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Welcome, dear readers, to Trinity College Dublin! Its story begins all the way back in 1592, incredibly, and is the oldest university in Ireland. It has over 16,000 students and is #52 in the world’s Top 100 universities. It’s really, really gorgeous. We were very lucky to be escorted around the 51-acre campus by a generous friend who is currently there working on her PhD.

Two marvelous things are at Trinity College and sadly, neither permits photography. Those are the Old Library and the Book of Kells Exhibition. The former is referred to as the Long Room and was built in 1712, is over 200 feet long and quite narrow, and very grand and lovely. Of course, it contains the most ancient and rare books – all of which, I think, must be handled with gloves and special care, and only after one has acquired permission to do so.

Here’s a photo I’ve found to give you an idea of how magnificent it is:

Photo courtesy of Getty Images

Photo courtesy of The Modern Day Atelier

And even then, it absolutely fails to do the beauty of the place any real justice. Trust me.

The Book of Kells shan’t be bastardized with a sad Google search, because it’s much too extraordinary for that. It’s one of the world’s oldest books, experts put it around 800 A.D., and was created by Celtic monks. Though I’m sure many find it inspiring due to its religious nature – it contains the four Gospels in Latin and has over 500,000 visitors every year – I was spellbound by its remarkable age and lustre of the script, decoration and scenes. You must see it with your own eyes! It’s considered a national treasure in Ireland.

Back to the famous Campanile in the quad, or the Library Square, of Trinity. The four corners halfway up each have a statue to represent Divinity, Science, Medicine and Law. There’s an amusing superstition for students – if you walk under the tower, you’ll fail your exams and won’t graduate! It’s taken very seriously.

M chatting with a lovely local femme – she happens to the fiance of our friend at Trinity, and was a fabulous tour guide as well (she should be, she too went to school there)!

They’re both really fantastic people, and we were incredibly happy to spend so much time with them in Dublin! They took us to an amazing dinner with fabulous cocktails, a mind-blowing drag show at one of Dublin’s most popular gay bars, gave us the VIP tour of Trinity College and hung out with us at the Old Jameson Distillery. Not to mention the super helpful (seriously, I do not know what we would have done without it), custom Google map of all the best places to shop, eat, drink and visit in Dublin. Thanks again, you two! XO!

After the library, this damn sphere is for sure my favorite. It’s by an Italian sculptor, Arnaldo Pomodoro, and his series of these – “Sphere Within Sphere” – are in places around the world. Even San Francisco’s de Young has one in the sculpture garden, but not quite so grand (and shiny)! as this.

Also, this conversation was funny:

“That sphere is amazing. How awesome it would be if it could spin around!”
“Oh, it spins.” (You have to imagine the soft, pretty Irish accent.)
“WHUT. No way. Lies.” (And then my bossy American one.)
“It does! I’ll show you!”

Cue to the delicate femme creature you see above marching right over to the sphere in her fancy outfit and giving it the old heave-ho! A gal after my own heart, she got that sucker spinning gently ’round and ’round, and we were delighted! Onlookers must have thought we were insane.

TA-DA!

F A N C Y.

I had a lot of feelings about wearing this dress (100% raw vintage silk, can we talk?) to a filthy music festival in dusty old Golden Gate Park, let me tell you. Even M had feelings about it. But you know what? WHEN ELSE, DAMN IT? What myriad other days has this wanker San Francisco summer presented me with, days that scream “Go on, child, wear head-to-toe silk if you like, let this breeze ruffle the hem, it’s the summer of love, let your curls all fall down, I adore you”? That would be basically none. Carpe diem, kittens, and trust that I worked this in all my backstage glory.

Nevermind the girls sitting in the hut behind me, they were just taking refuge from the late morning breeze to roll some joints. “Wait, there’s people in there,” M whispered when I started to prance on over. “So what,” I sighed, and our friend was all, “They can leave if they don’t like it.” I was real sweet though, I warned them that I was just taking a few photos and made sure they didn’t mind. They had a lot of weed. I’m pretty sure I could have pissed on the side of it and they wouldn’t have noticed, anyway. KIDS THESE DAYS, and their substances.

Long story short, I felt that it was the third and final day of the festival, the sun was shining, and the dress and I would both survive. I was right! Did I tell you that Vanessa Hudgens (of HSM fame) was there on Saturday? We saw her during The Arctic Monkeys (I now own two of their albums, by the way), looking surly but cute, and wearing a spirit hood and a dress that definitely hadn’t survived the day. Fringe. Such a shame. We also saw a giddy, rugged-looking KAREV (Grey’s Anatomy, Justin Chambers, ringing any bells?) rushing out of the VIP area on Sunday night.

We started the day early with a round of coffees and fresh baked croissants courtesy of one kind Canadian, and got to the park in time to see Charles Bradley, who after sixty years of life is just now hitting his stride as an incredible soul singer. It was a wonderful, wonderful way to start off a glorious Sunday. We headed to Sutro to make sure we were nice and early for the tUnE-yArDs, who drew an insanely huge crowd for so early in the day, and didn’t disappoint fans (and certainly made new ones).

We meant to catch Latryx and Lyrics Born / Lateef, but somehow ended up taking a very long lunch (Korean tacos and pulled pork sandwiches from Maverick) with a detour back to VIP sanctuary, and didn’t end up back at Sutro until Julieta Venegas, who brought the lovely and talented Ana Tijoux onstage with her for a song or two. Determined to secure our excellent spot up close and stage left for Beirut, we ended up warding off a potential fence-climber during Little Dragon’s mostly yawn-worthy (yeah, I said it) set, and just relaxed and drank and told stories while I watched the clock for 6:50PM to roll around.

I don’t know how to describe the way I feel about Beirut’s music. It sounds the way love feels. To me. There are many ways to love, many kinds of love to love, there are myriad themes on love and there are love’s terrific and terrible highs and lows, and there they are, in every heartbreaking, beautiful note they play.

There was a moment, before they started but after Little Dragon ended, when the crowd surged something awful and nothing felt right, and I actually considered leaving. I’ve never seen Beirut live and if it wasn’t going to be perfect then I didn’t want it at all. Then something magical happened.

A backstage bracelet was slipped onto my wrist and I wandered away from our little group, was granted access to go behind the security guy policing the gate, and walked around the side of the stage and right smack into Beirut. They’d been forming some kind of pre-show circle, literally moments from taking the stage, and I turned a blind corner into the middle of them all huddled under the massive stage beams. For a split second they stood around me before some awkward shuffling around to let me through, and I stood there sort of dumbfounded but thankfully silent, and completely unable to believe my eyes. Sure, it’s a wee bit silly and kind of fangirl, but for a beat my little world stood serenely still.

Eventually I made my way backstage while they were playing, and I waved to M in the crowd (she saw me right away and I could see her grinning and waving back, pointing so our friends could see, too). How could the show be anything less than perfect after that?

I only stayed backstage for a few songs, because I couldn’t bear not having M right next to me for it, but I was able to snap some pics. Look at that sweet face singing his tender heart out! Lucky for us, they’ll be back in October, and I can’t wait to see them again.

Dress: Winter Kate
Leather: Elie Tahari
Bag: Freebird by The Sak
Necklace: Mariele Ivy
Silver Cuff: Made Her Think
Earrings: Asos
Shades: Ray-Bans
Boots: Nine West

Love,

FFAF

 Backstage awesomeness*! ZOMG!
*This is basically the only photo (and there are a few) from backstage where you can’t tell I’m all teary-eyed** and delirious.
**If you think that’s bad, you should see me at a Stars show. I am inconsolable.

Has it been awhile or has it been awhile, dear readers? While it’s true we returned late last Thursday night, we both headed right back to work on Friday, and it’s been a whirlwind weekend of readying the petite for summer camp and entertaining the MIL, who was sweet enough to let us fly her up to manage the dog- and house-sitting duties while we were on our epic family vacation.

She’s already flying back home tomorrow, so today we brunched at the amazing Serpentine in SF’s Dogpatch district, and road-tripped up the coast to see the magical Muir Woods and soak up some sun at the very sweet and quaint Stinson Beach. It was a glorious day, all blue skies and stolen patches of delicious warmth in between brisk sea breezes.

We came home, utterly exhausted from a 12-hour day out and about, and stuffed ourselves with carnitas nachos and strawberry lime margaritas. I figure after all that hiking and not crying over goodbyes and not dying on HWY 1, we earned it!

If these photos have a familiar ring to them, it’s because they’re the companion pics from FFAF’s earlier Mother’s Day post! (Yes, yes, way back in May. Good grief!) I’d forgotten about them, which is ridiculous because M looks amazing and her pattern-mixing is kind of epic. It’s also interesting to note that it was perhaps warmer in May than it’s been in June thus far.

Anyway, enjoy, and keep an eye out for lots of on-location FFAF posts from our holiday!

Blazer: H&M
Madras Shorts: Ralph Lauren
Shirt: Calvin Klein
Striped Tie: Tommy Hilfiger
Tie Clip: Vintage
Sunglasses: Dickies
Boat Shoes: Payless

PS. Here are some gratuitous loverbird shots. Tender!

Howdy, sweet readers! How has everybody’s week been? Aside from being crowned Miss Autostraddle Hot 100 (okay, there are 100 of us, but still), which is amazing and wonderful, mine’s been wack! Wanna know why?

• Sick tomboy
• It’s raining or fog-spitting today
• Tuesday tennis canceled due to sickness
• Finding out the hard way you should NEVER work out at lunch
• Finding out the hard way there is A LOT of nudity in gym locker rooms (I’m a prude)
• Finding out the hard way that an hour-long “power conditioning” class is NOT the best way to ease into things, in fact, that’s probably the best way to pass out/puke/want to die

I really kind of wanted to go to a fancy lesbian party last night (Flourish, natch), but the tomboy was sick (and studying), the friend who might have gone with me played the I hella live in Oakland card (hi BCW, sorry BCW, love you BCW), and let’s face it: If the thought of climbing up and down the flight of stairs in my house makes every inch of my hopelessly sore body want to whimper and curl up oh wait that would really hurt right now nevermind sleep on the couch instead of in bed, the last thing my ass needed was a slick dance floor. I’d probably have ended up in a wheelchair.

In short, lessons learned: Never work out when you can’t go home to shower immediately afterward, meet with personal trainer BEFORE jumping into the deep end. My appointment with her (she scares me) is on Tuesday, and in the meantime the Stairmaster and I are BFFs.

It rained for a hot second yesterday, but we’ve been graced with some sunshine this week, finally. I think we, as San Franciscans, forget every single year what a dirty, underhanded tease Spring can be. Moody, erratic, and has you completely eating out of her fickle little palm for any little scrap she feels like throwing you. We’re all sad, panting dogs waiting at the door for Spring.

JUST WAIT UNTIL SUMMER, YOU.

So here’s a new dress. It’s from Delia’s, and it’s got polka dots! It’s a great, gauzy cotton that’s off-white, actually, and I’m tempted to let the hem down two inches or so, making it fall a bit more demurely at the knee. What do you think? I also think it needs to be paired with a great pair of bright yellow or green heels, but believe it or not, I’ve been looking like mad and not quite finding anything that doesn’t cost an obscene amount of money, for example these:

Drop your girl a line if you’ve seen anything dreamy along those lines for $100-$200, would you? Danke. I might try the dress with my nudie girl flats, or some sandals, or maybe even my nude snakeskin pumps with some bright, kicky socks.

Check out M’s super foxy new Dior Homme glasses! They’re very handsome, and go fabulously with her Don Draper hair. I have to get a shot of her other new pair from Warby Parker; they’re a bit more retro nerd chic, but just as sexy. We couldn’t be happier with the level of quality and service from Warby Parker, by the way, if you’re in the market for prescription glasses, the whole shebang is $95, and shipping is lightning fast. (We ordered hers late on a Tuesday and they arrived exactly one week later.)

Dress: Delia’s
Shoes: Arturo Chiang
Headband: Ichiban Kan
Skinny Minty Belt: Asos
Wallet: Matt & Nat
Sunglasses: Elle
Earrings: Gift from me mum!

PS. New Seychelles kicks as per the comment silliness below:

I love the bric-a-brac at thrift stores. I usually make a beeline for the dresses, but wandering around the aisles of mismatched, completely random, bizarre bric-a-brac is another beast of awesome. Where else can you get battered but perfectly usable clipboards, watering cans, vintage kitchen gadgets, and gorgeous antique trays made of silver that just need a good polishing? I use those to keep my toiletries neat and fancy, for displaying pretty bottles of perfume, or to have somewhere to collect my jewelry when I remove it at bedtime.

Why am I talking about bric-a-brac, anyway? Oh, yes. Look at all this brick! In shaky old San Francisco! Be still, my yearning-for-Boston heart! (Aw, that reminds me of this song.)

Where one corner of the Financial District meets the tip of North Beach’s triangle lies a lovely little private label wine bar, Barrique. It’s one of those quiet, tucked-in places in the city where you can find rock star parking in the middle of a breezy, sunny Saturday afternoon. We gathered there to meet some friends, and because my riding lesson ran over, making the rest of the afternoon run over, we were late and most of the crew was already roaring drunk by the time we arrived.

NEVER FEAR. We caught up in no time at all over a fine cheese plate and champagne, and then we moseyed over to Comstock on Columbus for cocktails and grub. It was so so windy in this brick-ish alley! Let me tell you something about this dress, as it’s a love/hate thing:

1. It’s been SO LONG since I’ve bared it all in a strapless, and damn it felt good. Real good.
2. After all the glory of the boning and the bare shoulders, it falls kind of flat.

This is one of those outfits you have to be a little nuts to wear. There’s a whole lot going on here, but that’s why it was so fun to wear. I think the dress will have to go back to H&M, but the tomboy and petite got me a few for Mother’s Day (a seriously Charlotte York halter deal and a va-va-voom shimmery number the exact shade of NARS Orgasm), and I have a new cerulean blue confection from Tibi to show off, so it’s NBD, really.

I want to talk about makeup! I mean, who doesn’t want to talk about makeup? (Butches, look away.) I’ve recently discovered the joys of Shiseido foundation, Elemis skin care, MAC’s original Viva Glam lipstick (where has it BEEN all my life, honestly?), and I am completely and totally in love with the brush set I got for under $25 at Costco. I have super dreamy brushes from MAC and Jane Iredale and old, beat-up trusty brushes from God only knows where that I’d rather bleed than part with, and all but three of like two dozen of my pre-existing brushes stand a chance against these new ones. If you can, I highly recommend that y’all GETCHUSOME.

Run, don’t walk! You’re welcome, I love you!

Dress: H&M
Blazer: Free People
Tights: Betsey Johnson
Shoes: Miu Miu
Bag: C0-Lab by Christopher Kon

All jewelry is gifted, which is sweet.  (Oh, except for the cocktail ring, which I love and got from ROSS of all places.)

PS. Props to the tomboy, who is getting crazy good at snapping these.

Happy weekend, kittens! What has everyone got planned? We kicked off the weekend with dull old chores, but at least they’re out of the way so that we can enjoy the rest of the weekend unencumbered. I have a riding lesson tomorrow, then drinks with a group of old friends we haven’t seen for awhile. I am keeping my fingers crossed for a wholesome family outing to catch some excellent bands (The Bruises, Billy & Dolly, CORIN TUCKER) later that evening.

Sunday is, of course, Mother’s Day! We’re going to a nice brunch at a French restaurant I adore, and then we’ll head off to visit me mum. (We’re lucky she’s so close by, and so awesome.) My brother has pledged an epic BBQ feast and M is in charge of plying us with margaritas (my mom’s favorite), and we’re bringing dessert. The weather is supposed to be crummy, but it’s always nicer where she and my stepfather live, so we’ll hope for the best. My grandma will be there, too, so we’ll have three generations of motherhood to celebrate.

Sometimes I can’t believe I have a thirteen-year-old daughter, but the disbelief is quickly consumed by awe and gratitude. Awe that we’re such a dreamy little well-oiled family, even with the hiccups, and grateful for the loveliness, hilarity, and incredible strength we’re so blessed to share together.

Let’s chat about this outfit. These pants again! After our mini-heat wave, we awoke Friday morning to an overcast, dreary sky. Drats! I pulled on these Asos pants with one of my absolute FAVORITE new shirts from Pretty Penny in Oakland. It’s vintage, and I paired it with this darling black capelet from an antique shop in Auburn, CA. The hues in my glass beaded necklace were perfect, so with those, my little lion-hearted feather earrings, and these suede knotted wedges by B. Makowsky, I was all set to go.

One thing I really love about where we live is how green it is. It smells divine every single day (the same cannot be said for much of San Francisco proper, bless her heart). This woodsy little area is right beside the tennis courts, which we need to get moving on ASAP. (Sun, come back!)

I have a new motto, well, mantra really: Love, glitter and cuntiness.

May your weekends be full of all of the above!

xo,

FFAF

PS. I had a blast reading the following blog posts from this week, and so I thought I’d post them here in case you haven’t seen them yet – good stuff!

Effing Dykes Do(n’t) Drama
Get Yr Bra On at Autostraddle

This is the arboretum in Boston where our friends were engaged and then married in the same year that we were, 2008. Isn’t it beautiful? It seemed like a perfect way to spend the late Easter Sunday afternoon, after settling into their lovely home for our stay there last weekend. The bright, colorful remnants of Easter egg hunts and all the sweet families strolling through only added to its charms, and we were lucky that so many of its gorgeous trees were in first Spring bloom!

The trees have all these excellent metal tags on them, stamped with their proper names and other pertinent information. I want a miniature version as a necklace charm. Can you believe the stunning yellow on the trees above?

Our kind friends showed us their favorite spots and we had a nice hike up to one of its peaks, Bussey Hill, where you can see snippets of the Boston skyline. We called out to the many pretty birds we saw (and heard) and even stopped to observe a strapping young cardinal for awhile. The Arnold Arboretum (of Harvard University, didn’t you know) is the oldest public arboretum in North America!

I saw a creek and set out with a brisk, ultra-femme trot to investigate. I didn’t even notice this sign I took off so fast! I can certainly imagine how lovely it must be to take an actual run in the arboretum. Sans heeled booties With proper running shoes and whatnot. We searched in vain for frogs or other crawly creatures, but found none. There’s a sort of marshy meadow with this narrow cement path cutting right through it, and it was impossible not to cross through. There we saw more exciting birds and ducks floating around in the water. We stopped here to snap some photos! That’s our silly friend in the background, with her San Francisco cap, but we decided they’re even more awesome because she’s crashing them.

They’re so lucky to have such a gorgeous green space so close to home.

We walked there in just five or ten short minutes from their house, and it was a lovely walk indeed. We had no choice but to succumb to a frenzy of real estate porn, and while M has sworn never to endure another Boston winter after suffering her college years there, we’ve both agreed to head back during the very thick of winter to see if our minds can’t be changed. Even the petite is into the idea.

This is definitely a non-traditional Easter Sunday outfit. Especially for a town as traditional as Boston. I will say this: The churches there are so obscenely beautiful that I wanted to pray to dear sweet baby Jesus in nearly every single one of them. Perhaps next time I’ll stroll through those that are open to visitors (in slightly more appropriate attire). I will also say this: Wearing a body suit OVER tights and UNDER shorts and a snug little jacket is inadvisable. Why? Because I had to practically strip down to my birthday suit every time I had to bloody take a piss. Thank heavens the other one I got from Asos has velcro action. Jeez.

Denim shorts: Free People
Fierce little jacket: Ebay
Bodysuit: Asos
Tights: Betsey Johnson
Boots: Nine West

Earrings: Isla Mujeres, Mexico
Tiered Necklace: Banana Republic
Bracelet: Lori’s Shoes (leather cuff)
Marielle Ivy Necklace and Oval Ring: Pretty Penny (Oakland)
“Lover not a Fighter” Knuckleduster Ring: Afterlife (San Francisco)