Happy Anniversary Golden Gate Bridge!

The Golden Gate Bridge is celebrating its 75th Anniversary on Sunday, May 27th!

Lots of fun things happening around the bridge. More information here: http://goldengatebridge75.org

Here are some photos from my daily commute from Marin to San Francisco. Most taken from the bus.

To see more daily commute pictures click ‘LIKE’ on the Sally Around The Bay Facebook page.

Thank you!

I am working on a project!

Inspired by my friend Toni Carreiro I gave myself a 30 day challenge. I started my challenge on Mother’s Day. I am committing to writing 30 words a day for 30 days to kick-start my book about other mothers.

Thank you Maria Benet for the 30 days of writing idea that we brainstormed while biking yesterday.

I have gotten such a great response to my blog post about other mothers that I decided to go for it and write the book. I am verklempt with the public and private responses from friends and strangers I have been receiving in response to the post. My feelings about being an other mother seemed to resonate with all sorts of other mothers out there in the world.

Thank you Tamara Holland for this inspiring photo to help keep me focused.

Thank you Marilyn LoRusso for your positive influence in turning this book in to a celebration of other mothers.

Of course, thank you to Celia Graterol for always supporting me in whatever random thing I decide to do.

Thank you to all of my friends who are cheering me on!

From now until June 11, 2012 I will be writing at least 30 words a day. #30Words30Days

One of my most popular blog posts is the one I wrote about cheap haircuts in Marin. It seems affordable haircuts are in high demand around here. Today Celia wanted to get her hair cut but when she called to make an appointment she found out her favorite hair dresser, Tere was no longer working at the usual place.

After a little detective work we found Tere was now working at Tabu Hair Salon in San Rafael.

Tabu Hair Salon is located in the little mall off of Francisco Blvd in San Rafael (behind City Carpets). I cannot believe in all the years I have lived in Marin County I have never been to this mall! It is located right on the water of The Canal and is full of a bunch of treasures like KabaBBQ serving Persian food, a Taqueria, a Vietnamese restaurant and a small Mexican grocery market (that sells Corona beer actually made in Mexico).

Celia was very happy to find Tere and get her hair cut. Tabu Hair Salon is a super fun place owned by Juliana and Omar.

There is an area for kids and adults to play! You can play pool while you wait for your $10 haircut.

Celia was very pleased with her $10 haircut.

I just met Omar and Juliana for the first time but it seems Omar specializes in artistic haircuts (see photo) and Juliana in colors and cuts.  They have the coolest  kid in town. Check out his hairdo!

Did I mention the standard haircuts are only $10?!

Tabu Hair Salon
415-424-1653
555 Francisco Blvd, E
Suite 11
San Rafael, CA 94901

Mother’s Day is coming up. This is a tough one for me. Not as a daughter but as a mother. It is a day that I am reminded of how society often disregards the other mothers of the world. I am one of those other mothers.

The number 1 questions every woman is asked is, “Do you have children?” You might think this is a simple yes or no answer; it is not. Many women “have” children but did not actually “have” them. It is a complicated question to answer. Some women struggle with how much of an answer to give, I know I did.

I raised 3 children. I changed their diapers, wiped their snotty noses, made their lunches, consoled their hurt feelings, drove the carpool, gave up my own dream of going to graduate school, stayed home from work with sick kids, lost my hair during their teenage years and many nights of sleep. I laughed, cried, enjoyed, loved and hated parenting. But, when someone asks me if I have children and I say yes, I feel like I am not telling the whole truth. I do have children, I have 3 but I did not birth these children, my partner did and we have raised them together with her ex-husband and his wife. If I tell people the whole story their response is often “oh, you are not the real mom.” Being labeled “not the real mom” made it so I was not allowed to ever complain about parenting or my kids because if I did other mothers would say, “it’s different when it is your kid, or you wouldn’t understand since they are not actually your kids”.

These comments from others often shut me down, hurt me and made me wonder if it was okay to say yes I have kids. These comments also isolated me from the “Mom’s club” I wanted and needed so badly to be in. The Mom’s club is any group of moms that becomes friends because of their kids, moms at the park, moms who have kids in the same class, etc. They hang out together while their kids are doing  activities and provide support to each other, share their trials and tribulations of raising kids and learn from each other. I felt so alone as a mother. I felt ashamed wondering what the other mothers thought of me. I was young, I was a lesbian and I was the cause for my partner’s (the real mother) divorce. Looking back now that my kids are young adults I realize those worries of what the other mothers thought of me were all created in my own head. I never even gave a chance to those other mothers to get to know me. The few that I did allow in throughout the parenting years are some of my best friends now.

I wish I wouldn’t have wasted so much of my mommy years wondering if I was good enough and realized that the fact that I was raising someone else’s kids was BETTER than good enough. I was sacrificing and doing things for those little snotty nosed people that usually only a “real” mother would do. I should NOT have been ashamed, I should have been celebrated. But a mother’s job doesn’t usually come with a lot of praise, I understand this.

The more I have talked with women, the more I have learned that this feeling like an ”other mother” is a common feeling. Even the traditional type of mom often feels like she doesn’t fit in; she’s too young, too old, too fat, too poor, not cool enough, works, doesn’t work, whatever it is, she feels she doesn’t fit in and she isolates herself from the other mothers.

Being in my position, the other mom, not the “REAL” mom and not even the step-mom pretty much makes me the invisible mom when it comes to acknowledgement from society and community support.

I have an idea for a book I want to write about other mothers. I want to interview all the other mothers out there and share their stories. I imagine there are all sorts of women who could identify with being an other mother: lesbian moms, step-moms, adoptive moms, foster moms, divorced moms, single moms, teen moms, immigrant moms, aunts, grandmas and other relatives raising children that are not their own, moms whose husbands are in prison or the military, women who chose not to be moms or were not able to be and fathers who have  taken on the more traditional mommy role are all people whom I’d like to interview and hear their stories. I’m sure there other ‘other mother’s who I  have failed to mention here as well. I’ve been tossing this book idea around in my head for a while but now I’ve decided I am going to do it. If you are interested in sharing your story with me and being a part of this book please contact me to arrange for an interview.

For people who live in Marin and work in San Francisco here are 5 reasons to take a Golden Gate Transit bus to work.

1. You can. If we don’t use our public transportation we might lose it.
2. It’s better for the environment than driving in.
3. Way cheaper than driving in. You only have to pay the bus fare, no bridge toll, no parking fee, no gas, no wear and tear on your car.
4. Frees up your time to do other things. You can read, rest, text, work, check your Facebook, tweet, blog, space out, whatever – all sorts of things you can’t (or shouldn’t!) do while driving.
5. It’s one of the most beautiful commutes in the world!

I know there are hundreds of excuses why not to take the bus to work but I challenge you to try it. Don’t forget we also have the awesome Golden Gate Ferry option!

A friend whom I adore once quoted Eleanor Roosevelt to me when I was making an excuse for not doing something. That quote has stuck with me for years.

“Do one thing every day that scares you.”  ~Eleanor Roosevelt

Yes, Marin is filled with many spandex wearing folks doing their part by commuting on a bike. I commend the cyclists. However, Marin is also full of very steep hills and not all of us have the strength to go up the hills or the guts to go down them on a bike. For the rest of us who are not triathletes , thankfully we have other options for getting around.

If you use some form of public or alternative transportation please leave a comment below sharing with others how you do it.

When you do start taking the bus here are some basic bus etiquette tips to follow.

Views from the bus

A year of photos from the bus: Google+ Album

I regularly post my early morning sunrise commute photos taken from the bus while crossing the Golden Gate Bridge on Facebook.
Click ‘Like‘ to be a part of my  morning commute fun. Thanks!

After this last year I now consider myself somewhat of a plumbing expert.

I thought I would share a few tips with you as a public service announcement.

1. Go check the little connector pipe behind your toilet and make sure the plastic hasn’t cracked and the metal is still in good shape. Last night while sitting around minding my own business, reading O Magazine, on my bed, I heard a noise that sounded like an air compressor. I thought to myself, hmmm someone must’ve left the air compressor on AGAIN. But then I heard a sound I didn’t recognize, like water trickling so I got up to explore and found… my toilet acting like a geyser!

Okay, so maybe a geyser is somewhat of an exaggeration BUT in less than 30 seconds the water was already 1 inch deep in the whole bathroom and heading for my bedroom. Thanks to the bathmats for slowing it down long enough for me to wedge myself between the toilet and the shower to turn the water off. The plastic nut on the connector CRACKED and water was shooting out of it every which way! So I rushed to Home Depot around 8pm and purchased a new one. This is where I learned it was called a “toilet connector”. I was talking about my experience online and it seems I am not the only one this has happened too so GO check your toilet connector right now and make sure it is still in good condition.

2. Call a plumber and have them come out with one of their fancy little cameras on a snake and check your pipes. Make sure there are no roots or other things inside the pipes. If roots get in your pipes and you haven’t had them checked in the last year, guess what? Your insurance company won’t pay for any flood damages. Go read the fine print of your insurance policy or just trust me and hire a plumber to do this little preventative thing. A year ago, my house flooded with the neighborhood poop and it was not pretty. I lost the whole downstairs of my house. The insurance company’s first response was it must be roots and they won’t be covering. Turns out it was not roots. THANK GOODNESS but if it had been I would have been screwed! This is what my house looked like after the flood was cleaned up. It actually got worse, they had to take most of the floor board out too.

3. Finally, if you don’t have one of those mushroom things in your yard. GET ONE! Call a plumber now and have them install it. Because if your house does flood with poop this is a release that will make the poopy water shoot all over your yard instead of your house. Poop is never pleasant but trust me, you’d much rather have it all over your yard than your house. If you are like me and don’t like that silly looking thing in your yard you can always decorate it to look like a magic mushroom

I understand hiring a plumber for preventative work is about as much fun as going to the dentist but take it from me. It’s worth it.

I had a great experience with the plumber who rescued me from the poop flood. I used Amesos Plumbing in Marin, they were fast, knowledgeable and available to provide my insurance company with all the reports, photos, etc that they needed.

While we are on the subject of plumbing and broken things, if any of your appliances have issues I know an awesome repair company: Appliance Techs of Marin They fix things like dish washers, garbage disposals, washing machines, dryers, etc…

During the whole poop flood process I realized I needed a new insurance agent, a helpful one. That is when I found Shere Goo from State Farm in Mill Valley. She is excellent!

Have you had any plumbing nightmares? Share below.

For the last year, I have been on the hunt for vintage prints to decorate my San Francisco office. Turns out, this whole time the exact type of store I was looking for, was right under my nose, in the financial district. The more time I spend in San Francisco, the more I love it. There is a whole sub-culture of local, independent, women owned businesses co-existing in the fast paced, downtown, financial district area.

I recently happened upon the charming neighborhood of Jackson Square, located in the shadow of the Transamerica Pyramid where I discovered a tiny little store front with a sign reading Prints, Etc. This store just happens to be located in the second oldest commercial building in San Francisco.

I had no idea I was walking in to a piece of San Francisco history.

The small store was filled with vintage prints, historical photos of old San Francisco, concert posters, antique stock certificates, maps, curiosities, collectibles, beautiful frames, mirrors and so much more, hence the Etc… part of the name.

I was immediately greeted by a very friendly woman named Kathleen who took the time to show me around and teach me how the store worked. She even helped me find some cool prints for the office that my boss liked!

You know how sometimes you meet someone and you instantly click? That is how I felt about Kathleen. I felt like we had been best friends forever and I found her stories about the shop fascinating. So yesterday I spent my lunch break inside Prints, Etc chatting with Kathleen about the history of this adorable little store.

Prints, Etc has been here since 1957. Kathleen DiGrande and her sister Elizabeth Cologne are the 4th owners of Prints, Etc and have owned it for the last 6 years. The store has kept the same integrity since the beginning. Kathleen and Elizabeth have one employee, Adriane Brown who is an artist and is currently getting her Masters of Fine Art.

Elizabeth makes these unique and colorful pressed flower framed designs.

Adriane painted this beautiful painting  that was hanging up high which explains the angle of the photo. Reminds me of the days working in my parent’s flower shop.

According to Kathleen, Prints, Etc has the largest selection of custom frames in the city, such as ‘closed corner’ frames made in the US, and ‘mitered’ corner frames. Many frame shops outsource their framing, not Prints, Etc! The 3 women do the framing themselves right here in the store and take special care of the art.

Prints, Etc.
494 Jackson Street
San Francisco, CA 94111
415-362-5323

Be sure to “LIKE” Print, Etc on Facebook!

While you are there click “LIKE” on Sally Around The Bay too!

Thank you!

#ShopLocal

I have come to realize the simple words “Thank You” are two very important words to me. I have noticed not all people say thank you. Maybe their mama didn’t teach them to say thank you. It makes me wonder what thank you means to people. Maybe it has different meanings for different people.

What does thank you mean to you? Is it important to you to be thanked when you have done something for someone else? Do you thank people when they do something nice for you?

You really can not go wrong with saying thank you, it doesn’t matter how big or small the gesture is. It’s always worth it to say thank you.

Go ahead, try it!

I challenge you to say thank you a few extra times this week.

If your spouse does the laundry, say thank you, even if they do it every week.

If your child puts the dishes in the dish washer, say thank you, even if it is their chore.

If your mom or dad cooks dinner for you, say thank you.

If someone retweets something you have posted on Twitter or Liked something you put up on Facebook, say thank you.

I personally am going to start sending more handwritten thank you cards. Emails, text messages and phone calls are all appropriate ways to say thank you these days but don’t you appreciate a handwritten card so much more now since they are so uncommon?

When I used to work in the corporate world at the Bath & Body Works office we had something called the WOW card. Anytime someone did something we appreciated, we were supposed to write a little note on the WOW card and give it to them. You could give the card to your boss, the janitor, coworkers, assistants, anyone. It was such a great practice and it was always so nice to give and receive those WOW cards! Wouldn’t it be fun to start up the WOW card tradition on a personal level and send your friends and family a WOW card every time they did something cool?

I started writing this blog post on the bus this morning, then posted a question on Facebook asking people their feelings about Thank Yous. It’s unanimous people love Thank Yous!

One friend posted this:

“If the only prayer you ever said was thank you, that would suffice.” a proverb, posted by -Sarah

Funny, I had thank yous on my mind today. Someone in my life has not been saying thank you at times when I felt they should so I spent today reflecting on thank yous. The more enlightened people tell me, I shouldn’t expect thank yous, I should just do things out of the goodness of my own heart. Well that doesn’t work for me, I’m not enlightened enough I guess, I like thank yous. If I take the time to prepare dinner for you, give you a ride somewhere, or just something generally nice I want a thank you!

After my day of thank you reflection I decided I should start focusing on saying thank you more, rather than focusing on people who don’t say thank you when I think they should. Who am I to decide how people should act anyway?

So thank you for reading this post. Thank you for supporting my blog. If it weren’t for you I’d be talking to myself an awful lot online. I really, really do appreciate that you take the time to read my blog, my tweets, my Facebook updates and to actually come out to events when I coordinate them.

THANK YOU!

I just went out and got the mail a few minutes ago. Guess what was in my mail box?!

Not one, but TWO thank you notes from my good friend Peggy over at the Success and Chocolate blog. She sent me 1 Thank You note for a tiny little gift (purple pens) I gave her and another Thank You for ME agreeing to be interviewed on HER blog. Wow! a Thank You for agreeing to be interviewed! I should be thanking her! Thank you Peggy! A bonus was the 2 thank you notes were written on cards created and designed by my artist friends! The Success & Chocolate card was designed by C. Proppe and the You Rule! card was created by Tamara at Bean Up The Nose Art, who is the queen of thank yous (one of the reasons I admire her so much).

How cool is that?!

While I’m in gratitude mode also want to mention my friend Marilyn’s (who always reminds me to be grateful) brand NEW happy blog: VisionBook365

Thank you!

Fun, healthy, affordable meal!

Rainbow Chocolate Chili

This chili is super healthy and works great if you are doing the Sugar Divorce,  Four Hour Body or Weight Watchers lifestyle.

Ingredients

1 Onion, chopped
a few cloves of Garlic, chopped
Bell Pepper, chopped (optional – I don’t like peppers, Yuck! But they do add pretty color to the dish)
Lentils – I used the pre-cooked ones from Trader Joe’s sold in a box in the fridge section (usually near the vegetables)
1 can Pinto Beans, rinsed & drained*
1 can White Beans, rinsed & drained*
1 can Black Beans, rinsed & drained*
(you can use any beans – I just pick these 3 to make it more colorful)
1 can diced Tomatoes in juice
1 can of Corn.
1-2 teaspoons ground Cumin
1-2 tablespoons Chili Powder
1-2 teaspoons Oregano
Cayenne pepper – as much or as little as you can handle
3 cups fat free Veggie broth
1-2 chunks semisweet Chocolate, choppped
a handful of Quinoa
Miscellaneous veggies – I like yellow squash and green zucchini for the color

Spray bottom of large pot with olive oil. Add onion, garlic and yucky peppers and sauté until soft, I add a splash of the broth to help soften up the veggies and to avoid burning the garlic.

Add Miscellaneous veggies, saute some more.

Add spices: cumin, oregano, cayenne pepper.

Add tomatoes in juice.

Put top on pan to allow veggies to cook.

Drain and rinse beans (rinse a few times for maximum gas avoidance).

Add lentils.

Add beans.

Drain corn and add.

Add chunks of chocolate.

Add rest of the broth, throw a little extra in if you need to feed more people.

If too watery, throw in a handful of Quinoa to thicken up and add more texture to the chili.

Season with salt & pepper.

Serve.

If too spicy, a dollop of sour cream cools down the chili and gives it a creamy flavor.

Enjoy.

Come back here, leave a comment and let me know if you enjoyed the chili!

Rainbow Chocolate Chili recipe was inspired by they Turkey and Pinto Bean Chili recipe I found on epicurious.

*rinsing and draining canned beans seriously reduces any side effects of gas. I read this in the 4 Hour Body book and it is true. I’ve been testing it on my friends and family.

The original name of the Twitter Fail Whale designed by artist YiYing Lu was Lifting a Dreamer. I find that name very appropriate after this past weekend spent with my Twitter friends @brainmaker (aka @emerald150) and @charleegee.

A few years ago, I wrote a blog post titled Twitter is magical. This past weekend was magical because of Twitter!

A few weeks ago, I received a DM (private direct message on Twitter) from my friend Suzanna (who I met thanks to Twitter) that said “Crazy short notice, but C & I fly plane to Baja March 1, & have 2 seats available. Thought of you and your C. 4 days, amazing trip. Wanna go?”

My response was “Seriously?”.

My gut response was “Hell yeah!” But my practical side knew I needed to get more info. (Typos happen on Twitter)

It all happened so fast, within 24 hours I had exchanged several emails with Suzanna and Charley, scanned a copy of our passports, arranged for a dog sitter, and scheduled the time off work. I learned we were going to have the opportunity to hug a whale!

The whole trip was very exciting. We were scheduled to depart on Thursday, March 1^st at 8am. Unfortunately, the night before a big storm came in and we were forced to postpone (almost cancel) the trip for a day. Celia and I scrambled to reschedule meetings, notify work, etc and were able to make it happen. Friday, we all arrived at Gnoss airport in Novato (a teeny tiny airport I did not even know existed in Marin County), we pulled our bags out of our car and put them in the small plan, parked our car in the hanger, climbed in the plane, a 1968 Beechcraft Bonanza  (which kind of reminded me of flying in a 1968 VW Beetle with wings) and took off.

Two and half to three hours later we landed in Mexicali, a VERY windy landing, but expert pilot @CharleeGee did an awesome job! I felt totally safe in Charley’s flying hands.

We happily visited the toilet, filed all the required paperwork, visas, etc. and then got back in the plane to head to Hotel Serenidad inMulege.

Hotel Serenidad has airplane parking! How cool is that?!

Day 2: the day we were supposed to go visit the whales got postponed due to HIGH winds. So we headed to the town of Mulege to check out the scene where we happened upon the most gorgeous bougainvillea plant EVER! It just happened to match my top.

Day 3: While drinking Margaritas on night 2 we all prayed to the wind god and goddesses to please calm the wind (at least I did). Woke up early on Day 3 to discover CALM beautiful weather. Woohoo! Whale time! We hopped on the plane and headed to Laguna San Ignacio, Baja Calif Sur, Mexico to visit the whales!

Chris and Lisa flying next to us on our way to see the whales!

Here are all the pictures you’ve been waiting for.

Six of us set off on a 2 hour tour to see the whales accompanied by Max the panga driver and whale charmer. Photo taken by our new friend Chris. Chris (pilot friend of Charley’s) and his wife Lisa were awesome traveling companions. We really enjoyed spending time with our crew of 6. I can not even begin to tell you how grateful I am to Suzanna and Charley for giving us this amazing opportunity.

Celia and Charley petting the whale. I really had no idea what to expect but I certainly did not expect the whales to come right up to the boat and say hi. What impressed me the most was how incredibly quiet, gentle and graceful these creatures are. You wouldn’t even know they were 2 inches away from you until their heads popped up out of the water. The boat didn’t even rock slightly when they swam under,  around or next to it. These are truly gentle giants.

The whales made sure to say hello to each one of us. Here is Chris saying hi to the whale. Right after I snapped this photo the whaled popped up and gave Chris a gentle kiss.

I was lucky enough to get to give the whale a quick hug.

 Mama whale showed us her baby and nudged baby to come up and say hi to us.

Chris got this photo of the whale giving Suzanna a kiss. Too bad I’m blocking the view of Suzanna.

Here’s another shot of Suzanna & the whale kissing.

Lisa loving the whale. I think the feeling was mutual, they kept coming back to her.

My favorite picture of all! Charley and Suzanna with the whale.

Thank you Suzanna & Charley for offering us such an awe inspiring experience and adventure and for lifting us dreamers in to the sky so we could land and see these beautiful, graceful creatures!

Definitely not a Fail Whale.