Holiday Cheer and Challenges: A San Francisco Trip Recap

What a great time I had with my daughter in San Francisco over the holidays! She has lived there for over 3 years, but this time she wanted to do touristy stuff like go to Pier 39 and Ghirardelli Square. All of SF sparkled with Christmas cheer. We had a reasonably nice hotel accommodation (not the Mark Hopkins, but oh well) right around the corner from her apartment, which was very convenient! No problems at the airports, except of all unlikely possibilities we couldn't land in San Diego right away on the way back because the weather was too bad! :D

Christmas morning we brunched on spinach frittatas and garlic potatoes and shared a whole liter of Mimosas made with freshly-squeezed blood oranges. What joy! Later, of course, I paid the piper for all that pulp!

Along with thousands of others, we took in the exhibition of Post-Impressionist paintings at the de Young museum (from the Musée d'Orsay in Paris) - the only North American stop for this tour. I had never seen a Van Gogh "Starry Night" up close - this was a revelation to me that no two-dimensional print could ever convey. Too close and the madness is apparent, but back away and the result is absolutely sublime. The same for his "Bedroom at Arles" - I felt the painting pull me into the room. There were Monets, Cézannes, Gauguins, Seurats, and a whole bunch of other Neo-Impressionists I hadn't heard of, but I loved it all.

We took a tour of the Palace Hotel, which would be a fabulous place to stay if one could afford hundreds of dollars a night. We had a wonderful lunch included.

All this pleasure after a holiday season that had started with terrible depression and that awful feeling of being in the abyss with no way out! I may never be able to enjoy Thanksgiving again as that is when my ex decided to spring it on me and our children that he got remarried that 4-day weekend (after the fact). Only 2 months after our divorce was final! Fast worker, that boy.

Coming home has been hard, especially knowing I have that ONE class to finish my master's - that ONE horrible data analysis class - and the awful question - can I do it? And after that...will I be able to find part-time work that won't crush me and make me ill again...and where will I live? So much to think about, but at least I feel refreshed enough to at least begin tackling it all now! :) PS - thanks for listening, my ostomates!

Sounds like you have had a lovely time with your daughter. Good for you doing your masters, I take my hat off to you. Hope all goes well xxxxxx

Hi Pinky, just joined the site and loved your interesting post.