“You can’t create fate because then it’s not fate, it’s Voodoo.”

I have so much I’m thinking about, words swirling around in my head that aren’t quite ready to be transported to any sort of page, online or otherwise, and did I mention I’m flying to Asia in t-minus THREE DAYS and counting?

If you’re thinking I’m ridiculously excited (you’re right! and), add a dollop of sheer GLEE (I get to see my SISTER, and WILL, and HUG them both), and a dash of apprehension (because hi, I have no idea what to expect, or how I’m going to read anything, and one of my co-workers recently told me to bring anti-poo pills with me, and did I ever anticipate I would be talking to said co-worker about bowel movements while traveling abroad? No, no I did not) to the emotional mix, and you will have my emotional state in a nutshell. Or in a mixing bowl, as it were.

No doubt I’m going to have endless pictures to share from upcoming weeks to be spent in China and South Korea (and I’m beyond excited to take those pictures, and to share them), but for now, here’s how this past week looked in pictures:

Exhibit A: An empty fortune cookie on Monday, which, while causing me a brief existential crisis, also made me realize that yeah, I really do make my own luck. Take that, Cheap Chinese Restaurant Who Shall Not Be Named (cough…August Moon…cough).

Exhibit B: We like to rain it, rain it.

Exhibit C: A new necklace, which I’m (amusing myself by) calling The Precious. The Precious is so precious, in fact, that it can’t bother to be photographed in focus.

Exhibit D: A lovely gift from Sizz! Inside the adorable box was an even more adorable pair of turquoise earrings.

Exhibit E: Or, what happens when you try to take a picture of a beautifully colored sky while you’re walking out to your car after work. I actually love the way this shot turned out, even if it is all epileptic-looking.

Exhibit F: This is what me choosing books to be stowed in my one and only carry-on looks like. The stack below represents the main contenders, which I am now evaluating based on 1) weight; 2) general interest in the story/stories; 3) probability of the book encouraging strangers to strike up conversations with me while I’m attempting to read on the plane. Antisocial air travelers, UNITE.

Exhibit G: I (basically) finished packing a full week before I’m scheduled to fly. That’s a personal record in anal-retentive travel for me.

Exhibit H: Running office-related errands and thinking these window decals walked right out of Where The Wild Things Are.

Exhibit I: Work-related fun in our Creepy Storage Unit. (That’s Erin! at the window.)

Exhibit J: I spent the bulk of Saturday shopping, lunching and movie-watching with Kali! at Bridgeport Village. It was my second visit to the shopping oasis and my first ever trip to Anthropologie. I managed to finish the majority of my pre-travel errands while enjoying terrific company. It was, in a word: awesome. Also awesome: Kali’s adorable flower hair clip.

Exhibit K: Want to donate to Haiti relief efforts and get an awesome t-shirt at the same time? Threadless is offering a new shirt with 100% of proceeds going to the American Red Cross. The mustached rabbits want you to donate. Listen to the mustached rabbits.

*Post title is from a super random episode of Everybody Loves Raymond.

Story, The First: The Pug Who Moved To California

Stories I said I had. Tangential stories and life-changing ones.

Until today I haven’t known where, exactly, to begin. And so quiet this space has mostly been because some beginnings are tricky. Sometimes it’s quite impossible to denote where something ended and something else entirely began.

I’m not going to be able to tell you everything, but then the best stories never really do, do they?

(That’s not a trick question. I promise they don’t.)

(Unless the story was penned by Henry James, in → Read more...

Found

This week I’ve been finding pieces of writing long lost and forgotten. Unearthing words belonging to me, and words penned by some of my favorite of all literary voices, collected and saved and scrawled excitedly on pages littered with foggy memories of past lives, obscured now in light of all that was and is and is to come.

Of the words not belonging to me, Lucille Clifton’s were the ones I found most often, recounted in notebook after notebook, or inked → Read more...

Shari-Romancing A Stone

They say water changes stone, carving it over time to angles and dimensions in harmony with water’s need to reach the sea; but sometimes, stones change the watercourse instead.

-The lovely and eclectic Shari

On Hoarding

I’m collecting my favorite corners, like the one with the stunning oak tree on display for an entire neighborhood to see, its limbs shading a bustling crosswalk shooting confidence into pedestrians like electric currents of white light, fresh graffiti on a nearby curb: an infinity symbol, black and simple.

I’m collecting stories about the apartment window filled with small elephant figurines along one of my favorite walking routes. So many trunks standing side-by-side and none of them alive.

I’m collecting the surprisingly → Read more...