7:35 am
Monday
Jun 5
How I spent my vacation. by Noelle and Barry
filed under: travel ∗ yarn store reviews
Friday
Flight out of Denver was late. In my experience this is a matter of course. Oakland airport is kind of ghetto.
The look of utter and complete surprise on Jocelyn’s face when I came in the door after Chris was priceless. She had no idea. And they had spent a lot of time fixing up the guestroom for random future guests. Chris done good.
Saturday
Adela’s yarn store - damn those women were rude. I’m submitting an essay about my experience to any and every place that will take it though. I really hate thinking about how they treat people, particularly newbies who are already insecure. So I’m going to spread the word. First stop is Knitter’s Review Forum. Then the shop reviews at Knitting.about.com. To spread the good word as well I’m going to submit my great experiences at the other shops I visited in the area. In any job involving customers there’s no shortage of complaints, but the compliments can be rare so I try to send my compliments when I can too!
My first day in California and we went to a mall. I’d forgotten to bring a jacket of any kind (hey, it’s hot here at home!) and there was a 50% off clearance sale at Torrid. I found some fun things that would keep me warm in breezy San Francisco. And I got to see a hhttp://www.sephora.com store!!
We went to dinner at absolutely the best sushi place ever ever. And dudes, I’ve been to Japan. Really interesting combinations of tastes - nice fusion style which didn’t come off as pretentious that’s quite a trick. Peanut butter and jelly rolls. Holy Crap. I happily ate them while singing the peanut butter jelly time song in my head. Peanut butter jelly peanut butter jelly.
Sunday
Took the bart into SF (I was staying about thirty minutes away in Castro Valley). Saw Jocelyn’s office. Walked around the artisan markets in the Embarcadero Ferry Building. Ate crab cakes for lunch.
ArtFibers was closed. Booo.
We went to the MOMA. I saw an Eames chair, Eva Hesse sculpture, a few Ana Mendietas, Louise Bourgeois, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, a particularly frightening de Kooning portrait (which is saying something), one of my favorite George Braques paintings. So many. At one point I was going around a room looking at the paintings not paying attention to what was in the center. When I came to the placard for it it said Marcel Duchamp, Fountain. I turned around and damned if the that urinal readymade signed R. Mutt wasn’t sitting right there. Fun! The exhibition on the top floor about Painting Masculinity was interesting as well. I bought some small art book toys for the ‘phew’s birthday. Which I need to mail today.
We went to Japantown. Mostly because I wanted to go to the Japanese dollar store I’d heard about (here). I’d been to Chinatown when I was a kid and apparently Chris had been there throughout his childhood since his grandmother lived there so Japantown was a different and more interesting area for us to see. That’s when we took all those photos of Barry as godzilla and stuff. It was fun. Bought some tchotchkes. Including washcloths with hedgehogs on them. For some reason there was more French Engrish than actual Engrish on the stuff there. Is that Frengrish?
We took a taxi to Fisherman’s Wharf so I could see the sea lions. Called Cody on my phone so he could hear them barking. Ate dinner at a mediocre and overpriced Italian place that overlooked the sea lions. Great mineral water and garlic bread. And at first the food would seem like it was really good. But eventually we would realize that it was bland and we were just really hungry. Took a very long ride on the bart back to their townhouse.
Monday (Memorial Day)
I slept late. Oops. After running some errands we drove down to San Jose to meet Nathania and Emy @ Commuknity. I’d heard about this shop from a variety of sources and Laurie had loved it so much I had to check it out since I was so close by. It was a fairly short drive. (This seems to be the major benefit of Castro Valley - it’s roughly 30 minutes to most places in the area).
Commuknity is HUGE with golden natural light and friendly people. Who are also nice enough to leave you to wander around by yourself to absorb the wonder but they’re nearby to answer questions in a friendly way too. Most yarn stores I know and love have a clausterphobic feel to them, which can be good when you feel like you’re being cuddled by all the yarn, or it can be bad when there are a lot of customers elbowing each other over the koigu. But Commuknity was open and somehow simultaneously warm.
That place has a great variety of yarns! I’m guessing every yarn in the Rowan catalog? And I got to see Bee Sweet yarn in person. I’ve been wanting to get my grubby hands on that. I’m such a sucker for the socially conscious southern hemisphere yarns. There’s a cozy sitting area around a fireplace with big comfy sofas and lots of books. And a separate room for classes - which is something I’m looking forward to when Village moves. I always feel so guilty skulking around the people taking lessons in weaving and spinning in the middle of the store.
It was really cool to meet new people who are participating in Dyeorama and find out how their experiences have been. Emy’s been SO GREAT about answering questions on the group blog. This idea of people helping each other was really what Scout and I had in mind when we went to the trouble of making everyone who signed up able to post to the blog. We wanted a place for people to share ideas and experiences so it was really nice to thank her in person.
This was the perfect antidote to the poison from Adela’s Yarn I really needed to spend some time in a good, friendly yarn shop and I couldn’t have asked for a better place.
Unfortunately, Jocelyn and I were too late to go by the crazy Winchester house so we went across the street (this is in a charming little shopping village in San Jose) and drank coffee and chatted for a while. Then we went back to her house and Chris grilled some tri tips for us while Jocelyn cooked my favorite “mushroom thing” over pasta. This is sort of a vegetarian version of beef stroganoff made with sauteed mushrooms, yogurt, and a TON of butter that she made up when we were roommates in college. I’ve never really been much of a cook. Even then.
Tuesday
Was my big day alone in the city. Jocelyn had to work (which is a bummer because this was her birthday) and I really didn’t want to spend the whole day sitting around their house. So I rode with her on the Bart train and got off at the second exit to the City - sort of near Union Square. But I’m going to write a whole separate post about that because there’s a whole lot to say about that day.
We did end up going out to dinner at a nice new French restaurant and I gave Jocelyn her two presents (a purse and wallet from Etsy don’t look Joce there are prices!).
Wednesday
I bummed around the house, took a jaccuzi bath (so jealous of this), did a load of laundry, packed. Jocelyn took the second half of the day off to drop me off at the airport. We got a bit lost but I made it to the plane. Got really delayed coming out of Denver again. Didn’t make it to Albuquerque until very, very late.
Cody’s been off this week so we’ve been doing a lot of organizing projects around the house. And a lot of sleeping and cuddling with the pets. Seems I was missed a lot.
I’m still working on the post about my big day by myself in San Francisco!
I’m so glad you had a great time. It’s hard not yo have fun in San Francisco!
The Winchester Mystery house is a hoot, too bad you missed it!
I won’t look at the prices! I promise! But this was fun to read, and I wanted to add my two cents.
Friday: I was told that a coworker of Chris’ would be staying the night, and then taking off first thing in the morning. Chris said he had to give the guy a ride to the house (explaining that “Dan the Coworker” had already returned his rental) and they took a really long time getting back to the house. I seriously had no idea it would be Noelle until she walked in the door. I’m sure the look on my face was flat-out hilarious.
Saturday: We did spend the day at the mall. But it’s a really nice mall, so that’s ok. And that sushi place rocks so much if you order their cool made up rolls. If you order rolls that you’re familiar with from other sushi restaurants, it’s not so good. They have a really bad Lion King Roll.
Sunday: Running around the city was so fun! The MOMA was great, and I really enjoyed the 5th floor gallery on painting masculinity. They were putting up a new exhibit, so the sculpture garden was closed, which was too bad, I really wanted to see that. The restaurant was not very good, but the people at the next table over were from Santa Fe! How weird.
Monday: I’m not sure why Chris had to stay home and set up a computer with his boss instead of going to Winchester House, but he did. It’s just as well, really. That gave us more time at the yarn store, and I got to talk to Noelle without my sweetheart listening in. Noelle thoughtfully left out the part about my sweetheart deciding that we had to go on a three-store quest to find corn on the cob. That was obnoxious. And really funny, because all three stores were sold out.
Tuesday: I told my boss that my best friend had flown in to surprise me, but Chris and Noelle hadn’t requested time off for me, because they didn’t know if she could keep a secret. She laughed really hard. I really liked that french place, and I’ll be going back. The waiter was really good, and kept on subtly flirting with Noelle, and she kept on not noticing. It was cute.
Wednesday: I was sad that Noelle had to go home, and sad that I had to go to work for the morning. I got home around 2:00 and interupted Noelle thoughtfully taking the sheets off the guest bed (what a considerate houseguest!). We got Jamba Juice and headed to the airport around 3:00. I did take the wrong exit, and found the few major streets in Oakland that aren’t on the grid system. Folks, I got us a little lost, and not in the good neighborhood. But I found us again, right as Noelle gave up all hope in my navigational skills (quite rightly, she knows from experience that I have no sense of direction) and started trying to figure out where we were with the GPS on her phone.
I was really sad to see her go, but I know that she was homesick for Cody and her pets. It was such a great birthday present to get to see my best friend in person. I’m happy that I’ve planted the idea of moving closer in Noelle’s head (good mass transit is a fantastic thing!) but sad that I couldn’t just stuff her under the guest bed and not let her leave in the first place.
Ah well. Next time.
You should sign up for Judy’s Book (judysbook.com) there’s no fee and I don’t get anything for referring you. I just love the opportunity to review businesses. (And they have promos sometimes where you can get gift cards for doing reviews!)
The waiter was flirting with me? I don’t even notice that stuff anymore. I totally thought he was gay.