things that make me miss San Francisco

California dreaming as of late.......
and I mean that literally -- the other night I dreamt that I was hiking  up in the hills above the city (a somewhat fantastical version of the bay in which it was a combination of Big Sur and Oakland, but with narrow stones paths winding around glittering quartz-like pink and cream rock faces, with the green and mist swirling below, and I just stopped and walked over to the rock wall, and hugged it while I sobbed "I miss California so much!"
Yes, a very mawkish dream. However, as they say, you can take the girl out of California.....

My dream may have been inspired by a recent visit by my dear Philly raised/SF-based friend Nicole, who stopped by on her way to a North Carolina artist retreat. We swung on my porch swing and held each other and reminisced and renewed our ever-present bond, and waxed musingly on the differences between the two seaboards. I think the thing I miss most about the West, that great open chaotic expanse of a place, is the general acceptance- and sometimes exaltation- of the weird and strange. So often out here, I feel like a misfit- never wearing the appropriate types of clothes to the gym, strangely puttering over live cultures in the kitchen- but back home- Damn, I am so normal compared to some of these people! (Whatever normal is anyway).

http://www.crittersalon.blogspot.com/
http://iliveheresf.com/ 
http://www.burningman.com/
http://www.theartexplosion.com  my old art studio at 17th and Potrero)