monsbrick

March 20, 2020- note that mail is taking a very long time to and from my area. Yesterday Californians were ordered to stay home. Post offices are open but for example today a letter arrived from Virginia postmarked 24 days ago. Usually it takes about 7 days or less from the East Coast.

I can’t believe how quickly the pandemic is changing our lives. One month ago I had a cough and thankfully my doctor is closely watching me and emailing and calling me I’m blessed with Stanford doctors and their system. I have no fever but this thing is real. I hope it doesn’t touch you and your loved ones. And I hope you all have good communicative doctors and health care.

May you also have people to look out for your needs at a local in person level.

Welcome to my profile! I am 53 years old and live near San Francisco, California. My town is an island in the San Francisco Bay. I have also lived on another island 🌴 here in the bay called Yerba Buena Island. Both islands are big hubs for the US Coast Guard. Oddly I don’t know anyone in the Coast Guard!

Growing up here in the 1960’s my parents did a great job of sheltering me. I only learned about hippies and Bohemians. My Dad had forbidden me from ever going to Berkeley and of course I went there first chance I got!

As for arts and crafts, I’ve only been doing it for 1.5 years. I work overtime all the time and it’s a stress reliever for me. I’m not a person who grew up making art. Now I love art!

Handmade anything. Dabbling in drawing, doodling, some variation of zentangles, watercolor, gel plate printing, stamping, collage, acrylics, sewing, painting, coloring, knitting, and other fiber arts, beading, cooking, and more.

Penpal writing and journal writing are some of my favorite pastimes.

💜Bella Grace& Daphne’s Diary & Somerset Studio are magazines I read.

Here are some of the YouTube people I subscribe to: Maremi Smallarts, Nik the Booksmith, Mystele, Ana Bondu, Susanne Rose Art, The Paper Outpost, Creationsceecee, My Arty Heart, Lisa Oxley, Joie de fi, Gel Press, and Gelli Arts.

Postcards: handmade, collage, tourist, art, any upcycled or reused or reformed "art", illustrated, inspirational, humor, photography, and feel free to send anything, I will appreciate all you send to me.

Lately I've been experimenting with big postcards. Chatting with my post office, I can send bigger postcards then I had originally understood and that notion inspires me!

Apocalyptic Fiction:

*Hugh Howey *Paolo Bacigalupi

Cyber fiction:

*William Gibson *Neal Stephenson

Horror

*Anne Rice *Chuck Hogan *Guillermo del Toro *Edgar Allen Poe

Teen Fiction

*Annette Marie *Sarah Cameron

Travel Writing

*Paul Theroux *Henry Miller

General Fiction

*Jon Steele *Francesca Lia Block *Anais Nin *Jack Kerouac *Gabriel Garcia Marquez *Danielle Steel *George R.R. Martin *Haruki Murakami *Robert B. Parker *JD Salinger

General Non-Fiction

*Oliver Sacks *Jeffrey Toobin *Angela Duckworth *Malcolm Gladwell *Jack Kerouac *Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner

Naturalist

*John Muir *Henry David Thoreau

I'm a big fan of Little Free Libraries and we have over 72 in my town ! Plus nearby cities or Oakland, Berkeley & San Francisco host even more little free libraries. It's like treasure hunting! They are each like treasure chests and I love to add my extra books to the flow of books, maps, magazines, even stationery or videos. It's helping to keep the flow of books and such moving.

I do love poetry. Go to a poetry reading. If you come to San Francisco go to a poetry reading here at City Lights bookstore. It is a mecca. Write your own poetry. It's good for you. Even simple one liners. Phrases, work play.

Here at Swap-Bot I've joint the TBR (To Be Read Group). Being a part of the group and participating in the monthly group swaps helps me to stay focused on my reading list. I pick up books everywhere and I was chaotic and random before. Now, I'm more methodical and the group doesn't require that we read a certain amount but I do set my own reading goals. We share how we are doing each month against our goal or goals.

We watch Vikings, Game of Thrones, Ray Donovan, Make It Artsy, P. Allen Smith’s Garden Home show, America's Test Kitchen, Mr. Robot, Barefoot Contessa, Queen of the South, Counterpart, Rook, Fixer Upper, various animal, space, and science shows, and the news.

I record Bloomberg Technology shows such as David Rubenstein, Businessweek, ETF IQ, I don’t know what ETFs are but I’m trying to learn. I geek out on this stuff.

Then I also watch Z Living TV like yoga shoes back to pack and oh man Vice TV! Shows like Suppertime! That guy is crazy.

News, I watch oodles of news I like to sweep across all the channels including international and business and weather news. I like to watch conservative and liberal and everything in the world. I like watching other country’s news to see other perspectives.

Podcasts are another favorite for me. I listen to Freakonomics from public radio in NY. And Terry Gross' Fresh Air from Public Radio too.

Oh yeah, one of my all time favorite books is by JD Salinger, it's a short story called "Franny & Zooey" where Franny starts mouthing and chanting and praying ceaselessly. I get her. Even though I don't think I could explain or teach it to anyone else.

Mostly now, I Walk, Dance, and do yoga.

Send me any tea! I drink tea every afternoon and evening. Black tea, white tea, tisanes, herb teas. I used to not like Rooibos but I now drink Good Earth Sweet & Spicy tea every day. So, I guess I like that.

Here are a few teas that I have in cupboard today, Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Lapsang Souchong, Mango, Passion tea, Dandelion, Peppermint, Spearmint, Yunnan, and a mix with Valerian that I take late at night. Oh and I have some rose hips but as I write about them in the next section.

Crystals & Rocks & Precious Metals: I used to think hippies were crazy for being into these things. I didn't get it. I still do not really understand the metaphysical aspects but I just love crystals and rocks and metals. I haven't tried making them into elixirs though I suppose that is next. I cannot believe how much money stores charge for these crystal infused waters. Rock crystal or clear crystal, rose quartz, are a few for the bath sprinkled with rose buds fresh or dried and rose hips. Yumm mm

Artist Trading Cards or ATC and other arts and crafts creations. Recently I started really trading artist cards and that is super fun. I'm enjoying swapping these cards, other peoples' beautiful, fantastic, creations!

I used to list my favorite music but with my Soundcloud and iTunes subscriptions I now have over 5000 songs on my phone and laptop. I guess I could go up to 10,000 but there are many I don't download that just float through our services. Plus we listen to XM radio in the car and I love NPR and we have over 5 local public radio stations I listen to. One is completely Jazz except on Sundays they play the Blues too.

This morning's playlist includes a few to give you an idea what I have on right now: Danny's Song sung by Loggins & Messina, Nils Frahm (think of soundtracks), some spoken word by Allen Ginsberg, and Billie Eilish... there aren't any musical genres I do not like. Sometimes I rock classical and opera too. That touches my soul or next up on my phone playlist are Gregorian Chants...that's me in a nutshell this eclectic mix.