San Francisco: Year One

The print I hanging up at home, love this guy.

Last week marked my one year anniversary in San Francisco, and what a wonderful year it's been! People who've known me over the years might be familiar with the fact that I sometimes like to roundup a year or experience with a collection of quotes, Maggie Alderson style (for those Australians out there who used to read Style Notes in the weekend paper).  With that, here's my first year in SF - summarised by a sampling of encounters from the last 12 months, enjoy!

Me: Would it be too weird if I wore thongs to work?
American colleague: Why… are you asking me this?
Me: Flip flops!  I mean flip flops!

Me: (At work) I know, I’m cleaning my laptop with beer and a post-it note because I can’t be bothered to get wipes.  What’s wrong with me?
Googler buddy: It’s ok, I saw someone washing a peach with sparkling water the other day.

Cashier at Plant Cafe: So just checking I’ve got your order right: there’s two poached eggs, subbing in a fruit salad on the side, a banana smoothie with a protein shot, then another set of poached eggs, with greens instead of potatoes and green smoothie subbing in coconut water instead of almond milk.
Me: Yep that’s right
Aussie expat buddy: When did we become like this?

(Meeting Silicon Valley overachievers)
New buddy: Do you have any hobbies?
Me: Um, sure - I guess I like to go running sometimes
New buddy: Oh great, like ultramarathons?
Me: No, no… more like regular run-down-the-block-and-back… style of… running.

(Meeting Silicon Valley overachievers - Take 2)
Me: I don’t really have a special skill to be honest.
New buddy 1: You’re a cute girl in tech - that’s rare?
Me: I’m not convinced that’s a skill.  Also, that “skill” has an expiry date.
New buddy 2: Well, so do mine.  I mean, I was only the Rubik’s cube world champion for 2011.

(At Dolores Park)
Hipster: Anybody want some (hash) cookies?
Me: *Looking blankly at him*
Hipster: Oh, don’t worry - they’re 100% organic.
Me: That’s not why I’m hesitating.

Our Director reviewing a chart I put together: So, if we change the date ranges, the curve will just go straight up right?
An actual BA in the room: I’m… not sure that’s true.
Me: So, that’s not actually a regression line… I just sort of drew it up using the curve tool…
Director: …
Me: I went to art school, ok!

SF cab driver: Whenever I want to meet women, I go to Whole Foods. Forget the bars, forget the clubs - you meet a girl at Whole Foods and you jus' *know* she's into organic, and daaamn! Them organic women are good!

Googler buddy: Should we do the slide now?
Me: What presentation is this for?
Googler buddy: No, I’m talking about the actual slide.  Like, in the foyer.

New hero

Yeah, just wow.  Just discovered this incredible interview by Elle Luna via this little piece.

Hang with the unknown.

Artist, designer and startup something wonder woman.  She painted a wall.  She uses hashtags like #mindfulness.  She's done things like this:

I walked up to him and said, “I use Uber all the time and I absolutely hate the app. I think you should bring me in to fix it.” He replied, “Oh, yeah? What are the three things you’d fix about it?” I said, “I’d redo the logo, redo the entire app, and change the rating system.” I think there was something about being in a dress that empowered me to say such things (laughing). And do you know what he said? He said, “Be at the Uber office at 9am on Monday.”

She says great things like this that make me think:

I think back to the different phases of a project at IDEO—it’s not so different from life, really—I’m in the exploratory, divergent phase. The part where you brainstorm a lot and encourage wild ideas and defer judgement. I believe that the longer you can hang with that ambiguity or unknown, the greater the results will be at the end. This was true for IDEO projects, it was true for Mailbox, and now it is becoming true for my life.

Most people won't.  What meaty thoughts for the weekend.

New go-to fall recipe

Caramelised goodness in a flaky, buttery case.

Just invested in The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook and first cab off the rank was this Butternut squash and onion galette.  There is something supremely satisfying about making something out of a new cookbook and having it turn out just right the first time around.  Even if you didn't realise that a pastry blender is wildly different from an actual blender (thank you, internet for that last-minute save).

It was really interesting to see how she'd modified it over the years from her original online recipe to the one in the book - giving the option of thyme instead of sage, or replacing the sour cream for greek yoghurt.  If anything this has given me more gumption to have some flexibility when cooking things up from a recipe.

Thoroughly recommend both the cookbook and the dish - perfect for fall.  Yes, I called it fall.

Scratches on a page

I can't remember the last time I fell so in love with a writer, but since weeping into a puddle over The Fault in Our Stars I've been having obsessive, crush-like bursts of stalking John Green.

As a part of my investigation into all things about him, I came across this response he gave on the writing of this most excellent book that at one point became a 'problem' for him:

"...for ten years of my life, I tried to write this book and it taunted me and it sucked and it kept sucking and nothing I could do for years and years made it suck less, and then finally I was given a way into it and I worked very hard to make it the best book that I could possibly make it, but books will always be a collaboration between reader and writer, and at some point I have to stop doing my job so I can start letting you do your job.

I mean that a book is a problem in that it is composed out of meaningless scratches on a page that must be translated into ideas that live inside your head, and you use a set of skills (literacy, critical thinking, etc.) to make that happen.  I don’t mean that it is an UNFORTUNATE problem; I just mean that it is a thing that has to be created by both of us, like a crossword puzzle or something."

Ten years!  Also, I love this idea that a book is created by both the writer and the reader.  This somewhat legitimises my stalking, we collaborated on this after all.

Taken from here (not to read if you haven't yet read the book), more from him and his wonderful brother here.

Nesting, Part 6

and resting really, but solidly on the mend!  I no longer have to run out of meetings in a coughing fit now, so that's a plus.

Snaps of the home and hood recently.

Secret confession: Whenever there is a special holiday on (which, lets face it, is pretty much all the time here) I go down to Walgreens purely for the purpose of scoping out all the intense looking candy and decorations on offer.  Ghost peeps!

Discovered Conifer - a new favourite store, just off the beaten track in my neighborhood.  I was passing by and saw a sign "art + clothing this way" - how could I resist?  Run by the most beautiful woman who has a personal relationship with all the emerging brands she stocks.  Just beautiful.

I found this magnificent beast panting on the sidewalk on my way home from froyo one day.  How I loved his thick glossy fur!  The little girl in the background stopped to say hello to him too.

It's a little hard to see but this house on my street has an incredible fiddle leaf fig tree in each long window, I look up in admiration (or, like a stalker) every time I walk past it - oh how I want one for my living room!  So sculptural.

Our friend Karl the fog came back for an evening the other day - even though it's not his season at the moment.  I don't mind though, I like him now.

It's nice to be back, SF.