Instead of some straight up photo restoration, I thought I'd inject a little whimsy in these photos from my first Christmas in San Francisco as a full-time resident.
Each December, the small architectural firm I worked for did something fun and off-the-wall for our holiday celebration. There were only five of us in total, so it left a lot of possibilities open. This particular year we took the ferry over to Sausalito, had a nice lunch, and wandered up and down Bridgeway, enjoying the shops and quietly laughing at the insanely overpriced art.
Every year it was something different. This first year was Sausalito. Subsequent years ranged from driving down the coast to Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz, or Capitola for lunch, to an unforgettable (as much as I'd like to) trip on a small boat onto the bay in very stormy weather for Sturgeon fishing. (After that little experience Neil—the redhead in these pictures—became a vegetarian after witnessing one of the bosses bludgeon to death the one and only poor creature anyone caught. I myself tried to give up meat after that as well, but was ultimately unsuccessful. For the last year I was with them, they rented a house up the coast in Sea Ranch for a long weekend. I took Rory—the guy I was dating at the time—with me and the one thing that's stayed after all these years (beyond the drama we were going through that came to a head that weekend) was how dark it got at night. We were a hundred miles (or at least it seemed that way) from any city lights and you could literally hold your hand up in front of your face and not see it.
H&M was a good firm to work for, even when the recession hit after Black Monday. When business temporarily dried up they kept us on, instead of letting us go. We were asked if we'd be amenable to a 4 day work week (in other words, a 20% cut in pay) for the duration. We all agreed to it, and eventually the firm sprang back stronger than ever. I was there for the entire eight and a half years of my initial tenure in The City and even after I moved to Tucson and moved back, I continued to work as a consultant for them.
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