Scrapframing : My thing

Today I completed my "scrapframe" from my recent San Francisco trip. This is something I do for all my adventures / journeys / travels.  However today I felt like sharing what I do, because I don't think this term "scrapframing" is coined.....maybe I should add it to Wikipedia.

Many people do scrapbooks, which is a great way to preserve memories, but it is still in a book. Each page hides the others, so you can't see everything at once. I like to display my adventures in poster frames. That way you can see all I did from the flight into the adventure to the flight home.

I love to travel and I am also a little bit of a hoarder, (but not the bad kind that fills their home with boxes of stuff.. No, the good kind, like a librarian)  I keep flat things when on my adventure or traveling. It could be a plane / bus / train / boat / taxi / pedicab ticket or a handout for whatever I did, but to me it is a timestamp of where I was and what I was doing at that moment in time.

I found the best thing to do with all these papers, tickets, maps, name tags, postcards, pictures, room cards (sometimes), etc is to put them on the wall. I could just tape or pin the items up there, but why not make it clean and frame it? Once it is in a frame it becomes a story that can be hung on any wall and shared.

All the things in the frames are about the best memories from that time. They may be small and some need explaining but others are easy to grasp. You can look at the scrapframe and figure out I went to Alcatraz, but I'll have to personally share the story about negotiating in Chinatown over the $12 duffel bag.

Here is what is in my San Francisco Scrapframe that highlights the trip.

1. Printed itinerary
2. US Airways ticket stub YUM to PHX
3. US Airways ticket stub PHX to SFO
4. Ripped-out page from US Airway's in-flight magazine with stuff to do in San Francisco
5. BART map - from the airport, we rode the Bay Area Rapid Transit to Union Square
6. MUNI Voucher for 6/3
7. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art - ticket and map
8. San Francisco Botanical Garden Map
9. San Francisco Maritime - Nation Parks handout
10. Aquarium of the Bay ticket stub
11. "No Fins No Future" button from the Aquarium 
12. 1945 US Penny minted in San Francisco - I got change at some point
13. Black Pancake Records matchbook - record store dedicated to vinyl
14. MUNI Voucher for 6/4
15. Coaster, Business card, and Room card cover for the Stanyan Park Hotel
16. Room card cover for Sheraton Fisherman's Wharf
17. Postcard for Zero Zero Pizzeria - Great Pizza!
18. Self Guided Tour Handout for the S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien
19. MUNI Voucher for 6/6
20. Alcatraz Ticket / map / passport book
21. 4 free Irish Coffees at the Buena Vista because Erin got a hair in her meal (1 of 2)
22. 2 MUNI Vouchers for 6/7
23. Receipt and warranty for that duffel bag
24. United Airlines ticket SFO to LAX
25. United Airlines ticket LAX to YUM

It's not the Money, It's the Message...Stupid

This week on our City Council agenda is an item that could go before the voters of the City of Yuma.
It is the question of a pay raise for the Mayor and City Council.

What message does it send when the conversation is about giving ourselves a pay raise?
Really now, what does it say, when we tell those full time employees who serve the community "salary rates are frozen but now is a good time to adjust elected officials pay?

I am floored by the short sight and lack of common sense. I am against the idea of increasing the City Council and Mayor's pay at this time. So many factors make this a no-brainier, however it is government so of course we are talking about giving elected officials a raise in a rescission.

Let's look at the list.
1. City of Yuma Employees have not seen a cost of living increase in years.
2. City employees have not seen a pay raise in just as long.
3. Retirement has been encouraged and we have not refilled those positions, so the city employees are doing the work load of the veterans who retired, as well as their own work.
4. The cost of insurance has gone up again. This year by 5%
5. We have also told them to make that equipment last longer (because we stopped funding our equipment replacement programs.)
6. It will fail at the ballot. What?... It will... Look at the past 20 years and how the citizens of Yuma have answered that question every time it comes up, in one form or another.
7. We are in a recession.

The Council should be made up of leaders, who can set an example.
If the men and women who serve our city can't have an increase, nor should we.