of my word

I try to be as much a person of my word as I can. With that being said, life totally, completely takes over at times, and promises of a letter, a care package, a phone call or a hangout extend into that grey area of 'it WILL get done, just not now.' I don't mean to sound like I'm flippantly rationalizing my habits of late; I'm just offering a (vague) explanation. Work's been busier, living situation has evolved, the nights are getting colder, and hopefully I will get back into my groove soon.

falling into place

Yikes, I started this post on October 8th, and am only just revisiting it now. So many changes are afoot as I feel like I'm always saying, and they are good changes. I'm finally caught up with correspondences (!!!) and I'm busy with other work, though I haven't been working on anything personal for two weeks. To explain the above: I found a real baby carrot amidst the bunch of carrots we buy from the farmer's market every Sunday morning. Cute and deliciously sweet! I got a light-as-air mohair/wool cardigan in the deepest colors of Middle Earth and have been wearing it every chance I get - you can definitely sense the nip of autumn in the Southern California air, but lately the days have been going like this: nippy and sharp early in the morning, mellowing out to scorching heat during the day, then cooling back down rapidly late at night. Southern California! And lastly, the boy sends me pictures of his wonderful succulent collection that he adds to at opportune moments, which inspired me to do a little sketch of one of them - it's like a delicious succulent salad! Alright, back to work!

hike at griffith park

Last Friday I didn't have to go in to work at the usual time, so I stopped over at Griffith Park for a short hike! Nothing really new to report - the terrain looked slightly different from the usual San Gabriel Mountains, but that isn't an issue at all. There was some light cloud cover that day, so the light was hazy and muted and made for an easy trek. I've never gone on a hike like that on my own...it was rather nice. :)

last bits of september

1. Watercolor hearts for a tile installation mock-up my mom was fiddling with.
2. The results of wearing sandals to a crappy local dive, ewwww. (The circle around the left bite - an experiment by a friend claiming if you circle your bug bites, they will cease to itch. It kind of worked!)
3. A 'windowpane' view of mountains through a slight morning haze on a hike with sister... we're really putting this annual adventure pass to great use!
4. I made an embossed aluminum star as a sample for one of my mom's lessons. Mindless and fun...I think she will be wanting more to hang up all around our OWN house now.

Happy October! I've barely had time to slow down and breathe, so projects have slowed to a (temporary) halt. I should be starting/finishing letters right now instead of writing this blog post, actually. I'm not complaining about the flurry of activity - I just need to adapt.

pen, ink, music

1. Projects!

2. Pen pal packages! 

Phew! Excuse my lapses here...sometimes I think about things I want to share, then feel like such a thing would be over-sharing, or insignificant. Other times I think about writing something down, then lose interest almost immediately/something else catches my eye and I walk away. I've had a slow-down of taking pictures, or even having my camera on me, which seems to consistently happen once a year for a short burst of time.

I've been drawing a LOT, and I try to make time to every day. I have this project in my mind that I need to bring to completion for my own, personal satisfaction. Friend-wise, I have been keeping it up with my long-distance ones (letters, mixtapes, presents!), and I reconnect in a cyclical fashion with old friends who are close by, but busy in their own right. Busy busy scrambling around trying to make things work, trying to learn, trying to live without losing sight, taking care of body, mind, heart, there is so much happening, so much to do! I'm trying to stay on top of things, I hope you are, too!

Hello. I miss you.

cool & unusual

What I thought was a GIANT fuzzy red ant is really a species of wasp (the female being wingless, red & furry) called the velvet ant, or more sinisterly - the 'cow killer.'

Giant old machines in one of the historical buildings undergoing renovation at work! Huge elevator operating lift and a defunct steam machine (???) from the 1920s.

Squid pens! My fondest memory of these is dissecting squid during an accelerated after school class in elementary school, popping the ink sac and writing my name with the extracted 'pen' (gladius!).

A delicious ripe fig, sneakily snatched off a giant tree at the end of a hike :X. Celebrating the end of summer!

organization/inspiration

1. Flea market finds from GCC. The highlight/downfall of no longer having to work on Sunday mornings.
2. A little project I finally got to complete for a pen pal, whew. Sometimes I wish inspiration/my motivation wasn't so fickle.

I like pretty old things (but who doesn't?!) and nowadays I gravitate toward pretty old useful things. The textbook is probably not-so-useful to me, but reminded me of a certain someone. The drawings were included with a mix-tape (mix-cd...) for an awesome friend who I hope to meet for real, in person, in the near future with my sister. Someday! It makes me happy to be able to connect to and cultivate friendships with people, whether in face-to-face interactions or through the Internet. And then the excitement of new friends will remind me of the old friends, and just rolls me through the cycle of catching up with said seasoned friendships. Mind you this isn't a cut-and-dry formula - just thoughts of the moment. I'm really trying for consistency though.

end of summer

We had rain in the San Gabriel Valley yesterday! And right before the Labor Day Weekend, what timing. I have been feeling rather quiet these days...feels like I don't have much to say. Preoccupation with work and basking in my days off/looking for more work, personal projects and putzing around helping others with projects is what I mostly find myself doing. I've really gone into hermit mode otherwise - evaluating what's important to me, people to make an effort with and who to just let go, treating people things everything right, enriching my mind and body and just keeping clear of poison. Three old friends I have recently been in contact with all asked me a question along the lines of "So what are your goals/what do you want/where are you headed?" I mostly know what I want, am half-certain of the means of getting there, but am cognizant that I can't be in complete control of everything. So I guess I am saying for myself, make sure you put in a hell of a lot of effort in everything you do, but let yourself breathe a little, roll with the tide.

until next time

This was a week ago! I got to see A for a few fleeting hours, hiking 'backwards' up a trail at Chantry Flat. Plumcots were shared along the way, and A spotted an enormous rattlesnake in a creek that got upset at us as we curiously admired it. He gathered some white sage to bundle up later, and soon after we parted ways. It was so great to see you again, as always.

objects received

Don't ever drink and draw, kids. Just kidding! I highly recommend it. These are some love tokens that have come across my way, that I cherish and/or consumed right away.

1. Un-cracked geodes
2. A ripe mango
3. A bottle of carefully collected sand

Colored pencils & ink on scraps of paper I found at the paper cutter,

duodecim x II

drawn by A.M. Williamson

Good things happening, slowly. also, I'm two dozen years old now.

hello again

I like looking at you with sleepy eyes, when the day is ending, and when it is barely beginning.

color miscellany

Some kind of wonderful dried up plant that I've seen while hiking at Eaton.

The fig harvest from Andy's grandma's fig tree!

Beautiful greeny-white tiny flowers from some other hike a few months ago.

The old Norms on Valley Blvd. that has been slowly stripped of its identity...

Here are some miscellaneous pretty things with vibrant colors that I find myself looking at every now and again...!

lysergy

Sister and I spent a good chunk of Saturday exploring the quieter areas of Eaton Canyon, listening to every sound and quietly forming thoughts and expressing them to each other. In the morning we saw deer! First I thought there were only two, but then three, four, five, maybe six all followed the first up their footpath, and they regarded us without fear; the littlest/youngest one(s) being the only ones to stop and stare. I loved hearing the sounds of the earth, and being there from the chilly morning to the dry heat of the afternoon, feeling the terrain transform, elevated and differentiated the experience from the other visits I had made to this site.