Remember my ongoing "favourite things" list? New additions...

So I thought I'd keep an ongoing favourite things list a while back when living in Seattle to remind myself about some of life's simple random pleasures since sometimes I think a lot of the things that bother us in life tend to overwhelm all of the wonderful things we experience. It reminds me of the beginning of the film Amélie where the narrator describes each character's likes and dislikes (like Amelie's enjoyment of sticking her hand into a sack of beans!)

Anyhow, I tagged my list from before so I could easily find it again and now that I've moved into the city I thought I'd add some more of my favorite things to the old list ...

4-9-11

Writing a letter by hand to somebody and/or, more rarely, receiving a handwritten one. I know technically I already have this down as one of my favorite things under the 12-14-10 list, but I thought I'd bring it up again because today I actually wrote a letter by hand and it felt so special :) I'll describe more of this later on in the post ...

Hilly cities (like San Francisco and Seattle) where there are breathtaking views from every street corner

The historic F-line streetcar that runs from the Embarcadero/Fisherman's Wharf waterfront up to the turnaround at the end of the line in my Castro neighborhood ... and the little sidewalk park that was created after one of the streets was closed to cars for the streetcar only, so now you can sit and watch the streetcar turn around literally 3 feet in front of you :) Grab a cup of tea from Cafe Flore and a cookie from Hot Cookie and sit at the chairs/tables all afternoon. My favorite are the boxy green and orange streetcars from Milan :)

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So the reason why I brought up the mailing a letter thing again today was because I did quite a bit of mailing of personal things recently and it brought a smile to my face. I sealed envelopes, affixed little postage stamps in the corner, followed the rules governing how to write addresses, and walked to the post office to send them on their way - wishing each one the best of luck on its incredible voyage, wherever it was headed to.

With graduation coming, I decided to order just a tiny set of 5 graduation invitations to send out to family. Normally I'm not into all of these businesses trying to make money off of every little thing that has to do with education (cap/gown purchase, fee for filing for graduation ... wait, you mean I have to pay to receive my own degree on top of tuition?, etc). However, with my parents now living abroad I thought that they'd really enjoy receiving it one random day in the mail halfway across the world. Hopefully they don't read this before the invitation gets to them, but it's okay if they do. I sent invites out to all the family here in the bay as well, but my favorite one was the 98 cent postage for sending my letter internationally to Japan to my parents. I don't know why it makes me smile ... maybe because it's so cool to think about how for 98 cents my little paper envelope will travel across the world and arrive at a little specific mailbox halfway around the globe in less than a week.

Even more fun, however, today I wrote a short letter by hand to the Angel Island Association:

I've been reading a lot about other places in the Bay Area to explore by sailboat and obviously Angel Island just south of Tiburon and north of Alcatraz is no secret destination. There's a small cove called Ayala Cove that personal vessels can dock at for a fee of about $20/day, and you can bike/hike the perimeter of the island for some amazing 360-degree views of the whole bay area. More importantly, however, is how Angel Island was the "Ellis Island of the West". Tens of thousands of Asian immigrants passed through Angel Island (used as a containment and even a detention center) before they were allowed to pass (if they were allowed) to the San Francisco mainland. And even before its use as an immigration gateway, Angel Island was a strategic point for mounted cannons (known as "batteries") pointing towards the Golden Gate Bridge, guarding the bay. Along those same military lines, multiple forts and barracks were built on the island (some of which remain accessible today when you visit) since Angel Island was the point of departure for soldiers heading into the Pacific during World War II.

In any case, I look forward to visiting the island and taking the time to see all of the old buildings, immigration center, batteries, and the wildlife of the island (there are deer that swim from Tiburon Peninsula to Angel Island!). I'm also looking forward to the opportunity to dock at the island and have lunch (either a picnic brought by us, or lunch at the cove cafe on the island). I sent my letter and three dollars to the Angel Island Association for their information packet and island map :)

I could have probably just called or emailed, but there's something fun about the idea of requesting information about this island only accessible by boat in the form of a handwritten letter sent through the post, old-fashioned style. And when they write back, I'm sure I'll be even more excited that it actually worked! Hehe. Maybe I like to pretend this island is still incredibly remote and communication can only be done by the post, but let me enjoy my little imaginary world a little bit :)


PS - Remember the two grey whales I said we saw in the bay while sailing the other day? The San Francisco Chronicle newspaper had a big 8"x6" photo of that same whale in the paper two days later! Pretty amazing to just come across them by chance like that