Showing posts with label Berkeley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Berkeley. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

tangled lives

Traveling is just making my life feel confusing. Wonderful people everywhere, and I can only know people so much...

Here are some tangled iron... things. That I saw in Portland. They can represent my folks here in Portland: fairly solid, sweetly interwoven.


Here is a candle holder hanging from a tree over looking the bay. I like this tree a lot because it is a good shelter from the wind. Also because the objects are always changing. This can be like my Berkeley people in that there is a little bit of a constant element, but it is in a stage of growth, and will develop into something bigger. I don't know what I will find there, sometimes.



I'm feeling dazed and confused from the constant stream of a lot of people I don't know very well, and I don't imagine that will be amazingly better when I go back to CA, depending on what I do.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Breath of fresh air

I have a lot of faith in myself right now. Things have been really hard, and they aren't suddenly going to be easy breezy, but they might be a little easier. And I might go enjoy the breeze, have a little peace, and feel more able to breath. I love where I live, my life is objectively amazing, and astoundingly amazing.



And I need to be in a place where I don't have to struggle so much to enjoy it. I always appreciate it, of course. I don't appreciate my depression but I'm working through it. I made a change this week, to focus more on myself and take it into my own hands to be strong and compassionate and happy. And now I feel like I can breath. And I think I am determined enough to follow through and not remain stagnant.

My next step is to figure out how I am paying for things. I need a budget that includes rent, food, and my gym. hopefully even some dancing and public transit. I have faith that it will work out but I have to come up with a how or else I'll be a little, um, dissapointed in myself I suppose.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

have a flower

Here, this flower might cheer you up. I know it's bright and sunny outside, but maybe you're hiding in your room and haven't noticed.



The flowers around my house have all been blooming, and it is getting quite colorful. I love it. Flowers have always been really calming to me, I think. I don't know it it's the colors, or just the fact that it's a growing thing that draws attention to itself, and doesn't have thorns (roses are not my favorite...)

This one is on my upstairs porch, sunbathing and enjoying the breeze.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

I thought I was too lazy to spell Rhamphorynchus... I was only barely wrong.

Barbara made this silk screen a long time ago. It's super awesome, but it doesn't exist anymore. She made a lot of awesome silk screen that no longer exist. I think partly because screens are expensive and partly because they take up a lot of space.

I've found a solution, at least for now, to the space problem. If Emily and I paint too many more screens though, we *might* need another solution. But maybe by then I'll have a for real income and can pay rent and get studio space.

hmm...

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Chillin with the Billy (goats)

On Sunday Emily and I went over to our friend David's house. He's got two adult goats and a handful of kids. And they are, quite figuratively, a handful. Very inquisitive, and interested in eating everything.
They REALLY like napkins.

And salty chips. Check out that adorable tongue action.
This is David.




And this one girl was the cutest, and friendliest.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

mmmm couches



We have a different couch now (as you might already know), one that doesn't splosh the sitters out onto the floor. I'm sitting on it as I write this, enjoying the couchiness of it. I like couches. They are important.

The cat there is Nora. She saw me walk out of my room and was unsure whether to flee or stay perfectly still in hopes that I wouldn't notice her. The poor dear. She's gotten so much better during her time living with us. I can just imagine her saying "Oh! Oh my Goodness! Oh Me! Oh My!"... pretty much most of the time.

The cushion behind the couch there are the remnants of the old couch. They are sitting outside at the moment, waiting more me to figure out how to make them less full of allergins, and then I will fix their old cover and do something clever with them.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Dactyl love



These Dactyls felt symbolic, warm, and fuzzy, as I arranged them on the book shelf. I had just gotten done rearranging and cleaning the living room, with Bob (This was on the 30th, also, the same day we got the couch). The Dactyls are so intrinsic to this family that people sometimes call Bob and Barb "the Dactyls," as a convenient way of referring to them, since their last names are different. I feel very at home among the dactyls, and felt especially at home after Bob and I worked together to make the home more homey. Home Home home.

Dactyls symbolize love and family. They especially symbolize Bob, but also Emily and Barbara, and this house. Here they are nuzzling. It just makes me want to nuzzle!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Green and Red



This is a haircut I gave Emily a bit ago, and the subsequent henna-ing. I've been meaning to post this for a while, and mentioned it some time ago, but subsequently forgot. I'm not great at remembering. But these days I have a little book in my hair so everything is easier to remember.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Cooking

This is Wilson cooking on April the 30th. It's not that great a picture, but I like all the yellows, and I especially like that he is cooking for me. I love when people cook for me, and I love cooking for others. Mmmmmm.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Rhubarb

Emily made some strawberry rhubarb pie, in spite of a bit of a fear of rhubarb. "Vegetable pie?" She asked. "And isn't rhubarb poisonous?" she added suspiciously. After I promised her she could beat me up if I poisoned her, we decided to make it.



Friday, March 25, 2011

I love my home.


Emily and Kevin are home for the weekend, for my birthday, and just generally to visit. They make me so happy. I was literally bouncing with anticipation the day they were going to show up, which was Wednesday night.


This afternoon we gave the litter of current foster kittens a bath. They are all so fluffy and precious, but they smelled pretty bad.

Predictably, Kevin was taking pictures. Since I had also decided to take pictures (kittens!) we were getting in each other's way whenever we saw the same good idea. It makes me smile. Kevin's camera is such a part of him, and it couldn't get in my way if he weren't hanging out with Emily and I in our bathroom, so it is obviously a positive thing.

I love them.

(Kevin's related blog post is here )

Thursday, October 8, 2009

What I left in Berkeley Part 4

Emily has the strangest things on her desk. I love this one.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

What I left in Berkeley Part 3

Bob working on something bike related in the kitchen

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

What I left in Berkeley Part 2



Barbara (my fake-mother, and otherwise house-mate) fosters kittens. Usually I mostly ignore them, but right before I left I decided to give this batch a lot of cuddling. I think I was getting sentimental.



Emily has a lot of odd junk in her room. When it is not lying around her room, its in her hair. Some of it is photogenic, and I enjoy that. There is something charming about what we don't understand.



Pictured above are some doll arms that were gifted to her: just the arms, mind you, not the whole doll. Also, there are two glass pieces: The glass on the right I just found her holding one day, the pipe (on the left) took a lot of cleaning before it didn't look or smell like pot. It is broken, pretty much stopping where the picture stops. I actually found that one. The blue marbley things are from Wilson and the are squishy "Eco soil," these odd silicone things that absorb water.



Also quite recently, a day or two before I left, I realized Emily and the morning light were getting along like age old lovers and I couldn't help but take a billion pictures. After so many pictures, it's as if the camera stops existing, and I am able to capture what I am really looking for. In this case, it is the playfulness that Em and I exchange.



And lastly, my love, asleep in my room. He was so beautiful there, and so hard to capture. I took some blurry close ups at a few points during that night, the night I stayed up all night packing before my morning flight to here. I packed while he just slept there, through the harsh light, and all my noise and occasionally having to shift him around.

I often associate him with the cold fresh air from those two windows, and this picture brings me some very comforting tactile memory. I can feel the breeze, and that wool blanket against my neck.