Filed under: Blog
I’m sitting on the back deck watching the suset over the ocean — it’s like hot pink fire over a layer of solid purple-grey water. Today was a classic Indian Summer day; it was hot and clear and gorgeous and everyone was out taking advantage of it. I went to the mall to return a few things and it was weird to see all the Christmas decor inside when outside everyone was in denial at the coming winter.
This is the close to an ordinary weekend, but it seems magical, almost — all these normal and not-so-normal things… maybe it’s just this city, but who knows?
On Friday I finally got a job offer! Well, two, actually. Which was just about perfect timing since I was feeling like the whole week was, what we call in a crew race, the graveyard (the last 75-95% of the race right before the final sprint where you want to give up and die). So one of the jobs was actually at InnerChange, doing office stuff and recruiting and getting to visit potential new sites. It actually sounds really neat, but I’m not sure I’m ready to commit to that… so I’m going to take the job at Head Start. It’s a Family Advocate postion, which is essentially a social worker on campus at a Head Start school. I’ll have about a 60 family case load, 10 of which will be teen moms with infants. So it sounds a bit overwhelming but I’m excited to put my HDP skills to work, speak Spanish on the job, and learn more about Food Stamps and low-income housing and speech pathology and CPS and all kinds of random things I’ll have to learn.
Also on Friday I had my first grown-up dinner party. My housemate Lily and I discovered a while back that we knew some people in common so we decided to have them all over together. I don’t know why it felt so much more grown up than other times I’ve had people over… maybe cuz our guests brought wine and flowers… and Lily and one of the guys who came are 30… but anyway it was lovely and I forgot how much I love cooking something yummy and lighting some candles and letting people come rest and enjoy in my home.
On Saturday I went to my Green Job Skills training all day. We talked about multi-cultural gardening and where different foods originated. It was very Guns, Germs, and Steel-esque. I think I need to re-read that book. So many weird things come up at this class, though! One of the conversations was about “medicinal” plants including marajuana and psychadellic mushrooms and the like. I’m really confused about it, now, because I’m wondering what God’s purpose was for plants before the fall, and how plants themselves changed as a result of sin. I’m guessing nothing was poisonous before… but what about shrooms? Were they alwasy hallucinogents? Or maybe they were but having hallucinations wouldn’t be a bad thing? And what about other less-controversial drugs, like caffeine? Is it just a cultural thing to be against Peote but consume several cups of coffee a day? Anyway, I have some research and pondering to do… discussion welcome.
THEN on Saturday night I went to this Artisan event, this British charity that is seeking to unite Christian artists around the world. It was in the Minna Gallery in SOMA, which is a club with roving art displays where hundreds of high-end folk gather nightly to drink and dance and be hip. So it was a great venue both from the artistic and strategic viewpoints. There were people from Dreamworks, Lucas Film, Pixar… people in the fashion industry, a group from the San Francisco Ballet, graphic artists, advertisers, you name it. Everyone was dressed pretty artsy, too. But we just gathered to worship and pray and fill the space with praise and get to know eachother and it was just amazing. I’m so glad things like that are happening. It’s such a threat to the enemy, to the powers of competion and fame. Something weird was going on in my spirit as soon as I walked in, though. I got a massive headache and felt sick to my stomach and was hyper-aware of the spiritual battle in the room. Not sure if it was about my struggle as an artist, the battles in the different industries, or the space itself. Yeah… I never really know how to respond when I feel that way. I think I was interceding but I’m not sure about that, either.
So today (Sunday) I went to Dolores Park church. It was my second time. I think I’ll go back again. But I saw the CRAZIEST thing before the service started. This old lady, probably in her seventies in the pew in front of me spit out a piece of gum into her hand and TUCKED IT BEHIND HER EAR. I am not even kidding. Did she think nobody would see??? Or is that just so normal for her that she didn’t care?
Then in the afternoon I decided to go for a bike ride and enjoy the Indian Summer myself. I rode down the Great Highway along the beach and then cut over by the zoo. I wanted to go around Lake Merced but the traffic sort of scared me, so I decided to go up 43rd Avenue. Riding all the way through the Sunset up to the park was a trip — I felt like I was going back in time, imagining people moving into these houses when they were brand new, probably after the earthquake when things were being re-built… maybe taking advantage of the GI bill… (my history skills are really lame so of course I don’t know when either of those happened or if they were even in the same decade.) But I was imagining. There are some adorable little houses in the Sunset. At the end of every block I could see down to the ocean and the sky was just getting orange. I just LOVE that feeling when it is warm outside and the street is quiet at the end of the day and you can see wet driveways were cars had been washed earlier and hear people cooking dinner because the windows are open and smell curry and all sorts of things wafting out to the street… this city is really growing on me 
And it looks like I’ll be here for a while.
