Owner: my life in hayes - living and breathing in San Francisco URL:www.mylifeinhayes.blogspot.com Join Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:51:34 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Culture-shocks and everyday adventures in San Francisco, CA - and lot's of tips on how (not) to behave in a country full of Americans. Site statistics:Click here
Bar-talking in Sonoma 2008-06-23 12:42:00 The art of conversation seem to absorb me at the moment:- Hello.- Hi, how's it going?- It's going. That's what. It's going, and it's pretty good. How about yourself?- I'm hanging in there, I guess. I'm hanging in, and getting stuff done, and taking it easy.- Taking it easy? That's nice. Good for you.- Thank you. Have a great day.- You too. I appreciate it. - Me too.And just like that, two stranger Read more:Sonoma
Mission Inn Sonoma 2008-06-22 10:08:00 - You gotta keep your voice down! shouts the mother by the pool to a daughter no one has heard and makes everyone else wake up from their sun-kissed daze look up to see what's going on. Read more:Sonoma
, Mission
Spinning 2008-06-19 13:10:00 It's an unusually full spin class at the gym and we're fighting for bikes and a space close to the fan.- Oh, my God! says the woman who's always next to me. Not her. She's a real pain.I look around. Another woman is talking to the instructor and waving her arms and is looking a little unhappy.- She's always getting us all to move around, and turning off the lights and, like - hello! There's one of
Dude-dude-li-dude 2008-06-18 18:27:00 Overheard at the check out at Trader Joe's:- Dude? Why?- The called me in, dude.- Dude.- I know. - That's rough.- Dude. Tell me about it.- Know what I'm saying?- Dude.And so on.Americans are often known for mastering the art of using ten words where one is sufficient, but not so. The art of conversation is alive and well in North Beach
Flexi-time, part-time, affordable child-care, understanding bosses etc - again 2008-06-17 13:25:00 Two mothers at pick up trying to arrange a play-date and where the kids should play at what time and with what toys and for how long - the usual, basically. It all seems to fall nicely in to place whereby one of them gives up a flip-top laugh for everyone to share:- See! That's a what a law degree does for you!We've heard it all before. The same joke has been made over and over and over again and Read more:Flexi
, child
, bosses
Snoop Dog 2008-06-16 14:15:00 So if we should talk about dogs and their owners again, and I would like to say this: I you keep your dog on a leash around children, call it back when it's trying to jump on me while I'm running, and if you don't throw your disgusting, slobbery tennis ball over my head while I'm taking a peaceful stroll, then you're OK as far as I'm concerned. If you don't abide to these very simple rules, I thin Read more:Snoop
, Snoop Dog
Salt House on a Wednesday night 2008-06-13 11:01:00 If you book a table at the Salt House
, make sure you eat before you get there as you have to wait for more than half an hour before the staff can turn your table around.Since the reservation is late and we are stupidly hungry, and not in the mood for drinking, we try more and then less polite ways of asking the Maitre D when our table is ready. By the quarter past nine mark (30 minutes) the Maitre Read more:Wednesday
Chestnut Street on Monday 2008-06-10 13:52:00 - Do you know if I have to take my plate away? a girl asks me in a cafe as she's about to leave. It brings me back almost two years and I shake my head, telling her there is table service.These days I make sure to do a detailed scan of every cafe before I sit down with my tea. Read more:Chestnut
, Street
, Monday
Filmore and Pine 2008-06-09 14:30:00 One tourist and a college boy overheard talking on the 22 bus on Filmore:- I live in NY, it's my first time on the West Coast.- What do you think of it so far?- It's pretty different from what I thought.- How so?- It's really dirty here.- Are you kidding me? Compared to NY!?- Yeah, by far man. NY is clean.- No it's not! It's really polluted, and the underground, man - it's disgusting. Really filth
Haight 2008-06-08 18:59:00 My brother and his girlfriend are visiting for a few days. They walk down to the Haight Ashbury Street Fair to hang out for the day. They come back early and tell me the walked over to the Japanese tea Garden in the park instead.- Was the fair too loud and noisy? I ask.- Not at all. It didn't seem like it had kicked off yet. People were just eating a lot of food. We got a bit bored.Well, public co
Chaperones 2008-06-06 21:13:00 Lesson in Life, Pt 19: - He's so much less older than you are, your daughter says when the guy who's birthday you're celebrating tells her he's turning 34. Yeah, thanks, kid, you just reminded me it's time to start preparing my 35th.The parents chaperoning at the end of year school picnic are divided into two categories, the commiters and the omitters. While the commiters spend their time flying k
More and more and more 2008-06-04 22:35:00 The ladies of task force Keep our Strength n'Sculpt have, after much deliberation, come to the conclusion that a signed petition will be the best way of communication since the emails they have sent have bounced back and no phone calls are being answered.A piece of paper is being passed around during squats and we are all asked to sign it before we leave.To say that you're not really bothered one
Back to normal 2008-06-03 19:04:00 The work on my bathroom has finished, after two and a half long weeks. I say goodbye and thank you to the guys, and tell them, in the nicest possible way that I am glad to not have to see them again. They have been fantastic, but to be able to use my shower again is one up from having nice company in your house every day.
Money spins the world 2008-06-02 21:12:00 I have started to fill in application-forms for preschools. - Wow, you're really organized, said a friend of mine. He's only seven months.I feel the opposite since waiting lists are fierce, and another friend asked me if I had signed up when I was still pregnant.One thing that gets to me is that you have to fill in the application-form before you get invited to take a tour of the facilities. And w Read more:Money
Sex and the City at the Kabuki 2008-05-31 13:17:00 The opening night of the long waited for Sex and the City film at the Sundance Kabuki does everything to fulfill all our promises of the ultimate girl's night out. The lobby is overflowing with women dressed up to the nines. There's the tutu, the Fendi, even the lost silver Manolos from A woman's right to Choo's takes a little dance step on the red carpet steps leading up to Screen 1.We have had o
We need to stand united 2008-05-29 14:08:00 There is a buzz amongst the ladies waiting outside the studio for the Strength n'Sculpt to begin: the gym has decided to cancel the class at the beginning of the summer. What the WTF? How can do do that? It's outrageous, ridiculous. The cheek of it. The nerve. Oh, my God.Voices are angry, raised. - We need to complain. We need to email someone. We need to take action.Someone comes back with small
Words of wisdom 2008-05-27 20:46:00 There's a big billboard advertising a popular brand of instant hot chocolate by the school. "You can't by happiness but you can drink it."- That's silly, says my daughter. You don't get happiness from a drink. You can get happy from drinking it, but it won't bring you happiness.I'm struggling with that logic every time I drink my first Mojito for the night. Read more:Words
The tycoons of yesterday 2008-05-26 21:41:00 "Poems for pennies" says the sign the old man is holding up for everyone to see as they do their shopping and drinking on Haight Street.I wonder how many poems he has recited today. He has a list of categories and subcategories, poems for happy people, poems for sad people. Poems to your loved ones or poems for yourself.He's smile is warm and inviting.But there we are, with our shopping bags and l
Countdown 2008-05-24 23:03:00 Being very, very partial to BBC costume drama, I made an honest attempt to avoid the Kiera Knightly debacle that is Pride and Prejudice when it came out in the cinemas, but tonight I can't avoid it as it is the only thing I could even slightly tolerate on my 200 something TV channels - and I need to watch TV because I am so tired I am not able to do anything else - and yes, it is as bad as I suspe Read more:Countdown
Peaches and lime 2008-05-20 15:24:00 We're having the bathroom re-tiled. What started out as one sick little limestone tile has turned in to a hospital-wing full of pest-ridden, damp-drenched tiles. Their successors are all hanging out in our bedroom for the time being, casually draped in yesterdays jeans and Finn's carrot-stained bibs. There are enough tiles to re-do the entire house. I can't help but wonder what it will look like o
I'm moving on up 2008-05-19 21:26:00 It is move-up day in school. It is the beginning of what will become one of the most stressful periods of the entire school year, the preparation for the kids to move up a grade after the summer holiday.All the kids are excited but for the parents, this is the start of a long, excruciating wait to find out who the new teacher is going to be, and which children will be joining in the new class. The
So, I walked in the wall 2008-05-15 13:09:00 My gym is situated in the heart of alpha-family land, and although it is a really nice, friendly gym it can sometimes become a little competitive. Like when it is sign-up time for swim-class and parents queue up outside the registration office from seven o'clock in the morning. Or in the morning when I have to get to my spin-class half an hour early to make sure I get one of the twenty bicycles an
Playground panic 2008-05-14 23:43:00 It is a little hard to accept that I am back in the playground juggling a baby, a stroller, a changing bag, a mobile phone, pushing a swing and mixing a bottle as well as trying very hard not to notice what is going on a round me. So here we are, once again, the mother's, walking around like zombies in a playground re-make of Dawn of the Dead, pushing strollers and and comparing ourselves to each
Nothing noteworthy but.... 2008-05-12 14:24:00 ...how is it possible for every single driver of a car bigger than an Audi A4 to escape understanding that "compact parking space" means "please leave this space for small cars" and not "small space, please be extra careful when trying to squeeze you vehicle in to the bay"?Would anyone like to campaign with me for the freedom of small car drivers and their right to compact parking spaces without a Read more:Nothing
July 4th 2008-07-05 22:48:00 We spend July the 4 in Half Moon Bay by the tide pools and the kids are building sand castles, collecting dead crab shells and waiting eagerly for the tide to go out. The grown ups are soaking up the sun behind the fog and sipping on a glass of wine, well hidden behind our bags and jumpers.A while later the Park Ranger approaches a large family gathering close by and demand them in no uncertain te
Slippery floors 2008-07-03 14:34:00 Thanks to my green high-heeled boots I slip on the hardwood floor in Florio's where we have gone to have steak and chips. I do a somersault, a split and finally a bum-fall whilst also pulling down a jacket and a handbag on the floor and when they all rush over, the sous chef and some fellow patrons, to make sure that I am OK (and that I won't sue them for embarrassment), an older gentleman in navy
No title 2008-06-30 13:26:00 I have failed to write about the rat we have in our neighbour's garden because I really do try to blank it out, but it keeps haunting me day and night. Sitting in my garden, drinking a glass of wine with my friend on one of those hot, hot nights a few weeks ago, she suddenly looks up above my head and says, calmly and slightly bemused:- There is a rat on the fence, just above you.And just to freak
Money must be funny 2008-06-28 00:07:00 This is the ultimate alien housewife trap, and I'm not exactly happy about it. Here goes: I had to phone a friend and ask her nicely if she could lend me $$$ so I could have my hair cut today.I'm not extremely poor and my hairdresser isn't extremely expensive but my husband had forgotten to put $$$ on the bedside table this morning (if you ask him it was my fault for only reminding him the one tim Read more:Money
Trigger Happy 2008-06-26 20:40:00 Something I will never understand is the liberal gun-laws in this country. I don't need to go into any details as to why I ask this question right now, but I would really like someone to explain to me how it is not OK to use a gun as you wish but still OK to buy, carry and handle it. I don't like guns.I don't like what you can do with guns.I certainly don't like the so-called freedom you earn with Read more:Happy
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