Stayin' Alive

I do love the way The Universe works.  That's such a simple statement for such a complex and extremely unbelievable existence I, or we, find ourselves.  We got a new patient yesterday.  She joined us for our morning get together that includes coffee, cookies and news. 
 
She is very social.  She is also much like me.  She heard voices and attempted suicide by jumping off a rooftop.  Hers was 4 floors, mine was 5 - I think. 

I don't actually remember the jump.  I do remember wondering how long the crushing sensation would last when I hit, depending on if I was on the 4th or 5th floor.  I so badly did not want to do it, however, I believed it would help The Universe of Good.  This was something I supplied none of to The Universe - Good that is.  While I was insane, I was probably not all that wrong in my beliefs.
 
I just started working on my laptop.  I recently downloaded an anti-virus software that my mentor, Dale, suggest I do.  While I am very impressed, I didn't like it as my homepage.  It was just to plain looking.  It is actually a Yahoo search engine, but it called itself AVG, since AVG is what the anti-virus is. 
 
So I changed it to Bing which is a homepage that, at first, I did not like.  I used to prefer Yahoo or Google.  However, Bing grew on me.  I love the incredibly beautiful photographs (go figure) it uses to surround the area in which one types what they are searching for.  They are usually incredibly beautiful natural landscapes.  

Well, today the extremely beautiful photograph was something I have never seen used by this site. It was a cityscape.  The city was Baltimore.  I found this Universally interesting because my new friend who I have so much in common with is from Baltimore.  Nothing happens by accident.  Today at lunch she said she was so glad I didn't die.  I feel the same about her.  In fact, I will unofficially be her Mentor as it was suggested I become by my Mentor in my last blog.
 
I love The Universe.  Speaking of The Universe, my friend, The Pinball Wizard is back!  He's very, very sluggish and tired, but he made it back.  I prayed for him a lot.  If anyone else did - thank you!  I told him what I did and he was very grateful and very impressed.  I told him how I used his song.  He then told me how he used to be in a band in Seattle.  I thought this was pretty cool.  It was years ago, long before the grunge era of course, but I still admire him.  I'm sure Seattle has always had a nice music scene.
 

The Pinball Wizard said he's feeling better, but he still seems a bit sluggish.  He's been to General three time in three days!  I'm sure he could use some more prayer, so I will certainly provide it.  Thank you so much to those of you who prayed for him before.  HE also appreciates it!  Thank you.

The Pinball Wizard (I got his permission - of course)

 
The lady who runs the morning group gave me some photograph release forms for the newspaper.  This is very cool because it kind of feels official to me.  Basically I will ask people to fill the out and sign them so we can print their image in the paper.  I've done this before with Susan when we used to photograph cyclist for Bike to Work day and would have them post them on 511.org.  511.org is the website that San Franciscans use to help themselves navigate San Francisco. 

I personally use word of mouths agreements for my blog.  It's not like it's that big or I have any money.  I just do it because I respect people and I would never do something that made someone feel uncomfortable - like put up a photo that they didn't like. 
 
So, it really feels like my participation in the Newspaper really makes sense.  I really do seem to have "an eye" for photographable things!  A few weeks ago, I mentioned in a blog how San Francisco had broken ground on what will be the tallest building on the West Coast.  I also said how before my incident, I was noticing how many skyscrapers were being built.  I noticed so many buildings skeletons and all the huge cranes all over the city! 
 
I am such a skyscraper nut!  I love then so much.  I love to watch them go up.  Most of them are going up in the neighborhood Susan and I lived for 9 years.  I was so impressed, I wanted to photograph them and write a blog about their construction!  I even said in this blog that it was still an obtainable goal for me to accomplish as I got healthy!  The blog I am speaking of is Dreamer - Touch of Grey.

Well, I guess my old employer beat me to it.  It was a huge front page story in the San Francisco Chronicle today.  A Sunday!  It turns out most of the high rises are going to be places for people to live like apartments or condos.  Well, I knew there were a bunch.  In fact, I estimated 15 new high rises being built in my blog.  Well, the last time I went out, while driving down Market Street, I noticed even more were under construction.  The Chronicle reports that there are more than two dozen under construction!  That is so amazing.  This very densely populated city with many skyscrapers is going to be denser with even more skyscrapers!  In fact, San Francisco is the second most densely populated city in the  country.  The First is New York City - of course. 

Years ago when I was looking for a city to move to, I looked towards New York and San Francisco.  I think San Francisco won due to the weather.  I still love the weather here! 

I also love seeing all these high rises.  I feel so good.  I love big cities.  You know what else feels good?  That fact that I can feel good about such a thing - something that is not about me!  Such a thing warms my soul.  lol. 

It makes me feel good that I was on top of a photographical event.  It is a pretty obvious one.  That fact that I wanted to write about it may actually say something.  I am looking forward to working for this newspaper at the hospital.  I am feeling so confident about my future possibilities beyond being a street artist.  I feel like I really needed such a boost. 

I do have a long way to go - physically and mentally, but I feel like I'm going to be okay some day.  I love life.  I love life!  I don't know why I cry?  Every song on the radio speaks to me one way or another. 

I don't even know what song to use.  I want to take some photos of that newspaper article, simply because it is so amazing how many skyscrapers are being built!  Just being in the city is amazing.  I really do look forward to being down there!  It gives me so much energy.  I think I should rush out of this hospital on the mountain down to the city below!  I don't need "physical therapy!"  Yeah right. 

I'm just being stupid and silly!  I will stick around.  I really do want to be here, but there is a beautifully attractive city drawing me in out there!  She will always be there.  I will simply take it one day at a time. 

It is so beautiful this Sunday!  I'm going to treat it like a Sunday.  I think I'll go find my new friend and ask her is she would like to go out back to see the farm with me!  That's what mentors are for! 


Ooops! Wait!  Me.  Remember?  Let's not get ahead of myself and rush out of this hospital to quickly.  I have to do my physical therapy first.

  

 

Above are my 5 physical therapy instruction I am to accomplish twice a day.  It's nice to have a nice little physical routine.  I took it with my webcam on my computer, so sorry it's not to clear!  I also could have lightened on Photoshop, but I want to get to the zoo!

 

Feels much better to have done a little exercise!  It's not running 5 miles as I did before, but I have to start somewhere.  My physical therapist said I probably would not be able to run 5 miles a day anymore.  She said I could use an elliptical. While this was nice to hear, I do love running through the actual city.  She asked if I like to ride bikes?  I'm an avid cyclist in this city!  In this city, that's a huge deal!  That made me so happy.  In fact, I have a Cannondale Urban Bike.  It's light and it's fast!  It is the best and the fastest way to navigate the streets San Francisco!  Perhaps I should lighten up on the "fastest" part.

Okay, the beautiful farm/zoo!  I'll be back.

I'm back.  As I mentioned above, I wanted to put photos of todays newspaper so everyone could see just what I am talking about and how many buildings are going up!  It's incredible.

The focus horrible, but you get the picture of how many red dots there are!

 



All these red dots are on Market and Mission.   This even includes smaller housing projects.   In top right hand corner is the photo of the Transbay Terminal Tower.  I placed it's photo in my recent blog - Dreamer - Touch of Grey.



This is right next door to where Susan and I lived.  This is Mission Street.  It looks like it runs from 8th Street to 11th Street.  We lived on 7th and Minna.  Minna is 1/3 of a block way from Mission.  It is an alley.  Mission and Market run parallel.    They were being built all around us those 9 years we lived there too.   

Well, I didn't manage to find my friend to show her the farm out back, but someone else did, so that's good.  We did hang out at dinner and actually found out one more interesting thing about us.  We have the same birthday!  Talk about coincidental.  The difference about our birthdays is, the birthday I am referring to is the my NEW birthday, the one I referred to it in the first paragraph of the last blog, Wonderful World. 

It feels like my writing is tuning into The Universe.  Basically, I was referring to how many times I had to start over last year.  Coincidently enough, I wrote:

I guess I started over, at LIFE, by attempting suicide and being unsuccessful.  That happened January 15th.  That date I DO remember.  That date I will ALWAYS remember.  It is my new BIRTHDAY! Thank you GOD.

January 15th is her actual Birthday.  I do have to believe that The Universe was not playing tricks on us however.  As we both said, "Nothing happens by accident." 

She found it so coincidently amazing that we both survived the same way and ended up in the same place.  I explained how each blog includes at least one song and usually has a song's name as the title.   I even wrote earlier, "I don't even know what song to use", so I told her that she had to pick the song which would be the title for this blog.  She started singing and dancin', Stayin' Alive -  of course!



 

Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I'm a woman's man, no time to talk.
Music loud and women warm.
I've been kicked around since I was born.
And now it's all right, it's O.K.
And you may look the other way.
We can try to understand
The New York Times' effect on man.
Whether you're a brother
Or whether you're a mother,
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin'
And ev'rybody shakin'
And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha,
Stayin' alive.
Stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha,
Stayin' alive.
Well now, I get low and I get high
And if I can't get either I really try.
Got the wings of heaven on my shoes
I'm a dancin' man and I just can't lose.
You know it's all right, it's O.K.
I'll live to see another day.
We can try to understand
The New York Times' effect on man.
Whether you're a brother
Or whether you're a mother,
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin'
And ev'rybody shakin'
And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha,
Stayin' alive.
Stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha,
Stayin' alive.
Life goin' nowhere.
Somebody help me.
Somebody help me, yeah.
Life goin' nowhere.
Somebody help me, yeah.
Stayin' alive
Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I'm a woman's man, no time to talk.
Music loud and women warm.
I've been kicked around since I was born.
And now it's all right, it's O.K.
And you may look the other way.
We can try to understand
The New York Times' effect on man.
Whether you're a brother
Or whether you're a mother,
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin'
And ev'rybody shakin'
And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha,
Stayin' alive.
Stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha,
Stayin' alive.
Life goin' nowhere.
Somebody help me.
Somebody help me, yeah.
Life goin' nowhere.
Somebody help me, yeah.
Stayin' alive
Life goin' nowhere.
Somebody help me.
Somebody help me, yeah.
Life goin' nowhere.
Somebody help me, yeah.
Stayin' alive