Transitions

The last couple of weeks have been chock full of changes. As certain parts of my life shift around, I've been rearranging my room and helping to reconfigure the common spaces in our house. I feel like I'm really settling into my bedroom this time around...things feel good in the places I've put them and I've started a steady process of decorating.

I took out my drawings from the art classes I took in high school/community college...I used to have them covering the walls of my last home, a studio apartment I was inhabiting alone. Some of the drawings surprised me, as I didn't remember them being so 'good'...others looked unfinished somehow, as they did before. But this time, I realized that I could just...finish them. Smear a background in here, redefine the shadows and highlights there...and then they're fit for wall-hanging. Easy as that.

Today was my last day of funemployment before classes start tomorrow. Instead of staying home doing my habitual cleaning/organizing/blogging/cooking thing I've been doing since my job ended, I drove down to retrieve my keyboard. A year and a half ago, I found this keyboard on craigslist for a ridiculously good price, considering its original retail price and the practically perfect condition it was in.

The timing worked out perfectly for me to drive north of Seattle in a borrowed car and purchase it with the savings I had at the time. I thought I was about to embark on the musical career I've always dreamt about. A year and 3 months ago, I was madly i love and rushing a move from my studio into a house already full to capacity with some of my favorite people. I gave most of my kitchen things away to friends who needed them. And I brought this keyboard over to a friends' house, where she would have more space and use for it than I did at the time.

Today, the timing worked out perfectly for me to drive far south of Seattle in a borrowed car to retrieve it from the aforementioned friend. She's given it lots of lovin' and I could tell she was sad to see it carried out of her bedroom. I felt bad for separating her from her newfound love of the keys...

And, at the same time, I was so ready to have it back. I'd already cleared a space in my room. Gotten my yellow leaf paper lamp out. Put my drawings up. I'm embarking on a new life journey tomorrow--culinary school--and I need to secure these old passions from this previous life before I take the next step.

In Love with the Sky: Wednesday, Sept 21, 2011

I'm going to start labeling these sky photo posts "In Love with the Sky"...cuz, well...I am. In love with the sky, I mean. I really can't help it. When I took an Intro to Atmospheric Sciences (aka Meteorology) class two springs ago, I started a habit of looking at the sky any time I was outside or near a window. Originally, it was to study the clouds and learn how to tell what the weather's doing by the forms they take. But my desire to learn soon melded with my love of aesthetics, and thus, a sky/cloud obsession was born.

Today, the sky was full of soft, icy blue clouds...all day. This afternoon, I found myself near my favorite sky-watching spot, Lakeview Blvd. Close enough to walk down and get a bigger picture of what I could only catch glimpses of between the apartment buildings on Capitol Hill. Naturally, I snagged the opportunity for more sky-lovin'.

Oh, and Blogger just announced that photos are now available for viewing in their full size. Which is handy, because in this series, I used the panorama setting on my spiffy camera phone for the first time. So if you want to see any of these in a larger format, just click on the image! :)

This first set was taken on the Lakeview Blvd I-5 overpass. It seemed like I was standing there for ages, jaw gaping in awe, camera clicking away. But according to the time stamps on my photos, I was only actively taking pics for 20 min. Time perception is a fickle thing.

Sept 21, 2011 - 7:00am

"You should come look at the clouds!"

Best way to get up in the morning.

I'm here. Now.

It's been a week or two of gorgeous summer weather here...which is actually welcome here in Seattle. I imagine that the inhabitants of other areas of the country have been praying for the rainy season for a good while now...especially those in Texas.
I am soooo grateful for where I'm living right now. The sun is shining, the air is warm (but not too warm), and there are plenty of ripe blackberries for instant snacking everywhere I go, it seems.
This sky-centric photo is a bit unusual for me...I mean...there are only like...4 whispy clouds in it! Who wants to gaze at a blue sky for longer than a minute, right?!
Well...I do. Today, anyway. I'm feeling what's here, and appreciating the present. Or trying to, anyway...
Some people run every morning, some treadmill at lunchtime, and others sit in silence each night before bed. Whatever you like to call it (exercise, clearing your head, releasing energy, meditation), it gets you back in your body and focused on the present moment. I don't have a have a regular activity like this scheduled for myself. I am now realizing just how beneficial it could be for me, though. A daily ritual, even if it changes form from time to time, would have more potential to keep me grounded than sporadic unplanned bike rides across the city.
Seems logical, anyway.
So today's get-out-of-my-head exercise is a long bike ride. Tomorrow's will probably be something else. And as long as I have a core commitment to myself (and my sanity), I'm ok with some uncertainty.

Sunrise, Sept. 8, 2011

Sunrises and sunsets are probably my favorite part about living on this planet. But really, the sky, in general. And clouds. Especially when large bodies of water are also visible beneath the sky.

These are images of this morning's sunrise, which, as always, don't do the real thing justice. My jaw dropped when I got my first glimpse of the eastern glow. The way the light was hitting the clouds made them look two dimensional and exaggerated their shapes...so much so that it reminded me of paintings and drawings that I've seen, but which I always considered to be exaggerations and romanticizations of what was actually seen and what was actually possible in the sky. Unfortunately, I didn't get a very good shot of the clouds, so you'll just have to take my word for it. ;)

7:03am

8:00am

Sunrise, Sunset...

Pax and I went camping at Deception Pass (on Whidbey Island) last weekend. I use the term "camping" loosely...as we had our car nearby (as did the people at the other 200-odd campsites) and there were towns and shops within 10 min of the park.

This park is very significant to me, as it was our annual camping spot for most of my childhood. Here, I learned to scamper across the driftwood on the beach and climb wet rocks at low tide. I poked sea anemones and listened to barnacles whistle in the wind. I honed the calluses on my feet by refusing to wear shoes on the stoney beach. I built driftwood forts, collected crab shells, and giggled in the dim light underneath an upturned canoe. I grew up there. Or, rather, it marked different stages of my growth, more significantly than my parents' house because my time there was less and my visits spread out.

So I experienced some closure last weekend, unsurprisingly. It's been about 5 years since the last time I was there, and I've matured (and otherwise changed) quite a bit. I'm grateful for Pax's willingness to humor me in my semi-conscious quest. It was fun to do the things I used to love doing...and funny to see how different things actually are there compared to how they were in my memory.

This is a video I took while we were on the beach watching a stunning sunset. The silhouette of the fisherman was too picturesque to not document, and he even caught a fish while I was filming! Unfortunately, the camera was actually turned away from him at the moment of catching...but no matter. I love how much you can see, with only the outlines of shapes to go off of. And, really, I can't get enough of gorgeous sunsets, especially on the water. Watching the sun set is one activity I will never grow out of.