May 31, 2011

60 B4 60

Sixty Things to Do Before You’re Sixty

SOMEONE ON FACEBOOK

referred to some things she’d accomplished for a project “60 B4 60,” which I interpreted as a bucket list, assuming you kick it at age 60.

“Starting my 60 B4 60 list. So far, I’ve got the ping pong table, the fire pit, the vegetable garden, the grey nail polish, and the tea party thing going on. I’ve got my gravel for the landscaping and started spreading it.”

I’ve got four years to develop and enact my own list, but my sister better get in gear; she’s got only 28 days to go. Big 6-0 coming up for Cruella in June. Lookin’ good, sis! I guess one could use such a list as a motivator, or as inspiration, or a clarifier of priorities, or a challenge or goal-setter. But if I die before I wake, I’ll have died happy. I don’t think I need one.

I TOOK THESE PICTURES OF MYSELF

with my Yucatan tan in the bathroom mirror so I could look back on them from my 90’s and think, “How young I was!” at only 56.

I LIKE MY LIFE.

I like its pace. Despite my human portion of suffering, drama, unrequited love, hard times and bad luck, I like it more than I ever have. I feel no need to squeeze in stuff I haven’t done because I’ll never get to do everything I want to anyway; mortality knocks, and sooner or later I’ll run out of time, so I just make sure my entire life is something I can live with, Monday through Sunday.

WELCOME TO MY LIFE

I invited my sister-in-law in Philadelphia, who lived in San Diego and loved it, to come out to San Francisco for a visit and fly down to SD with me to see the Streetwise exhibit at the Museum of Photographic Arts. I wrote her an email, subject line: I did the typing for you.

Dear Alexandra,

You’re absolutely right. I could use and do need a refreshing change of pace. I’ll fly to San Francisco and we’ll go down to San Diego together–perhaps on the train, if you like. We’ll get to spend time together and enjoy some California sunshine and ocean breezes and good photography. Hell, we’ll take thousands of pix!

I’ll show you MY San Diego, you’ll show me YOUR San Francisco. And we’ll get to spend holiday stress-free time just hanging out, for the first time since the Dali exhibit at the PMA! Fish tacos at Daly’s Dive, clam chowder at Woodhouse, strolls through the Castro.

OK, you talked me into it. A week sounds good. It’s a damn shame Cruella can’t join us, but the MOPA exhibit closes 5/15 and life happens now. Carpe diem!

Love, Xena

Just hit “forward” and let me know what flight is convenient for you, sister-in-law!

Cheers!
-ax

p.s. Welcome to my life.

THAT IS HOW I LIVE.

I get it into my head I want to do something, figure out a way to do it, make it happen, and move on. I came back from Cancun late on a Thursday night, then flew to San Diego the next Sunday, last day of the exhibit, on my remaining Virgin points. I wanted to spend the day making the rounds of the Balboa Park museums. I left at 10:00 a.m. for an 11:40 flight, only it turned out my flight from San Francisco was delayed three hours, so I arrived at MOPA at 4:00 p.m., in time to catch the very last hour of the show, take some pictures in the park, turn right around and fly back to San Francisco. I was home by 9:00. Fun day. Check out the Streetwise flickr site and you’ll see lots of my street stuff, me and my buddy Rowan Hunn, among others.

That’s my life. But my sister-in-law is tearing out her hedge and putting in a fence and that is her life. I eliminated such necessities by selling my hedges and fences. It’s not for everyone.

YOU MUST BE PRESENT TO WIN

My guiding light is to be where I am. Friend Marc told me prior to my trip to Cancun that some surrounding cities, like Merida, are worth visiting, and I told him, “If I have a camera around my neck, I don’t care where I am, including a garbage dump.” There is always something to see, observe, learn, experience, and if you’re like me, document. So if you can’t have fresh-from-the-sea ceviche on a Caribbean beach, savor clam chowder in a cold rainy city. Warm your face with the steam, gnaw off some crusty bread and let the butter linger on your tongue. Savor a book in a stuffed chair—say, The Eyre Affair, if you dare. If you’re involved with someone, cherish the boons of companionship. If you have no loved one, enjoy your own company and freedom from compromise.

I LIVE WITHOUT A CAR

because I don’t have to be there, wherever that is. If I can’t get there, I just enjoy here. So instead of thinking ahead, I’ve decided to reflect upon, in no particular order,

SIXTY THINGS I’VE ALREADY DONE BEFORE SIXTY,

because there’s nowhere I’d rather be than propped up in my comfy-as-a-cloud bed surrounded by snoring cats with a MacBook warming my lap, while outside the bay windows, dusk finally darkens into night. The usual lights are on in the apartment building on 14th St. What’s going on in all those yellow squares?

1. CLIMBED THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA AT BADALING

2. Heard an a cappella quartet sing at St. Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square, Moscow
3. Traveled overland from Beijing to Helsinki, Finland
4. Got jiggy at Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro
5. Continents I’ve been on: North America, South America, Europe, Asia

6. ATTENDED A YOGA RETREAT IN INCH, COUNTY KERRY, IRELAND

7. Stayed at a castle in Tuscany with a bunch of tarot enthusiasts
8. Visited the house in Kaunas, Lithuania my mother lived in before the war
9. Climbed to the top of The Münster of Bern, tallest cathedral in Switzerland
10. Mexican ruins I’ve visited: Cobá, Tulum, Chichen Itza, Tenochtitlan, Monte Alban

11. RODE THE ORIENT EXPRESS FROM VIENNA TO PARIS

12. Rode the Trans-Siberian Express from Beijing through Mongolia to Moscow
13. Saw a Franco-Russian Picasso exhibit at the Hermitage, St. Petersburg
14. Crossed the Caribbean from Cancun to Isle Mujeres
15. Took a train up, up, up to Zermatt to see the Matterhorn

16. HAD SEX ON THE BEACH WITH THE TOWN DISGRACE IN YELAPA, MEXICO

17. Seen three Mexican Maria de Guadalupe festivals in San Blas, Guadalajara and Oaxaca
18. Had the best French fries in the world at Murphy’s Pub, Helsinki
19. Ate paté on a baguette on Lake Geneva
20. Been to Burning Man a bunch of times

21. GOT TATTOOED WITH THE FAMILY SEAL OF JS BACH IN VILNIUS, LITHUANIA

22. Got tattooed with my motto, Kerouac’s “The road is life,” in Cancun
23. Got tattooed with my philosophy of life, “Let it come down,” from Macbeth, also in Cancun, on the same day:

BANQUO: It will be rain to-night.
First Murderer: Let it come down.

24. Graduated cum laude with a degree in English from Temple University
25. Saw Kerouac’s On the Road scroll in Las Vegas, San Francisco, New York and Lowell, Massachusetts

26. THREW THREE COINS IN TREVI FOUNTAIN, ROME

27. Been to the Hermitage, the Louvre, Jeu de Paume, the Rijksmuseum, New York MOMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, SFMOMA, de Young, Legion of Fine Arts, Chicago Art Institute, Gulag Museum in Moscow, many others
28. Took the obligatory shot of a gargoyle from the top of Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris
29. Crossed the English Channel from Calais, France to Dover, England, throwing up much of the way
30: Been to Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada (3 times), China, England (twice), (then) East Germany, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany (twice), Iceland (pit stop on Icelandic airlines), Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico (6 times), Mongolia, the Netherlands, Asian and European Russia, Sweden, Switzerland (twice)…am I forgetting anything?

31. KISSED THE GRAVES OF JS BACH (Leipzig, [East] Germany) & JACK KEROUAC (Lowell, Mass.)

32. Owned a four-bedroom house in Portland, OR, a fourplex apartment building and two-bedroom cottage in Berkeley, CA and a two-bedroom restored Victorian flat in San Francisco—and sold them all.
33. Went to the same elementary school, General David B. Birnie, Philadelphia, as Chubbie Checker
34. Airports (I recall) flying into or out of: ATL Atlanta, LUX Luxembourg, SAN San Diego, LAX Los Angeles, DEN Denver, DET Detroit, ORD Chicago O’Hare, MDW Chicago Midway, JFK New York, GIG Rio de Janeiro, PHL Philadelphia, LHR London, DUB Dublin, FRA Frankfurt, KEF Rejkyavik, PVR Puerto Vallarta, HMO Hermosillo, GDL Guadalajara, CUN Cancun, CZM Cozumel, MEX Mexico City, OAX Oaxaca, RIX Riga (Latvia), ARL Stockholm, PEK (Peking) Beijing; ZFZ Buffalo, SEA-TAC Seatlle/Tacoma, PDX Portland, MSY New Orleans, DFW Dallas/Fort Worth, IAD Washington Dulles Intl., AMS Amsterdam–there must be more
35. Been paid for writing and photography

36. EARNED A LIVING AT VARIOUS JOBS

37. Was engaged to an ex-con sociopath who died in Arkansas State Penitentiary
38. US Train stations I’ve embarked on journeys from: Union Station, Portland, OR; King St. Station, Seattle, WA; Union Station, Chicago, IL; Amtrak Station, Emeryville, CA; Penn Station, New York, NY; 30th St. Station, Philadelphia, PA; Union Station, New Orleans, LA; Amtrak Station, Jacksonville, FL; Essex Junction, VT; Syracuse, NY
39. Saw a total eclipse of the moon from a rat-infested parking lot in Mexico City
40. Places I’ve lived: hometown, Philadelphia, PA: 26 years; Portland, Oregon: 15 years; Whidbey Island, Washington: six months; Berkeley, California: six years; San Francisco, CA: eight years

41. LOVED VARIOUS MEN, NONE OF IT STUCK

42. Taken innumerable American cross-country train trips between Portland, OR or SF (Emeryville) CA and Philadelphia, PA or New York, NY, and back, including the Empire Builder, (Chicago to Seattle), the [now defunct] Pioneer (Portland to Chicago), the Pacific Surfliner (LA to SD), the Southwest Chief (Chicago to LA), the City of New Orleans (Chicago to New Orleans) the Sunset Limited (Los Angeles to Jacksonvllle, FL [now inoperative] and New Orleans to LA), the Coast Starlight (between LA and SF or Portland), the San Joaquin (Central Valley, CA), the Cascades (from Vancouver BC or Seattle to Portland or SF) the Vermonter (from Philadelphia to Burlington, VT) the Crescent (New Orleans to Philly) also many from Philadelphia or NY to Chicago–the Northeast Regional, the Capitol Limited, the Lake Shore Limited, the Keystone, the Pennsylvanian, the Cardinal, the Empire Service, the Maple Leaf. I think that’s it. My favorite: the now defunct Pioneer. Current: California Zephyr or Empire Builder.
43. And also one Canadian train trip from Vancouver, BC to Toronto to Niagara Falls, Ontario to Buffalo, NY.
44. Boat trips I recall: Lake Champlaign, Burlington, VT; San Juan Islands & Vancouver Island, Washington State/Canada; Lake Geneva, Switzerland; Cancun to Isle Mujeres, Yucatan, Mexico; snorkeling boat on the Caribbean in Puerto Morelos, Mexico; English Channel crossing, ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn, Estonia, Staten Island Ferry, ferries from Seattle to Bainbridge Island & Whidbey Island, Washington state; whale watching to the Farallon Islands on San Francisco Bay/Pacific Ocean; various sailboats/motor boats in Deception Pass, Washington, somewhere in Maryland, somewhere in Oregon, from Puerta Vallarta to Yelapa, Mexico; Lake Tahoe; San Francisco Bay ferries

45. FLIRTED WITH A FINNISH BORDER CROSSING GUARD

46. Cared for beautiful cats now on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge: Skagit (acquired in Anacortes, Skagit County, Washington), Judah (acquired while shopping for goldfish in Portland), Dan (unsolicited gift); Taxi (stray who left in a huff when I adopted Jackson) Betty (disappeared), Jackson (my soul cat)
47. Now have a feline family of three: Zzyzzy, Zahra and Zazu (creature on earth I am most bonded with)
48. Two dogs only, Manchester terrier, Boy, as a child, and Mountain, husky, on Whidbey Island, WA (hit by car while I was out of town)
49. Once made myself a Trench coat and my boyfriend a Harris tweed suit

50. SCREAMED MY LUNGS OUT ON THE HURRICANE DECK AT NIAGARA FALLS

51. Taken showers at George’s house in Laurel Canyon, with water pressure not unlike the Hurricane Deck at Niagara Falls
52. Once drove a stick-shift from Portland to Seattle, but have not driven any vehicle since 1982, when I abandoned my ‘49 Chevy pick-up truck on Whidbey Island, WA
53. Have scars from minor lipectomies, a moped crash in Cozumel, Zzyzzy escaping from eye medicine
54. Have traveled around the world despite having no sense of direction

55. CAN SPEAK HALTING CONVERSATIONAL LITHUANIAN

55. Can write in French with difficulty
56. Have over 15,000 photos on flickr, most not visible to the public, and more than 120,000 views
58. Can recite the opening of the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales in Middle English
59. Once slapped and spit at a guy for his abominable treatment of me and another friend
60. Have written this column since 2005

And that’s it for this one.

The author’s tattoo is in her own hand, as replicated by Romeo Beats, Kukulkan Tattoo Studio, Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico

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Short Attention Span Poetry Corner

They say it will rain tonight
A downpour of unequalled might

I can't swim and don't own a boat
But have faith in my power to float

So whatever the future may hold
I will greet it, brave and bold

Though it's true I could very well drown
I still say, let it come down
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The road is life. Will you not travel down it?
5/31/11

goofcitygoof@yahoo.com

copyright Alexandra Jones 2011