Appearances Count (for $) --- Day 6/345

Walk: PT, Pet Food Express, PGCC for bridge
Distance: 1 mile, PT

So the other day when Ciwt's knee doctor set her free, she felt like doing something to celebrate.  Plus she felt she was looking pretty wan after months of house arrest.  So she walked into the La Prairie counter at Neiman Marcus.  She knew it was an expensive line, but thought "It can't be that bad."  Wrong.  Without asking prices she bought one lipstick, one blusher and a tinted moisturizer.  Three items, total after taxes $218!!!

How can they get away with those prices, Ciwt wondered.  When she got home and opened her three
items, she got it.  Packaging.  Her lipstick ($55!) came in a shiny silver origami box with a drawstring felt pouch.  Not to be outdone, the blusher ($70) came in a silver and gold compact, lying in a special round zipper case all housed in a larger shiny silver origami box.  Basically Ciwt had bought some of tne cosmetics industries' most elaborate packaging - and Yippee for her excellent surgeon and knee healing progress.

Eras Big and Small --- Day /344

Walk:  Union Square, SFMOMA, Pet Stores
Distance:  2 miles and many Up/Down stairs

So Ciwt's knee doctor bid her a fond farewell today.  She's doing "amazingly well," and the rest of the healing is up to time (one year+/-) and her own home PT.  End of an era of sorts; feels kind of sad or something.

Then there is the beginning of a new cat era around Ciwt's home.  Today, after a quick cruise through the Rauschenberg show at SFMOMA and Walker Evans before it comes down, Ciwt did lengthly cruises through pet stores.  Buying and dragging up her stairs hundreds of dollars of food her cats will probably dismiss, cute beds they will walk past, and scratching posts they will likely (Damn!!) totally ignore.

Some eras aremore personal than others.

First Evening ---- DAY 6/343

Walk:  Presidio, PT, Milo Foundation
Distance: 3.5 miles, PT

Just home with TWO NEW CATS.  Back to you tomorrow. 

Not Your Average Heroine --- Day 6/342

Walk:Cinema Club (A Fantastic Woman)
Distance: 2.2 miles  PT

Actor Francisco Reyes, Actress Daniela Vega, Film Director and Screenwriter Sebastian Lelio

The New Yorker reviewer seemed to want another movie, but Ciwt was pleased with A Fantastic Woman the way it is.  Particularly the truly fantastic acting by its magnetic star, Daniela Vega.  Oscar liked the Chilean movie too and nominated it as one of the finalists for Best Foreign Language Picture.  So, if you like excellent foreign movies and Oscar contenders, Ciwt says go to it and Lebanon's contender, The Insult.

36 Years is A Long Time to Wait --- Day 6/341

Walk: Hood and Beyond, SPCA
Distance: 3 miles, PT, Posture Stretches

One Star Jasmine Tendril Begins to Climb 

So, thrity-six years ago, even before Ciwt got her first Apple IIe with floppy discs, she made her first attempt at landscaping her deck.  To create a privacy screen at the end of the deck (and for the lovely smell) she chose a Star Jasmine vine.  Every few weeks she'd come out to monitor the vine's growth. And, indeed, it had grown - Sideways.  Then more sideways and sideways again.

Finally, when she had her IIe and her surfing career began, she looked up Jasmine and found that 

more than 200 types of jasmine exist with many different characteristics. many are climbing vines and others are short, spreading vines great for ground cover.

Happily Ciwt knew one of the gardeners at the park down the block and he transplanted her spreading jasmine beside one of the tennis courts. Ciwt has always enjoyed visiting her burgeoning vine, and today she looked at the fence and noticed that one of the tendrils has actually started to climb  - after 36 years! 

Better to Hear You With? --- Day 6/340

Walk: de Young (Teotihuacan Exhibit), Clay Theater (The Insult), SPCASF
Distance: 2 miles, PT, Yoga

Standing Figure with ear flares, Teotichuacan, Mexico, 200-205, greenstone, pyrite and shell

Ciwt never knows what to think when she looks at ancient art. She's only minimally educated in the ancient and many ethnic disciplines and much of the signage for these exhibitions states something along the lines of the art and artifacts being so old even scholars can only surmise what they are.  Such was the case today when she went to the exhibit of recently discovered artifacts at Teotihuacan, one of the earliest, largest and most important cities in the ancient Americas.  It's now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most visited of all archaeologica sites.

Very often she encounters jewelry in these exhititions.  Huge, heavy pieces, like the ear flares above, and ends up walking out thinking something smart like: Wow, they didn't mess around with their jewelry.  How did they ever wear it?

Destination ? --- Day 6/339

Walk: PT
Distance: 2.5 miles, PT

Ciwt is still midair in her recent transition to she doesn't know what.

Long Day --- Day 6/338

Walk: No, Rain
Distance: 0 basically 

Long morning doing phone meetings, long lunch, long bridge at club.  Now home, Ciwt is longing for solitude.