Normally, watching three 1-California buses drive past would be a bit comically upsetting. With a cod filet in my purse (I sure hope that bag credit goes toward saving sea life), watching these sardine-packed (done with the fish jokes) munis pass by, just about gutted me (oops).

The truth is, that would not be the first time in the last 24 hours that muni has given me a run for my $2.25. The last seat on the bus yesterday was next to a lady who had lined the seat-back facing us with her bags of bok choy. Guarding each side of bags was a socked foot – her shoes I hoped to assume we’re under the seat in front of us. Nowhere for my thigh to go except right against hers, she continued to mumble under her breath, nudging me, her unrequited comrade. By the time I had reached my stop, I was laughing too and gave a little wave in her direction as she reclaimed her bench.

A duality in check: you can swim upstream, against the current, creating a lot more work for yourself or choose to enjoy the ride, catch a lift, and laugh a little at the eccentricities and encounters along the way. Just keep swimming, friends.

Dubbed Weird Wednesdays by those I work/commute/live with, today has lived up to its name. I got high-fived on the stairs on my way down to BART by a man whose non-high-fiving hand was holding his bike over his shoulder. Sir, if anything, you deserve the high-five this morning.

A man’s prescription glasses that looked more like chemistry lab goggles fell out of his bag as he moved seats and I retrieved and returned them. A lady was singing The First Noel 1 month too late or 11 too early. I got trapped in a labyrinth of BART exits and came up the stairs (sans high-five this time) to the furthest exit from desired coffee shop. As I stomped in the opposite direction with an audible sigh, glasses man said, “thanks again for the glasses” and I checked myself, before I wrecked myself. And we’re back.

Pass it along, friends. It comes around again. Have a wonderfully weird Wednesday.

and the witty donut award of the day goes to…

Have you ever noticed that, without really meaning to, you get a little tidbit, a phrase, a face expression that you really needed? As if by some magical force – you were meant to be right where you are, having that exact conversation, seeing just the sight that you needed? This has happened to me a lot lately and I can confidently say, I’m not mad about it.

As the song goes, breaking up is hard to do. That Neil goes on to say kama kama dowm doobie do dowm dowm and I’m still figuring that part out but the man has a point.

In all of the doubting and second-guessing that comes with feeling confident in a huge, life-changing decision, I have found a bit of solace in tiny affirmations. They have come unknowingly from the people I’ve had even the briefest most casual encounters with. A friend of a friend who shares his pain in moving out from his shared apartment with his ex. My friend who lovingly looks at his niece and says “she stole my heart the day she was born” and refuses to turn up the 90s hip hop music until she’s finished her rounds of hugs and closed the door. It’s sharing a real from-the-belly, side-stitching laugh with girlfriends.

Then, to the point of tears, hand pressed against a wall, gasping for air in between another fit of laughter, you may realize that everything you’ve ever needed is already within you.

It’s 57 degrees on a Sunday in San Francisco. I’m sitting next to the Divisadero Farmer’s Market where I got my 11:30am pick of navel oranges, organic strawberries, and a delicately packed bag of spinach. I stood in a nearly out-the-door line for a $3 coffee when I complain about my new $3+ commute one-way to the Bay Area’s Brooklyn: Oakland. I’m sitting surrounded by hipsters who have ordered a thick slab Einkorn toast topped with house-made chocolate-hazelnut spread. I won’t tell them that I recreated this experience at home this morning – it just took me 4 hours in the kitchen last night waiting for the different rounds of rising. My bread being pretty soft and fluffy (a-thank you) got stuck in the toaster producing not one thick slab of toast this morning but about 5 pieces. For the win…

The couple next to me gently asks “are you connected to wi-fi?” and I mean this when I say I first typed this up using…wait for it…textedit. So no internet but I like it that way because I can stay moderately focu…another cute dog! The woman of the couple disappears into an oh-so-trendy boutique shop and comes back out with a lightly used-looking deck of new-vintage cards that probably cost $45.

Woman: “I was thinking of putting these on the desk in the showcase room.”
Man: “Why does it look used?”
Woman: “I didn’t want it to look like I bought a new set of cards. I actually wanted it to look more used.”

First-world-problems-of-people-who-live-in-places-with-showrooms.

It’s a gorgeous day and I’m taking a break from chores domestic and obligatory to enjoy sitting in a parklet smack-dab in the middle of the city. Happy Sunday to you all (and an extra special Happy Birthday to the most wonderful woman I know, my mom).

Let’s get this party started. The brain can only process 7 things at a time, so I hear. So New Year’s resolution 7…thousand and twenty four is to start my long-dreamt about blog. In true Carrie-style from Sex and the City, “I couldn’t help but wonder…” what it would it would be like, who would want to read, how incredibly good it would feel, to write down my “oh!” moments.

As a graphic designer: “Oh, that would look better in provincial blue.”
As a yoga teacher: “Oh, that savasana song is definitely playing mid-sequence.”
As a city dweller: “Oh, that man talking to himself in the head-to-toe leopard print suit is accusing a man on the phone for talking to himself.”
…and as a lover of the little things in life: “Oh, aren’t the Bon Maman sample pack jars just the cutest things in world?!” <— the answer, of course, is yes.

“Oh!” seems to encapsulate it all.

I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it. Hopefully I bring a little bit levity and laughter to those times when, oh, that just happened.