Friday, September 30, 2011

this is it

last day of september. 



Thursday, September 29, 2011

a welcome mat

here's some more proof of the idyllic existence
we are living for a few more days (well, only one)
with the in-laws. on saturday, we'll be on our
own once more. it's fun to be kids again...


Wednesday, September 28, 2011

quiet time

i have to celebrate this thing i'm doing right now, 
even though i don't have a camera and so can't take
a picture of it for you to understand. i know, i need to
get my pocket canon a battery and hope that fixes it!
anyways, i'm sitting in my school's library right now,
the library i sometimes make fun of because it is itty
bitty teeny tiny (that's what happens when you go to 
art school i guess), with barely any books at all and 
terrible hours ... and i'm sitting next to some big 
windows whose blinds are just a little bit open, 
a little bit up, and letting in some gorgeous
grey-sky light (my favorite kind).
i'm waiting for my first ever tutoring job,
and of course doing some writing, too.
it is an oasis of hushed light and books.
i love libraries,
even small ones :)

i can't wait to go here in january:

(new york public library)

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

tuesday musings (while at the office)

people who have yards.

when i see how much time it takes to care
for a lawn/house, i begin to doubt the logic of
wanting one. but then, it's so nice—so luxurious!—
to have your own little space of greenery, to see the
little shooting things coming up out of the earth, 
that you've planted, watered, fed, groomed, cared for.
we're also pretty lucky here in the south to still be
seeing so much green in the fall i think.
there are chinese monks who believe that looking at
green things makes your eyesight better. i'm 
pretty convinced it's true. i know it makes my
heart happy.

photos around m&d's yard:

Monday, September 26, 2011

monday in a book

the handmaid's tale. 

it's taken me awhile to succumb to the modern day
"classics" or "best-sellers" or "greats"—whatever you want
to call them. i think it started with pat conroy's the beach,
back in high school, only i didn't know it yet. then there
was life of pie, the road by cormac mccarthy, and others
i can't remember right now. but they've all just sort of 
crept up on me, and i guess i didn't equate them with
any public validation because my stumbling on them
was accidental, before i knew their status, or before
they were made in to movies, action figures, t-shirts...
i read them on my own, not on recommendation
from a teacher or because of a class or book review or
anything. so it was always a surprise, a wonderful,
astonishing, unpremeditated, unanticipated discovery.

now, of course, i know a lot more about the ones
that have been vetted, the authors to be watched,
or the ones who've already made a name for themselves,
and i'm less suspicious of them. i think that for a long
time i thought that if they were writing in the
present day, they couldn't be good—or interesting.
now the surprise is in the writing itself. seeing how very
wrong i was about them not being as good as those
100-year-old classics. like the handmaid's tale. 
i picked it up once but i wasn't ready for it.
when you've seen a title everywhere, you—or i
—tend to lose interest in it before i've even tried it.
i'm sure that's how some of you feel about
the twilight series. anyways, the handmaid's tale
is very good. very very good. i just love the
piecing together of the story. the way atwood
dreams up the telling of it. and the simplicity 
of it—along, of course, with its imaginativeness.
if you like the giver, 1984, or other distopian novels,
you must try this. 
i haven't finished it. i'm trying to savor it.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

weekend recap

pretty much all i did this weekend was write, 
write and try to write some more. 'try to' being
the key words. but i did make progress. that's
what matters. i'm also reading another really
inspiring book, which i'll tell you about later.

there was also:
1. sleeping in on saturday in the in-laws' guest room
2. breakfast en famille this morning thanks to marvin
3. booking our hotel reservations for nyc in january


Saturday, September 24, 2011

shutter-love


making a list of all the lenses i want one day
is a lovely way to procrastinate waste spend 
one's saturday.
i'm falling in love with my camera all over again.
this is the blog that got me interested in
photography-blogging, and i still always look at it.
i haven't been able to get out and document the
beautiful weather we've been having lately (sadly),
so here are a few favorites from the beach this summer:

p.s. i hope to be having some guest bloggers
tell us all about their favorite photography
related things/experience/loves, etc.,
so stay tuned!

Friday, September 23, 2011

make a wish...

birthday
carrot cake and yummy custard
for marvin with true family, including
precious out-of-town members!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

buon compleanno, marvin!

tonight we ate italian food and celebrated 
another year of life for papa grace. 
:)


Wednesday, September 21, 2011

heard enough about writing yet?

in-between watching it almost rain
today, i wandered around barnes & noble
reading pieces of a few promising books like this
(currently on my wish list) and writing, writing. 
it was a getting back on the horse kind of 
writing day. an uphill both ways, mountain-
climbing writing day. but that's okay. 
my chief triumph of the day (i think) was 
resisting a nap and plowing forward.

it's nice to be successful, even in the small things:)

via

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

who am i?

favorite quote of the day:

Education is about finding out what form of work for you is close to being
play—work you do so easily that it restores you as you go.
Society has a cornucopia of resources to encourage you in doing what
society needs done but that you don't much like doing and are not cut out to
do. To ease your grief, society offers alcohol, television, drugs, divorce,
and buying, buying, buying what you don't need.
If you advance in the direction of someone else's dreams, if you want to live
someone else's life rather than yours, then get a TV for every room, buy
yourself a lifetime supply of your favorite quaff, crank up the porn
channel, and groove away.
 
 
obviously sort of cobbled together,
and not quite as coherent as the original
article, but what i took away is this - 
education is the time to figure out what
you want to do. not the time to just do what
society, your parents, even you yourself
have decided you should do. i did that many times
over and it never worked. hopefully this time
i am figuring it out a little bit more. and i
am so grateful for the time and opportunity
to do that. and i hope i can give my kids
that gift, too. 
 

Monday, September 19, 2011

just the beginning

writing.

this semester is quite unlike the previous 
semesters in that i have no formal classes. 
besides my internship, i'm doing an indepedent
study with one of my professors, and i've decided
to write a piece of fiction (which i'm hoping will
be good enough for my thesis). maybe you remember
that i started working on a writing project this
summer. my goal was to write everyday for
90 days and actually finish the story. it didn't happen,
but i'm trying not to beat myself up about it. 
i do, at least, have a start. and that's something.
now, i'm just trying to pick it back up.
it's quite tough. 

some days i wonder why i chose to study 
writing. i wonder why i didn't want to do something
in the medical field (esp. since nearly everyone
i know does), or why i couldn't have done something
more physical, like painting or cleaning houses. 
sometimes, physical labor sounds just so easy 
compared to writing. i know it really isn't,
and i'm sure i'd get tired of it. but sometimes, 
i'd rather do anything other than sit at my computer/
notebook and try to string together two words.

anyhow, here i am. plugging away. maybe, i'll share
some of my insights/struggles along the way (if i'm
not already worn out with the putting of the words
together;). i have no inspiration today, so if you have
any extra, feel free to send some my way!

the essentials.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

weekend in atl:

in which there was lots of alon's 
(i know, typical:), lars getting to meet
(and lick) lots of new people, a brief lunch in
Decatur, really good weather, lunch outside at
parq, which is almost exactly like the pizza
restaurant that used to be there (is it the same 
with a new name?), where we enjoyed yummy
food, and relaxing to the max. sometimes
that's the best thing to do when you're on 
vacation. i can't believe i have to go to 
japan to see her next ... i think i can 
handle that ;) 

love you, wimberly. 
thanks for visiting and hanging out
with us all weekend!
eat lots of yummy sushi for me in japan!

p.s. sad i have no final pictures of just the two of us...
come back so i can take some! :)

Saturday, September 17, 2011

day two with k

leisurely saturday 
in good company.

i'm pretty convinced that happiness begins
(and ends) with alon's...we decided to stick
close to the hotel today and ate two meals at
alon's, with a movie in the middle. it was a 
very nice way to relax with friends. 

Friday, September 16, 2011

leon's full service in decatur

day out with kimberly.

of course we had breakfast at Alon's first,
but then we also got to try out this restaurant
in decatur that i've been wanting to visit. it
was so super cute. not enough vegetarian
options, sadly, but my salad was good,
and the company was the best and that's
what matters. 
:)

Thursday, September 15, 2011

first week of fall quarter

please forgive me for not having a very 
interesting post or pictures to share tonight, 
it's been a long day - everyday this week has
been so full - but i am happy to say i had a really
great first week at Atlanta magazine,
where i'm doing an editorial internship this
fall.  i think i'm going to like it a lot there.

also, an old friend came in to town tonight from
japan, her new stomping grounds, so
i'm sure i'll be sharing lots of pictures with you
as we have a(nother) fabulous weekend here in the atl.
yes, i'm starting the weekend early. that's what you 
do when you have important out-of-town visitors :)

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

today i read

never let me go
by kazuo ishiguro.

which i think is the saddest, most dismal
book i've read in a long time. i couldn't put it down
today. read far too much. my eyes are blurry.
and i don't think i can end the day with this 
in my head. i need a cleansing from the weight
of despair and misery. isn't the world miserable
enough? i didn't used to mind sad books. i think
i still don't if they are sad to a point. or if its
comprehensible. or if there is at least a silver
lining. but this. this is just utter, complete
desolation.