De-Stress

Over the past week or so, I've come to realize that I am a very stressful person.  I like to hold onto things and obsess and generally drive myself a little crazy.  So this past week I decided to start making some positive changes to lessen my stress, such as doing deep breathing exercises, journaling daily, and just trying to maintain a more upbeat mood.

Today, I decided to try something a little different and came across this wonderful video.  Even if you're not into meditation (I certainly haven't ever been), I think you'll find this to be very helpful.  My entire body felt lighter and looser after just this eight minutes.

Back to Haight

When wondering what I was going to do with my afternoon, I realized that I hadn't been to Haight Street in a while.  So I took a walk in the sun, enjoying the always eclectic crowd as I headed to Mendel's Craft Store. I was completely surprised to find it jam packed with other college students, all buying some finishing touches for their Halloween costumes.

Now I know for sure that I'm not embarrassed to buy knitting supplies in front of other people my age!

 I managed to limit myself to only these two skeins of Lion's Pride Wool Ease Yarn, and I have big plans for them!  I bought this highly suggested Vogue Stichionary a couple of weeks ago, and I plan on going through it and knitting little squares of each and every stitch in the book.  I'm hoping that after I've finished going through the book, I can crochet the squares together in a sort of variation of the granny-square blanket.

I finished up my jont among the hippies and excited college students with a Chicken Pesto Panini at the little shop called Panini.  My friends and I discovered this place our freshman year and it was great to finally satisfy a serious craving.

My plans for this Halloween weekend?  Keeping happy and keeping busy - more specifically on a lit essay for next week.  Anyone doing anything more exciting?

Wall Wednesday: For Giants Fans

It's really starting to feel like fall here in San Francisco.  We had our first few rainy days of the season, it's starting to cool down, the Giants are in the World Series... That's right, I'm actually watching now as I write this post!  In that spirit, I wanted to add some decorations to my room that reflected the season and what I love about it most: post-season baseball.

The first thing I added was a little Giants garland out of string and construction paper.  It was super easy (I did it while watching one of the NLCS games) and I love the way it adds a touch of black and orange without dominating the wall or making the room feel darker.

On my closet, I'm collecting pictures from the SF Chronicle of my favorite players and moments.  I'm sure it will only get bigger as the World Series plays out!

Finally, I completed my Giants scarf!  I started knitting it during the last week or so of the regular season while I watched the games, and just finished it during Game 6 of the NLCS.  And, because I'm a superstitious fan, I've been wearing it as much as possible.  Who knew that the free pattern that came with the yarn would be so cute?

Well, off to keep watching the game.  The Giants are already up 4 - 0!

Dew Tour San Francisco

After a cold and rainy Friday, today was an absolutely beautiful San Francisco Saturday.  But before I get into that, I want to talk about something that I don't particularly like to: feelings.

I've been feeling a little, well, off lately.  I'm having a hard time articulating what I'm feeling, but all I know is something's not quite the same with me.  Maybe I'm feeling a bit lame for not going abroad like all my friends this year, maybe I'm actually lonely without knowing it, maybe I'm just feeling a little pathetic that I never get around to doing as much as I would like to.  Whatever the reason, this morning was a hard one, even after talking with one of my best friends from Paris.  Luckily, my ever-patient mother was able to talk some sense into me after a long phone call.

She reminded me that while sitting around and moping is bad, getting out there and doing something is good.  It's always worked for me before, whether it was just going to the store for a quick errand or spending the day out and about.

So in this spirit, I headed to Civic Center Plaza to check out the 2012 Dew Tour.  For those of you who don't know what this is, well, the best way I can explain it is that it's a low-key extreme sports competition.  There's skateboarding, BMX, concerts, and lots of products and companies to check out.  I'd always managed to catch it on TV before, but decided to take the opportunity of actually being in the same city to go see it in person.  Unfortunately, I missed the skateboarding for the day (darn), but I got to catch the end of the BMX competition.

The free viewing definitely could have been set up better, but it was still pretty cool to get so close to the action.  And best of all, it cured my blues for the day.

For those of you living in or visiting San Fran, I would highly suggest checking the Dew Tour out.  Tomorrow's the last day!