?!  Holy shite.  I stopped by a shop to grab some postcards, and a (very) homeless dude was camped out outside.  When he asked for money, I said that I'm sorry but I don't have any cash.  He flipped out!  My favorite line from him, among many, was, "Someday, when YOU need money and come and ask me for help, I'm not giving you ANYTHING!" (or something to that effect).  Sheesh.  Simmer.  I'll bring snacks or water to the homeless people at Dexter & Mercer near my house, when I'm on the way home from QFC, so I'm doing my part (a smidge).  But seriously, guy.  You flip out, I'm definitely not giving you anything.  At least he didn't threaten to kill me...!
• My coworker Lindsay and I enjoyed some really tasty food while in San Francisco.  I'd recommend all of the following: Restaurant Gary Danko, RN74, Wayfare Tavern, The Tipsy Pig, The Slanted Door, Taverna Aventine, and Barbacco.  Bring your credit card though; they are not cheap.  For reasonable lunch spots, try Freshii (can Seattle pleeease get a franchise?!), Mixt Greens, or The Melt.  Gary Danko is arguably the best restaurant in SF, and I made our reservation a month ahead of time.  They offer a prix fixe menu, where you can choose any 3, 4, or 5 courses on the menu.  We each shared our apps and got our own entrees and desserts, so we turned our fantastic 3-course meal into a luxurious 4-courser instead.  Plus they bring you bread, a little platter of the tiniest little desserts of all time, and a piece of pineapple coffee cake to take with you.  Such a ridiculous(ly awesome) meal.

As if we weren't full enough after 4 courses.  (And then we demolished this.)

• Guys in San Francisco are sooo much taller than in Seattle!  That's all.  :)
• While meeting my friend (and former coworker) Sosena for dinner at The Tipsy Pig, we saw a really nice sports car (I'd guess in the $30-40k range) nearby with a light-up restaurant delivery plaque on its roof.  I guess that does seem a little California to me...

Nothing like the classic "this is me in the car" shot

They brought out our bill in an old book.  So charming!

• You know how people think it rains in Seattle a lot, but really it just kind of sprinkles and mists most of the time?  Welp, it mists in SF too.  Our cities are more and more alike than I think...
• The Golden Gate Bridge!  It's like the Space Needle of San Francisco (as in, the most recognizable landmark of the city), but you can actually use it.  In everyday life.  Unlike our poor Needle.  Can we please get rid of the orange "galaxy gold" already?!  Anyhoo, Lindsay and I rented bikes one evening and rode across it!!  We started in SF, rode along the water, over the bridge, and then "down" into Sausalito.  Don't be tricked, friends.  While the ride into Sausalito is partially downhill, it is just as much uphill.  You've been warned. It was great though!  Around 9 or 10 miles, then we caught the pedestrian ferry back over, bikes and all.  I'd totally recommend doing it.  However I'm not linking to our rental company on here.  They were like a puppy mill of bike rental shops, just getting us in and out as fast as they could, and you end up with a product not quite of the quality you'd hoped.

During this pic, I am holding my phone in a death grip.  SO WINDY!

This pic could only be made cooler with my own bike, instead of the crappy rental (yes, I'm officially a bike snob now, sigh)

The Bridge, from the passenger ferry during sunset

•  A phenomenon we witnessed in San Francisco that I haven't really seen in Seattle (or other major cities I've traveled to) is people bringing their small kids to REALLY nice restaurants.  Gary Danko starts at $71 for 3 courses, and there was an 8 (?) year old kid at the table next to us, playing on an iPad.  At RN74, where we spent 3 hours enjoying amazingly delicious foodie food, there were also kids.  I just thought it was a bit odd!  I hope those kids appreciate the food they get to eat, although I'm assuming they don't.  When I was a kid, I looked forward to dinner at the nearby Chinese restaurant, where I got to drink a Shirley Temple.  Ahh, kids these days...  (Does that make me old, just typing that?!)

No kids at Slanted Door, but with the cotton candy, there should have been!  Me and the Bay Bridge, during dinner with my friend Megan (not pictured, unfortunately)

• Celebs don't just hang out in Los Angeles; they also go to San Francisco.  At airports, I request the special loving caring am-I-your-girlfriend TSA patdown instead of doing the scan (since they emit a miniscule amount of radiation, which is the 1 known cause of brain tumors).  Well, I was getting my patdown and looked over, only to see Billy Corgan (lead singer of Smashing Pumpkins) getting a patdown right next to me!  Literally, 4 feet away.  I looked over, made eye contact unintentionally, and did a super obvious double take.  The I looked straight forward, tried to decide if it was really him, noted his tray of belongings (which included metallic silver high top sneakers, which were very rock star) and orange socks, and confirmed it was, based on my scientific evidenced noted (fancy shoes and fun socks).  A guy that walked by on the other side of Billy said, "Excuse me, are you Billy?"  When he nodded, the guy said "I'm a fan."  Then I piped up, "I'm a huge fan, too!" and Billy laughed because we were having a little fan encounter literally during TSA patdowns.  He seemed really down to earth and like a cool enough dude (from my 2 minutes near him).  I've always been a Pumpkins fan, and will continue to be, after Billy's and my special moment.  ;)

Oh San Francisco, I do enjoy you.  Hope to see you (and friends, like Megan and Sosena) again soon!

Walk it and work it!

Last weekend Team Sara, Brain and Tall attended the Portland Brain Tumor Walk for the 2nd year in a row.  And it was a great success again!!

Go Team!! Lisa, Mom, Eric, Dave, Jason, Nate, Amy, Leslie, Steph, Jen, Courtnie, Jeshe, Mel, and Townsend/Spiderman

Special thanks to Steph for coordinating our awesome charcoal heather and neon yellow shirts!  And the surprise yellow socks!!

Da socks

We had as much fun as we could make a leisurely 5k walk, with lots of bottlenecks along the path, overcast skies with sprinkles, and an early morning start.  I brought my mini mp3 boombox (purchased and loaded up for the occasion) and Jason brought his choreography, which helped spice up the walk.  It's nearly impossible for choreographed dancing to NOT spice up an event!

Cousinly fist pumping

I enjoyed carrying the boombox as well.

The boombox is so tiny!  You can hardly see it in my left hand.

After the walk, and after Leslie pushed the wheelchair for a little girl who wanted to get out of it and walk across the finish line (it was a tear jerker), they did awards.  And I was soooo happy to get 1st place for individual fundraising!!!  I raised $4,541 as of the day of the walk and our team raised $6,391, and that's not even counting all of the matching donations that have yet to come through (I'm guessing it might be almost $1k!).  THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR DONATIONS TO THIS CAUSE!!  I'm so proud, and humbled.  :)

This is my awesome little star plaque I received.  I am pretty excited about it.  :)  I also received a 2-night stay in a 4-bedroom house on the Oregon coast.  Pretty fantastic too!  (P.S. You're all invited...)

There were auction items at the walk, and a girl that left before the awards ceremony gave me her 3 raffle tickets since she was leaving.  I didn't know what they were entered into, but I added it to my own ticket (which I'd put in a box for some wine).  Well, lo and behold, one of my numbers was picked!!  And what did I win.......?!?

A pair of baby Jordans.  Yup.

After the walk, the team had lunch at Fulton Pub, a nearby McMenamins joint, which is becoming our post-walk locale.  I busted out the boombox again and we had a nice little lunch.

If I think too much about this whole experience with the Portland Brain Tumor Walk, it'll make me tear up.  I held it together on the day of the walk (which was an improvement from last year!) but am just so touched by everyone's generosity and love and support.  I still find it amazing that I was able to raise as much as I did, and I owe all of it to you: my family, and friends, and colleagues, and blog readers, and fremenies (j/k), and acquaintances that I've met once, and people that I've never even met but heard about the cause or know of me through someone else.  While I'm so lucky to have my health and a quiet, happy tumor (*knocking on wood*) right now, I know that this can change someday/anytime and I may need future (scary) treatment.  The money donated to the National Brain Tumor Society funds research (among other things), and someday that research may just save my life.  So thank you for investing in my future!!!!!!

What a great day.  I hope that next year even more people can join the team, and maybe I'll even get a walk started in Seattle!  (But don't hold your breath for that one quite yet...)

Blogging catch-up

I know, I've been off the radar for a couple of weeks.  Not intentional!  Was out of town (San Francisco), enjoying delicious food after work and trekking to Portland for the big walk over the weekend.  Now that I'm back in Seattle, I have only a week to relax and enjoy myself before taking off for London (1 week from today), and then I get back for a weekend before jetting (ha!) off to Springfield, Missouri for the week after.  That's out of town 4 out of 5 weeks.  I'm exhausted just thinking about it.  Not to mention the MS Ride is the weekend between London and Springfield.  (Went on a 25.5 mile training ride today and had an AWESOME time.  That 22 miler will be a piece of cake!)

Anyway, I hope to catch up on my pending blog posts soon (the walk! San Fran observations! my SERIOUSLY KICKASS progress with my direction and intuition!).  Stay tuned!!

Rest in peace, Kathi

On Friday, I was home watching the KOMO 4 evening news (my station of choice) and Dan Lewis reported that Kathi Goertzen was in the ICU.  I started crying at his announcement, and he said that her family asked everyone at 7:15pm that night to pray for her.  Now, I'm not a praying type of girl, but if I've ever prayed in my life, it was Friday at 7:15pm.

As you probably know, Kathi Goertzen was a longtime anchor on KOMO and I've followed her story for quite a while.  She's a Coug, like me.  She was in Alpha Chi Omega at WSU, like me.  (We used to look at her picture on our composites and feel a sense of pride for our chapter "celebrity.")  And she's been battling brain tumors, like me.  Well, I'm lucky to not have to battle mine; it's more like living with mine.  She's been battling hers for 14 years, with 9 surgeries, radiation, and alternate treatments.  Her tumors weren't even cancerous, just benign tumors that continued to grow.  They took the movement of half of her face, her ability to eat, her ability to talk, and more.

RIP, Kathi

So I was very sad today to take a quick break at work to check the headlines only to see that she passed away, at the age of 54.  I immediately teared up at work and started sniffling, trying to not break into tears at my (borrowed) desk (at Hotwire).  I didn't know Kathi personally, but I felt like I could relate to her so closely and was rooting for her sooo much.  I'm crying as I type this, as we've lost a really inspirational fighter and a tumor-dominating friend and Coug. 

There's a really great video tribute from her longtime co-anchor Dan Lewis on KOMO's site, and I'd recommend watching it.  Get your tissues though.  It's a sad day for all of us.  Rest in peace, Kathi.

Going going back back to Cali Cali

I'm headed down to San Francisco today for 2 weeks of work at Hotwire.  I'm going with my (really fun and awesome) coworker Lindsay, so it should be a good trip.  Plus I'm meeting up with a couple friends (shout-out to Sosena and Megan, neither of whom read this blog... ha) for dinner too.

And then... I'm flying up to Portland next weekend for the big Brain Tumor Walk!!  I'm pretty excited.  The tshirts should be fun (and neon bright!), I got the world's smallest mp3 boombox working (for dance breaks, natch), and I'll get to see friends and family that I don't see that often.  Fundraising is going well, but it's going to come down to the wire to see who "wins."  ;)

As of today, 8/12/12

I'm still crossing my fingers that my Expedia matching donations come through this week (it should be $500+!!!) which would seal my spot at #1.  But I don't think it'll happen...  Oh well, I'm still really happy with how much I've raised!  Thank you!!

San Francisco and Portland or bust!

My next surgery

Loud sigh.

Okay, don't worry, I'm not having another brain surgery!  Hallelujah!!  One craniotomy is enough for me, thanks.  But I am having some stinking oral surgery.  I'm not pumped.  Here's the deal.

I have a baby tooth.  Yup!  A baby tooth.  There was never an adult tooth underneath it (these are technical terms I'm using), so it was never evicted from my mouth.  Well, nearly 31 years later, my little baby is getting loose and needs to be replaced.  And I thought maybe we'd be lifelong friends!  What a jerk for wanting to ditch me.

Say hello to my little friend!!

Welp, I had a consultation with a periodontist (Dr. B) at the request of my dentist.  I figured I could wait until my little baby fell out, then go and get an implant.  Welllll...  Apparently it's likely that it will become infected before then and I could lose jaw bone and density (since there's no root there to encourage the bone to stay put).  So if I wait, the surgery to fix it could be more extreme and may involve cadaver bone being grafted to my jawbone.  Yup.  Groooooss.

I've always been the type to be proactive, even if it sucks, to keep a problem at bay while I still can.  So I'm going in for oral surgery on Thursday, September 20th.  They'll remove my baby tooth and drill a titanium rod into my jawbone.  It'll go nicely with the titanium screws in my skull!  I won't be all the way knocked out (which actually makes me nervous... I kind of wish I was!) and the whole thing should last about an hour.  I'm taking that day and the day after off from work, and hopefully the swelling and pain will have subsided enough for me to go to work on the Monday after.  I never had wisdom teeth to remove, so I'm not sure what to expect.  But feel free to bring by milkshakes!!  :)

Here's the kicker though.  I won't get a new tooth for 3-4 months after the surgery!  So I'll look like a pirate!  The rod needs to heal into my jawbone enough before they screw a new faux tooth in (I prefer that over "fake tooth" since things that are faux are waaay more sophisticated).

So yeah, I'm nervous, and I almost think it's going to hurt more than my craniotomy did (but without the brain healing issues, which is a bonus for this surgery).  Surgeries suck.  But if I can kick ass at brain surgery, oral surgery should be a piece of cake!  (Knock on wood...)

I win, crazies lose

Today I walked to the store, going my normal route, for the 1st time since the crazy lady threatened to kill me a couple of weeks ago.  Well, friends, I was not about to let her win and impact my everyday life!  So I walked there, kept my eyes peeled for suspicious characters (none noted... perhaps the 90 degree heat was too much for them), and even bought a Powerade for the homeless dude that was posted up and asking for assistance.  I figure my homeless-people-on-the-way-home-from-QFC karma could use a boost.  Karmic boost and safe walk home achieved!  I win.

Small victories

I'm catsitting for my friends Lynn and David this week (shout-out to their kitty Lola!).  They were (temporarily) living in my apartment building but just moved down the street into their condo, as their renter just moved out.  To get into their condo, you go through the lobby, through the parking garage, up some stairs, down the hall, and you're there.  It takes a couple minutes to walk (maybe?) and when I met Lynn on Tuesday to get her keys, I was certain I'd screw up the directions.  I even took notes in my little Moleskine notebook that I keep in my purse (for just such occasions) and talked through the directions again with her.

Yesterday, when I arrived to feed Lola, I made it all the way to their apartment door WITHOUT checking my notes and without screwing it up!!!!  I was so excited and relieved.  And tonight I did it again!  Holler!!!

Lola, PLEASE try and contain your excitement to see me.

To the average mortal, this may seem silly/excessive.  But for me?  This is improvement.  Six months ago, this would have gone differently.  It feels so gooood!  :)