Life in San Francisco

San Francisco is my new home. So far I've walked across the Golden Gate Bridge (which is ORANGE, by the way, not golden), gotten lost in China town, sat at the beach and watched the waves roll in, gone to a new car show, an alternative energy show and to the open farmer's market downtown.

It's colder here than Southern California (no duh), but because we're in a drought it's been gorgeous blue skies most of the time.

Work is moving along. I'm adjusting to the new place and ways. I am amazed at how hard it is to adjust to a new unit. Nursing is mostly the same, but different doctors, different equipment, different ways of doing things makes for stressful beginnings. Thank heavens I am getting more and more comfortable in my new work environment and more and more proficient at getting all the paperwork right.

San Francisco, so far so good! Sue

Christmas 2006 and New Year's Day 2007

Christmas day was a great day of rest. When does a parent get to say that? I guess when your kids are grown.

I had a boysenberry apple pie that I bought on a trip to Julian, the apple capital of Southern California, that I was all excited to bake and eat for Christmas dinner dessert. Actually I bought the pie at a store in Santa Ysabel, a wee little town on the way to Julian.

Last October I took a Sunday drive into the mountains east of San Diego. I decided to stop at a store that had a lot of motorcycles and antique cars parked outside it. It was a cool, misty Sunday, but still plenty of people were out joy riding and stopping at this place to get pie and whatever. I settled on a piece of apple crumb pie and some apple cider. Turns out this apple cider was close to the BEST ever.

A few weeks later I decided to go back and buy some more of this great cider. I could have sworn that I took the same route I had taken the time before but I never found the little town or the store with the great apple cider. I returned home empty handed and a little worried that I was losing it. However, not one to be thwarted when something good to eat is in the mix, I decided to try again, this time using a map. All I can say is thank heavens for google maps and the satellite/hybrid mode. I found the place, bought a gallon of apple cider and decided to get a boysenberry apple pie to cook for some later festive family occasion.

So on Christmas day, after sleeping in---way in, I got up, put the pie in the oven and started wrapping gifts. It was great. I so enjoyed going to Emily's apartment in West LA, having some tamales that Emily had and eating the pie I brought. Then we opened presents and sat around and told stories on each other.

Later that night I went to the hospital. No, not for any problems. I was helping my union (yay California Nurses!) with an organizing drive in the hospital I used to work at. We were really hoping that the nurses would vote to join the union, but they didn't. Bummer.

New Year's day I went to Joshua Tree National Park (look for the moon in between the branches of the tree). It's about 2 hours from my house, north of Palm Springs. The second photo is a view looking southwest into the Palm Springs area from the top of Key Mountain. The wind was blowing so hard when I was there taking that picture that I almost got blown off the mountain. I hiked to a little lake behind a dam that was built by ranchers in the early 1900s so that they could have a more consistent supply of water for themselves and their cattle. Water in the desert seems to only come in extremes. Torrents racing down washes or none at all. Either extreme is deadly. Drown or die of thirst. Deserts amaze me. All that survives is so sturdy and so tenacious. I couldn't help but think of our great grand parents making their way to Utah and then actually surviving there. What pluck they had!

Happy New Year to all! Love, Sue (maybe sometime I can figure out how to put the pictures where they belong)