On the strike line

6.9.10 - Mary and I walked the graveyard shift (well, 11:30pm-2:30am) at the strike line in front of North Memorial. I usually go to bed around 3am anyway, so I decided to show my support and protest with her. By now, we all know that the strike is over and the nurses voted to not strike again, so with nurses back at work I finally feel safe to go to the ER - if only I had health insurance...

"We are the union. The mighty mighty union. Fighting for justice. Fighting for respect. Fighting for our healthcare. Fighting for our pensions.." -A different version of the above chant that I used to shout in NYC for UNITE HERE.

Le jardin

6.5.10 - The garden. I've written about it before, but I will say again that I do not garden, also I admit that I have more of a black thumb instead of a green thumb, meaning I have probably killed nearly every plant I've ever had, but I can design and decorate (and photograph!)  - so that's good enough...right?

Cilantro ready to be planted by well-manicured hands.

Cilantro planted.

Joshua's hands after digging around in the dirt.

Bangles of the week

Favorite bangles of the week. I compiled three different sets and pieces.

Dear Blogger,
I'm so sorry I've not been posting very much recently. I had decided to change my previous daily posting schedule to thrice-weekly so that I wouldn't feel guilty when I didn't get around to blogging every day, but my summer has become busy that between a camping trip, day trips, long drives, movies, errands, shopping, coffees, lunches, dinners and drinks with friends, I've quite forgotten to post all of the pictures I've been taking thus far to even meet my thrice-weekly quota. Anyway, I'm back and will do my best to catch up this week.

This week I hope to start the process of catching up by dumping photos on Facebook and undertaking the task of tagging everyone I know (it seems like that anyway) and after that is done, I have to blog, update my portfolio on Flickr, call clients, clean out Gmail and I've just realized that this is my to do list. Sigh. I'm sure we all have our fair share of lists - written or mental -but it is very satisfying to cross off a task that has been completed so maybe I'll write out my mental lists and stop this rambling ADD blog post. AH! It's almost August!? Okay, ready? 1, 2, 3. Go.

Sincerely,
-b

I write like David Foster Wallace. Yes!

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Yeah...I do! Proof. I took a test that analyzed my writing style and I love my test's result because I read "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" in college for a Freshman Composition class and I loved it. His run-ons, long sentences, ellipses, many many footnotes...all me. Maybe one day I shall write a memoir with 34594356 footnotes. Okay, not that many, but my paper that I wrote for that class had like 100 footnotes because I wrote it in homage to DFW, so it can be done. Look out publisher, here I plan to come!

Pink roses

6.7.10 - I really like the color pink. I used to love it in a juvenile way - buying tons of pink Lisa Frank pens and stationary when I was a youngin', but I have since then upgraded to buying pink flowers or bangles, and speaking of pink, these pink roses in my front yard are quite lovely.

A pink rose beneath the shade of a nearby brick column.

Many pink rose petals fall from the rose bush to the ground around the trellis and when a strong wind blows, the rose petals flutter down the street bringing their fragrance with them.

A bee and sage

6.3.10 - Russian Sage from my front yard...I think. If I'm wrong, let me know. This is either Russian Sage or a hybrid, Blue Spire (but it looks purple so I'm not really quite sure).

BEE! I think I'm been half-way stung once when I was a child, but since then never. Hovering around this sage was slightly unsettling because there were tons of bees and I felt like they really didn't like me in their bubble.

A night at the races

6.3.10 - Mary, Nathan and I- in the spirit of being spontaneous- decided to check out Canterbury Park one evening. After a 45 minute drive, we got there around 8:30pm, which was just in time for free admission/parking, sporadic horse races, $1 hot dogs/nachos/Pepsi and a $2 cup of beer. Hot dogs were decent, nachos were really gross and I don't drink beer, but the entire evening was a bargain.

It was my first time at a horse track and it was an informative experience. We didn't go into any of the other areas for gambling such as poker rooms, but I saw that it's a pretty big place with lots of opportunities to bet against the house and lose. That being said, I really do enjoy a few rounds of Blackjack.

The spectator area is kind of empty because it is a Thursday evening. I hear it gets packed on the weekends.

Beer.

Nathan loves hot dogs.

Mutuels: Bets are pooled, taxes and house take removed. Payoff odds/share calculated from pool of winning bets.

Before the start of every race, this guy comes up from the depths of the winner's circle and announces the call to race.

A horse that didn't win.

A jockey with his horse and team who are spraying the horse with water and probably cooling it down.

Welcome to the car wash

5.31.10 - Time to wash the car! Mary and I drove around until we found a car wash that had Tutti-Fruitti soap because it smells so good and looks cool; I'm telling you, sometimes really small things make me happy.

Vortex dry? Yes, please. I've been kind of uneasy about car washes since my friend, Karl told me a story of his friend's VW catching on fire in the car wash one day. How does that happen with all that water? I don't really know if I believe him or not, I'm just relaying this little comment.

Tutti-Fruitti car wash soap sliding down my window. It's kind of cool and since all of the cool kids are doing it, you should try it. I promise you will like it.

Midnight ride in the limo

5.29.10 - My family and I went out for dinner one warm summer evening and we took the limo. It's such a weird way to be transported around town, but it is fun, and considering that there is a lot of us, it can be somewhat justified from time-to-time. I stuck my head and camera out the window and snapped this picture.

Can you tell what this picture is of? Sometimes I feel like I have editing problems because I know what the picture is of and it's hard to be objective about my photography on the spot. Usually, I have to come back a few days or weeks later to decide if I made the right call or not on a photo. Now, cropping is a completely different matter and for another time.

Cosmos, Flirtinis, Sex and the City...2

Seven has a great rooftop bar. On a slightly cold night, this modern firepit is lovely.

5.27.10 - Mary, MJ, some other girlfriends and I went to Minneapolis to watch a midnight screening of the new Sex and the City movie. We had Cosmopolitans and Flirtinis at SEVEN, relaxed on the rooftop and enjoyed the beautiful night sky before walking across the street to Block E where we watched the second SaTC.

A Cosmopolitan.

A table filled with martinis means good times.

A Flirtini.

Okay, so the movie...Well, it was strange. It was like a weird fantasy getaway except none of it really matched the title. First of all, Abu Dhabi is so last year, and for a movie actually filmed in Morocco, they should have just rewritten the plot to go there instead, it wouldn't have made that much of a difference, and in fact, I would have preferred a lovely Marrakesh adventure to the ladies' cliche ethnic excursions.

Other than the numerous expiates (which makes sense, hello it is the UAE) in the movie, who were all pretty much treated like harem slaves in some cringe-worthy moments, there were a few holes that really were never filled, also after 6ish years of getting to know some of the other characters in the tv series, some of the men were literally reduced to one minute cameos or a ridiculous 20 minute wedding scene complete with real life Swarovski-inspired swans. Samantha's character was ridiculous unfabulous sometimes, from her hormone-crazed frenzy to humping everything on set, it was tacky.

Fashion was either a big hit or a really big miss. I did love all the snake-inspired pieces Samantha wore and in general, I like Middle Eastern prints and patterns, so I was mostly happy with how they were cut and worn. I got a huge craving for khussa's during the movie and decided I need to add to my small collection of khussa flats by buying more. I loved Carrie's market bazaar outfit. I heard that her symmetrical-cut large skirt was the delivered to famous SaTC designer, Patricia Field, as the form dummy for another skirt, so she modified it to be a real skirt and I loved it.

To SaTC's credit, I will say that this movie had more actual people of color then Prince of Persia, which after watching the credits roll on both movies, I quickly realized the only role in PoP that featured a person of color was Sir Ben Kingsly's roll, and many people don't even realize that he is half-Indian. Both movies really needed some actual Middle Eastern or Arabs in the movie, but SaTC had a few, PoP had none. Tsk tsk.

The first SaTC movie was absolutely fabulous and this one, because it didn't live up to my expectations, was...well, just less.

Happy Fourth of July!

Look at all the starbursts!

7.4.10 - Shauna, her family and some of our friends went to Aquila Park in St. Louis Park to watch fireworks. We got there at 8pm and played Uno and listened to jazz music streaming from Pandora via my new BlackBerry Bold until the fireworks began at 10pm.

Pretty!

Phoenix?

I don't know what this looks like, but it is interesting.

This one is weird, but also interesting. I kind of like the lens flare action that is happening on the left too. After looking through all my pictures, I'm surprised to see that my camera picked up so many starbursts from the fireworks, in fact, I'm pretty damn impressed.

Wondering how I took all these pictures? I laid on my back with something to prop up my head, and used my chest as a tripod to steady and steady the camera during it's long exposure times. Well, now you know.

Summer fireworks

5.30.10 - MJ, Shauna and I met up at the Music in the Park in Plymouth. We walked around, listened to bands and saw fireworks...oh and we kept getting run over and separated by the hoards of middle and high schoolers who took up all the space between popping their bubble gum and saying, "like" 20 times. I know I used to be them a long time ago, but that night was so packed with way too many teeny-boopers!

I call this one "palm tree" because it kind of reminds me of one at first glance.

I didn't take any other pictures that night because I was so overwhelmed by all the people who were constantly pushing, shoving, budging and yelling. At one point the lights were turned off so the fireworks could start up and for a few minutes a bunch of kids were screaming in panic and running around. I honestly thought for a few seconds that people were going to riot and all I remember thinking was, "yikes, am I safer in the porta-potty or will it get tipped over with me inside of it!?" Everything turned out alright and I eventually got back to my spot on the grass safely after a lot of navigating the maze of people.

The silhouette of a nearby tree against a sky filled with summer fireworks.

These are my first fireworks of the summer! Very pretty. I should really look up the science to how they are made because I don't really know much about it at all. I hope you all like fireworks because the next day or so shall be packed with cool fireworks I saw.

Summer = shopping

5.25.10 - I went to the Albertville Outlet Mall with Mary a few weeks ago and then ever since then I've been on a shopping binge. Retail therapy feels so good! I was really frugal with my money for quite some time, but all of a sudden I realized that there is a lot of stuff I need and that everything seems to be on sale...so perfect timing right?

Anyway, I got these cute ballet flats from Charlotte Russe which were on sale for $10 when I was at the outlet mall and Mary got the same ones in brown. They really pinched my feet the first few times I wore them, but now they are so comfortable and I wear them all the time. Mary ended up giving me her flats because they were too big for her, but I'm sure after I break them in, they will fit me just fine.

I think this summer shopping thing shouldn't be too challenging for me considering I'm trying to not buy anything that isn't on sale. Let's hope I keep finding great deals!

Peacock feathers

5.25.10 - Mary got a bunch of beautiful peacock feathers from a friend. I love the color scheme of peacock feathers and they are so vibrant. I really envision some great jewelry and headbands that could be made from a feather or two.

I really do think I could design some cool accessories and jewelry but it's the making part of it that I'm not really into. I know what I like and I know that I often don't find stuff I love when I'm out and about shopping, so I guess I should just start making or modifying things to suit my tastes. I already do modify clothing by cutting or sewing fabric the way I like it to fit, but Jeremy always gets annoyed when I cut up a brand new shirt.

Looking at these feathers, I can see some cute earrings, a headband, maybe some bangles with a little dangling feather and a layered necklace with lots of silver coins...and a peacock feather.

Basically, I like things that: make noise, incorporate coins somehow, are shiny, mostly silver, come in vibrant colors and have cool ethnic designs that have Arabic or Sanskrit calligraphy integrated within the patterns or other such creations.