I am a rock, I am an island......

I learned something relatively unimportant about myself the week of my San Francisco trip. I will do anything alone, but very little with kids. Alone, I am fearless, adventurous even, but with kids, I am weary, afraid and trepidatious.

While I was in San Francisco I went to The Ferry Building, Little Italy, China Town, all through the Financial District, the Mission District, in about a dozen cafes, through a museum, to Sausalito, to a movie, and to lunch by myself and loved every minute of it. There was one moment of the day when I thought, "I haven't even heard my own voice for over 4 hours.... this nice"

I was like this when I lived in New York too, I went everywhere alone! My roommate worked the night shift, I worked the day shift, so I did most things by myself. I went to Wall Street, Rockefeller Center, Broadway, Time Square, and took the train and bus up to Boston and cruised around Boston mostly by myself too. I am totally in my comfort zone doing this.

But, when it comes to kids I am a complete looser. If someone gave me free tickets to OMSI I'd probably have to pass unless I had a sister or a very close friend to accompany me and even then the timing would have to be perfect, my kids would have to be on their best behavior and all the stars would have to align for me to work up the nerve to do this.

My only explanation for this is that kids stress me out more than most things, the running around, trying to keep them contained, constantly counting heads to make sure no one has been kid napped or run off, my stress level is at a 10 when I take kids to most things, but walking alone through NYC at night even around homeless people and crack whores doesn't even phase me. (Sorry I said whores on my blog)

Which leads me to my next point, I LOVE Moms that can take their kids to do things and actually enjoy doing it. I wish I was blessed with this gift. I have found a few blogs this summer and they blog about all the cool things they take their kids to do, like bike across the Brooklyn Bridge, go to Washington Park, go to Lagoon in Utah, go to the Beach, when I go the the beach all I'm thinking about is which kid is going to go under and out first. I really admire strong Moms, I wish I was a little stronger. Just a few of the things I enjoyed alone in San Francisco
(my favorite breakfast, chocolate banana cream pie with a gingerbread cupcake)

The Ferry

Building

Tartine Bakery,

I was hoping to get some eclairs, but they sold out, so I got a piece of chocolate cake instead, but it did inspire me to come home and teach myself to make my own eclairs,

they were a success if I do say so myself.

Mission Pie,

they say pie is gaining in popularity when compared cupcakes, I can see why.

I couldn't decide, I got peach and banana cream.

I'll say it, Fisherman's Warf is the most overrated thing in San Francisco, way to touristy.

The best candy shop in Little Italy

My Beloved Max

Max turned 6 years old lastweek! A whopping 6 years old! He starts kindergarten in a couple weeks and I am so happy for these milestones, but as I was doing this blog post it did make me reflect on my beloved middle child.

When Warren was born it was a painful 28 hour labour with 2 hours and 45 minutes of pushing. I was unprepared for that kind of pain, (I still am, I kid you not heart surgery is easier)The epidural got me through a couple of hours, but not the last ones. After that it took me a long, long time to bond with him, I could barely sit up for heaven sakes, I felt like I had just been hit by a bus, I hadn't eaten in almost 3 days, I had barely slept and I felt like the nurses at the hospital were a little hard on me for not being overly eager to hold and nurse my baby. I'd even get annoyed with nursing mothers who would almost brag about the bonding part of it and do it in public. (I don't anymore, so don't hate me) So I'd say my expections for my second baby were really really low. I really really bonded with Warren when he turned about 9months to a year and even then I took my job as a mother very seriously. We did flashcards every day, we ate on schedule, we did mostly learning activities and played with mostly learning toys. He was going to be an educated MAN! But in my defense, Warren is the toughest kid I know and even as a 2nd grader he took his schooling very seriously, so I didn't mess him up completely.

Then I got pregnant and had my beloved Max, I tear up just thinking about it. It was another hard traumatic delivery, I hope I don't sound too melodramatic when I say that he and I almost died, so I didn't get to see him right away, but man, when I did... It was love at first sight! We bonded immediately! I loved his blue eyes, his black hair, his perfect skin, I would ask the nurses to bring him to me earlier than they would have to. I was just completely smitten by this baby. All my mothering "rules and schedules" went out the window, as I suspect they usually do when you have your second or third baby. I just LOVED this little boy. He is the most loving, caring, sharing, sympathetic child and I am anxious to see what he does whith these special gifts. That is the story of my beloved Max.

He was HUGE! he is only about 7 days old in this photo.

He's about 6 months in this one.

And 9 months in these.

Happy 6th Birthday to Max

Portland Food Cart-run

Every year on my summer bucket list I add some sort of food festival. This isn't exactly a food festival, but it is an alleyway of food trucks with everything including French cuisine, gourmet pizza, tacos, Greek gyros, and of course my favorite creme' brulee. This is me waiting for my french dip sandwich at the French truck.

This was my FAVORITE!!! I LOVE creme Brulee! I had a slight panic attack when we got there and the place was closed, turns out they just don't open until 12:30.

These are some of the things my friends and I ordered so we could get a taste of everything.

Beet Salad, Fresh Mozzarella Pizza, a Greek Gyro, falafels, burgers, an onion tart, tacos, and 2 sad salads. Honestly, I don't know why anyone orders salads.

And my favorite Creme Brulee and a side of Strawberry Ice cream, on top was passion fruit, it was pretty bad, but the strawberry was good.

And last, but not least, we stopped at a cupcake cart somewhere else in Northeast Portland and I had some AMAZING little mini cupcakes. One was even a Mexican Spice cupcake. Don't mind if I do. You might be wondering by now how I stay relatively thin on such a fatty unhealthy diet, but truth be told, I only indulge on days like this, on regular days, honestly, my diet consists of Grape-nuts for breakfast, tuna sandwich for lunch and turkey meatballs for dinner, honestly. But if your gonna indulge, go big!

My Perfect Day

My first day in San Fransisco was wonderful. I might even say, it was my idea of a perfect day. After having a healthy and complete breakfast of a gingerbread cupcake with cream cheese frosting and chocolate banana cream pie, I walked up to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and it was spectacular! I have to admit that I loved the alone time. I don't know anyone else who would have gone along with my sugary breakfast, my carrying a map and camera all over the city and stopping any time I wanted to take a picture, nor do I know anyone else who would walk into yet another bakery. I am insufferable I know, it's a problem.

After the museum I went back to my hotel, got all prettied up and went to an economics lecture with Spencer, also spectacular. His professor gave a lecture on utility and how to calculate it, in other words, how to calculate how much satisfaction you get based on how risk adverse or risk loving you are. I thought it was riveting.

The museum featured "The Stein Collection" which was a collection of art that Gertrude Stein and her siblings collected and promoted over their lives. The collection included Picasso, Mattice, and Renoir. Some even say it was Gertrude that made them famous. The exhibit included photos of her office and her lunching with Picasso. Unfortunately, the museum wouldn't let me take any photos of the entire collection. I swiped these from the Internet, they were some of the more popular ones.

Matisse, "Woman with a Hat"

Hans Purrman, "Still life of Fruit"

Mattisse

These are actual photos I took in the museum, I didn't get the name of the artist.

But this was my favorite, I enjoyed this exhibit more than the Stein Collection.

I had to wait about 20 minutes before they would let me into the Stein exhibit so I went to see the "Face of our Time" exhibit, all photographs taken in war-torn countries and some by a man named Jim Goldberg. His goal was to give a face and voice to the refugees in socially and economically devastated countries in Africa. His work was breathtaking. You can't tell from my photo, this print hangs at about 5ft in the museum.

Number 2 on my Summer List of things to Do

I went to San Francisco with Spencer this past weekend and it was AWESOME! I couldn't blog about it all in one post because I took about 100 photos, so I thought I'd blog about it according to the events that took place. This was one of my favorites.

I (all alone I might add) walked from my hotel, past China Town, through Little Italy, and into Fisherman's Warf to rent a bike. Then I biked all the way over to The Golden Gate Bridge, which was about 6 miles, then across the bridge, which was about 2 miles, and into Sausalito, another 2 miles. Along my journey I met a lovely couple from Boston who wanted go go out to lunch, so we enjoyed a wonderful little lunch on the water over looking San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. After lunch we took the ferry back over to San Fran and I returned my bike and walked another mile back to my hotel. It was a great day. I am proud of myself for doing it and mostly by myself. Later that night I laid in bed, ate cake and watched a Zack Efron movie all by myself, until Spence came back at 10:30 and we went out with his Wharton friends.

Do I look like I just walked 6 miles mostly uphill, then biked 9? Because I did.

Alcatraz

The quaint town of Sausalito.

My biking friends from Boston that I went to lunch with.