Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Strolling

Cup o' Joe #2 is starting to work its magic.

I feel life stirring in my body.

One eye open, fingers *mostly* hitting the right keys.

Perhaps, the effort of moving my body parts - albeit reluctantly - may yet result in a blog post.

Maybe.

Oh, there will be words here...

Maybe even pictures...

But I make no guarantee that any of it will be comprehensible (the typing of this word ALONE is an achievement this morning...along with 'achievement'...frig, I'm sticking to fewer syllable words...bigger ones hurt. But, not surprisingly, it's easy and fun to make a bunch of little periods "......").

I'm tired and a lot run down.

Saturday's fundraiser for the cheer squad was a hit, raising over $800 and inching us that much closer to the big competition in March. Of course, when you offer home-crafted beer and BBQ...people are often willing to throw money at you. I'm very thankful for their generosity and I had OODLES of fun chatting with everyone.

But it was a lot of work and I'm exhausted. Plus, I may have had a wee bit too much wine that night - after the beer. Let's not dwell...moving on...

So...Sunday came and went at a snails pace...meaning, I moved at such a glacial pace that rocks envied my slackitude.

Then came Monday and coffee with a friend.

Which turned into a several mile stroll around my town, San Jose.

Which resulted in me being a hot, sweaty mess.

And I never got a much needed nap, since I wasn't feeling to spiffy.

I pushed through it and didn't cancel on my friend despite wanting to crawl back into bed and not emerge until December (which happens to be my birthday month...just sayin'...).

YAY for not being a flaky/whiny/canceler, because I had a lovely afternoon venturing down streets I had not seen in eons.

San Jose has been a city for 234 years, which means that if you truly look as you wander you'll see traces of its past.

I had my camera, but was too busy walking and chatting to take many pictures. I will need to go back and just snap a shot of everything that suits my fancy. But, here is what I caught during yesterday's trip:
This theater opened in 1927. I didn't get to see the inside this trip, but I will make sure to do that some day very soon. My photographic skills didn't capture the elegance of this place...if you live here, go see it. And, if you see a woman standing outside just stroking the building and muttering how beautiful it is, just ignore me...I mean her.

The ticket book of a former theater with a...um, lurid history, is stunning. It's got that 20's/30's art deco vibe who's beauty struggled to show through an unbelievable amount of grime. Look at the etched class...how can such a structure be empty and abandoned??

Sigh...I hope some day that someone sees what I see in you, Dear Ticket Booth, and gives you the TLC you deserve.

I'm a sucker for old brick buildings, especially one sporting remnants of long ago merchants advertising their trade. It was covered with vines, so I don't know what it says...don't care...I just love it. And the casement windows and the wooden whatchacallit at the top (what do you call that decorative piece at the top?). It's like a tiara, so that is what I'm going to name it.

This is a gallery that I'll be visiting very, very soon...

...because I want to see this...

Murals are not uncommon in San Jose, but how wonderful it would be if MORE of our drab buildings were brought to life with art. As much as I enjoyed strolling the streets, it was disheartening to see all the 'For Lease' signs, empty structures and dirty, vacant windows. Whatever you do, Oh Governing Bodies of San Jose, make it your mission to get merchants in these storefronts and bring some vibrancy back to town. The walk-ability of our streets just scream "COME STROLL, EAT AND SPEND YOUR DINERO".

On the last leg of our journey, heading back to lovely Naglee Park, we startled this grazing critter.


His head bobbles - OMG he's so cute! It was all I could do not to scoop him up and take him home with me. Well...he was also very big and heavy, I was walking and he wouldn't fit into my purse...so yeah...he got to stay.

And then...there was Ginger.

The sweetest, drooly-est, most adorable kitteh...EVAH! She's the neighborhood greeter, purring before your fingers even reach her ears for the first scritchy-scratch.

Then I came to the end of my visit.

Next there were kids and errands and dinner and more errands and then...finally...book sorting.

This...

Became this...


I didn't get a final picture of ALL the books stacked up, but it was well over 500. All of which are now sorted by author last name and have been loaded into bags & boxes to be transported to the farmers market on Saturday in the hopes of magically becoming enough money to transport the cheer squad to the big competition in Anaheim. We are SOOO close to affording the bus. Next task...the hotel! Ugh...

BUY A BOOK, SEND A CHEERLEADER TO DISNEYLAND!

My demanding social calendar dictates that I finish up, hit the showers and meet a friend for coffee. My life is tough...for that I'm thankful! ;-)

Peace.

2 comments:

  1. Wowzers. That's a busy weekend! Thanks for sharing the pics. It makes me wonder if there are marathon routes through San Jose. It would give me an excuse to get my family on a plane :)

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  2. WOW! Wish I could have been at that sale. Did you make enough? Hope so.

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