desiretoinspire.net: Helen Normandream come true!
Is the dream come true the full line of Le Creuset? Because that’s my dream…
Question to all: What is it with San Francisco’s reputation concerning pizza?
Is it because I only ever eat from Little Star and Delfina that I’m ignorant to some twisted, dark underbelly of San Francisco, where terrible cheese-lathered bread-product unworthy of the name ‘pizza’ is rubbed against a dog and baked in the warmth of someone’s flatulence? Is there really pizza that bad in this city? Is New York really that good? Am I going to have to fly across the country to find out? Who wants to come? When?
(via benw)
Delfina is fine. Paxti’s is fine. So are Beretta, Pauline’s, Pizza Nostra and Flour + Water. (Little Star is very fine.) But none of them are great, really. I have no idea what the magic ingredient is, but visit Lost Dog Pizza in Arlington, Pizza Paradiso in Georgetown, or Two Amys in DC and you’ll have had a better pizza than I’ve ever had in San Francisco.
I haven’t had a lot of pizza in New York—definitely nothing exciting, anyway— and I’ve never been to Chicago to try their deep-dish offerings. So this is just me, saying, after only having great pizza in DC, that San Francisco’s pizza really, really, weirdly!, oddly!, isn’t that great.
My running theory is that, since American-style pizza is kind of the anti-slow-food, Bay Area chefs really can’t get into it.
(via timoni)
I’ve had this conversation numerous times. I love Flour + Water, Contigo, etc, but it’s true that San Francisco doesn’t have a fantastic pizza reputation. That said, I don’t know if it’s a bad thing. Perhaps wondering why SF doesn’t have amazing pizza is like wondering why New York doesn’t have fantastic burritos or why Chicago isn’t know for great sushi. Maybe it’s just that due to the way SF grew up, pizza wasn’t part of its culinary vernacular. And I’m OK with that.
California-versary
One year ago, I packed up my life in Chicago, shipped box after box, and hopped on a plane back to San Francisco. I’d been gone for six years. In that time, I’d started and finished college, fallen in love, had my first relationship, held three internships, two jobs and more freelance assignments that I’d cared to count. Chicago is where I grew in to myself, became the person I’d always wanted to be.
Unfortunately that person also was unhappy, unhealthy, and desparately missed her family.
When I moved home, I had no idea what I was doing. I slept in my childhood bedroom, with photos of Matt Damon on the wall. I took a yoga class. Finally stopped talking to my ex-boyfriend. Applied to every job I was remotely qualified for.
And then, just like that I got a job. I wasn’t working for a non-profit. I wasn’t freelancing, or writing for a magazine. I was doing customer support and marketing for a tech start-up. New, different, not something I would have though I would want, or be good at, just several months earlier.
From there, I made the move up to San Francisco with Brittin. After spending a fabulous New Years eve with pretty much my best friends in the entire world, I came in to 2009 expecting something good. As 2008 included the retreat back to CA, a crazy roommate, a host of family stuff that was unexpected, the death of my adopted grandmother Bobbie and confronting the idea that maybe I just wouldn’t ever be able to be the writer I thought I’d be, I went in to 2009 with the expectation of good things.
I met Dan on January 5. I decided I liked working at Ning. I feel like my relationship with my parents has strengthened.
To be super and unavoidably cliche, in the past year I’ve embarked on a new career, made my home in a new city, fallen in love, reconnected with my favorite people from my past and carved out a life for myself that’s healthier, happier and richer (not money wise, though that too) in ways that make me feel gratitude every day. I hope year two is just as fantastic.
This is one of my all-time favorite Slate articles. I of course, was a Camp Cultist. Per this article, we “grow up to be chief executive officers of major corporations, name partners in Wall Street banking firms, Cabinet secretaries, governors, and presidents of prestigious foundations. Their universities invite them to serve on their boards. Their home towns name schools after them. They are the Establishment.”
Works for me!
w00t! I went to a wedding that was in the NYT. Huzzah!
[the wedding posts will stop shortly, promise]
