Work: Making You Appreciate Weekends Ever Since You Started

Today is my Saturday. Today is Wednesday; my day off after too many days of working in a row. I got up early (cough, 9 am) and went on a bike adventure up to The Bulb, a "landfill," which is really more like a park filled with concrete, rebar, homeless folk, and art by and from the former. I have never seen anything like this in my life. Irishman Gareth and I even ventured into the brush, where a lot of people live in tents, cart their water in jugs, and even have such amenities like a library, which is the most amazing ramshackle hut filled with old books.
We spent the midday there before having my first ever experience with a taco truck. I cannot even describe the joy in my mouth for a mere $2.50.

Take note of my apparel. Dear friends in NYC, it was at least 70 degrees today on the waterfront. We may not have a good subway system (or reliable taxicabs or bagels) but our late falls are unbelievable.

Then we hopped down to the marina and walked one of the piers all the way to the end, where it's gated and you can see an old section of the pier floating out in The Bay all alone.

To wrap the day up, we went out for Burmese food with Julie and her friends. And then I made focaccia, which turned out a little crispy, but it was my first try. So it was a day of adventures and excellent cuisine. And only about 12 miles of biking. Double what I usually do, but way more enjoyable.

My new job

So I'm officially a member of corporate America, folks. At least, temporarily. Until they decide to give me health insurance and paid vacation. Right now it's just a paycheck and some funky hours. But it is swanky.
It's a 3-mile ride to where I work, not bad at all really. But I get off around 10pm. Oh hey, is that why that picture is dark?

Thankfully the dude I'm seeing is lending me his headlamp (I know, I know, how did I live in Vermont for 4 years and avoid buying a headlamp AND skiing?).

Oh lonely bicycle! Apparently everyone drives to work!

An on the domestic front, look at all my little plant babies!

Purple Cherokee tomato! Please survive! I read online that I'll have to pollinate him with an electric toothbrush since there are no bugs to do it indoors. Eh?
Cilantro!
Purple basil! (Lisa and Wendy like to send me purple varieties, apparently)

Making bread on my sick day

I am really sick today and didn't go to work. Instead I'm baking bread. Which has definitely put the damper on passing out for 3 hours at a time.

Since we live in California and nobody thought to heat their homes, I couldn't think of a place warm enough to put the bread to rise. So I turned on my little radiator. Probably a fire hazard, in more ways than one (as in, my dough combusting and me not being able to exit my room because I live in a hallway).

Speaking of my hallway/closet/studio/office/bedroom...

My back is against the wall in this photo. And this situation is highly flammable as well! Oil paints, yeah!

Life with a Bike

This is the beauty that I ride. A $20 find on Craigslist; it used to not have front brakes, but did have some really fashionable handle-bar extenders, until the dude I was dating took them off with his man muscles.

Speaking of which, Amy thinks this blog should be about my dating adventures, and how I manage to go to fancy wine bars and eat oysters while being poor and unemployed. But, no. I'm gonna save those stories up.



This is how I park my bike. It involves me carrying it partially upstairs (and that's a steel frame, my friends), slamming it against the wall with my body, and then locking it up to the railing while trying not to fall backwards with it.

Today's goods aren't so exciting. Just some bread. That I paid for. Our dumpster is moving to Alameda, which means free bread days are over.

But two notable things did happen today.

1. I got lost in Oakland. This happens so frequently that it's practically a hobby.

2. My shoelace got wrapped around my pedal and I got stuck on my bike in traffic, unable to move my foot. I make a one-footed jump off my bike on the side of the road and some guy on the street helped untie me. It was so nice. He also had cheese-poofs. I don't know what it is about Oakland folks and cheese-poofs and being so nice, but this is not the first time something like this has happened to me.

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1. My name is not Susie.
2. I am not a professional homemaker. Yet.
3. I am not a professional filmmaker. Yet.

I am a new graduate in the Recession. I just moved out to SF Bay, where I'm a squatter, dumpster-dive for bread, and intern for free. I am part of an entire segment of the American population that is uninsured, un/underemployed and under-qualified for jobs that we don't even want. But I didn't go to college to get a job. That's a given. I went to college to change the world.

This blog isn't about my job search though. It's about all the things that I carry in my backpack.