calm me down

i always get super excited when i think about visiting norcal again, particularly when there's a three-day weekend, or any longer than two-day weekends really... this past weekend was mlk's birthday and i so wanted to and had plans of visiting. alas, friends' schedules couldn't be aligned, so i stayed home and organized more things around my new apartment and did some more yoga. did i mention i now live in my very own studio? after so many years of sharing living space with other people, there's no other liberating feeling than to have your own space. i walk around naked if that gives you a clear definition of "liberating." i do for me and no one else. i'm enjoying this quite well...

(i'm trying to revive the gifted plants above due to being neglected from having moved twice in five months and taking care of some business. no excuses, i know. i have three more that i need to save and so many more i want to get to put around the studio.)

so, norcal. i know i often stress how much i miss it, so i try to visit as much as i can, only because there are friends that live there that i treasure greatly. and mostly because nature is so beautiful up there. i daydream often when i'm at work, sitting at my desk, staring at my computer screen, how nice it would be to be hiking up a mountain, even as cold as it could be, to just feel that kind of air hit your skin, enter your lungs, and become one with it. sounds dramatic i know, but i dream it all the time. it's a feeling. it's a feeling.

come february, i will be in you, norcal, for a sweet valentine visit! i can't wait to be one with you again.

wwwwhaat?

you know that thing that happens when you move, and you go through ALL of the things you've stored in your mom's house to determine what to throw away and what to keep and you come across things like these?

man, does this make me feel old! i have no recollection of any of these happening except for the middle photos. i attended a private catholic school in the philippines and every year, we had to perform dances for our families. the dance required us to wear traditional filipino clothing. i loved that dress and hat. i didn't love it though when i arrived late, which was apparently always the case because i remember arriving late for an exam and my teacher punished me by slapping my hands with wooden rulers. i remember crying and looking down at my hands wondering, "why are you doing this to me, sister nun?!?!" my classmates helped me change out of my clothes and into the dress and hat that day and i'm also storing acorns in my cheeks on that third photo just fyi.

on that first picture, i'm holding an empanada my mom made. because of the heat and humidity in the philippines, she would slather an excess of baby powder on all of us (i have two brothers). can you see the evidence of that on my right arm?

the last picture was my first graduation. my mom said that dress she's wearing was one of her favorites. i think this was about the same time she also decided to cut her hair really short. and perm it. PERM it. PERM. it.