Good Manners Have Nothing to Do With Status

I was walking to Starbucks this morning with Vanessa in her Snap N Go stroller (the baby car seat snaps into this). Feeling tired like most mornings (since my wake-up time is 6 a.m these days), I had my hair pulled back in a messy ponytail and was wearing a black fitted sweater with comfy yoga pants. suddenly I noticed a very polished looking tall slender blonde in a perfectly tailored royal blue dress and a classic pair of black Christian Louboutin pumps (pictured here). I spotted the red shoe soles immediately-my own CL pumps have been collecting dust in the closet for over a year now. She was crossing the street from the opposite side of the street from me walking in a brisk pace towards the same Starbucks cafe as I was. She looked beautiful and confident holding a blackberry curve in a perfectly manicured hand and I noticed my immediate reaction of trying to nervously pat down my own messy hair strands and thinking about the day when I finally would lose these last extra 12 pounds to fit back into my pre-pregnancy clothes especially all my cute jeans that wont go up past my thighs anymore. I smiled at her kindly as she approached the Starbucks cafe right before me. Her mind seemed preoccupied with work matters as she bearly glanced at me, opened the door and let it shut right before me hitting the front wheel of my Snap-N-Go stroller. How rude! was my immediate next thought. All the sudden, a homeless man who was standing right outside noticing me trying to reach for the door with one hand on the stroller still, rushed over a couple of steps and opened the door for me followed by saying " here you go miss". What a defining moment. If I ever thought that manners have any correlation with one's status in life, this moment was like a paradigm shift, making me realize in an instant real beauty which I consider good manners and compassion is all about how you treat the world around you (especially when no one you know is looking) and has absolutely nothing to do with physical appearances or status. Happy Friday y'all!

Our Day at the Museum

Today, I took Vanessa to De Young museum to see the exhibit: Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne, and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay. It's a rare opportunity to see these works of art in the same place not to mention this is the last time this collection will be featured outside of France. Normally, babies aren't allowed in this exhibit but I got special permission from an inside connection to take Vanessa in. The weather in San Francisco was 20 degrees colder today than yesterday and the exhibition was a heck of a lot more crowded than I had anticipated but it was absolutely breathtaking. Vanessa handled herself pretty well too. She seemed intrigued by Vincent Van Gogh's famous painting: Starry Night Over the Rhone. The shimmery blue and yellow definitely attracted her attention but soon after she fell asleep in her bjorn. I was fascinated learning about Van Gogh's short-lived one decade career that was filled with so many highs and lows: elations that sparked creativity and times of depression which led to hallucinations and insanity. Had no idea he took his own life, how sad. His creativity was truly genius. Renoir's A Dance in the Country was also one of my favorites. It was so joyful and I loved the brush strokes in this painting. Speaking of brush strokes, my other favorite pieces in this exhibit were actually not Van Gogh, Renoir, Gauguin or Cezanne. They were in fact the intricate collection of pointillist paintings, represented by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. Pointillism is a neo-impressionist style of painting using thousands of brush stroke dots to create an image. Unless you are standing close to the painting, your eyes can't tell the difference. You can see all details of the image as if it was painted with long brush strokes and only when you are near, you see that the brush strokes are in fact small dots in various colors creating all the amazing details. Absolutely beautiful!

Friendships

There's a saying "People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime," I have mixed emotions about people that have come and gone in my life. The ones who bug me the most are those who ride the good times and reap the benefits of what you offer them but when something changes whether there's conflict that arises in the relationship or somehow you're just not as valuable to them as you used to be, they take the easy route of checking out on you. What that shows me is those people were never true to begin with. For them, relationships and friendships are about what benefits them. Then there are those who pleasantly surprise you by being there for you during the most challenging times-those who instinctively know when you need the most support and give that to you without having to ask for it. Those relationships have touched me. Since being pregnant and having a baby, I've had so many positive experiences of people reaching out by calling, e-mailing, sending gifts, coming over and bringing snacks or dinner and even offering to babysit when I need a break. I will always remember and cherish those random acts of kindness and the people who showed their true colors. I feel blessed to have such wonderful people in my life. It's easy to have a huge network of friends when people find you beneficial to their goals but it's truly rewarding to maintain those relationships and have so many awesome people in your life who are there simply for you, not what you offer them. I'm lucky to have that:)