It's working!

Close-up of carrot and lettuce sprouts

Only a few days have passed since planting, but things are starting to sprout! I’m pretty excited. So far, I can see that beets, carrots, and lettuce have broken through. Some of the lettuce looks like it was planted too close to the carrots, and some carrots look like they were planted too close to one another…I blame the fact that the seeds are tiny and it was a little breezy when I planted. If need be, I’ll thin the plants, but we’ll see.

Next steps: Add compost, and keep watering.

Note: This post was created 5/11, but not posted until 5/19.

I’m pretty excited. I ordered my seeds from Seed Savers Exchange: Detroit Dark Red beets, Scarlet Nantes carrots, Striped Cavern tomatoes, Yellow of Parma onions, and a Seed Savers lettuce mix (including Australian Yellowleaf, Forellenschluss, Pablo, and Red Velvet).

After clearing out my garden-to-be, I tilled well and added several bags of organic planting soil. When the seeds arrived, I plotted and planted; onions require full sun and only need 6″ between rows, beets need to be planted with 20-24″ between rows, lettuce can thrive in partial shade, etc. Admittedly, I was planting a little later in the growing windows than would be ideal, but the weather this year has followed unusual patterns, and I figured maybe that would somehow work to my advantage. Basically, I made various rationalizations in an attempt to support the bottom line: Screw the ideal dates..I wanted to start the garden now!

Once the seeds arrived, I planted them, watered, and hoped for the best…

Note: This post was created 5/8, but not posted until 5/19.

I’ve got some sweet new digs, and I’m almost all settled in (the empty room in the photo is my room before my stuff took over). I really like the location of this apartment..The only real problem I’ve had so far is that my car got broken into. =(

The neighborhood seems much less prone to theft than any of the areas I’ve lived in previously, so I was pretty surprised when I saw that my window had been smashed. The irony of the situation is that, because the neighborhood seems so safe, I left some stuff out (visible) in my backseat. I had two boxes packed to take to Goodwill, but because the Goodwill truck shares a parking lot with the neighborhood farmers’ market, they don’t accept donations on the weekends. Of course, the only other times Goodwill accepts donations is between 9 and 5 on the weekdays. While I’m at work. Therefore, the boxes stayed in my car. I made the conscious decision to leave them in the car rather than bring them back up to my apartment because (other than the fact that I’m lazy) I didn’t think I was in danger of anyone breaking into the car in this area. Right. What’s interesting is that they didn’t take anything. Nothing from the boxes..Nothing from the glove compartment they ransacked..They just made a mess. I guess it’s good that I don’t have any fancy electronics or other things that are thief-worthy.

Once I saw the street in daylight, the next morning, it became apparent that someone had broken into not just my car, but all of the cars on the block. Awesome.

The upside to this situation, if there is one, is the ease with which I was able to get the window fixed. I looked on Yelp for recommendations, and found In and Out Auto Glass. They are awesome. I called at 10:30am on a Saturday, and they quoted me $119 including parts and labor. They showed up within 40 minutes, replaced the window, and vacuumed up all the glass from the car. It was a pretty easy end to a difficult situation, and I really appreciated their help.

Hopefully, there won’t be any more incidents like this one, but I hesitate to make predictions since every time I say that nothing more can go wrong, four new things turn to shit at the same time. Regardless, I do think my new neighborhood is cool and look forward to exploring it more. If you’re in the area, let me know!

Recently, and out of nowhere, several strangers have complimented me on the depth of my hair color.* While I appreciate them, these accolades surprise and amuse me for a few reasons. The first is that I pretty much wing it when it comes to selecting where to place highlights, so for them to turn out looking normal is quite a feat. That their arrangement creates the illusion of depth in my thin, fine hair is borderline miraculous.

The second reason is that my hair-coloring routine is worse than amateur. It takes a good 2.5-3 hours to do four foils and one all-over color. The foils are a complete joke: clumsily folded, bulky, and I’ll be honest, sometimes I actually use Reynolds instead of Spilo. It’s sturdier.

After the application and processing time, of course, comes rinsing, shampoo, conditioner, and ph-balancing lotion. Then I apply a demi-permanent color to the hair that was just highlighted, to even out the blonde and soften the shade. That has to process for another 35 minutes, after which comes more rinsing, cleaning, conditioning, and balancing. At this point we’re going on about four hours of time spent on changing the color of my hair.

I justify the time and effort I devote to coloring my hair in terms of money. The supplies I buy online are staggeringly inexpensive compared to what’s available at drug stores and to what it costs for color at a salon. And the color and developer I buy are professional grade, unlike the boxed coloring systems at Walgreens.

I realize that salon prices factor in the speed with which the colorist works as well as her or his skill. The ambiance of the salon is also something to consider, as is the fact that someone else does all the work, and there is no clean-up afterward. Still, at this point in my life, the value of these features is significantly less than $120, which is about the going rate for a couple of highlights and one or two all-over colors. So, every once in awhile, I spend a Tuesday evening or Saturday afternoon in the bathroom, painting my head and hoping for the best.

*Depth not well-represented in photos. Sorry.

Projective Identification (or PI) is a term first introduced by Melanie Klein of the object relations school of psychoanalytic thought in 1946. It refers to a psychological process in which a person engages in the ego defense mechanism projection in such a way that his behavior towards the object of projection invokes in that person precisely the thoughts, feelings or behaviors projected.

Projective identification differs from simple projection in that projective identification is a self-fulfilling prophecy, whereby a person, believing something false about another, relates to that other person in such a way that the other person alters his behavior to make the belief true. The second person is influenced by the projection and begins to behave as though he or she is in fact actually characterized by the projected thoughts or beliefs. This is a process that generally happens outside the awareness of both parties involved, though this has been debated.

….

What is projected most often is an intolerable, painful, or dangerous idea or belief about the self that the projecting person cannot accept (i.e. “I have behaved wrongly” or “I have a sexual feeling towards ….” ). Or it may be a valued or esteemed idea that again is difficult for the projecting person to acknowledge. Projective identification is believed to be a very early or primitive psychological process and is understood to be one of the more primitive defense mechanisms. Yet it is also thought to be the basis of more mature psychological processes like empathy and intuition.

In her book Psychoanalytic Diagnosis, Nancy McWilliams points out that projective identification combines elements of projection (attributing one’s own feelings, thoughts, and motives to others) and introjection (incorporating the feelings, motives, and thoughts of others). Projective identification, in a way, validates one’s projection by making the projection real.

This is the benefit of the defense. By inducing the projected experience in another, one is more able to avoid the reality that the projected content is part of one’s own experience. For example, a psychotherapy client who has unacceptable erotic feelings toward a therapist might behave in a highly seductive manner. Once the therapist began to feel attracted, any behaviors on the therapist’s part that betrayed the attraction could help the client focus attention on the therapist’s feelings and behavior. This could prevent the client from attending to his or her own erotic impulses, thereby keeping them out of awareness.

External links

• Projective Identification Theory with Vignettes & References
• More on Projective Identification Theory & References

That may be changing soon (or now), though…This morning, I was woken up at 5am by flashes of lightning and the sound of booming thunder.

In San Francisco.

I’ve lived here for about 5 years now, and not once have I ever seen lightning. I heard one rumble of thunder, one time, several years ago, but usually when it rains in the Bay Area it’s the boring sort of rain. The sky is always one color of drab gray; interesting cloud formations and eerie green skies are not the stuff of San Francisco storms.

I have no idea what happened in the universe last night/this morning that caused the violent storms, but it was kind of freaky. Normally, I prefer a good storm with my rain. It keeps things interesting and reminds me of the power of nature. This time, though, I felt like the lightning and thunder were signs of something bad and wrong. Silly, I know. But seriously, that was a Midwestern-style storm. One particularly frightening flash of lightning took out our power – An outage which lasted over two hours! The accompanying thunder shook the apartment building and scared my cat. It was weird.

Anyway, I’ll probably be blogging more in the near future, barring any natural disasters.

It’s been so long since I’ve posted anything, so I wanted to make this a good one. Lots of pictures from last weekend’s trip to Mendocino – It was a refreshing escape from the city, with the perfect balance of activity and relaxation. We didn’t want to leave!

Many thanks to Miss Oblivion for hosting, as well as for the pictures. Somehow, she’s the only one that remembered to bring a camera and was nice enough to share with the rest of us. I don’t know who actually took which pictures, so forgive me for not crediting each one individually.

As the pictures indicate, we hiked, biked, cooked, ate, drank, laid in the sun, hung out in the hot tub, and generally just enjoyed the relaxed pace of the Mendo lifestyle. Elliott and I did yoga on the roof deck, out in the sun. It was sublime: fresh air, gentle breeze, lots of sunlight…Amazing.

Other particularly memorable events include the bike races around the property (complete with jumps and obstacles), which resulted in several bleeding boys; the creation of a new religion, of which Fritz is the leader; and the discovery of a crazy hitchhiker on the road, who was picked up by a car and then kicked out a block later. Good times!

Here is the information from the SPCA web site:

Stolen Kitten: Please Help The SF/SPCA Find “Jack Daniels”

Partially-Blind 3 Month Old Kitten Stolen from Maddie’s Adoption Center

WHAT:

Today, July 8, 2009, between 2-3:45 pm PT, three month old kitten, “Jack Daniels,” was stolen from The SF/SPCA’s Maddie’s Adoption Center at 250 Florida St. San Francisco. A description of the perpetrator(s) is not available.

A description of the cat is as follows:

• Color: Black
• Sex: male
• Breed: Domestic Short Hair
• Age: 3 months
• Weight: approximately 3.0 pounds
• Distinguishing characteristics: cloudy eyes (partially blind)
• Neutered
• Microchipped (#982009105787461)

He is a partially-blind kitten, who depends on his brother for many of life’s necessities.

He is particularly vulnerable and we are gravely concerned for his safety and well-being.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

If you have any information, or if you see a kitten fitting this description please contact Kiska Icard, Communications Manager for The San Francisco SPCA, 415.760.4265. NO QUESTIONS ASKED!

WHERE:

The kitten can also be returned directly to The San Francisco SPCA’s Maddie’s Adoption Center, 250 Florida St. San Francisco, 415.522.3500, which is open daily 11 am-6 pm (Wednesdays 1:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.).