ohana

when all seems lost, turn to family, and it's not.

me and the cousins. we be tight.

<3

oh the babies!

intruded on a couple's romance time, but isn't the potomac so lovely?

so pretty i could cry

(ht: andrew sullivan)

babies

i spent all weekend with babies. honestly, babies are really cute and all, but they are sort of manic, bipolar, carnal little animals. you parents are really amazing. good job just making it through the day. seriously.

i was constantly, CONSTANTLY reminded of this video as i watched these babies eat, scream, cry, poop, laugh, roll, whimper, etc. etc. etc.,  wash, rinse, repeat.

watch part II

hey did you know that there is this amazing place called the "suburb" where there are these big air conditioned buildings with stores in them called "malls" and in these "malls" there are these, like, carts that sell things, sort of like what we city folk call "food trucks," except these "trucks" sell stuff like face soap and hair straighteners and .... watch straps!

and these magical "carts" that sell these watch straps have amazing watch-wizards who can give you brand new leather straps for your poor cheapy target watch and they can install them within seconds!

did you know this?

i sure didn't, but thank God I have cousins who do.

the target watch good as new

renew, reuse, and recycle kids. that's the moral of the story.

watch out

i am watch obsessed these days. i bought this cheesy, fake brown leather watch at target before i left for jordan many moons ago because i needed to know the time without my cell phone. it is so cheap that the brown paint on the strap is coming off to reveal that it is not, in fact, leather, but some weird synthetic fabric. regardless, i wear this thing every day because i love wearing a watch!

one day, my old target watch will sputter and die. when that day comes ... what kind of watch should i get?

i was originally drawn to the mod-aesthetic of Swatch watches, but now I might be leaning more towards a classic Timex.

i like

so pretty. thoughts? i sort of like the one on the far left with brown leather and the middle with sage green ... hmmmmm ... 

when i was a kid i wanted ....

... a lite brite, my little pony, and the maui barbie (because she had black hair and looked like me). I wanted to please my parents. A lot of these toys were kept from me because I didn't accomplish something that they wanted, like straight A's or passing a piano song or reading a book fast enough. I also wanted to hang out with friends more or attend sleepovers but couldn't. I wanted to be accepted by my schoolmates which was difficult because I was often forcibly kept at bay. I also wanted to be a journalist from the beginning. I originally wanted to be an anchorwoman, but thought I wasn't pretty enough so I went into writing.

i wrote this at work where we were led in a community-building exercise. We were given three writing prompts:

1. when I was a kid i wanted ....
2. when i think of the place i call home i ...
3. when i think about my name i ....

we were to choose one of these prompts and write stream-of-consciousness style for 3 mins. Then we shared them with our groupmates. it was such a great exercise that I came home, invited Chris over for dinner, and did the same thing with him, just the two of us. you think you know someone after so many years, but we learned new things about each other through these little stories! now i want to do this with pretty much everyone in my life ... haha! so next time you and I hang out, be warned because I'm gonna bust out two sheets of paper, two pens, and a stopwatch ...

ok ... now i understand why i'm never invited to parties.

me on the left. how cute is uno's little mohawk!? haha.

present tense

chris and i spent the weekend in new york and i'm both glad and regretful. the city did not disappoint and i was pretty sad after coming back home. i'm sure i'll readjust and appreciate dc for what it is, but new york's siren song continues to tug at my heart. i look at chris and feel so sorry that he doesn't live there any more, but also so thankful that he was willing to leave all that new york has to offer to give our relationship a chance.

i took almost zero pictures, which is a good thing for me (maybe not for you, since this post will be mostly me rambling).

last thursday i went to a small book talk with brian mclaren where he was asked to share how he prays. he prays through a series of 12 words, with the first word being "here." as in, here i am. here is where i am right now. not 1 hour from now, or 10 years from now, but right now. here. he prays it to center himself in the present, to become aware of his surroundings and his current reality.

this was so provocative to me. i have spent my life ignoring the present while dwelling in the past and future, reminiscing about how things were and wishing for things to be different. but when am I ever just here?

walking around new york, I found myself praying over the word "here" all day long. here I am, walking down broadway. here I am getting a pedicure with joanna, laughing about our mutual misadventures. here I am sitting in a park with Chris. here I am eating the best damn bowl of ramen ever.

here. here. here.

so you can see why I didn't take any photos and came away happier for it.

the one photo i took of chris and me on the bus ride home

taken today: totally forgot about the existence of taffy
until a coworker offered me a piece. so good!