bumpy roads, new endeavors

Last week I ate dinner with a friend at Jeanty at Jack's, the San Francisco restaurant of Philippe Jeanty. We were underdressed, and it was late, but the maitre d' graciously seated us and then they proceeded to stuff us so painfully full of excellent French comfort food that I wasn't sure I was going to make it home. The city roads are rough, and every time I hit a bump, the stays of my already distended stomach stretched just a millimeter more. I was not sure I would survive. The coup de grace was dessert: chocolate mousse brulee. Asked whether it was more fluffy or creamy, the waiter, without missing a beat, said "creamy. Yes, more creamy." He was wrong. It was both.

What they had done, those dastardly French, was place a layer of chocolate mousse over a layer of creme brulee and top the entire mebob with melted sugar. I won't say it was wholly successful. The mousse was flabby and the brulee too chilly. It was delicious, but also sortof wrong, like a pig-dog of the confection world. But we ate the entire thing with hardly any conversation between us. Ooo, dang.

Yesterday I went to see the Dalai Lama, compliments of my almost-ex-boyfriend, who couldn't use the tickets because he had to move to NY and start a new job. It was pretty amazing. I am not one of those people who believes in "transmission" or gurus or karma or reincarnation, but, well, he had me. His Holiness, tiny on a stage surrounded by thousands in the sold-out Civic Auditorium and huge on the video screen flanking the stage, emanated calmness and clarity. I have never seen anyone speak with so much traction. It wasn't conviction per se, or certainty, it was more a sort of tightness between what he meant and what he said that bespoke of integrity. This man knew what the heck he was talking about. Maybe authority is the right word. He talked a lot about compassion, of having a flexible mind that does not label things good, bad, or better than. He talked about caring for others, and of being warm-hearted.

The theme of the talk was Creating Positive Change. He had two short pieces of advice: have full self-confidence, and work hard. He talked for a long time about how mental states are often more powerful than the physical world, aka reality. He probably wasn't saying anything that was radically different from what you can pick up in a Buddhist text or a garden-variety self-help book, but from his lips the messages were somehow irrefutable.

Funny thing was: I was not bored, but he promptly put me to sleep. I was not the only one. The guy in front of me conked out, and two kids were felled across the aisle. My theory: the tremendous sense of calmness and well-being just put me out. It was relaxing, like being held in the arms of a really good parent. Hats off the the Lama.

My life is about to change. I have taken a new job. The offer letter is due to arrive today, and without much ado I have agreed to go in-house at Autodesk to be a Sr. Web editor. They have a rather fabulous downtown office, right across from the Ferry Plaza, with free drinks and an espresso machine and their entire marketing department. I will commute there and be close to friends and excellent lunch spots and the farmer's market on Tuesdays. The city has a new website, Nextmuni.com, which tells you how soon the bus will come, which will ease the public transit angle a bit. It's part of a new system which also broadcasts the info on electronic signs in the bus kiosks. Nothing like a little information to take the sting out of public transit unreliability.

I hope to spend my last week of freedom seeing friends, shopping for clothes, getting all my ducks in a row, and getting pampered. I'll let you know how it goes.