From Pop Chart Lab:
A catalog of 49 drinks culled from great works of film and literature, depicting everything from Philip Marlowe’s Gin Gimlet to Fredo Corleone’s Banana Daiquiri to the simple yet effective Buttermaker Boilermaker.
Finally, an infographic worth framing! Now I can finally make  The Flaming Moe from the Simpsons and the Gibson from North by Northwest. Which drinks are your favorite?
I’ve seen this TED talk making the rounds on a couple of blogs that I read and honestly I ignored it as long as I could because I do not need another “What am I doing with my life!??” crisis… BUT! This video is more encouraging than doomsday.
Mag Jay is a clinical psychologist who specializes in young adults in their 20s. She even wrote a book about twenty somethings. Basically her advice is that your 20s aren’t a throwaway period. What you do in your 20s impacts so much of your future life. So have fun and be crazy, but live your life intentionally. Pretty empowering stuff.
Of course the concept of paying nothing didn’t click for me until college. In college when I started working for the recycling department at Yale, one of the biggest donation events of the year was the end of the year moveout. We’d have these great big blue plastic barrels set out near the dorms and people would donate everything and anything as they left campus for their summer adventures. As a recycling worker I received first dibs on all the donated goods. Some great finds I’ve gotten from the blue barrels include:
Last but not least, there were so many free clothes. Great clothes, fancy clothes, normal people clothes, workout clothes, everything. God, it was fantastic.
Oh yeah, I have no shame. I’m the person digging thru trash for goodies. It’s one of my favorite things about San Francisco. Look at this fantastic-ness! This person could not sell all her clothes @ Crossroads so she left them outside for free. THANK YOU!  Can we make this a regular thing? Just leave it outside for the fashion vultures to scoop up.
I dug through the pile and came out with some cute stuff.
I know that in smaller cities this would not work, but I do love this about San Francisco. The street giveth, the street taketh away.
I’ll make an exception for Tadich Grill. Tadich falls into one of the my personal favorite types of restaurants to visit. The restaurant with pedigree, mystique, but most importantly attitude. These places have been around for decades, maybe more than a century. They are often meat + seafood spots. They are often quite expensive. But hey, that’s part of the fun. I love deciding to go whole hog and fully embracing the show of dining out. Order drinks, order all the food. Order dessert. Order coffee. Smoke a cigarette. Sit there for a long ass time. It’s very romantic.
In business since 1849, this “classic, film-noir”-worthy “seafood temple” Downtown has “old-time SF atmosphere” in every detail from the “19th-century booths” to the “jokingly grumpy servers” that are “straight from central casting”; sure, the “menu never changes”, but since “fresh fish at its best” and “classic cocktails” “never go out of fashion”, schools of “business folk”, “tourists” and “nostalgic” types still “wait their turn in line” and keep things “noisy and crowded, especially at lunchtime.”
A few weeks ago I lucked out and rolled in with my coworkers for a team lunch. I took a ton of photos, but in the end the official photos from the restaurant’s website really captures the mood best.
Yes, that is the bar. To the left you can see some private booths where they put obnoxious people who take iphone photos of their Chilean Sea Bass and Manhattans. AHEM.
Ze hiztory of ze restaurant
The menu is extensive, but I’ll give you a hint, it’s all meat + seafood! I took photos of my food, but they’re not all that exciting. It’s just really good and really solid fish.
Looking forward to coming back here again. It would be a great spot to finish off with a martini after the Hitchcock’s San Francisco Walking Tour.
Dr. Weston would be my first choice…
Over the years I’ve seen a handful of therapists in short spurts to help get me through tough times, and I think I’m starting to get a better idea of what traits to look for in a counselor. Finding a good therapist can be a pain in the ass, so here are are a few things to consider when evaluating a new therapist. Â I could go on and on (and on…) about this, but for this list I’ve capped it off at ten. Now, in no particular order…
MFT, MSW, PHD, PSYD, I’ve tried each of these. I think you can get quality care from all of those options, but when you’re just starting out, definitely take a minute to read up on the differences in approach and schooling that your therapist undertook. More degrees may not lead to better treatment. For example I talked to a psychiatrist for a bit and all he wanted to do was give me drugs. So terrible! Then I worked with a social worker and was quite impressed with her care. It’s a crapshoot.
Do they have a dog? BONUS POINTS. I am not kidding. Do they lay out their interests and working approach online? This may save you a few awkward sessions where you try to weasel your way out of a commitment to a therapist who is just not a good fit. For example, when I clicked over to one possible MFT, I realized that she was a little bit too hippie dippie for me. While I liked that she took PayPal, I could tell we were not going to get on well. BULLET DODGED.
You’re going to be talking about some deep shit, you might as well be comfortable.
How much do they charge per hour? Do they take your insurance? If not, will they work out a special fee system for you? Do not assume that you will pay more for a person with more education. Insurance is funny in that way. I paid $60/session for an MFT, and $20/session for a PHD. Shop around and don’t be afraid to talk cash with your therapist.
Yeah, I stalk all my doctors on Yelp. What?
It is so important to be comfortable with your therapist, and understanding your ish is part of that. Try as a they might, I don’t think that white men can really understand what it’s like to be a twenty-something Asian female. Lots of therapists will mention if they specialize in certain demographics, such as youth, chronically ill patients, or LGBTQ issues.
Is your potential new therapist goal oriented? Will they ask you to set concrete goals for treatment? Will they ask you to actively change, maybe even… give you homework assignments? Or is their approach more free form, perhaps talking about whatever you like every week? Is your therapist open to having joint relationship sessions with your partner if you are having romantic relationship issues?
It’s kinda hard to snoop and figure this one out, but I think it’s so important for a therapist to have lived through some shit before they start working with you on how to get through your shit. It’s kind of like that therapist in Short Bus. What, you’ve never seen it? Save it for a rainy day.
Consistency in treatment is key for making progress. If you travel often, you may want to get a therapist who is comfortable offering different methods of connecting for your sessions. Phone counseling sounds weird, but when you already have a relationship with the therapist in person, you can slip back into comfort quite quickly over the phone.
And obviously, most importantly, you gotta be able to talk to them. If you’re gonna grow, you have to be able to work with this person honestly, without fear of judgement.
On the other end of the spectrum, however, be cautious of therapists who end up feeling like your own personal cheerleader. Once you have a cheer squad behind you, you may feel afraid of letting them down, or telling them about your poor choices last weekend. They have become just another friend. Â If that’s what you’re looking for, perhaps you should find a life coach instead. In fact, many therapists moonlight as life coaches on the side.
This sounds weird, but if you notice that your therapist is perhaps falling on hard times financially, and seems to be marketing heavily, or pushing you to increase your sessions, be careful! They need your business and their treatment may be a bit less than stellar due to their money woes. I’d never thought about this before, until I realized that my last therapist was hard up and trying to get me to do sessions when I wanted to take a break. Yeesh.
That’s all for now, but I hope this post was helpful for you fellow crazy diamonds out there. Maybe in the future I’ll write some more about how to literally go about finding and booking a therapist.
