Part 1: Love your City

The photo is framed in our foyer. Snapped innocuously enough as the two of us strolled through the Tenderloin a year ago, the photograph spoke to my soul. Since then, the image has been imprinted to the back of closed eyelids, seeping through my conscious. To me it has become the artistic representation of my two years spent in San Francisco.

I first spoke the words to Robyn in late 2011. We had recently relocated to the south end of the mission district. Bicycling the early-morning surface streets of an autumn San Francisco gave me clarity of thought not found when previously underground. And as graduate school decisions, although not imminent, looked on the horizon, I told her:

I think I'm falling in love with San Francisco.

Huh?

By love I mean a deep passion for the city and all its residents to prosper. By love I mean a desire for beautiful public spaces to emerge from curbside parking or abandoned lots. By love I mean removing the shackles of violence and slavery from our "unlovable" neighborhoods. By love I mean innovations in the building industry to reduce our energy consumption and footprint. By love I mean intentionally creating space, conversations, or opportunities for people to ask spiritual questions about God. By love I mean feeling the shared pain of the community when injustice occurs. By love I mean...

This is new for me. Never before have I loved my city, no, not like this. I had constructed hazy warm recollections- most likely not my own but instead mental recreations of stories told to me- of my early years in Santa Barbara and Pasadena. My relationship with Murrieta was like my relationship with my first car: the Ford Taurus was functional, spacious, and sometimes frustrating, but I never knew anything different. San Luis Obispo was a place of tremendous growth in my life, and certainly when the beautiful hills turned green in springtime I exclaimed "I love SLO!" more than once. But on reflection I see that was a surface love, an infatuation and fondness for a beautiful and important location. As I grew and matured, SLO seemed a location ever the same, a location unwilling to ask the same questions I held in my soul.

San Francisco is an easy place to love. We can bike and bus everywhere, instead of sitting in traffic. We have incredible community events such as Off The Grid. It is more convenient to try to live as Ordinary Extremists. All which make San Francisco a fantastic training ground to learn to love a city. Perhaps in future years Robyn and I will be called towards a geographic location less glamorous, less affluent, less... easy. Perhaps not. Either way, my soul now has a new tagline:

Love your city.


Coming soon:
Part 2: Love your Neighborhood
Part 3: Love your Campus?

Ordinary Extremist

Today I went to the local cooperative grocery store, Rainbow Grocery, to pick up some fair trade, organic, and/or local items. Recently, we discovered that toiletry items, like shampoo and soap, come with a human price tag. Workers who make these items are not paid ethical wages and the farmers who provide the ingredients are not paid a livable wage.  In an attempt to not take advantage of others, we decided to buy fair trade and organic soap and shampoo. These, sadly, can only be found at our co-op.

While riding home, I was thinking about a documentary called No Impact Man. Find it on Netflix instant if you are interested. This man lived intentionally in a way that would have limited impact on the earth for one year. To do this he bought local food, lived without electricity, and only used a bike as his only means of transportation. The journey his family went on was convicting and unimaginable. It seems very extremist.

Some people when they look our life say we are extremist. Danny rides a bike to work most days. We don't own a car. We are constantly looking for USA made clothing and household items. We are willing to pay more for things made locally. I do not have insurance by choice and instead pay into a Christian cooperative where people all over the country share each others medical bills. Danny and I care deeply about human well-being, the care of our earth, and living in counter-cultural ways.

We are motivated by Jesus' teachings to love unconditionally and with his power, right the things that are wrong in our world. It is wrong that Fresno's air quality is so poor, because of pollution from cars in the surrounding metropolises. It is wrong that farmers who labor over coffee beans are paid pennies for what we pay dollars for on a daily basis. It is wrong that children are taken from their homes and forced to mine for precious gems. So, because we love Jesus and he has given us everything, we buy local, organic, and fair trade. Oh and we ride bikes.

As I was on the bus I was thinking that my purchases put me closer to living like No Impact Man. And I smiled. To me, this is becoming ordinary. This is the way we are living. One life style choice at a time  to better love our neighbors, both near and far, and our world. Some would say we are extremist, but to me it is just ordinary.

Chasing Bubbles

There are fleeting moments of pure happiness. I experienced one this week while watching kids chase bubbles. It was the end of a long day. Our feet dragged as if there were milestones embedded within our soles. My watch seemed to be moving backwards as I longed for the twenty minutes until my charges would disseminate into the arms of their adoring parents. Six of us total marched as a gauntlet crew, toward the grass with a foreboding from trying to kill time.

The first bubble was released into the atmosphere. Shrieks and laughter filled the college campus. Passer-byers, young and old, were compeled from their inner world to grin. Squeals of delight followed the children as they lept toward each small rainbows The sound would decrescendo until a twitch of my wrist and the invisible momentum of the wind would rush through my magic wand creating a stream of emerald, ruby, and diamond orbs. Jackets were cast to the ground no longer needed because of the rare San Francisco summer sunshine streaming down and the warmth that bubbles up when distracted by play. The children would rush back to me as the tide rushes back to the shore, the twinkle in their eyes betraying pure happiness.

From the treasured sunshine to the elegant simplicity of children playing to the fleeting beauty of bubbles, the moment was complete. I was content. Why can't all of life be like chasing bubbles?

Empire State of Mind

In New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of,There's nothing you can't do, now you're in New YorkThese streets will make you feel brand newBig lights will inspire you, let's hear it for New York-Jay-Z


At the end of May we got to take a spontaneous trip to New York City to celebrate our second wedding anniversary. I received a full scholarship (flight, room, and food stipend) to attend NCORE 2012, the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in higher education, through my Gates Millenium Scholarship community. There will be a later post on my experiences at this conference. With my travel taken care of, we changed our anniversary and summer vacation plans and off we went to the Big Apple. 


We arrived on a Thursday night and Friday was jammed packed. We were staying with my best friend and maid of honor in our wedding, Catherine, for two nights. She lives on the boarder of the East  Village and Noho, so we decided to do all the downtown stuff on Friday morning. This included ground zero- just looking at the new construction- wall street, and Staten Island ferry. On our way to the ferry we found a little alley with restaurants and pubs and had to stop to get a flight of beer. 

Handsome Man

Beer Flight

On the Staten Island Ferry

The reason we took the ferry...free view!

Once in Staten Island we got hot dogs and hopped on the next ferry back to Manhattan. We took the subway up to the NYC Modern Musuem of ARt, affectionately called the MOMA. Every Frifay there is free admission, so it was packed! We did a quick two hour walk through of the six floors. Next, we headed to the Empire State Builbiding and waited in this line....

Line at Empire State Building

...For about an hour and then were told that we would have about another hour to two hour wait and there was no visibility at the top. We decided to cut our losses and come back early another day. We headed to Korean BBQ and then called it a night.

Korean BBQ

Empire State lit up for Memorial Day

 Saturday was Brooklyn day! We LOVED Brooklyn! It felt like San Francisco with the farmers market, people with canvas bags, and bikes everywhere. We ate pizza, strolled the streets, and got our discount Broadway tickets. Walking back across the Brooklyn bridge provided some amazing views and opportunities to avoid tourist on bikes. Once back in the city we went back to Ground Zero to see the memorial. It is a very humbling place to vist. That night we went to the Broadway play, The Columnist. We did not know anything about this play and were by far the youngest people in the audience, but it was a great performance and loved "taking in" a play in New York.

Manhattan Bridge

Danny and the Brooklyn Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge

The City

The Surviving Tree at Ground Zero

Ready to see The Columnist

By 8 am the next day we were at the Empire State Building and at the top in less than an hour. Best way to do it! After taking in the views we headed over to Macy's to see the wooden escalators. Then we headed back to our hotel for some down time before heading out to celebrate our second wedding anniversary. We went to a matinee of the new Broadway musical Memphis. The music was breathtaking and had lots of dancing. We both left with stars in our eyes. For dinner, we headed down to little Italy and had an amazing meal and stroll around the street fair that was taking place. It was a romantic evening with my love.

So excited there is no line!

Us at the top

View to Downtown from the top. The tallest building is the new building at the World Trade Center that is almost complete. 

Wooden escalators at Macy's, the largest store in the world!

After the Show

Where we had dinner. (Would recommend!)

Party in Little Italy

Our last day, Monday, was an all day bike ride around central park. My friend Catherine joined us and we may have converted another person to become a city bike rider! It was a great way to see the park. For lunch we headed up to the West Side, by Columbia University, to find the restaurant fasade used in Seinfeld television series. It is called Joe's Restaurant and is an excellent New York dinner experience. That evening, I started my conference and brought our adventure together to an end. Well, so we thought. We had a nice anniversary surprise when Danny's Tuesday afternoon flight was canceled. While it is never fun to have a cancelled flight, which messed up Danny's work schedule, it was nice to be able to go out for a glass of sparkling wine after my conference that night.

Catherine and Danny at Bethesda Fountain

Danny at Seinfeld Restaurant

Us with the view of the city

We are very grateful to have been able to take this trip and experience this city together. New York's lights did inspire us as Jay-Z promised, but it wasn't to live in New York. Rather, New York made us more remember the sparkling lights on the other coast. It made us long for our dreams in the city we experience and love everyday: San Francisco, our home. 

BEST day ever!

I wrote this back in October, but never posted it. As I am waiting on a job again and do not have the affirmation of my professors close at hand, it encouraged me to remember what God did in the past. I may not "feel" the joy I did the day I wrote this, but I can choose that joy today. 

Yesterday I felt undiluted joy. It has been awhile that I felt giddy like this. I actually went running down a hill to meet Danny.

The reason? A job and the public affirmation of a paper I had written. Kind of depressing when I think about it, but there are some deeper reasons why it brought so much joy.

I am growing: Personally and professionally I am changing, growing, and adapting. This is something to be joyful about after so many years of not feeling like I was developing new skills. After so many years of being bored in my undergraduate study, it feels good to be challenged. However, it was nice to to be public affirmed for the kick-ass-paper I wrote. After three years in ministry at Cal Poly it feels good to be chosen for a job in the "real" world. It has been a struggle to find a job that validates my experiences and learnings from Intervarsity. I did not do ministry to get a job, but it has been a frustrating 6 months of looking for a part-time job. My skills of public speaking and self management that InterVarsity taught me were to my advantage in this interview. I was actually compared to Bill Clinton! So, it gives me joy to see that through the sludge of growth, a couple of flowers are beginning to bud.

I have been noticed: This is not taught as a good thing, but I can't lie. It feels good. Plain and simple. My little heart is desperate for recognition and now I have received it. It is a challenge for me to not be so swayed by others opinions of me and I am working on being less dependent on others' opinions of me. However, I don't think we notice each others' accomplishments enough. Critique is long lived, but congratulations is only momentary. More affirmation needs to happen to compensate for the its transient nature. I need to take this advice myself and celebrate those around me. I need to notice the kind actions and the job well done of those around me and proclaim it.

I am excited about the vision: The reason I can write a good paper is the fact that I LOVE what I am studying. The reason I can sell myself well in an interview is because I truly believe in what they are doing. I am excited to work with people who are striving for justice in the juvenile justice system. I love going to class and talking about theories with classmates who are self reflecting and changing their own behavior.

I'm challenged: Growth is happening. People see it in me. But just because today is a good day, I also know that the next challenge, which will help me grow further, is just around the bend. I know that this job and the next paper will keep me thinking, improving, and changing professionally and personally.

The joy comes from the fact that I am where I am suppose to be, even when it's hard.

Off the Grid

Photo Credit: Danny Hall

Back in the early spring we went with some friends to Off the Grid, which is an event when the food trucks of San Francisco gather in one place to delight the peoples' sense of taste. There are Indian, Mexican, American, Korean food trucks that gather in a specific location on specific nights or afternoons during the week. We went to the one at  Fort Mason. What we saw when we got there was incredible. Rather than just six trucks that we had seen at a previous experience in a different neighborhood, an entire parking lot was surrounded by glorious food trucks offering tantalizing snacks like sushi, chili fries, and cupcakes.

Curry Up Now Truck, Photo Credit: Dany Hall

We strolled around until each of the six of us had decided where we wanted to eat. Danny and I chose the Curry Up Now truck. Indian curries that make your nose and eyes run in a portable wrap? Yes please! Danny chose a vegetarian naan that wasn't as portable, but just as tasty. We grabbed some Mexican Coke and parked our behinds to listen to the entertainment: a reggae, Latin, rap group whose free style included "San Francisco" at least 40 times. For dessert we split a miniature nutella and strawberry creme brule. AMAZING!

Photo Credit: Danny Hall

This event is one of the many reasons we love SF. People were out, exploring new foods, new sounds, and enjoying community.

Commute by Bike - Getting Started

Interested in becoming a fully-fledged bicycle commuter? You're in luck! In honor of today's bike to work day in San Francisco, I thought I would put together a short list of my advice for a bike commuter newbie.

Using a bike as your primary means of transportation to work can be an overwhelming experience. Most people are not even sure where to start. My suggestions?

Step 1 - Reflect. Why do you want to ride your bike to work (or school, or downtown)? Is it finding the time for exercise during your busy schedule? Are you trying to lower your carbon footprint? Do you enjoy being outside in the fresh air instead of inside a traffic-lodged car? Are you trying to save money on gas and parking? Are you planning on transitioning to a car-free lifestyle? There are plenty of fantastic reasons to spin those pedals. If you understand your conviction for two-wheelin' it, you will be more likely to push through during the "learning curve."

Also understand there will be sacrifices, like leaving earlier in the morning, or showing up a bit sweaty to work. Can you live with that?

Step 2 - Research. Imagine you just moved to a new city and have no idea how to maneuver the new freeways and main roads. This is exactly what it is like when you start riding a bike in your city for the first time. You need to discover the main "biking" roads. Start with your city's local bicycle coalition. They will often be a great resource for local routes and will often offer a downloadable map. Also use the bike tool on  Google Maps to look for local bike routes and give you estimated trip duration. It is surprisingly accurate. At the beginning, my ride to the office took exactly the 35 minutes predicted.

Step 3 - Buy. For me, the biggest obstacle to a bike purchase was sticker shock. No, you cannot get a good new bike for $200. Don't even try. For a new bike, you should expect to spend $500 minimum, and a high quality commuter bike will be from $1000 to $1500. No department store bikes from Walmart or Target! My bike was $1000 dollars, but in the last year I have ridden it over 1,000 miles. Let's say my bike lasts only 5 years (I expect it to last at least 10) and I ride it only 5000 miles. Average cost per mile? 20 cents. Average cost per mile to drive a car? 59.6 cents. So realistically, that $1000 price tag is a fraction of what you are paying to drive.

I suggest visiting at least 3 bike shops. Bike shops have agreements with different manufacturers, or brands, of bikes, so you will find new options at each shop. There are lots of different types of bikes depending on what you are looking for (touring bikes, cyclo-cross, road bikes, mountain bikes, folding bikes, single-speed). Do you have a lot of hills? Do you prefer speed or comfort? My suggestion is to look for a steel frame. Although a bit heavier, steel will be most comfortable for longer rides and sturdier when carrying heavier loads. If you can afford it, an internally geared rear hub is amazing for city riding. Be specific on what your needs are, and most bike shops should be able to offer a couple options that will be a great fit for you!

Step 4 - Accessorize. Fenders are a must to keep you dry and clean. I highly recommend a rear rack and pannier set (I have this one) for storing a change of clothes. Although some prefer a messenger bag, I like the panniers because it keeps the weight (and sweat) off my back. Get some rechargeable bike lights for night riding, a sturdy U-lock, and a nice helmet.

You should invest in some warm bike gloves, and a windproof jacket does wonders for me in San Francisco. Once you become more comfortable, I would highly recommend a pair of hybrid shoes for clip-in pedals. I have these.

And if you are especially trendy, shops like PushBike offer fashionable, bike-friendly attire.

Step 5 - Ride. Expect it to be an adjustment at first. Be patient. Don't give up. And eventually the warm sunshine, the cool breeze, and the joy of life on a bike will win you over!

I'll see you on the streets...