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It was my dad's birthday, so we went to Rochester.

Perfect perfect perfect summer weather. I miss that about CNY - warm sun, cool air, humidity happiness. We spent lots of time sitting on this deck. There are so many birds, it's like an aviary. All day long. There's one of those gliding couchswings and the whole space is like a big extension of the kitchen, which makes the outdoors the very best kind of dining room.

We played darts!

Dad CRUSHED us with his superior follow-through. And then the cousins came for dinner!

I've always liked the idea of a story sort of telling itself through images. I think this one is pretty good...

So the birthday cake was... an adventure. (And it may have turned out mildly NSFW.) But it was damn. good. Who knew the entertainment six layers could provide?

Thanks Mom and Dad!

BEFORE BEFORE BEFORE

Yellow and green, green and yellow... are better colors for wearing and for mother nature. I needed less pastel and more EARTH TONE. I tried to take a sneak peek preview of my new "Autumn Gold" walls but the outcome only reminded me, for the millionth time, that it's better to do some things post-coffee.

But look!

I had good intentions when I started about doing it RIGHT. Actually trying to fix some of the scary things that have happened over time on these walls. An erosion site? Sink hole? Car accident? I have no clue how they got this way. In the end I decided to be young and foolish and just paint the damn walls.

This though?

Is just silly. So if you enjoy scraping paint off glass, please come visit soon.

MADE IT!

This is where I live, now.

Almost everything that I experience living in DC makes me so excited that I made the move. This is a very good place for me to be.

There is a lot of work to do inside (and outside of) my new place, which I might even try to document! How novel! First up is painting...


P.S. - Towards my continuous argument that everything is connected (and connections should be celebrated!), this house is kind of famous.

BIG NEWS

Yes... I'm moving! To D.C.! I've accepted a job at a beautiful non-profit organization, and I am so excited. I'm very hopeful that it will help me to build a career, doing work that finally fits who I am and who I want to be.

I know. I'm so lucky to have a chance to do work that, I think, will contribute to my enjoyment of life, and maybe even, in some small capacity, others' joy as well.

So I went out for a little Thai food in celebration of my impending D.C. adventure, and when I tried to take a picture of the volcanodumplings, this happened:

Coincidence?! Well, maybe.

So I may have written "KAZAAM" on there, but the lightning bolt of wonderful, electric, life-change just... struck. I thought it was funny, and fitting, since I'm kind of hoping that's what this news will do to mine.

WAFFLES AND LIGHT

...But not light waffles.

We added zizzed-up oats! I liked the flavor it added to the waffles, but I think we still have a few steps past buttermilk to get the Ultimate Crispy Waffle.

The packaging said the bacon small pork chops were a special, inherited Bavarian recipe.

I don't know if I buy into that, but they were very satisfying to eat.

(Had to get a glamour shot of Mrs. B...)

Actually, it was a pretty glamorous breakfast because we had mimosas, too. Everyone knows that Asti + Mrs. Butterworth's = unparalleled dining refinement.

Even though I grew up in Central NY where there is no dearth of good, real maple syrup, I might still prefer the fake stuff... Like when it comes to peanut butter, I just don't want to choose the healthier, more mature option.

Despite the mostly cold, gray skies, that harsh kind of winter light reflecting off of last night's snow flurries infused some of my photographs with this fuzzy glow (see bacon above).

It made everything seem a little bit warmer. (Thanks guys!)

GOOD MORNING

Do you ever get so SO excited about things that other smart, curious, creative people are doing in the world that you think your whole being might explode?

Well, I do sometimes.

It's the projects that excite me because they are just brilliantly delightful, or subtle, or honest, or complicated. It's work like this, and explorations like this, or reflections like this!

It probably sounds like I'm exaggerating but I promise I'm not. An almost-explosion is just the most accurate description I could think of to explain how intensely I perceive - in all of the cells of my body - joy and beauty and importance in humanly experienced phenomena as they are observed, connected, painted, sung, questioned.

Usually it's just a fleeting sensation, but it makes me feel giddy with optimism and then immediately afterwards somewhat melancholy. Because I'm not right-in-this-moment doing something equally awesome, even though I want to be.

It's about exploring the things of our existence that we know well, like our scars and our favorite foods, or not so well, like, say, why owning a couch is so important, because we just haven't taken the time to think about them yet.

I think this is why I entered into a graduate program in Ethnomusicology. It's why I love to listen to NPR programs. It's why listening to a lecture about whale songs could make me cry. (This isn't it but she is incredible.)

A lot of the time, these moments seem to coincide with sunny days.

Sunshine makes it so much easier for me to recognize the world as one, big, marvelous sphere for all kinds of opportunities.

Actually, these reactions to explorations of human life feel kind of like a sharp, glinted ray of sunlight. They are bright, and lovely, and fleeting.

It reminds me of how I used to feel every morning as a kid. When I woke up I was excited to start the day, as if something had spiked my adrenaline.

Sunshine is a good catalyst.

And so is coffee.

This is the soundtrack: "Everything is Everything," Lauryn Hill, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

LOOKS LIKE THEY DIMMED THE LIGHTS

These pictures are super edited... but, doesn't everything sort of become edited when they dim the lights as you down the libations? Shapes may shift and objects may blur - my argument is that your surroundings are probably being filtered out anyways. (So this is how I'm making up for the limitations of my camera and my camera-knowledge when it comes to low light situations.)

I had a great happy hour with some great girls -

which ended perfectly when a favorite song came on the radio as we all drove off in our separate directions.

I'm sorry I didn't get a good picture of you, M! But I am glad we got to share a galway hooker. See also: what they're really talking about when they throw "galway hooker" on the menu at Claddagh .