I adore these crazy cats.

As previously blogged about here.

Tiny Tanks Sneek Peak

You can go here for some more.

recap

art show: although a great experience and left with some great connections, probably won't do it in that manner again. ended with no sales, a bruised body from all the set-up, and in debt to my credit card and angela for helping me all day.

coffee shops: today a man offered me his almonds and then proceeded to continuously interrupt my conversation about rent in san diego by offering me a place to live and then to pay me to sleep on the floor of my car. the first offer was $400 and the second offer was $100 a month. he waved to me when i drove away.

working out: i started up again at cross fit and realized after a nine month hiatus from weight training, i am able to lift approximately half of what i could when i left. the only direction to go is up.

websites: i now have one. you can peruse it here: http://www.katiegardnerphoto.com.

hands free devices: i finally figured out how to use mine. though i forgot it at home and was almost caught talking illegally by two different police in one day.

politics: i am regrettably behind and have nothing witty or insightful to interject. goal: listen to npr for the remainder of the week.

dumpster diving: i did it once today which resulted in a bruised stomach to attain the keys which flew out of my fingers while throwing out the recycling. that's what i get for trying to be green.

little dogs: i am not a fan. sorry, they interrupted my entire work day with their incessant yapping.

the beach: i love it even when it's overflowing with holiday traffic. especially when it's with some of my favorite people. see: jen and kat.

crying: i've been known to do this lately. thanks for friends who love me anyway.

breathing and heart pounding and excessive tiredness: these still seem to be an issue. thyroid, please just go back to normal. thanks.

jump roping: i kill at double unders. i'm almost ready to start my own reality tv show. hollywood, inquire within.

drunk drivers: i called the police on one. i even followed him off an exit i wouldn't normally take in order to get his license plate. he almost ran off an overpass, hit multiple three-foot high dividers, and rear ended a car at a stoplight. 9-1-1, this is an emergency.

fourth of july: i swam. i ate. i saw sparlkers. that's it. i was in bed by 9:15. it was a long week.

tomorrow: it's a new day. fresh. with no mistakes in it.

And this, just because running children make me happy.

The Inner Voices are Speaking Audibly

Tonight I had three blissful hours away from reality, where our faithful bookclub got to sit alongside Billy Lombardo and discuss his most recent book whilst eating rich people food, with rich people napkins and rich people wine, all while admiring the San Diego Bay, the downtown skyline, the sailboats, the Coronado Bridge . . . at sunset. I know, I know, I get to lead a privileged life.

Every once in a while.

However, on my way home, I was reminded of the past few days and I could literally feel my shoulders re-knotting and my eye twitching along with my heartbeat. And then there was that other voice in the car, talking outloud, to me. I'm really not one to often talk outloud to myself, and when it happens, it's usually a good barometer of my stress level. Depending on how many expletives start showing up as house guests to my pity parties, I can usually tell how long it will take my emotions to spiral completely out of control.

Take for instance today: I had to drive back to work THREE TIMES, because I either misunderstood where I was supposed to be at what time, left behind minor items like my computer, or the first drive where I simply had to show up to the office in the morning. Did I mention work is almost 20 miles each way for me? I could have practically driven to Santa Barbara with the amount of time I spent in my car today.

On one of my commutes, for no reason at all, I started going the complete wrong direction on the first of the three freeways. It's not like I haven't lived here for 7 years and don't know where I'm going. I just started going in the exact opposite direction that I needed to go.

It was at that point that I yelled, to myself, in the car: "WHY ARE YOU THE DUMBEST PERSON I KNOW?!"

spiral . . . spiral . . . spiral . . .

Later that day . . . Upon my departure from the blissful faux-life of the C Level Lounge, all I could think about on my way home was how badly I wanted a clove cigarette. Cigarettes have grossed me out for as long as I can remember, but all I wanted to do was curl up with a good book and smoke my way through the comforting taste of the Christmas season . . . in bed. Forget going outside, I wanted to white trash it and puff myself right to sleep, praying the ashes didn't burn a hole into my favorite down comforter.

Don't worry, I didn't do it. Instead, here I am, prolonging the rest of the work day a few more minutes, now grinning just a little about the fact that Billy gave me a half good-bye-nice-to-meet-you wink as we all went our separate ways in the parking lot tonight. [insert smiley face here] See, now that was so much better than a cancer-causing, house-burning, teeth-yellowing agent that would just make my stuff all smelly anyway.

Photography of the Week

If only our parents had provided some foresight during all those creepy bedtime stories, we would have known what we know now: unlike a Thai massage, LIFE DOESN'T ALWAYS HAVE A HAPPY ENDING. Yes, two small children shoving an old woman into her hot oven, which also happens to reside inside her house made of sugar (which obviously should have melted years ago), is creepy.

Kelly recently introduced me to this amazing set of photos of "Fallen Princesses" by Dina Goldstein. In case anyone was having a fairytale sort of day, let's turn that carriage back into a pumpkin and morph back to reality for a moment, shall we?
















© Dina Goldstein

Art Show Next Weekend

I'll be showing (and selling) some of my photography from Uganda in the ARTruism show, coming up next Saturday at Balboa Park. Proceeds will go to support the United Nations Association San Diego Chapter and the YWCA of San Diego. The Y has been close to my heart due to involvement with Soul Care, the non-profit that partners with the YWCA who I've been working with to facilitate writing and photography workshops for women and children.

Stop by and say hi! Otherwise, I may get lonely.

Somewhere in Middle America

Back in Action

The first day at work after being gone for two weeks straight (especially when those two weeks were spent traveling by plane, train, and automobile across the country) is somewhat like trying to breathe under a muddy puddle. It's hard to wake up, my inner clock is still on east coast time, I have no food in the fridge, and sitting in front of a computer all day proves a little more difficult when I haven't done so in quite some time.

However, a little upper was finding these pictures on the Jedidiah blog, where some of my lifestyle shots were used as displays outside the Katin Surf Shop in Huntington Beach. Kelli made them look all pretty and it's awesome when you get to see your work blown up in public.

Across the U.S. Day 8

Yesterday I sunk my feet into the rocky sand at Lake Erie, touched the water with my toes, and headed east to swim around in my flip flops during a torrential downpour at Niagara Falls. After half a day (literally half a 24 hour period) of driving through Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts (a state I've recently discovered I have no idea how to spell without the help of spell check), we arrived to a hotel room almost bigger than my apartment back home.

This was a surprise since it happened to be the cheapest room we could find near the city, but with one catch: twin beds. "Twin?" I asked on the phone when paying for the room. "Yes, or we have a room with one king bed for the same price." I figured after a week of driving with my brother across the country, a one-king-bed room probably wouldn't be the best option.

However, the warm chocolate chip cookie presented to us upon arrival, foreshadowed just the hotel experience we needed at the end of a week-long road trip. We were welcomed with a sitting room big enough to run laps, two ginormous flat screen TVs, a hallway with a kitchen area, a bathroom so nice the hairdryer was in its own pouch labeled "hairdryer", a toilet phone (Aaryn's worst nightmare), and a separate bedroom including pillows embroidered with "Sweet Dreams". Did I forget the view that covered downtown, the river, and Haavaad?

After ten hours of much needed sleep, we're out to brave the rain and see what the city has to offer, and then I will (somewhat begrudgingly) head on a plane tomorrow to head back to the sunshine state.

Across the U.S. Day 7

As you can see, we've had a long day. More tomorrow.

Day 6

Across the U.S. Day 4 or 5? What day is it?

This is Yvonne. I met her at a rest stop in York, Nebraska, and I conducted a prize-winning/NPR-worthy audio interview with her. You would be able to click on the link below if the batteries didn't run out on the recorder which actually left me with no audio from our ten minute conversation.

However, from what I can remember . . . Yvonne loves loves loves what she does. A retiree, she's been working at this rest stop for the past 15 summers and her favorite part of her job is all the interesting people she meets. I asked if she ever felt unsafe and she said, "Ah, no! My family is always asking if I'm okay here, and I tell them, these are just a bunch of regular Americans traveling through. No one's out to hurt anyone here."

Yvonne has traveled the U.S. from Chicago to California and landed herself in Germany where her son had been stationed during the war. If you're wondering which war, I have no idea . . . Yvonne, whose last name is Junge (as in Carl Jung), talked about the ins and outs of German immigrants who had chosen to keep or drop the "e" on the end of Jung, told me about her days at the rest stop, and even acquiesced to a picture at the end (for which I also had all the wrong settings on my camera). Brilliant.

Some other random high points of the trip:

1. a billboard in the middle of Indiana farmland that depicted a scene from the Little Mermaid with a caption that read, "Keep our oceans clean. Don't pollute."

2. running along the river at sunset and watching old reels of Super 8 camera silent film to different iPod playlists in Iowa City with James and Donald.
















3. miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiles of corn . . . bearable due to the audio version of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

4. an open invitation on the side of the road for Dan's Fish Fry at 7pm.

5. listening to "Omaha" by Counting Crows, in well, Omaha.

6. getting a tour of the entire town of Kearney (as in Carne Asada, or Carnie Worker) and all of its well-off inhabitants from Zach, followed by regular priced $2 drinks at three different bars. I'm starting to wonder if there's anything outside of oxygen not overpriced on the two coasts.

7. free places to stay with amazing and eclectic people across the span of the entire United States. What can I say, we're popular people, Joe the Bro and me.

8. Pure entertainment from James and Annie's 2 year old daughter, Adah, who says things like "I love this" and "I love that" and "Oh, how cute" and "Here, hold my doegy and take a picture of me".

9. free beer from New Belgium Brewery. I could live at that place if they moved it to a different city. Who am I kidding, I could live at that place if it was in the middle of a swamp in Alabama.

Since we seem to lose an hour of sleep every night, I should go to bed. But I'll leave you with the following iconic depiction of our nation. [And I'm uploading all pictures here.]

Across the U.S. Day 3

When Zach said his parents lived in a corn field, I thought he was exaggerating. He was not.

Across the U.S. Day 2

Pelting rain that disabled vision beyond a few feet in front of the car for a good stretch of the Wyoming/Colorado boarder, coupled with 10 hours in a car, have rendered my back muscles unconscious. However, an arrival to a free place to stay at a friend of a friend who also offered us their whole fridge of beer, made up for the impending doom of Wyoming's lightning storms. As did all the cute deer, sheep and cows along the way.

Closing thoughts of the day: Aside from a few fun sky pictures, good riddance, Wyoming. Hello Colorado.