Dopp Juice Archive

I should mention this. I withdrew from the university this week and ended my semester. Those who know me, affectionately refer to this move as “dropping out of school,” and we’ve all seen me do it before. To my credit, however, I always go back. Also to my credit, I have a 4.0 GPA from all six colleges I’ve attended (yes, SIX). I just haven’t attended for more than two semesters in a row without getting distracted and doing something else. Going to China, starting a nonprofit, starting a business… I guess you could say I put my life first. So what happened this time? I got a job. No, not a real job. Sarah doesn’t do crazy-stable things like THAT. No, I got contract work at a design firm in downtown San Francisco. My work is to take beautiful, professional designs and turn them into website-ready HTML templates. In other words, I get to arm wrestle with graphic designers over font size and try to trick multiple browsers into displaying a website in exactly the same way. It’s fulltime, it’s fun, it’s challenging, it uses my skills, it pays at industry standards (read: enough to support me for the next semester or two of school), and it will probably end mid-May. So to all the little kiddies out there looking for a role model… Yes, it’s okay to drop out of school.Now go read your HTML primers like good citizens of the Information Age.p.s. Don’t worry. As my governor so famously used to say, “I’LL BE BACK!” (Trust me, we’ve been through this before.)

It’s hailing AGAIN!

I was just finishing up a long and difficult week by taking myself out for a sushi dinner, when there was–at the exact same time–a flash of bright light and a BOOM! The whole restaurant jumped out of its chairs and ran to the window. I thought there had been an explosion on the roof, but the waiter assured me it was just a clap of thunder. Two minutes later, FLASH-BOOM! again. Frazzled, the clientele scampered back to their seats.

Five minutes later: “It’s raining!” “No, it’s snowing!” “It can’t be snowing! This is San Francisco!” “No wait! That’s ice! It’s hailing!”

And white marbles proceeded to fall from the sky. I ran outside to dance in it while the waiter ran my credit card, and little children stood at the window to point. There was an exodus of camera phones from pockets as everyone tried to capture the event–but who can really capture falling hail with a camera phone? (I tried.)The storm lasted about ten minutes, and then it was over. Twenty minutes later, the white crunchy streets were back to their regular soggy black. The firetruck sirens are still blaring.

This was way better than an earthquake. Hands down.