Adventure Inc

Because I'd like to visit friends in San Diego, and because a wee bit of my backstory takes place near Hollywood, I'm trying to envision maybe a bigger trip. Maybe fly to San Diego, spend a couple days, then take a coastal bus or train northwards, with a wee stop in LA, and then spend about 5 days in San Fran.

I could also rent a car, but I'm afraid of navigating all that seriously hilly land. Plus, you don't really take in the sights when you're the driver. Buses can be quite nice for that.

Since I'm in no rush to go, I figure--why not plan the ultimate trip? Mind you, the husband already worries about me wherever I go. I know when I get close to the actual SF trip he won't be excited about me wandering a strange city, in Constant Danger! So he'll like even less the idea of me trekking around on a bus. Better not remind him of that bus knifing a couple years ago.

I even looked at the cost of taking a cruise, but when you're alone it seems to cost a lot more.

The only thing is I don't really want to be on a guided tour type thing. Unless it's A Guided Tour of Miss Mabel's California for Her Novel.

Random Updates

1. One year ago today:

I was just getting over a sickitude, was finishing up my MA essay, and was still getting used to the weird dreams my headache drugs give me. I watched Milk recently, and when he turns around and sees the gun pointed at him, I kind of knew how he felt--because of that crazy dream where I died! (Great movie, by the way.)

2. Here's the facebook moods I was in a year ago. Hey... I stopped updating moods when facebook changed. Doh! I liked Moods. It was fun to look back on. I'll have to start again.



3. Just caught up on the blog I often read, of that woman who lives half in San Fran, and half in London. I used to call her That Woman Who's Living My Life! (because of the whole London thing) ... except for the fact that she doesn't have cats. Well now it seems she and her husband have separated and are divorcing. Sadness! She seemed very attached to him, but who knows what the reasons are. I think they were together a long time, so that's gotta be tough--though she seems to be doing well. She's learned how to pump her own gas for the first time in her life! Yay! It's almost an Anne Murray video.

So I really can't be jealous anymore. I don't mean her life is Terrible Because She Is Husbandless... I just mean, I'm glad I've got my cats and my particular husband. The Fernando, the Nombly, the Bones, the Halzebub: They all have to stay, I'm afraid. I couldn't even give them up for London, going out to restaurants and the theatre every night, and a fabulous house on the side of a gorgeous mountain outside San Fran.

4. Speaking of San Fran: I've decided not to go this summer. At the earliest Stepmommy & I will go in the fall, when the weather is supposed to be at its best. But we might go next year. Thing is, I haven't gotten back to plotting my San Fran novel and I don't want to go too early, then miss researching something I needed to know. So... no rush. My savings aren't going anywhere. Er um hopefully.

5. Watched Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist tonight--great little romance. I'm glad I married a man who loves romance movies. (Unfortunately for him he didn't marry someone who wants to watch endless episodes of Star Trek and Stargate. Better set him up with the newly single blog woman.)

Off to bed now. I've been trying to keep proper bedtime hours, even on my days off, but this weekend I failed. FAIL!

I can't top the other blogger's clever title

Noticed this good article linked to someone's blog--and their blog was cleverly titled "I kissed a guy and I didn't like it." I can't believe the shit Letterman is quoted as having said. Maybe it's time the old boy was put out to pasture. Sounds like James Franco is doing a good job, though--especially since the movie in question is about a gay rights activist, for heaven's sake. (I'm excited about seeing Milk--San Franciscoooo!)

I seem to remember when kd lang was asked what it was like to kiss Cindy Crawford (for Vanity Fair) she said something like: What do you think??

*

In the relentless publicity interviews he's been doing for his new movie, "Milk," there's plenty to ask about his performance as the neglected lover of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, the gay rights martyr. So what does every interviewer -- from David Letterman to the Philippine Daily Inquirer to public radio's Terry Gross -- want to discuss most, over and over and over?

The kissing.

Wasn't it really difficult to kiss another man? Implied: Without throwing up, seeing as you're so obviously straight? What were you thinking as you kissed? Did you rehearse it? What was it liiiiiike?

Underlying the questions (and the answers) is this notion that a gay kissing scene must be the worst Hollywood job hazard that a male actor could face, including stunt work, extreme weather or sitting through five hours of special-effects makeup every day. We live comfortably, if strangely, in a pseudo-Sapphic era in which seemingly every college woman with a MySpace page has kissed another girl for the camera; but for men who kiss men, it's still the final frontier.

*

A shacky little home

After San Fran was leveled by the fire which followed the 1906 earthquake the city didn't know what to do with all the refugees living in tents. So they created little green shacks which tenants could pay money towards owning, and then cart away. Below is one of the squares full of shacks, and below that is a photo of a modern house made up of several shacks put together.

Protesting The Man in Ole San Fran

There are a couple good Activism Sights one can see in San Fran. The University of California at Berkeley is the most famous, both for the spontaneous sit-ins to protest the lack of free speech on campus, and Reagan sending in the National Guard to oust people from the People's Park--when the University was already peacefully handling the issue. (Bast!)



And second, the San Francisco State University--where protests led to one of the first Black Studies programs.



I shall bring my peace flowers and sing Bob Dylan songs in a Joan Baez tone! (Hey, the one thing I never worry about when traveling is acting Touristy.)

(Or better yet, I'm gonna write a song based on the title on this blog post.)

Destination San Fran: Parrots and Detectives on Telegraph Hill

Alright, this time we have a San Fran Destination from the Step-mommy: The wild flock of parrots living in San Fran-- the so-called "parrots of Telegraph Hill."

I gather that Ferry Park at 5 PM would be the place to visit if we want to see them, but maybe we can ask a tourist kiosk and see what they advise.





Telegraph Hill has apparently been featured in these movies (among others).

After the Thin Man (1936)
Vertigo (1958)
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Of primary interest is of course the Thin Man! Apparently they used the base of Coit Tower as the outside of Nick and Norah's home.

San Fran Day Trip Possibilities...

I'm not sure if I'll want to take any day-trips when in San Fran, but one must explore the possibility. One is:

Yosemite National Park.

Actually, I'm more interested in a nearby county where I might crash a train in my story. But Yosemite is presumably pretty--Ansel Adams thought so, and photographed it til the bears came home.

Yosemite Sam liked it enough to name himself after it.

If you go in the middle of the night, you might see a moonbow.
(I had no idea there was such thing as moonbows.)

On the other hand, we might have to add it to the List of Dangers--ten years ago a bunch of tourists were murdered by a serial killer.

Death by San Francisco

Well... last night I felt sleepy around 1 AM and was in bed and asleep by 2. So now it's 8:10 in the AM and I can't sleep! I feel sleepy, but the sleepatudes won't come. My usual remedy is a bowl of cereal and a book, but I'm substituting the book with internets for the moment.

I've started making a mental list of The Dangers of San Francisco. Here's how it starts, in no particular order...

1. Earthquakes of course. Here are the various fault lines in SF.

Here's Union Square at the time of the 1906 earthquake, and today.

2. Tigers: A guy was killed last year when a tiger escaped from her enclosure. Maybe we'll give the zoo a miss. (Okay, for sure we'll give the zoo a miss, cause I don't like zoos!)
3. Serial killers, of whom the Zodiac Killer is the most infamous.

...Contemplating gruesome deaths makes me sleepy. Gonna try to get some sleeps now.

San Franvegan

I don't usually tag things in this blog, but I'm going to start marking out San Francisco related posts.

Here is my first possible trip: To a vegan sundae shop! And my step-mother is lactose-intolerant, so she should be similarly approving. (The starting point is one hotel possibility.)
Now that I cook all the time I'm less excited by veg restaurants, but at least finding veg alternatives shouldn't be too much of a problem wherever I am. Ahh the flaky west coast.

What I did with London was I marked out every place I wanted to go and then, with my HUGE and EXTREMELY DETAILED Michelin map (gotta get one of those) I grouped things together and created my own tours. That's how I ended up walking so much... I would look at the next location to visit, and would always think: The weather's so nice, why bother going underground?

And I will admit there was one more disincentive--I have a mild fear of loooong escalator rides, upwards. And in London the stations are really underground. Holy crap. At one station there was a sign on the stairs that said something like: "No really, don't take the stairs. You'll die."

Saaan Fraaan Cisskoh

Well the Step-mommy is in. Yippy! Now I must put together a budget. And see if my travel-hope comes crashing down about my ears.

I'm sleepy.

London and My Sentimental Old Age

I've decided that... I might like to take a trip to San Francisco next year. I'm setting my next book in LA or San Fran, so I'm thinking... maybe I should visit one of them once the book is underway.

This may all come to absolutely nothing--I wouldn't go until next year. I need time to save up the moneys. And maybe I won't be able to save up the moneys! But I'll start looking into it, see how much it would cost me, so I can figure out if it's an achievable goal. Then I'll look around for a travel buddy (the Fernando doesn't mind staying home to catsit--he's not about the globetrotting.) Maybe one of the parental units, or my bro, since they're all out west, and it doesn't cost any of us very much to fly.

My heroine is from LA, and the hero from SF, so I've got to decide which one to use for most of the story. In other words... I'm deciding to set my story in SF rather than LA simply because I'm more interested in visiting the former. I bet all the writers do it and then lie about it later. "Oh I simply had to place the story in Maui..."

On the Subject of Travel Partners:

I actually learned in London that I love traveling alone. I got up when I wanted, took as long as I wanted to plan my day, went exactly where I wanted to go, spent as little or as much time as I wanted at each place, spent as little or as much money as I wanted, took breaks when I was ready, pressed on through sore feet when I chose to... it was perfect. The one day I spent with Gilby going to Oxford was fun, but I missed a couple things I really wanted to see because I needed more time to figure out where they were, or I needed to double back when I realized my mistakes. But with someone waiting for me (I only bought the guide books once we got there) I felt too guilty to take all the time I needed etc. Gilby never ever complained, but... I couldn't help it. I worry too much about the other person having fun.

BUT... I doubt I would have stopped in at the Tolkien-CS Lewis pub and had a drink if I'd been alone. So I do have to thank him for that. :-) And we agreed that when you bring your friendship into a whole new country, it has reached a wholly new & exciting level. And I should add that while touring alone was fun, it was nice to have someone to watch Office episodes with at night. And it was like a high school sleepover when I would sit on the edge of the tub (clothed except for my poor sore feet, which I was soaking), and he would sit on the hallway floor, and we would have Heavy-Deep Conversation.

So if I travel with someone, I just need to carefully weigh out the Together Time versus the Alone Time.

...
...
...Now I'm feeling all sentimental, looking through my London scrapbook. Missing Gilby, and missing London. And missing travel. I hadn't traveled in a long time, and it painfully reminded me how much I love it. Unfortunately these things cost money-money-money, and I have chosen a low income life.

Clippings from the Powerpoint Scrapbook
(Clik on them if you want full powerpoint size!)

My trip to the East End to see where the Elephant Man lived.
This is Bedstead Square where he would walk around at night.

This is the exact building where he was put on display, when
Dr Treves first saw him. (It wasn't a saree shop at the time...)

The Oxford Route.

The Eagle and Child (or Bird and Baby) pub where
The Inklings met. It's no Chenoys but... it'll do.

Gilles is Gilby's other pseudonym.

"I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air -- or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. Under such circumstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained. "
(Dr Watson in A Study in Scarlet)