Love and deep dish pizza

Lexington—one hell of a place - August 2016

Here goes something. My mind has slowly become occupied by work and work alone. I’ve had to make an extra effort to make life balance out with work. Maybe that's growing up, maybe it's not. I couldn't tell ya. But it truly is amazing the effect paying more attention to life can have on your overall well being. Not sure where I'm going with this so moving on.

"If you don't have food, get out of my way!" - August 2016

You're welcome for the breakfast - August 2016

I visited my sister and brother in Kentucky this past weekend and it was wonderful and fun and filled with love and relaxing and sunny and centering. I met my nephew who will be 3 months old tomorrow. It's remarkable the moment you first hold someone so small and so vulnerable that all you want to do is protect him from all the harm in the world while enveloping him with love.

"So what do you think of string theory?" - August 2016

Love him. - August 2016

August 2016

A conversation I had on my trip got me thinking. Not everyone finds their path within the same timeframe. It's okay if it takes a bit longer or a bit shorter than the others. It's okay if it takes a lot longer or a lot shorter than the others. Just please remember to keep exploring, keep discovering. Do things that scare you because it is in those activities you find what comforts you. You find your thing. You find your path. And when you find your thing, don't be afraid to admit it — to speak about it to all who will listen. (Not everyone will listen and that's okay because not everyone is interested, which is also okay.) Don't give up. Who are we to think we should anyway?

Sunset run - August 2016

A room with a view - July 2016

The fairest of them all - July 2016

So here we are, in a state of chaos. Seriously though, what in the hades is going on with the world. (I put a period at the end of that sentence because I answered it the sentence preceding it.) I went to a concert a bit ago for a friend’s bday (It was tons of fun. My early to sleep and early to rise behavior is to blame for me almost falling asleep before 10pm while standing up.) and the opening act started a chant of:

“I am!”

“You are!”

“They’re the same thing.”

I was blown away. Can you say impactful and honest and thought-provoking? Sometimes I get somewhat hopeless with the way people treat each other and that chant was the most amazing reminder that there are people out there with hearts larger than a deep-dish pizza and how could I forget. Please, everyone, remember to be kind and respectful to others no matter how similar or different they are. And please remember to treat others well even when you don't feel others treat you well.

Robes and tongue faces - July 2016

Fam bam thank you mam - July 2016

Fun and friends and Seattle - August 2016

Some I just finished. Some I just started. - August 2016

I leave you with a list of things I am thankful for:

- My bed and its continuous coziness

- My friends and family for being wonderful and amazing and extraordinary

- My all-terrain slippers for carrying me to places in comfort

- Books for showing me what's possible

- Salads for making my lunches what they are, and my salad jar for holding said lunches

- Airplanes and co for getting me places faster

- William's Sonoma grapefruit soap and lotion for making my hands clean and moisturized while smelling marvelous

Gasworks with Buckles - Photo by Kate Starr - August 2016 

Ed Ruscha exhibit ruled - August 2016

The ferry is still my favorite form of transportation - July 2016

Don't mind me, just being sappy.

It was windy. We were happy. - June 2016 - SF

I got to spend the weekend with my best friend of them all Natalie, I haven't seen her in a year. A whole year. I still can't believe it. And yet, as they say, it was like we were never apart. There's something amazing about best friendships, how the bond never seems to fade, they understand and accept you better than anyone. Life will take you in different directions, and yet the love and friendship live on. Sometimes we both forget to give each other a call for an entire month if not longer, but people get busy, we understand. I know if I needed anything in the world, she'd be there for me. And isn't that amazing. It seems I will be perpetually shocked by how amazing people can be. You'd think I'd get used to it by now, but I don't think I ever will. And not for any bad reason, just sometimes people forget.

Cheers to great times with great friends - Mike, Natalie and I - June 2016 - SF

The fog over the river - May 2016 - Camping in Gualala, CA

HBD Monica - May 2016 - Gualala, CA

I'm the sappiest of them all, aren't I. I'll blame it on the glass of red wine.

Pretty view of the water, get it? - May 2016 - Gualala, CA

Courtney and I smiling for miles - May 2016 - Gualala, CA

Fun can be terribly exhausting. I think I'm finally learning how to live. That of course sounds dramatic, let me explain. I have always very much loved solitary activities (e.g., reading, writing) and I tended to neglect the social activities because the fun there was inconsistent. But lately I've seemed to be saying yes more often than not, and it's made such a difference. There's something wonderful about being exhausted from laughing your head off with your friends. Well exhausted simultaneously from that and working hard at a job you love.

Flying books - Broadway/Columbus - SF

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? - Not my car - June 2016 - SF

Hannah and the biggest bougainvillea - June 2016 - NOPA, SF

Life lessons I've learned over the years that bum me out:
1. Bad things really do happen to good people, and for absolutely no reason whatsoever.
2. Love doesn't always turn out as you hoped it would.
Life lessons I've learned over the years that bring me joy:
1. If you show kindness, it will almost always be appreciated and/or reciprocated.
2. It's important to give others the benefit of the doubt because there's so much people don't say out loud.
Of course each of the lessons from each of the categories have a flip side equally true.

Prettiest place for a yummy sandwich - June 2016 - SF

Somewhere off the highway up north - May 2016 - CA

My poems on display at work during design week - June 2016 - SF

Commuting—and the encounters in-between. It's a working title.

The prettiest of houses - SF - March 2016

Hello friends and/or loved ones. Are you feeling well? I hope smiles have been in abundance upon your faces lately. San Francisco is still San Francisco. The sidewalks are grimy as ever, the foggy mornings have rolled in, and the price of everything seems to go up each day. But also, the sidewalks are filled with music from street performers a block or two away, the foggy mornings have rolled in, and the best times are always spent buying nothing at all.

My plants and new friend Rafi

The ferry is the greatest form of transportation ever invented

I moved recently away from the Haight/Ashbury area and into the Marina area, a whole different crowd of folks I'll tell ya. So here are a couple of vignettes of encounters with some interesting folk from my old commute.

A quote at the bus stop, just in case you forget

The Ladybug and the Potential Financial Planner

My bus comes when I’m a little too far away to casually walk and make it, so I run for it even though another bus will likely come in the next ten minutes. There is one open seat left and it’s next to a kind-looking man who seems a bit off. I sit, I pull out my book as per usual, he waves to me even though we’re sitting right next to each other. I glance up and wave back. He asks what I’m reading.

“A novel,” I reply.

“Oh! I love novels. I’m reading Brave New World and The Jungle,” he responds with more enthusiasm than I thought possible when informing someone you’re casually reading Brave New World and The Jungle.

I respond with oh cool and look down to continue reading. He taps me on the shoulder.
“Wanna hear a joke?”
“Sure.”
“What did the ladybug say to the fly?”
“Uhh... I don’t know. What?”
“Don’t bug me!”
I laugh because what a genuinely great joke. A classic really. He then informs me that he used to work downtown at one of the big finance buildings. I say cool because finance doesn’t interest me but wanted to remain polite. I look down to continue reading, and he waves at me again.

“Do you think if I were to write down my number, you could write down yours, and we could exchange them, and maybe call each other sometime?” He asks with admirable confidence.

“No, I’m sorry,” I reply with the smile and slightly furrowed brow you give when letting someone down.

He says, “Oh okay okay, no problem!” And scoots a little further away.

A couple minutes pass and he taps the girl in front of me, when she turns around he waves at her. She waves back. He asks her if she wants to hear a joke and she says sure.

“What did the ladybug say to the fly?”

Foggy day by the bay

Some friends and some buildings soaking up the sun

The UFC fighter

I was walking to the bus stop with my coworker when we start gaining on a younger man wearing only shorts. No shirt. No shoes. And wielding a lead pipe. The man was also screaming and yelling at something unknown. He was so angry that a block radius had begun to clear surrounding him. So as you might have guessed, it had become pretty damn scary.

He was swinging his pipe at brick walls, trash cans, really any stationary object in sight. A comfort in a sense because maybe that meant if we kept moving, he wouldn’t hit us with it. At this point he’s been steadily walking in front of us in the same direction as us with a block of distance between us. We’re on edge, but still feel relatively okay.

But then he stops. He stops and instead begins walking in wide, surprisingly-perfect circles that take up the whole sidewalk. My coworker and I cross the street through traffic at this point because we’re not crazy enough to walk past him and test out my theory that since we're moving he won't hit us. And we leave the man to his yelling.

The next evening we’re walking to the bus after work and the same man is fast asleep in a sleeping bag next to a restaurant that’s always closed. No lead pipe in sight. Glad to see he found something warm at least.

Fog filled city - SF - March 2016

Commuting can be interesting, but it can also be damn funny. Carry on.

Oh yeah, I cut my hair and I love it

The Sunshine in California Ain't No Joke

Sorry for the hiatus, been living life. That's the goal in life right? To be living it.
For those who prefer things to the point. I've been working and sleeping and eating and having fun. For those who prefer more detail in the things they read, carry on with me.

The Only Evidence of Fall in SF - December 2015

Hannah and I Exploring

Beach Front Property in Sausalito

My job is more than I could have hoped to have found. I am a copywriter at a creative agency called Butchershop where we put a lot of meat into our ideas then grill them up right nice. I get to write for a living! How incredibly thrilling. Everyone I work with is brilliant in their own way with creativity coming out their ears. It's an amazing environment in an amazing place. And I'm beyond thrilled if you couldn't tell.

Yeah, they've won a lot of Golden Globes

RAD, amiright?
Disclaimer: This chair in no way reflects the design style of my boss.

My younger sister, Bobo, came in town a few weeks back for my company Christmas party. We drank. We danced. We laughed. We laughed some more. The next day we packed as many San Francisco tourist activities into one day while taking public transit. The public transit aspect sounds like it was a challenge we decided to take on, but was mostly because we're poor and I have a monthly bus pass. She got to experience a guy threatening to fight another guy on a crowded bus–a spacious place to have a fight. We went to Golden Gate Park, Haight/Ashbury (where I live on the corner of the street, just kidding I live in an apartment), Fisherman's Wharf, Lombard Street, saw the Golden Gate and the Bay Bridge from afar, and ended at Magnolia, a small batch chocolate shop in the Mission. It was super fun.

We clean up real nice.

Scaling Buildings - December 2015

Trying to Convince Her to Move Here - December 2015

Me + Lombard Street - December 2015

I was also able to go home for Christmas and spend time with my family in a house with so much food! Seriously, there were Doritos and bagels and steak galore. There was also some wonderfully historical conversation with family members. To put it really creatively and well thought out, I like old shit. Bobo, Mom and I went ice skating outside in Las Vegas. It was great. We also played with the train for hours on end when the kids I babysat in Salt Lake came to visit my family for a few days. We also had milk shakes, m&ms, pizza, built some bears at Build a Bear, and drank some serious cocktails.

Me-Nona-Bobo-Leo

Bobo the Professional Ice Skater

I spent most of New Year's Eve laying in bed watching Netflix. You'd think I was sponsored by Netflix by now because of how much I talk about it. Plot twist, I'm not. In the evening one of my friends had a New Year's party that was loads of fun with a cherry on top. There were hats and kazoos and snacks and drinks and music and dancing. Everyone was dressed to the nines and smiles filled the room like oxygen. Thanks to my mom for letting me wear her dress from the '90s. And thanks Scott Lindemann for bring the camera.

Really life is just wonderful right now. To all my friends and family elsewhere, I miss you guys so much and come visit me in San Francisco!! I promise people hardly ever threaten to fight others on buses.