The Bay

Hello and greetings, friends. Hope this finds you warm and cozy, or at least more so than here in snowy Nevada City where, against all odds, a woman just walked into my coffee shop in shorts. Strange. As I have been waiting here, pondering a blog post and some chicken salad on toast I started thinking about a sweet girl I know who came to visit for the last few days and who I drove back to SFO for a late night flight back to Seattle. It's funny how driving long distances in darkened hours tends to let the mind wander. I noticed how I tend to play different music depending on whether I drive in the day or night and that music affects me differently. Ah yes, basic observations of human emotion I make!

Anyways, as I was about to call this girl and tell her about how much I was going to miss her, I reached up to flip up the passenger side visor that she continually flipped down (annoying because it always messes up the rear view mirror). By flipping up the visor I of course knocked the mirror out of place so I was looking back at my own reflection. When I reached up to adjust the sight line to something more useful, the entire mirror fell off my windshield and there I was driving through Berkeley with hindsight held in my right hand. I am not sure what this all means, but I felt it was quite poignant considering the context of my trip to the Bay. The first verse of my favorite Mumford and Sons song kept running through my head:

As the winter winds litter London with lonely hearts

Oh the warmth in your eyes swept me into your arms
Was it love or fear of the cold that led us through the night?
For every kiss your beauty trumped my doubt

When I got back to Nevada County it was snowing and I made my way back to my bed through a flurry of heavy flakes. This morning I awoke to a sunny world covered in a fresh white snow. If only the cold would bring a certain someone back into my arms...

Peoplated Dials

So, apologies for the absence. It has been a few days since I last updated ye olde blog and much has happened. For one, I have vowed to write more interesting and important things. Three cheers for relevance! Alright, so that being the case, I have a new band (well, I suppose they're not all that new - in fact, you all have probably heard of them already, but still...). None other than London's own Mumford and Sons. They made their network television debut on Letterman last week (can be seen here) and then hopped over to the west coast for Craig Ferguson (visible here). If the case may be that you haven't heard of them yet, watch and learn, watch and learn and love. Anyways, it's a rainy day here in Nevada City and I have some glasses to choose and a lovely girl to find. Hope the day is lovely where you are and you enjoy the sweet tunes.

Oh Mercy Me

Tonight, as the Black Eyed Peas once said, is going to be a good night. (The royal) We are celebrating the birthday of a good friend at Cooper's in Nevada City where Burning Man's own Camp Wannaburn will be in attendance and, if all goes according to plan, golden. The festivities, however, will be undertaken with an asterisk because in the back of my mind I will have the knowledge of a 7AM wake up call in my ever-drawing-closer future. Alas, all such fun is had at the expense of some setbacks and sacrifices to one's personal comfort.

The reason for the 7AM wakeup? Bells! I hear the bells, not in the Mike Doughty sense (although that too). In my leisure time I have chosen (or rather was implored) to play with the Grass Valley Methodist Church's own Wesley Ringers - a handbell choir directed by my mom's good friend. Therefore, tomorrow morning at 8AM I am going to be ringing in praise to the Lord (I think). Should be fun. Either way, the early birds shall be rewarded by (semi) sweet tunes. Let's hope I have the constitution and poise to ring in quietness and confidence...

Flavors!

Hey all,

Just spent the last couple hours plugging away at the code for a new digital toy I have found (well, actually, recommended to me by my good friend Mr. Bonbonelan). Check it out and, if you feel like burning a few hours making yet another possibly useless internet footprint, make yourself a flavor!

-Max

Gravity

This is going to be a short one...

A few things (in list form, for you-know-who-you-are):

1) Day at work, etc. Nothing special except for a text from a friend who would like me to do some photography for promotional material for her dance show. Meeting tomorrow. Very exciting to finally do some quazi-professional photographing. Should be good stuff.

2) Tomorrow marks the one week countdown until a certain special somebody hops on a jet plane and makes the trek down south for a few days away from the gloom of Seattle in the gloom of Grass Valley/Nevada City.

3) Purchased a copy of Dune for $3 and plan on finally reading it so I can figure out what the hell everybody is talking about (mainly my good friend @bonbonelan for all of you Tweeples)

4) Snow Patrol is such a legitimate band whose first few albums really notched them highly in my nostalgic all-time list. If you haven't heard albums 1-3 do check them out (and don't pay too much mind to anything after Final Straw).

Happy trails~

Observations on a Monday Afternoon: What Surrounds You?

Greetings all on a day I have to think is reserved for pacific coasts. I feel like I should be in Santa Cruz with the wispy clouds carrying across the sky, propelled by chilly breezes to accentuate the sun, bold and warm up above. A halo of evergreens encapsulates the parking lot filled with cars washed clean by weeks of rain. Some few bare trees climb up from concrete planters garnished with pansies - gold, blue, purple, maroon, white - that have all seen better days. Next to the cafe door stands an ash tray where cigarette butts stand in front of their reflection, brown against the white of the "no smoking" sign. Next to the ash tray, a planter box where a week before two parents neglected to notice their children tearing apart the daisies. Birds - small black indistinct ones that probably have a name no one seems to know - they provide a soundtrack drowning out conversations from neighboring patio tables. These conversations undertaken by people who seem unwilling to look each other in the eye, distracted by cell phones and coffee cups and glances into the blinding reflection of the sun off cars in the parking lot.

Here is an ebb and a flow of humanity as those passing by cross paths with those just lingering. Mothers who drag their children en route to the CVS are forced to negotiate a herd of cafe patrons, gently strolling in front of the store either chatting on cell phones or sipping some beverage out of a monotonous ceramic mug. The passersby seem not to notice as one or two casual newspaper readers glance up with an intrigued look in their eyes. They are bearing witness to the human experience - perhaps one they have had themselves or, if not, one that they can easily formulate and play in their minds. "This is parenthood" they tell themselves. And for me, it could be what is to come. Or, it could be a warning, a point for consideration. Anything, I suppose, can happen when observing the human condition on a sunny winter day.

Softly, Slowly on a Sunday

It was a gentle morning in cloudy Grass Valley, CA and I woke to a potato scramble on the stove and the Cavs on the tele. Oh, the perks of living with one's parents! Unfortunately, the Cavs lost, but the scramble was good. I'll cut my losses. Today is a working day at the Flour Garden Bakery where the early afternoon has been steady but not overwhelmingly busy. I made the executive decision to put on my iPod instead of submitting to the powers of satellite radio - a solid decision. Iron and Wine is on loop and it seems to have brought with it a sense of subtle tranquility no doubt aided by the muted light radiating through the heavy clouds. Some slight sprinkles in the morning have given way to some gorgeous, fluffy cumulus clouds that hint at blue sky and sunshine behind. Perhaps a good day to be bustling around a cafe...

As I am munching a snack of chicken salad sandwich, cream of asparagus soup and an iced americano (something I would definitely recommend to a coffee fan interested in diversifying the palate), I am thinking about the amount of plastic I use every day - especially those that I am at work. The sandwich was shipped from out bakery location to the store in a plastic storage container to minimize soggyness, the soup was earlier packed in a plastic container to freeze and the drink I made in a plastic to-go container. If this is just one meal had by one customer, consider multiplying that by 300 (representing how many customers order coffee/food to-go each day at Flour Garden). The numbers are staggering. I feel like as a culture we are letting our guard down against unnecessary waste in the guise of convenience. It really wouldn't be that much harder for us to serve sandwiches on reusable plates and only offer up packages for customers to take things on the road. Alas, I am just one voice in the stream of a culture of convenience. New goal: one time each day I will opt against using a plastic container, or a bag to go. If 10 of us made this goal, that is 70 containers every week that we would save. Think about it and ask your friends to do the same perhaps. Maybe it really is the small things that make all the difference...