Stop and Smell the Roses

This week I have nothing in particular to write about. The past 10 days have been kind of busy, kind of hectic, and a little bit stressful. Joe had a very intense week at work, and he continues to work long hours. Last weekend, my in-laws came over to San Francisco for a visit that turned into a family vacation. It’s always nice to have family around, but we all know the stressors that come with it. While they vacationed, our lives in San Francisco continued to happen around us. Joe still had to work, and I still have to take care of my projects, the apartment and Bomber. On top of that, yesterday we hosted a party for the summer class at Joe’s firm. The preparation was quite time-consuming. I don’t know if we’ll be throwing parties for work again.

 

Life, today, is back to normal. My day has gone slowly, but not as slowly as I would have wanted. It’s funny because, in some ways, I want the day to be over so Joe can come home to nothing else to do but hang out with the dog and me.

I’m so ready for a relaxing evening that, at 2:00 p.m., dinner is made and sitting on the stove!

But, of course, not all was running around and being busy over the past few days. In fact, one of the best things about the past few days is that summer seems to have finally arrived to San Francisco! Yes, it’s sandals weather and time to wear sunscreen.

 

Starting last Friday, every day has been sunny from the moment the sun rose. No fog for us lately, which is wonderful! Sunny days bring such a positive vibe into my life. When the sun is shining, the park is crowded with people having fun, everybody seems to be happier, the dog enjoys his walks a lot more, and I feel in love with the warmth on my face and the kisses the rays leave on my skin.

Over the weekend, we went to wine country with my in-laws. Because there were 6 of us, we couldn’t drive our own car there, so they booked a private tour to take us to Napa and Sonoma. Joe, his sister and I had already been there. This was the first time for Joe’s parents and for my sister-in-law’s boyfriend. In fact, this was her boyfriend’s first time ever to the West Coast!

The boyfriend brings me to another positive aspect of the past few days.

We had never met this young man before so there was a lot of expectations and a lot of curiosity about what he would be like. We weren’t worried. My sister in law has a history of only dating nice guys and, this time, it was not any different. Her boyfriend was quite charming, good-natured and very easy going. We liked him and are happy for them.

Wine tasting was fine. We went to wineries we had not been to before. In fact, our tour guide took us “off the beaten path,” which was fun, but we didn’t get to see some of the iconic wineries that are all over the area.

We did end up tasting some delicious wines and we enjoyed meeting the people who made them. Well, I enjoyed all of them except for one: a winery ran by a man named “Bob”. I don’t really want to go into details but let’s just say that Bob was one of the most offensive people I have encountered in quite a long time. Did he serve us good wine? Yes, he did. Was he incredibly generous about his servings? Yes, he was. Did he joke about hidden cameras in his bathroom that were not aimed at your face? Yes, he did. Would I ever go back to taste wines at his place? No, I would not.

Continuing with the highlights of the past 10 days, we also visited the Golden Gate Park with the family.

It had been about 7 months since we strolled around this awesome park, so our visit on Sunday was definitely a highlight!

At the park, we walked around the many gardens but weren’t able to go into all of them because of the dog restrictions. A bummer, but I totally understand that dogs can cause damage to flower beds and landscaping. Also, there is the fact that some dog owners seem totally incapable of picking up their dog’s droppings, and I’m sure we all know how unpleasant it is to walk on grass and step on poop!

Many flowers were blooming at the park and that’s what I took photos of. Actually, over the past few days, I’ve only taken photos of flowers. California has such a gorgeous variety of flowers. They seem to be more complex in their form than the ones I saw while living in Minnesota. When we moved to Santa Barbara, I was so excited about all the new flowers I saw. Every month a new beautiful kind of flower would bloom. I’m glad San Francisco has more than its fair share of gorgeous flowers too!

So many things happened over the past 10 days, and I had my camera with me every single time. Most of the photos on this blog post are of flowers. In addition to being totally drawn to the beauty of flowers, being with other people makes it hard to constantly stop to try to frame the photo you want, but flowers can be easily captured. After all, no matter how big the group you are with is, there is always time to stop and smell the flowers, right?

So, I guess no matter how stressful or busy life gets, there is always a silver lining. I think it's just a matter of taking the time to take a deep breathe and look at the bright side of things.

Enjoy this week’s photos. For more fun photos, visit my Etsy store at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/WorldPhotosByPaola