Moving Home

On trips, everything seems so special and exciting. Taking a trip to my old hometown mixed that excitement with nostalgia and now I am itching to move back. The trip was for an interview, so moving back was already on my radar, but oh! The tiny dumpsters, the tiny libraries, and the friendly strangers were all wonderful. I had a nice time being a tourist in Oakland, it was just so vibrant.

 I was trying to sketch this tower at Ghirardelli Square so I took this photo to help me frame it. I felt like the height of the streetlamp was really interesting but ultimately didn't finish the sketch.

I am familiar with the idea that graffiti is undesirable, but I feel the hypergraphic urge when I am in overly sterile environments.., seeing evidence that other people feel the same way makes me feel at ease. My high school had a "graffiti table" where we could write our feelings, to keep the school building cleaner, and then someone put swastikas on it and we got to have a school wide meeting about that. And everyone cried. I don't tag things but I do install microsculptures and of course there's the car.  

This is a parking meter. I am charmed that I will have a couple of 35 cent purchases on my bank statement. 

The lifeguard interview went badly-- HR didn't tell anyone to meet me for it so I had to wait around, which is a really bad sign, the practical portion was perfect until I was supposed to perform CPR and couldn't remember how--but I will keep looking because I feel so strongly drawn back to Oakland.