Friday

happy thanksgiving internet friends.

we drove up to westchester, ny and had lunch with our immediate family. we're thankful for a new day and being alive and well. 3.5 hours was spent on the road so we stopped by the stateline looking out to new york. it was really beautiful and peaceful because we were the only ones there. the weather was drizzly and we took pictures while sofia jumped in piles of dead leaves. i took a chance with a newly acquired camera which batteries are hard to find for, and shot without a light meter. on top of which i am using this lomo film which allows you to set your iso between 50-200 to achieve either a desaturated look or the contrary. i am sort of confused about it. but we shall see if it turns out. the rest of the day was spent with the palumbo's. andrew and i have decided they should have their own reality show called, "joe & cherry plus 2... and bob dylan". (because katherine has a crazy do and she looks like him). it was pretty chill and we didn't over stuff ourselves.

now eating leftovers and watching tv all day in our pajamas.

anyhow these are some test shots i took with the minolta srt, which i have been having a love hate relationship with. i am thinking about getting rid of it, but every time i find someone on flickr who shoots with it, i get re-inspired. here are some of my favorite shots with it. the one's with * i had adjusted brightness/color in photoshop.














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this book is by a flickr friend long lim, who shoots mainly with the srt. one of the reasons why i wanted to try out this camera. also this story made me want to eat an apple. hence, the apple.
5 senses friday

tasting:

pancake bites. maple sausages wrapped in pancakes. tastes like corn dogs, but for breakfast.

hearing:

high places - from stardust to sentience




feeling:

peaceful



smelling:

honey & maple syrup



seeing:

reflections on windows and mirrors





Tuesday

mornings with her



the last days of my vacation/weekend was spent waking up slow with the little one.



i let the cat's meow wake her up this time because i always feel bad doing it myself.



sometimes we make pancakes or walk to, yeah i hate to admit it, mcd's for hotcakes.

around the corner from there is a pet shop. there are three kittens at the window.
we go in to play with them. interesting enough, their names were: mike, vinny and ronnie.
of course.




one day i took her to the sitter so i could just watch netflix all day,
eat chicken salad on crisps and drink tea.




i actually really enjoyed my vacation after all.

Friday

5 senses friday

seeing: through the lens



feeling: cold, but cozy



tasting: sushi



reading: my always currently reading pile



smelling: fall


music finds and rediscoveries
day 3 of staycation

hearing: angus & julia stone playlist

i've been bored as of late. well, maybe not bored, more like being too busy to search for new music and other pleasant things to distract occupy my mind. rediscovered angus and julia stone on kcrw "mornings become eclectic". and i can't help but think, why do i listen to such achingly sad music... and admittedly so?
anyway, this one's great.

for the windy city:

.

so since its my vacation and was looking forward to chicago, i've been all sorts of nostalgic for life and the people there. i think it might have been why i've done the unthinkable. but hopefully this will keep us in touch, since at times it can be too hard or too busy to do even that.

[warning: hasty writing, bad grammar ahead. ]

onto what we did on the second day of my break. yes, i know this is completely self-indulgent, but what is a vacation for, but to indulge. and having said that, what is a blog for?

what to do for pleasure...



yesterday i spent the day with sofia. took the train to the city. she loves that. i asked her in the morning if she wants to go to new york, and her eyes lit up, she's smiling and said, "NEW YORK CITY!" so i said, "okay, new york it is." she loves riding the train and prefers to stand. she doesn't like sitting next to strangers. and inches closest to the edge of the seat near me as i'm standing in front of her. and no we don't bring strollers because it's more of a hassle bringing that up and down the subway. met up with andrew for lunch at the shake shack and had a "shack"ago hot dog. it came pretty close with the whole cucumber, peppers, onions, tomato... but the dog. no. definitely not chicago. the fries were good though. the burger was juicy and it's on a potato bun which makes it yummy. after that we were on the bus to go to the lower east side, but after a couple stops i notice the momofuku wall and realized we were steps from milk bar. had to scoop sofia up from her seat and got off that bus. this time i got only the birthday cake truffles. i swear whenever i eat that it always feels like its my birthday. one for me, one for sofi. we were eating that outside a bench. some guy passes by and says, "nom nom nom". sofi pauses and looks at me. she smiles and nods her head. "nom nom nom" she said, as she savoured that sweet ball of nomminess and swinging her legs back and forth.






got back on the bus. for some reason, only some stops let you pay at some machine before you board. you insert your card and it prints you a receipt. so you can show it to the driver if he asks, other wise you can just walk right in, like the lightrail. anyway, i figured ill get back on the bus and use the same receipt, since it valid for going the same way and expires in an hour. so to heck with it. the bus is coming anyway and i don't want to have to pay twice for the same bus ride. all i did was stop to pick up cake truffles for me and my baby girl, surely that's no sin. so i got on, showed the guy my crumpled receipt. looks over it he goes, "you know this ain't the stop for this." so i said, "i know, but we started walking and ended up here." he looks at me, rolls his eyes and said, "you can't be doing this next time..." yeah, okay.

we got off houston. crossed the street and ended up at the playground on 2nd ave. sofia climbed the ladders and went sliding down slides. meanwhile, this old lady kept yelling at some kid. while all the kids look at each other and to me, all wondering who the heck is she talking to. then she'll yell again, saying "not you, i'm not yelling at you, i'm yelling at him." still don't know who she's talking about or to whom she's talking. we shrug it off and continue with our climbing and sliding. there is a woman sitting up on one of them forts with the better slide which sofia doesn't bother to climb because she's up there. any how, she starts saying, "that's not nice... that's not nice. you think i over sell myself .....!?!." repeating it over and over again while her voice gradually climbs up to shouting. i thought she was yelling at her kid, who is smaller than sofi. i look up and see she's on her phone. gosh, seriously. she is sitting smack dab in the middle of a playground, wearing an all pink velour jogging/hoodie get up. she goes on and on, and finally hangs up the phone. she comes down with her pale white kid looking like dakota fanning starts running towards sofie and wanting to play with her. so she's following her kid and i'm like, "oh sofi, say hi." the lady looks at me, she goes, "sofie?" points to sofi, "my daughter's name is sofie too!" oh... yeah.. great.
so the rest of the playground experience was trying to divert ourselves from these two because her kid keeps following sofia but sofia ain't having none of that. and also we have way too much in common. just kidding. but, no really.
anyway i got tired of the playground, but she wanted to stay. but i said, we gotta go, its cold and i'm not about to stay out and wait for rush hour. luckily the F was right there, so i was able to get off the next stop to soho. i wanted to go to uniqlo. but damn, i forgot it was veterans day and people are everywhere. any way, i'm pretty sure it was a good day to teach sofia a lesson about not holding my hands as that she insists she will walk as she darn pleases. oh and those damn street carts keep attracting her. she'd stop and go, mmm and points to those halal carts. that really made me laugh a little. she didn't even know what she wanted from there, cause when i asked her she'd look and look but could only point to water as it's the only thing she recognizes. anyway we didn't get through the store, it was too crazy, so we immediately left the store and got on the N. it was the closest stop out of there. sort of got confused with this train ride and got off on 8th st. didn't realize the stop was on broadway and not close to the PATH at all. so luckily i realized this before walking up those steps carrying sofi. so we waited for the next N. got back on and got off on 33rd, which the sign clearly says transfers to PATH. yay. they make it easy. i thought it was 4:30 already, luckily the JSQ train was already there. got seats because it was the first stop. looking at this family across us with strollers. everyone else have their eyes closed. yeah, it's pretty tiring. i look at sofi and she is also sleeping. she slept right through even on our drive back home. we got home at 4:30. which is awesome when you think it's already 6.

anyway, now i'm waiting for a package. i found a sign on the front door saying there's a package for me, but they will come back and try again tomorrow. so here i am spending all my morning at home. as if it was a waste of my time. no, i'm not complaining at all.

and yay, it's friday. have a relaxing weekend! also, if you read all the way down here, it means you love me.

i heart you too <3

Wednesday

day 1 of staycation:
listening to : aloe blacc playlist on youtube

so, i took the next 3 days off + the weekend. supposed to fly back to chicago, but tickets went up from $150 - $900 in like a day. but, its all good, i got the days off any how and it would be a lot more relaxing (after i clean this place up) to just stay home anyway. well, after i take this mental break and listen to this mix.

we've been really busy at work. for some reason, after i asked for the days off my desk just suddenly got stocked up by more work. wow, where did that come from? and how is this woman gonna give me 10 piles of paper to do in 1.5 hrs? she thought i wasn't gonna finish that by 5. 5:10 i'm out. on top of that, i was on a bidding war on ebay at 4:45. this is how i good i am with multi-tasking. what is wrong with me.. and what is this an, addiction? well, it sort of fills my thrifting hunger. anyway, i've sort of developed this thing for getting special things in the mail besides junk mail and bills. it's kind of like xmas morning to yourself when you find a little package waiting at the door with your name on it. what a sure sweet thing.

so this week, haven't decided what i'll be doing. maybe i'll go back to manhattan since the weather is looking to be in the upper 50s.









Thursday



Hello,

Lately I've been feeling like everything is piling up on top of the other. Papers, garbage, dishes, work, feelings, etc. etc. It sometimes makes it difficult to find beauty in anything. I feel like I am running out of things to photograph because I've been stuck on autopilot mode just to get through the days. Meanwhile everything is starting to look and feel the same. I have to admit though that looking through the lens has been a sort of escape. It feels really good also to find that you captured exactly what you wanted, and sometimes it gives you something even better than you hoped for. The last roll I developed turned out really bad. only 4 images was visible. It looked like someone had violently ripped the end off and some of the frames were cut halfway. It broke my heart at first, but I think the images that did come out, were surprisingly - magical.