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THE SCENE: A quiet San Francisco street. The BLOGGER strides across the sidewalk, mired in thoughts of superficial happiness brought on by expensive food, retail therapy, & etc versus deeper and less flighty joys. A PEDESTRIAN approaches.

PEDESTRIAN: Woo, Obama '08!

The PEDESTRIAN high-fives the BLOGGER.

BLOGGER: Huh? Oh, yeah, this is the best t-shirt ever.

The PEDESTRIAN continues on her way, as does the BLOGGER - who is now smiling.

Dear diary: today I attended an event on Marina green, which is a public-use field - kids playing soccer, joggers, dogs - which incidentally encompasses a heart-stoppingly beautiful panoramic view of Golden Gate Bridge and the Marin headlands. At 8:30 AM, when one might be on a caffeine high, it's excessively beautiful as golden morning sun boils off the fog that turns those headlands into islands above the clouds. After work, I stocked up on snack bars at the SoMa Whole Paycheck, jaywalked Market St, picked up a book on hold at the library, checked out a clothing sale off Union Square, finished my grocery shopping, and hit two bookstores (without buying more books, but with excellent browsing).

Tomorrow there's a swank chocolate festival at Ghirardelli Square. It's tempting to go, but costs money, and transit is awkward. So perhaps I'll do homework and cook for the week instead.

Today I was walking to the library -

Wait.

Today, I walked to the library, in that way you do, since the library is a 20 minute stroll from home.

It's a nice change from mandatory busing or biking, you know?

Me on the East Coast: Oh no! I am out of my favorite breakfast foods. Whatever will I do? Haul my bicycle down two flights of stairs so I can bike more than a mile to the nearest grocery store? But it is summer, and hot and sticky, and this will make me late for work! Maybe I will launch a public transit expedition to grocery store #2 after work, and hope I get a bus with working AC.

Me in San Francisco: Oh no, no bananas! I will walk five blocks and get bananas.

To stave off the worst effects of unemployment, I picked up a part time job with one of the car-sharing organizations operating in San Francisco. It's good skills-expanding experience for me, with useful fringe benefits, but being on my feet for hours and days in a row is grueling. This afternoon featured the reappearance of the Thursday slump that suggests I need to better pace myself.

I'm still interviewing for full time positions. Job searching and networking in California has given me a new and personal appreciation of what 12% unemployment means. Sometimes I try to imagine what, say, a room with 25 people would look like if 88% of the room was working, but then I factor in the long-term unemployed, dependents, PT-seeking-FT, and others who don't fit the basic "recent FT seeks FT", and that room looks awfully crowded with anxious people. I've been putting off contacting labs about volunteer work, but I've been on the market for three months, and it's time to consider the value of focusing on resumes and midday networking events while my lab skills rust.

SF Pride is this weekend: I volunteered to be a safety monitor at the Sunday parade. This will either be awesome or I will get awesome stories from the experience.

San Francisco has finally decided it's summer, and is enjoying a spate of cloudy, windy days with highs in the 60's. No heat index to ruin my day!

In the middle of a discussion of the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings movies, Roommate Number Three mentioned this awesome 90's TV show he had on DVD, and we spontaneously geeked out over Babylon 5. There is a serious problem with the current household configuration: the overlapping interests mean everyone gets along too well. If we don't get the random socializing under control, no one in this house is going to get enough sleep ever again.

A quick collage of my morning. Note chocolate for breakfast.



I deeply regret being too shocked to snap a picture of the nude cyclists on Market later in the day.

( In 480x640 under the cut )

Today I went to Ocean Beach (see first picture) and people were setting up fires and parties on the beach. I'm torn by the intrinsically awesome combination of beach fire and the logical consequences of fire plus ocean winds. Peanut butter in my chocolate, or mint in my orange?

I promise more beach pictures: a significant moving incentive was learning I could get to the beach on public transit in less than an hour. Going by my "don't spend more time in transit than at the destination / activity" rule of thumb, this works out to significant beach time.