Author Archives: Christene

Amazing

I am on vacation and I am blogging. I know, I know. But after a very full day I need to unwind. And I just washed my hair, so I can’t go to bed yet.

I arrived into the city late this afternoon. The picture below is of me driving across the Bay Bridge.

Unfortunately when I originally planned this trip I had not taken into consideration that it is Fourth of July weekend. There wasn’t a terrible amount of traffic, and no more people than usual, but a lot of the places were closed. I am terrible at navigating all the one-way streets, so I parked somewhere in the middle, and walked everywhere. I was originally going to to go to The Hidden Vine for dinner. They have amazing reviews, and the pictures look gorgeous. They too were closed. I will try them again on Saturday. Every coffee and pastry shop within a five mile radius was closed. A lot of the tinier, but wonderful, restaurants were closed.

After having driven all day, and at this point had been walking for over an hour, I was famished. I was about to pop into any restaurant that looked decent. I stumbled upon the Colosseo Ristorante. It was a charming little Italian place, and I had amazing ricotta and spinach ravioli.

The view was very nice. I didn’t take a picture of the view since there were a lot of other people sitting directly by the window. But it was nice. Just trust me. Yes, I brought a book to dinner. Why not?

I ended the evening going to Fisherman’s Wharf to watch the fireworks. But I was not really feeling it, so after having staked out a good spot, I left. I walked around for about an hour before returning to my hotel room.

Parts of the city at dusk.

Walking in between buildings.

My hotel room isn’t great, but they have some very nice amenities. And by amenities, I mean their shower. Oh my God I just had the most amazing shower ever!! And the shampoo! I felt like one of those girls in the Herbal Essences commercials. I need to find out what brand they use. Then buy a tub of it.

First Time For Everything

Tonight I opened a bottle of champagne all by myself. I know it is trivial, but I have never done that before.

I am doing a lot of things for the first time right now. I am also doing a lot of things I haven’t done in a long time, so it feels like the first time. A few days ago I covered this in my post, Logistics. Sort of.

Today I got my first teaching position. I mean, I have known about it for over a year. It was just a matter of getting my degree squared away and all that. But it is still exciting. It is no longer something to be speculated. It is actually happening, officially, on paper, as in “you will be teaching these specific courses right here, starting on this date.”

I was talking to the department chair and she is apparently giving me some very nice courses. I was under the impression that I would be starting with the remedial, intro to writing a paragraph type classes. I blurted out “you mean you are going to let me teach real English?” She said she has faith in me. Good thing one of us feels that way.

One of my friends explained to me that it is actually easier to teach literature courses. You are working on the assumption that the students already have basic writing skills to a certain level, and now you can get into the story, the narrative, as opposed to focusing on the technicality of constructing a paragraph. She knows how much I dislike technicalities. I may not know how many commas are appropriate within a 750 word span, but I can tell you about the story and its author.