Thai Iced Tea...before it is stirred into the wonderfully sweet orange beverage

I am posting these photos so that two years from now, when I am in a completely new stage in life, I can look back and see what I was up to in September of 2010. The ironic thing is that after I saved out the photos, I noticed that there were three orange edibles photographed for posterity!!!!

My fascination with documenting my life began in 2003 when I was studying abroad. My roommate, Amanda, and I made a pact to write in our journals every single day while we were there, and for the most part, we stuck to it. Ever since then, I have documented my life in various ways to the extent that I can find some kernal of history within two weeks of every day since January 2003. I do not do this because I think my life is particularly worthy of documentation, but because I think everything in life is worth documenting. Everything is special the second you take a moment to memorialize it, even if it is a pumpkin growing in a compost pile, a fast food cheeseburger you wish you hadn’t eaten, a dog running in the park, a loved one laughing, the frustration of credit card companies filling your mailbox with junk or a house plant sprouting new leaves. The second that you take a photo or write something, you insure that those experiences will not be forgotten.

Also, the way I see it, my life is constantly changing. New technology comes in and out of vogue. I move from place to place. New family members are born. My favorite jeans get a hole in them. Friends and family come to visit. Even the things that seem so routine and boring change over time. For instance, my standard breakfast has been yogurt and granola since I finished college. In Portland, I would buy one box of Simply Almonds Granola, one carton of plain yogurt and one bag of frozen organic blueberries from Trader Joe’s every week. When we were in Thailand, we ate convenient store yogurt with fancy foreigner granola, but we ate it with fresh bananas and mango. When we were in China, the granola was an expensive Sweedish brand, but the yogurt was cheap and didn’t really taste like yogurt. Then when we came back to America, we started buying Trader Joe’s yogurt and granola with frozen blueberries again, and I appreciate it so much more! That is probably not very interesting to you, but when I look back on it in ten years, I will laugh at how much I cared about my breakfast. By then, I will have found some other amazing morning goodness. Or maybe I won’t.

Regardless, I will always appreciate the little things in life.

Vote

Germs...we all have them

Sulfer Shelf Fungus growing in Golden Gate Park

A pumpkin patch hidden in the bowels of GG Park. We think they are growing on a defunct compost pile.

My photography partner-in-crime

This edible might be orange too based on the rusting pipes

To prove that I really do have documentation of the past seven years, this can all be found in my archives (not blog archives, but actual journals):

In September of 2003, my mother had a minor stroke that scared me out of my mind. This led to my parents to quit smoking!

In September of 2004, I found the perfect little studio to live in.

In September of 2005, I met my first niece for the first time ever.

In September of 2006, I was not balancing work & life very well.

In September of 2007, I was gushing about how perfect Portland was.

In September of 2008, Nik and I were wandering around the Indian Himalayas.

In September of 2009, we had perfect weather in Shanghai, so we climbed to the top of the Lupu Bridge.

Every once in a while, I receive requests to use my photos, and today I found the result of one such request:

Knite: Sliver of blue by Yuumei

The artist is a student at UC Berkeley, and you can find more of her work here: Yuumei’s Deviant Art Gallery. The amazing thing is that this drawing captures the space so much better than my photo, and it is exactly the way I felt in the little alley way of Shanghai. The original photo was in this post: Shanghai Lane Houses and Fuxing Park

There is something about this photo that makes me feel like I'm at home. Perhaps it's the fog. Perhaps it is the crosswalk. Perhaps it's the sloppiness of the Richmond. Who knows?

I think I have mentioned it before, but we live in the Richmond. It’s kind of a strange place that is half city/half suburb. Half America/half Asia. Half apartments/half single family homes. All foggy/zero not foggy. We still love how quiet it is, but we really are pretty far away from everything. Our morning commute is filled with traffic, and we don’t have the greatest restaurant options. Oh, and did I mention that it is foggy here? Well, it is. But that’s okay because it gives us an excuse to go on longer scooter rides like we did last weekend!

One thing we have started doing though, is waking up early on at least one weekend day to go out for coffee somewhere close. We don’t have the fancy brunch spots on Valencia or the posh café life of Union Street or the organic bagels of Noe Valley, but we have the vast sea of concrete and dim sum that all the other neighborhoods dream of! And between the hours of 7am-9am on Saturday, Geary is perfectly empty. Add the fog and a hot cup of coffee, and there is something cozy about this little place we call home. It is pleasant to walk down the street hand in hand looking in the nooks and crannies in search of strange objects in strange places. Nik seems to find plenty, but I still like to focus on the shiny pretty things!

A shiny Red fire engine

Alex - 1 2 3 (you know who you are!)

A little hill-top feather kicking

The city looks much better with blue skies (this is a photo from the Marina neighborhood)

We don't get skies like these in the RichmondÂ

I miss you guys.