Wexford Girl

Hello

I just talked to Desiree to see how she's doing, as I have every day since since Nan passed away. She had just returned home from the grocery store. She told me she needed to buy wine for a Halloween gathering, and she was standing in front of the wine display feeling sad because she would always ask Nan - the gourmand - for a recommendation for wine or cheese.

She was scanning the prices and saw one for $10 or so. Deciding to get it based on price, she looked at the label.

 

Nanette wore glasses and was the middle sister. Deedee said it felt like a little "hello" from her sister, and that's what it feels like to me too. (I am terribly practical in a lot of ways; I think astrology is hogwash, but I do like the idea of the people we love staying around as spirits or energy, giving us little signs.)

I looked up Middle Sister wines, and it turns out that it was launched this summer at a party for Maggie Mason's new shopping blog, Mighty Haus - a party that I was at! (The photo above is one of Maggie's)

Hello Nan.

Threesome

I love this photo of my brother John and his wife (then girlfriend) Geraldine getting naughty with a bronze statue at a winery in Napa.

This was when they came to visit me in 1998. Now they have three little girls and it's been a while since they had a threesome with a statue.

Named After a Planet

When I was 30, I finally learned to drive a car. (I'd had a motorcycle since I was 23). I was living in Berkeley, I got a job in Sausalito, and I needed transport. I had recently killed my motorcycle by letting it run out of oil - it seized up with a crunch on the Bay Bridge and that was that. 

So I bought a used '94 Saturn from The Buggy Bank in Berkeley. I LOVED that car. More than anything, it was the little extras that come with having a car instead of a bike that thrilled me - cup holders for beverages! Music! No more helmet hair! Room for groceries without having to stuff bags inside my leather jacket or dangle them from the handlebars!

The Saturn served me well for many years. When I met Eric he even wrote a wee song about the two of us, "My name is Annie and I drive my car, named after a planet not a star."

It got stolen from in front of our house in 2004 - the same day that Bill Clinton signed my copy of My Life at The Ferry Building. (The bathrooms were crowded with women touching up their lipstick before the book signing.) I still haven't had a second car. Well, Eric and I have a Subaru, and it's great, and now I have a motorcycle again too, but nothing will match the very first car that I could call my own.

My friend Brenda took these photos of me when I brought the car home. So goofy. That's Rexford,Carter's sweet-but-spazzy dog.

We Are Lucky

Thanks to everyone who came out to 3 Fish Studios for our open studio this past weekend. It was our best one yet. We definitely felt fired up with inspiration afterwards; we're going to get cracking on putting some classes together, and find other ways of maximizing our wonderful, lucky space.

This is Eric and me at our 2006 Open Studios, before we had a studio, when we did it out of our garage. We've come a long way.

Loss

Eric said some beautiful things about our dear friend Nan, who passed away yesterday. I spent today with Nan's sister - my close friend Desiree - and the rest of the family down in Monterey. It was hard, with lots of tears, but also laughter and a wonderful walk, all of us, through Pacific Grove and along the sunny beach.

I can't say much more right now, just that my life is better for having known her, and I will miss her so much.

Girl Under the Street

When I first moved to San Francisco, one of the jobs I had was working in an art store on a steep block of Powell Street near Union Square. The store was called Morgan Purcell, and it was owned by Morgan, a nice old man who was kind and funny. He was obsessed with the San Francisco Giants and wore a gold Giants jacket every day. I worked there for almost a year, selling pens and paints. (I sold a pen to Tom Hanks when the biggest movie he had under his belt was Big.)

Morgan Purcell was crammed with art supplies, dusty old office supplies, legal forms, and other stuff. There was also livestock; one day I left my bagel on the counter and when I turned back there was a cockroach the size of my thumb chewing on it.

The store was long and narrow, and went wayyy back into a room with an old busted Xerox machine and boxes of outdated calendars. One day, I heard noise and falling plaster back there - the crew who was working on the street outside had drilled through the road into the store. I ran back there and looked up through a hole at blue sky and a hard-hatted man peering through. When he saw me he yelled, "there's a girl down here!" with considerable alarm.

It must have been so strange for him, expecting to find pipes and dirt and whatever else is under streets, and instead he sees a pale Irish girl with curly hair and huge earrings looking up at him. I wonder did he think I was locked in a dungeon, imprisoned by a dragon or a serial killer.

The store is now a karaoke bar called Sotano. I often wonder what happened to dear old Morgan.

Chloe Running

I'm stealing a picture I love from my brother John's blog.

Three Stories to Make You Laugh and Cry

I once worked with a guy named Rick who was laughing so hard when I told him these stories, he had to lie down on the floor of his office.

Story #1

When I was about 5 or 6, I woke up having had a little wet-the-bed accident. I was embarassed and tried to make my bed to hide the evidence. But I didn't do a good job, so later my mom was remaking my bed, and she says, "Anne...did you have an accident last night?" I shouted , "no!" and ran out of the room and out of the house.

I clearly remember wandering around the garden feeling sad, picking little leaves off a shrub and thinking, "this is the worst day of my life."

Story #2

When I was 11 or so, the family took a trip to Kerry, where my dad grew up, to visit aunts and uncles and cousins. One day, my mom took all the kids to visit my dad's stepmother out in the country.

We all piled out of the car and into her little cottage where she was waiting to greet us. She said with a big smile, "ah, here's Liz and John and Michael. Where's Anne, and who's this little boy?"

Story #3

Again when I was at the awkward, freckly, lanky age of 11 or 12, and my sister was 9, she wanted to take a gymnastics class up at the community center near our house.

My dad bribed me (with swimming pool money) to take the class with Liz. It was full of girls like her - little, blonde, cute. I was a head taller than everone else, with brown short hair that my mother still cut, and I was not cut out for gymnastics.

The only part I really remember (and you will see why soon) is when we had to run around in a circle and jump over a pommel horse. All the blondies were sailing over the jump, but I couldn't do it - so I would just run around it. I was feeling very self conscious. The big room had several mothers standing around watching their little darlings, and as I lumbered past, I heard one of them say to her friend, "that boy's a bit big to be in here, isn't he?"

Lovely Weekend

The Curiosity Shoppe opening was SO FUN on Friday night. Lauren and Derek put on a great party, with cupcakes! There was a terrific turnout of friends old and new, and plenty of my 49 Miles sold. Eric had some of his 49 Mile lino prints there too and they sold like crazy.

Highlights of the rest of the weekend included running into Suzanne, Rob, and baby Lucy while watching the Blue Angels on Saturday and going for an impromptu pint of Guinness at Mad Dog in the Fog on Haight Street with them (big respect for new parents who can be that spontaneous). Then on Sunday, Eric and I took a letterpress printing class at Center for the Book, which was wonderful.

Other than stubbing my little toe so hard I think I broke it on Saturday night, everything this weekend was lovely!

A Sweet Song from Wexford

Thank you for your song Lauryn. It made my day!

(She would only sing for her dad if he "put it into the computer for Annie.")