Well, hello! My hair is less auburn (hooray!) and last night I wore my Ann Mashburn dress to a party as I love it so much I would live in it if not for silk and practicality. This time with diamond earrings in the shape of butterflies and my grandmother’s seed pearl/diamond Cartier bracelet.
And platinum Bernardo sandals. Mom always had a pair, usually brown. Simple shapes to everything, but festive and relatively luxe.
I attended this event after a day marching through San Francisco with tens of thousands of other people (unofficial estimate of 100K but let’s not exaggerate) for No Kings Day. By now you will have read all about it, so I will only add, ours was prototypically San Franciscan.
Imagine many gray-haired women who lived through the 60s. Now imagine everyone else; Latino, Filipino, Black, Indian, French, Chinese diaspora, white, single, paired, families, straight, gay, gendered every which way. Many carrying American flags. And, because San Francisco, a few well-tanned and completely naked men hung out and chatted among themselves, while the few police at the intersections also chatted with each other, and waved back at us if we waved first.
I bought my flag at Safeway, Northern California’s big commercial supermarket chain. Yes we eat organic spinach.
All of which is to say, firstly, California is as American as Iowa, West Virginia, Mississippi, Texas or Maine. But I’d never force you to live here if you don’t like it. Secondly, this is exactly why we need democracy. If we’re all going to be different, which, after 68+ years of life I’m starting to suspect is the case, we’re going to have to support a system that enables our differences.
It isn’t easy. Even in San Francisco, with flowers in our various hairs, it seems someone drove a car into a person. No reports on serious injuries, but still.
I can’t help but struggle against my own good fortune when so many here, and around the world, lack for basic life needs. Nobody’s pure. All we can do is our best, as often as we can.
Anyway, I recommend Bernardo sandals. Sturdy Gals find them very comfortable and reasonably priced for the degree of style. I truly hope you’re having a wonderful weekend, and the week ahead brings you comfort and joy.
22 Responses
I love Bernardo sandals! You look absolutely lovely. I hope you enjoyed the party and am so glad the orange dress has become a favorite!
I read about the people struck by a car in San Francisco (AP was saying four people yesterday) and worried a little. I’m so glad no one was seriously injured. You’re a hero for being brave and standing up for others. Encouragement from seeing so many people show up and speak up seems to mean more to all of us than we imagine it will. It did to me. Hope is so important, and the voices of others speaking for us or echoing our own help us hold on to hope.
Wishing comfort and joy and lots of love for you in the coming week and always!
Thank you, all around! I promise you 100% I am no hero, just brought up to feel my obligation strongly. If my actions help others to feel encouraged, it’s all so worth it. Hang onto hope.
I’m a San Francisco native who has spent most of my life here. There are times when the cost of living, outrageous decisions by our local politicians (where to even begin?), and ever-increasing gentrification make me want to throw in the towel, but I know I never will. Because… San Francisco.
Because, San Francisco. Cue the music! Glad you’re sticking around.
What an inspiring, if heartbreaking, day yesterday was.
And what a lovely bracelet!
Heartbreaking in so many places, and so beautiful. And thank you.
Very pretty outfit, and thank you for showing the flag, literally, at the SF No Kings protest.
Thank you very much.
Glad your part of the event went off without any injuries! After hearing about the heinous targetted killing of Minnesota Representative Hoffman and her husband the night before, I feared for the worst. (Also, my son lives in SF).
Judging from the clips I saw, the military parade was an embarrassing dud, and Drumpf could hardly stay awake.
The killings were tragic, as was the death in Salt Lake City. I hope your son loves SF, and that it loves him. As for the military parade, even the New York Times described the energy as “desultory.” Nothing like what’s described below in Seattle, for example.
I used to always have a pair of brown Bernardo sandals! They are the best.
Thank you for going to the No Kings protest. I read somewhere that we only need about 3.5 % of our population to demonstrate against overreaches by this administration for the rest of us to prevail. I hope everyone will get involved in some way.
Glad you too have experienced the joy of Bernardos;)
Yes, that research on non-violent protests is amazing. Apparently, even if only about 5 million of us showed up yesterday (only;)) apparently that still puts our chance of success at changing course above 50%. I too hope everyone who cares can get involved, in whatever way they are able.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/asra-nomani-2-1-billion-machine-behind-spontaneous-anti-trump-protests
Nobody in the known universe has said that this protest was “spontaneous.” It would be absurd to think that magically one Sunday the country showed up to protest. No. We all registered online, or at least knew it was scheduled. What it was was grass roots.. Not funded by foreign states or billionaires in the shadows. Activist organizations came up with the idea, several of them primarily, but every single person there CHOSE to show up. None of us were paid. None of us are faceless political figures. We are human beings and we don’t want this lawless government that promotes hate and dismantled our system of democracy. Millions and millions of us.
You don’t have to agree. This is a democracy. But you cannot lie us out of existence.
It’s beyond outlandish to say that this was spontaneous or anything else that article has spouted. I knew and planned for at least two weeks about it, and I live in a small town where we had an amazing and peaceful protest.
Who are you?
I went to the No Kings protest in my city (Kansas City). I wasn’t paid to go there. It was the first protest I have ever been to. I went with several friends. A lot of my friends across the country also went in their respective cities. I’ve never even heard of any of the organizations mentioned in this article. The protest was a joyful, non violent gathering of patriotic people like me who are concerned about the behavior and policies of our president.
Beautiful dress on you. I went to the Seattle No Kings protest (70,000 estimated). It was a friendly, funny, sometime profane, American flag-waving, peaceful, and determined crowd. No naked men that I saw, but some hilarious costumes and plenty of creative signs. Drums, tambourines, and cowbells too.
The organizations that coordinated it did a good job in my opinion: emphasized non-violence and directed the protest away from recent points of confrontation like the federal building. They amplified the message by having so many protests on a single day.
But organizations had a light effect on the messages. There were very few slick or matching signs. In fact the breadth of programs, norms, and values that the Trump administration has trampled on in less than 6 months meant that people carried signs with a huge range of concerns from immigration to science, abridged freedoms, climate, trans rights, wildfire funding, women’s rights, tariffs, higher education, race equity, economic disaster expected, Ukraine, mis-using the military, democracy, police state tactics, and I’m forgetting some. One local church marched under a banner “Jesus was Woke”. A lot of people made fun of Trump, some cleverly. It was lively and heartfelt. (As opposed to the dark “fake spontaneity” projected in the Fox News piece linked above). Glad I went.
Yes, exactly! This was not a swarm of single-minded people directed by Fox News or government officials. This was a federation, a united assembly of very, very different groups. All were motivated by varying different causes, but all of them saw Trump as the single most dangerous force affecting them and their loved ones. That’s what brought us together. No need to lie about it.
Just love that dress on you. And I know the earrings and bracelet which are both spectacular. My grandmother had really beautiful jewelry that was stolen in a robbery in their home. It wasn’t insured and there went my heirloom pieces…..:(
Not your colors but heck, for a summer corded cotton frock, seems like a good idea [especially since you said you could “live in it”].
https://shopmashburn.com/products/ann-mashburn-trapunto-blouson-dress-green-white-corded-stripe-s76474
We had a fabulous turnout in San Diego! Perfectly peaceful and, despite what we were protesting, joyful. California has become such a punching bag lately. I’ve never really lived anywhere else and really have had little desire to look elsewhere. Yes, it’s expensive… but so, so worth it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T72FoUEUlGc&t=95s
Dr Phil
I’m sure I’ll be cancelled