Random acts of kindness

Yesterday Ronner and I went to the farmer's market near where I live in Berkeley. It was a sun-drenched Saturday, and we wandered from booth to booth, purchasing summer fruits like peaches, nectarines and plums. As we ambled down the street, we passed a serenely content-looking man walking in the opposite direction. He gave me a big beautiful smile, and so I grinned back. 5 minutes later, as Ronner and I were sampling Rainier cherries and making our final fruit purchase, I feel a tap on my shoulder. I spin around and see the same man holding a bouquet of colorful summer flowers. "These are for you," he explained, "for sharing your smile with me and brightening an already bright day." I accepted the gift, loving how a simple, special and gentle gesture can make me glow. Let's all remember to practice random acts of kindness!

24 hrs in NYC

So, exactly 10 years ago, I had tickets to Paul Simon's Broadway debut, The Capeman. The show created so much controversy it closed a few months after it opened. The last curtain fell about a week before my tickets to see it. I was crushed, especially because I think a couple of the songs are absolutely brilliant, incorporating the doo-wop sounds of the era and a combo of lyrics and melody that made my heart ache.
Happily, Paul is in residency this month at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the first week's theme was - yup - songs from the Capeman! I decided to see Saturday April 5th's show on Monday of that week, so by the time I had booked my plane tickets it was Wednesday April 2! I took a red-eye Friday night, arriving Saturday to a gorgeous spring day in Manhattan. I wandered from park to park, napping, snacking at the Union Square Farmer's Market, and enjoyed my time before the show.
Seeing those songs performed was as magical as I'd anticipated. I cried like 5 different times! Afterwards, I headed to Scratcher where I got to meet up with a few pals for late night drinks and conversation, before I had to head to the airport to fly home.
Many of you know how important Paul's music is to me - I grew up listening to Simon & Garfunkel and the meaning has just grown from there. I think I've seen him perform about 10 times over the years. My dad was the one who alerted me of Paul's month at BAM - many thanks, Dad!

Los Angeles

I was in LA for the weekend...I had the best time!

Hung out with my bro the first day and got to meet his co-workers. I camped out in his cube for the day (a nice cube by the way) and we rode in the golf cart around the Universal lot at lunchtime in search of Angelina (whom he got to have lunch with a few weeks ago - I KNOW!! - can you imagine what luck?!) but alas, I was not to meet Ms. Jolie. :) We spent the night at my dad's where I watched the Namesake for like the 5th time. Damn I love that movie. I love the book even more. Speaking of which, today is the day that Jhumpa Lahiri's latest book comes out.

Saturday, I attended a bachelorette party for my friend Naceem. No details to be disclosed on this blog...ask me about it...good times.

Sunday, I hung with one of my oldest friends, Marie. Brunch on the beach with her man Fernando, a looooooooooong delicious walk on the beach with ice coffees in hand, diner food at Swingers, followed by wine at her awesome new huge dinner table (I love what having a huge dinner table symbolizes: good food and drink with even better company in your home - a crowded table, good tunes, broad smiles and full stomachs).

My Temperament?

Interested in this post by Aaron from months ago, I checked out the Advisor Team website to take a little personality test. I identify with a lot of the sentiment below, what do you think?

Your Temperament is Idealist

Idealists, as a temperament, are passionately concerned with personal growth and development.
Idealists strive to discover who they are and how they can become their best possible self -- always this quest for self-knowledge and self-improvement drives their imagination. And they want to help others make the journey.
Idealists are naturally drawn to working with people, and whether in education or counseling, in social services or personnel work, in journalism or the ministry, they are gifted at helping others find their way in life, often inspiring them to grow as individuals and to fulfill their potentials.

Idealists are sure that friendly cooperation is the best way for people to achieve their goals. Conflict and confrontation upset them because they seem to put up angry barriers between people. Idealists dream of creating harmonious, even caring personal relations, and they have a unique talent for helping people get along with each other and work together for the good of all. Such interpersonal harmony might be a romantic ideal, but then Idealists are incurable romantics who prefer to focus on what might be, rather than what is. The real, practical world is only a starting place for Idealists; they believe that life is filled with possibilities waiting to be realized, rich with meanings calling out to be understood. This idea of a mystical or spiritual dimension to life, the "not visible" or the "not yet" that can only be known through intuition or by a leap of faith, is far more important to Idealists than the world of material things.

Highly ethical in their actions, Idealists hold themselves to a strict standard of personal integrity. They must be true to themselves and to others, and they can be quite hard on themselves when they are dishonest, or when they are false or insincere. More often, however, Idealists are the very soul of kindness. Particularly in their personal relationships, Idealists are without question filled with love and good will. They believe in giving of themselves to help others; they cherish a few warm, sensitive friendships; they strive for a special rapport with their children; and in marriage they wish to find a "soulmate," someone with whom they can bond emotionally and spiritually, sharing their deepest feelings and their complex inner worlds.

Idealists are rare, making up between 20 and 25 percent of the population. But their ability to inspire people with their enthusiasm and their idealism has given them influence far beyond their numbers.

2X DC

In January I visited the DC area for work. I got to hang with Amanda & Bill (Burmese food followed by cupcakes at Cakelove).

Amanda and Bill, enjoying cupcakes and each other!

In February, was back in DC and got to hang with Amanda & Bill again. Keri also took the train down from NYC and spent the day with me. (Random trivia: meeting Keri is the subject of one of my oldest posts on this blog).

Keri and I

Sunday in SF

On Sunday, TJ and I hung out with Aaron, Tim & Wendy. We hit Foreign Cinema for brunch, followed by XOX Truffles (they have VEGAN truffles, little imperfect handmade French lumps of goodness) and beer at Rogue. Aaron, Tim & Wendy went their own way and TJ and I had dinner at Millenium with Zoran before heading to a blues jam at Swig. Whatta day!

Hanging with some Redwoods

On Saturday I hung with some Redwoods.




















That made me happy.

Apologies

Folks, I know, I know. It has been a long while since the last post. Those of you that have been in contact with me know I have been going through a tough time of late. So please forgive me. I'm going to try to blog through this, but know that there may be another pause or two.

Wine Tasting

TJ, I, and my friend Leata did some wine tasting yesterday in Napa. We started the day with breakfast in the city at Kookez (in Leata's friendly neighborhood of Noe Valley), and then set off on a beautiful, crisp sunny day to taste some wine. Our first stop was foiled because Hess, our desired destination, was closed until Jan 16! Missed it by a few days. Bummer, but no matter because the little road to Hess was so windy, narrow and lovely! We saw cows, sheep and llamas.

We then went to Peju because I had ordered some Peju wine at a restaurant (in Montana, believe it or not!) about a year ago and LOVED it! Unfortunately, I did not like ANY of the wines I tasted at Peju this time. Bah! But what Peju lacked in wine, it made up in scenery.

Me!







































After a picnic at V. Sattui (I'm a sucker for their $8 mustards!), we then headed to Rombauer (the proprietor is the great nephew of Irma Rombauer, author of the famous Joy of Cooking), where I enjoyed the Chardonnay so much we bought a bottle (and I am not typically a Chardonnay gal!).

For a few more photos, check this out: http://picasaweb.google.com/annadavda/WineTastingJan2008.

I'm back!

I've posted 4 albums from my trip with some captions. I'll blog on some reflections soon, but wanted you to be able to check out my photos if you were interested!

My Grandma's Birthday Party
Mumbai 2007
Goa 2007
Singapore 2007

Enjoy!