Contents Day One

Denise and her brother Alex proposed making plastic pink rose thank you shopping bags from fabric for the City|Space "Wish You Were Here" reimagined San Francisco souvenir show. You know the kind. With the pink cut out shaped rose, and the big bold THANK YOU beneath it. I bought one tonight from the opening at the Brava theater on 24th Street for $45.

The cashier asked me if I could like a bag to put my bag in. The irony escaped her. I flatly said, "No. I would not like a bag for my bag. That's the point." The February rains make it difficult to manage my long London Fog rain burka and anything else in a cramped restroom, so when I went to the restroom, I asked my husband to hold the bag, then also handed him my purse.

When I emerged, P had put my purse inside my pink shopping bag, which I carried with me to a cassoulet dinner at Solano Cellars in Berkeley. Kirstin & Matt planned an excellent winter meal, Jason graciously hosted and Keith backed everybody up. Peter stopped by to sample the delicacies his crew had made: fennel, blood orange, walnut & French feta salad; duck confit with white bean & sausage cassoulet; and a scrumptious dense chocolate cake. Jason and Kirstin hooked me up with perfectly paired wines, all French. A Sauvignon Blanc with the salad, I tried both a tannat and a grenache with the duck, and had a nice sweet dessert wine with the cake. It is such a cozy place, an authentic wine bar with an established community that goes back 30 years. And they'll be around 30 years from now when the current heyday of wine bars is long past.

I showed Kirstin my bag. She was quite impressed, as would any be who took a moment to inspect it's fine craftmanship and attention to details. This bag is going to carry my world for awhile. I need a little pink in my life.

Contents of my bag tonight:

French purse Magali sent me made by Sebastien's sister Ines

• Which includes:
• iPhone
• wallet
• Revlon fingernail file
• Lancome Strike A Pose lipstick
• Vincent Longo Wine and Peking Red duo lip liner
• car and house keys
• journal (almost full)
• favorite Japanese Zebra-brand SARASA clip pen (size 0.5)
• one latex-free band aid
• "You Go Girl!" compact mirror
• BART EZ Rider fare card
• blue plastic pencil case I got in Thailand in 2001
• one tampon still in the cardboard tube from the machine in the bathroom at work

Wide taupe scarf

My new copy of Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose"

Bottle of a 2000 Russian River Valley Walter Hansel Pinot Noir