i keep a diary

August, 2013

The August Roundup

Here are all the photos I took in August 2013 that didn't end up in their own entry.

Thursday, August 1st

While adjusting the blinds on Thursday afternoon...
brunch ˆ east village ˆ strangers
...I spotted the new restaurant down the block trying out a new marketing strategy for their afternoon happy hour...
brunch ˆ east village ˆ strangers
...the old "get your pretty friend to stand outside on the street topless" marketing move!
brunch ˆ east village ˆ strangers
"Oh, you know - just checking my texts and sunning dese tits. Hoping some cool people stop in this bar I'm hanging out at." Whaaaaaa?
boobs ˆ brunch ˆ east village ˆ peep ˆ strangers

Friday, August 2nd

siege
On Friday evening, I had dinner with this lovely gentleman.
best ˆ graffiti ˆ number one ˆ point ˆ siege
Took these ladies for their evening stroll.
dogs ˆ squirrel ˆ tompkins
maddy
Maddy vanquished squirrels to their trees.
squirrel ˆ maddy
Lovely sunset from my window.
clouds ˆ twilight
Waves of clouds.
clouds ˆ twilight
caitlin
Later that evening, I went to see Caitlin's band, the Broadcast.
band ˆ caitlin
caitlin
They rocked it as always.
band ˆ caitlin
caitlin
Always lovely to see you!
band ˆ caitlin

Saturday, August 3rd

Been re-watching the entire Sopranos while I do my weird made-up yoga routine in my living room. I really loved this (terrible) DLR cameo!
dlr kick ˆ sopranos ˆ tv
Out with the old...
pipe ˆ weed
piper
...in with the new
weed ˆ piper
Ever wonder what those people you used to see out are doing on Saturday night? Saturday night juice club!
juice ˆ juicer ˆ kitchen

Sunday, August 4th

penelope
Hung out with Penny on Sunday afternoon.
e9th apt ˆ living room ˆ reiki ˆ penelope
maddy
Sleeping between feet!
dogs ˆ sleepy ˆ maddy
Spent the late afternoon...
la plaza cultural ˆ walking
...sitting by the koi pond in the park on 5th & B...
garden ˆ la plaza cultural
..eating a spinach & mozzarella panini from Paradiso (yes!)...
food ˆ sandwich
...and finding myself fascinated with something I used to categorically dismiss as nonsense.
book ˆ reiki
maddy
Bunk buddies.
dogs ˆ edie ˆ maddy

Monday, August 5th

Awesome pink sunset on Monday.
e9th apt ˆ east village ˆ sunset ˆ twilight
Seems, legit.
Let's take one apart!

Wednesday, August 7th

maddy, vin
Vin came over for a hang on Wednesday.
maddy ˆ vin

Thursday, August 8th

me
Thursday was my 37th birthday! Spent the early afternoon working around the apartment and then jumped rope for an hour.
birthday ˆ self portrait ˆ me
me
37! Birthday-aging documentation
birthday ˆ self portrait ˆ me
me
2-pac. Haha.
birthday ˆ self portrait ˆ me
Later that afternoon, I biked over to ShopKeep to meet with Peter & Mike, the two excellent Product Managers there that I work with!
flux capacity ˆ shopkeep ˆ work
Over the last few weeks, we'd helped the company define the key metrics for the business...and Mike and Peter had a birthday surprise for me...
flux capacity ˆ shopkeep ˆ work
...they'd worked with the devs to create a real-time daily reporting dashboard for company! This is the best gift you can get a nerd!
flux capacity ˆ shopkeep ˆ work
matt, meredith, peter g, vin
Later that night, I had birthday drinks around the corner.
birthday ˆ matt ˆ meredith ˆ peter g ˆ vin
Somebody gave me the gift of hashish and as a result...
gift ˆ weed
...the rest of my photos (and memories) from the evening look like this!
birthday ˆ blurry

Friday, August 9th

Took the day off on Friday! Played a whole lot of guitar.
guitar
Watched some show.
tv
Had myself a solo Odessa breakfast experience. (Yes, those are chocolate chip pancakes).
breakfast ˆ diner ˆ food ˆ odessa ˆ pancakes
Walking home, I spotted a dreamlike scene in the garden.
dance ˆ la plaza cultural ˆ strangers ˆ yoga
Four women and one guy covered in body paint...
dance ˆ la plaza cultural ˆ strangers ˆ yoga
...performing a long, semi-repeating dance / ritual ceremony.
dance ˆ la plaza cultural ˆ strangers ˆ yoga
I also had the very "New York" experience of getting closer and casually realizing, "Oh, I know that guy."
best ˆ dance ˆ la plaza cultural ˆ strangers ˆ yoga
The more I read about different cultures spiritual beliefs, the more surprised I am to learn about how the "elements" come up in almost all cultures.
dance ˆ la plaza cultural ˆ strangers ˆ yoga
While I believe that the "five elements" actually related to a funamental truth about the structure of matter at the microcosmic level, I also really like how in alchemy they're used as a metaphor for the ingredients of human experience.
best ˆ dance ˆ la plaza cultural ˆ strangers ˆ yoga
1. Air (Yellow) represents mind and thoughts, the ability to think.
2. Water (Blue) represents emotions.
3. Fire (Red) represents will, the ability to direct your thoughts and emotions towards action on the physical plane.
4. Earth (Green) represents all the materials on the physical plane that the three subtle-elements interact with.
5. Space (White), or aether, represent the "5th element" and it is the "background canvas" or "cosmic lattice" that the "material earth" is projected upon.
best ˆ dance ˆ la plaza cultural ˆ strangers ˆ yoga
vin
Normally, I'd probably have a lot more to say about this body-paint celebration, but considering I was heading back home to meet Vin so I could practice reiki on him, I've (Cast from the land of certainty into the gentler land of not-knowing!)
e9th apt ˆ hand ˆ living room ˆ reiki ˆ vin
maddy
Squad.
couch ˆ dogs ˆ edie ˆ living room ˆ maddy
me, vin
Later that afternoon we walked down to Chinatown.
sunglasses ˆ me ˆ vin
arm
Vin, as an admirer of all things he deems "tough," was a big fan of my jumprope-induced forearm bruise.
bruise ˆ jump rope ˆ ouch ˆ arm
We went to Magic Jewelry to get photos taken with the AuraCam6000 Polaroid camera they have.
AuraCam6000 ˆ chinatown ˆ neon ˆ shopping ˆ sign
Three photos of my "aura" taken over L to R:
7/15/13
7/27/13
8/10/13 The area above my head represents what I've been thinking / doing the last three days. The area on the left, represent the past three weeks. The colors on the right represent the energy / thoughts that are likely to come into your life over the next three weeks As in the future! The area over your body, represents your physical vitality. Comparing the three photos, you can see some interesting changes over time, as well as some interesting things that don't change over time (namely, the "black spot" over my right shoulder).
AuraCam6000 ˆ best ˆ polaroid
me
Vin always likes to take my camera away from me and use it to take a picture of me. Haha.
me
We came back to my place and ordered a Thai feast.
clouds ˆ sunset ˆ twilight
vin
Enjoyed the sun set with Edie.
couch ˆ e9th apt ˆ edie ˆ vin
Caught the moon walking a wire!
best ˆ moon ˆ twilight

Sunday, August 11th

maddy
dogs ˆ edie ˆ maddy
My favorite neighborhood tree got a summer haircut!
e9th apt ˆ sidewalk ˆ tree ˆ willow
Morning Glories
flower ˆ plant
Jumped rope in the park for a half-an-hour...
david m, peter g, quinn
...then biked over to La Palapa to meet up with this crew!
david m ˆ peter g ˆ quinn
ellen, karen, matt, meredith, the ktb
Matt had just gotten back in town for a few months on the road touring.
brunch ˆ ellen ˆ karen ˆ matt ˆ meredith ˆ the ktb
The gang surprised me with a belated birthday cake! Thanks everyone!
birthday ˆ cake
esther, maddy
On the walk home, Maddy ran into her doppleganger (dapple-ganger?), Esther!
dogs ˆ doppleganger ˆ edie ˆ excited ˆ esther ˆ maddy
esther, maddy
You guys look like ME! They are always so excited to see each other!
dogs ˆ doppleganger ˆ edie ˆ esther ˆ maddy
meredith
Mer came back to my place to hang out for a bit and worked on some freelance photo retouching.
couch ˆ drawing ˆ e9th apt ˆ laptop ˆ living room ˆ meredith
I made a big juice!
juice ˆ juicer
maddy, meredith
And then later that evening, I practicing reiki on Mer.
e9th apt ˆ living room ˆ reiki ˆ maddy ˆ meredith
maddy, meredith
Post-treatment cuddles with Maddy.
maddy ˆ meredith

Tuesday, August 13th

On Tuesday afternoon, Leigh returned from her trip and came to pick up Edie bearing strange gifts from the far land of Asia! Including exotic-flavored KitKats (Strawberry & blueberry-cheesecake) and Sante FX Neo, mentholated, Japanese eyedrops!
Got this tiny new fern at the grocery store.
fern ˆ plant
Ferns are my favorite plants. Not only are they beautiful, I love the sweet and "plant-y" way they smell. Mmmmm, smells Devonian-ish.
fern ˆ plant

Wednesday, August 14th

On Wednesday afternoon my parents came into town and we celebrated their 43rd wedding anniversary with a trip to the Broadway district in order to see...
broadway ˆ musical
...The Book of Mormon!
broadway ˆ flyer ˆ musical
dad, mom
My mom said "it wasn't her cup of tea," but I think it was probably the only musical my dad ever really enjoyed. Haha.
broadway ˆ musical ˆ dad ˆ mom
Back at the apartment, we'd discovered that the wind had blown the bathroom door shut, trapping Maddy inside. When we opened to the door to release her, we discovered that she'd been diligently working to dig her way out through the bathroom door. Haha. Dachsunds!
door
maddy
Is tired from digging through a door.
sleepy ˆ maddy
Took my parents out for dinner around the corner at Gruppo and fell in love with this! Strawberries & Pecorino Crostini on toasted ciabatta bread, topped with pecorino cheese, fresh strawberries, fresh basil, and white truffle honey. Fuuuuuuuuuu.
best ˆ food ˆ italian food
Spent late night watching a few Sopranos. Noticing so many little hidden LOLs in this watching.
book ˆ sopranos ˆ tv

Monday, August 26th

maddy
On Monday I was finallly back in NYC after back to back trips, first out to Whistler, BC to go camping at Joffrey Lakes, and then out to the Poconos for Jared's Bachelor Weekend!
kitchen ˆ maddy

Tuesday, August 27th

Worked from home in the morning...
e9th apt ˆ living room
me
...then went and jumped rope in the park for an hour.
me
Got two new lovely rocks.
reiki ˆ rocks
Resonates with svadhishthana
reiki ˆ rocks
Resonates with manipura
reiki ˆ rocks
Also went to the store and got two new plants! I was going to give these guys fun plant-names, but the names they came with were already pretty good! This guy's called Creeping Charlie....
plant
...and this here is his spiderwort buddy, Wandering Jew.
plant
I also got a big new pot so I could re-pot my dragon tree, Robert Plant.
plant
Into the bathtub, where all East Village home gardening is done!
bath ˆ bathroom ˆ plant
me
Happy gardener portrait.
mirror ˆ me
Wispy sunset clouds over the East Village.
clouds ˆ east village
I spent the rest of the evening having my tiny mind blown by Alexandro Jodorowsky's 1973 film, The Holy Mountain.
movie ˆ the holy mountain
The Alchemist locates the problem with the thief...
movie ˆ the holy mountain
...looks like you've got a little something on your neck that's controlling your thoughts. No big deal, we'll just...
movie ˆ the holy mountain
...take care of that little guy right here!
movie ˆ the holy mountain
This movie has so many interestingly constructed sets and beautiful shots.
movie ˆ the holy mountain
You know, just two wizards...
movie ˆ the holy mountain
...hacking away at the obelisk of the patriarchy.
movie ˆ the holy mountain
REVEAL YOUR FEMININITY!
movie ˆ the holy mountain
Seriously, if you haven't seen this movie email yourself to watch it right now!
movie ˆ the holy mountain
Tarot room.
movie ˆ tarot
Anja - moved up to number 6 between the eyes.
movie ˆ the holy mountain
On fire in the iris of an eye.
movie ˆ the holy mountain

Wednesday, August 28th

More plant care...
e9th apt ˆ kitchen
...and clouds.
clouds
Walking home later that night, I noticed for the first time that Nice Guy Eddie's bar has been replaced by some new mom-safe abomination called Boulton & Watt. *hangs head*
east village

Saturday, August 31st

On Saturday, I took the bus down to south Jersey...
italian food ˆ nj ˆ restaurant
amy b, brett, dad, mom
...to visit with Bretty, Amy and my parents!
family ˆ italian food ˆ restaurant ˆ amy b ˆ brett ˆ dad ˆ mom
amy b, brett, me, mom
Happy August 2013!
family ˆ italian food ˆ restaurant ˆ amy b ˆ brett ˆ me ˆ mom