This is Mission Inn Avenue downtown. Scot, Kat, and I walked from Coffee Depot all the way over past the Mission Inn. I gave a little history lesson. If anyone cared enough to take a guided historical tour of Riverside, I could give it. Scot and Kat were stopping through on their magnificent roadtrip all over America earlier this summer. There are pictures on the blog of all sorts of great places in our great country. You should go look at them. Seriously.
21 August 2009
(Give and) Take Pictures.
I am sure that I've mentioned this before, but my friend Scot's blog makes me so happy, not least because there are pictures of Riverside there.
This is Mission Inn Avenue downtown. Scot, Kat, and I walked from Coffee Depot all the way over past the Mission Inn. I gave a little history lesson. If anyone cared enough to take a guided historical tour of Riverside, I could give it. Scot and Kat were stopping through on their magnificent roadtrip all over America earlier this summer. There are pictures on the blog of all sorts of great places in our great country. You should go look at them. Seriously.
This is Mission Inn Avenue downtown. Scot, Kat, and I walked from Coffee Depot all the way over past the Mission Inn. I gave a little history lesson. If anyone cared enough to take a guided historical tour of Riverside, I could give it. Scot and Kat were stopping through on their magnificent roadtrip all over America earlier this summer. There are pictures on the blog of all sorts of great places in our great country. You should go look at them. Seriously.
19 August 2009
Exactitude
I.
On Sunday, I discovered that I had not returned my debit card safely to its pocket after closing out my tab the night before (don't worry, Dad, it was only two...over the course of a few hours...). I also discovered that I needed gas to get home to Riverside from La Mirada. I checked my wallet. Three dollars. I went in to the store to pay cash. "Three dollars on pump 11, please....oh and I have some change." "Just dump it all out!!" I had $4.33. This was exactly how much gasoline I needed to get back to my house.
II.
On Monday, I took my brother to the Wild Animal Park in Escondido. We stopped to get money out of the bank. Walking back to the car, I heard a junebug coming at me. Since I seriously dislike things flying at me, I hurried to get in. The junebug came after me, and started to fly into the car. I quickly closed the door. Right on the junebug.
III.
On Tuesday, I went to Coffee Depot and my tea cost $1.90. That is exactly how much I had in loose change in my wallet.
On Sunday, I discovered that I had not returned my debit card safely to its pocket after closing out my tab the night before (don't worry, Dad, it was only two...over the course of a few hours...). I also discovered that I needed gas to get home to Riverside from La Mirada. I checked my wallet. Three dollars. I went in to the store to pay cash. "Three dollars on pump 11, please....oh and I have some change." "Just dump it all out!!" I had $4.33. This was exactly how much gasoline I needed to get back to my house.
II.
On Monday, I took my brother to the Wild Animal Park in Escondido. We stopped to get money out of the bank. Walking back to the car, I heard a junebug coming at me. Since I seriously dislike things flying at me, I hurried to get in. The junebug came after me, and started to fly into the car. I quickly closed the door. Right on the junebug.
III.
On Tuesday, I went to Coffee Depot and my tea cost $1.90. That is exactly how much I had in loose change in my wallet.
13 August 2009
Blue is the only human color
I really love Regina Spektor's music. She has a sense of melody that really resonates with me. She also has a sense of whimsy that is mostly just weird. I feel that up to now, most of her songs fall into either one category or the other. I love the whimsy, but when it crosses into weird ("Chemo Limo", for one) I can't abide it. But I feel like her new album Far really brings the two together in an amazing way.
This video is gorgeous, as is the song, "Eet":
This is a live performance of "Blue Lips" on a UK late night show. I love what she does with the rhythm and time signature on the refrain.
This video is gorgeous, as is the song, "Eet":
This is a live performance of "Blue Lips" on a UK late night show. I love what she does with the rhythm and time signature on the refrain.
10 August 2009
Scattered thoughts
As I was driving somewhere, or home from somewhere (though I suppose home is a somewhere), I was thinking about a friend who has a very specific hurt in her life, which she has allowed me to see intimately. When I realized the depth of her pain, my sadness for her became deeper too.
I was talking with a new friend about eight months ago about her experiences living and working at an orphanage in Mexico, and the great empathy and care that the boys had for her when someone very close to her, but geographically distant, passed away. As she experienced this loss and grief and sadness, she said that the best thing anyone said to her was not "I know how you feel" or "I can sympathize," but "I am sad that you are sad."
I was also thinking about how it always seems that someone else has something we want. It's very hard when there is just one thing that you want more than anything else in your life, and it seems like everyone around you has it, but you don't. I mean, it's not like it's a new car (or an iPhone!) or something like that, but part of your life that you strive after, when you want something that is categorically a good thing and you don't have it. Just keep moving forward, I guess, and try not to think about it too much?
And I am very sad to be leaving Riverside. I am very happy to be going to San Francisco, but perhaps just Sunday I realized that I can't take everyone with me. I can't take St. Andrew's with me, I can't take my family or my closest friends or my goddaughter. Really, if I wanted to, I could stay. No one is making me go. I could stay and be very satisfied. But I'm going. I don't know what's going to happen, but I am pretty sure it's going to be awesome.
Just today I look at myself and my life and wish it could be different in 400 ways. I want to stay, but I need a change. That's probably really immature. I want change and stability simultaneously.
Okay too much ranting. Big life changes always seem to precipitate a pensive mood.
I was talking with a new friend about eight months ago about her experiences living and working at an orphanage in Mexico, and the great empathy and care that the boys had for her when someone very close to her, but geographically distant, passed away. As she experienced this loss and grief and sadness, she said that the best thing anyone said to her was not "I know how you feel" or "I can sympathize," but "I am sad that you are sad."
I was also thinking about how it always seems that someone else has something we want. It's very hard when there is just one thing that you want more than anything else in your life, and it seems like everyone around you has it, but you don't. I mean, it's not like it's a new car (or an iPhone!) or something like that, but part of your life that you strive after, when you want something that is categorically a good thing and you don't have it. Just keep moving forward, I guess, and try not to think about it too much?
And I am very sad to be leaving Riverside. I am very happy to be going to San Francisco, but perhaps just Sunday I realized that I can't take everyone with me. I can't take St. Andrew's with me, I can't take my family or my closest friends or my goddaughter. Really, if I wanted to, I could stay. No one is making me go. I could stay and be very satisfied. But I'm going. I don't know what's going to happen, but I am pretty sure it's going to be awesome.
Just today I look at myself and my life and wish it could be different in 400 ways. I want to stay, but I need a change. That's probably really immature. I want change and stability simultaneously.
Okay too much ranting. Big life changes always seem to precipitate a pensive mood.
30 July 2009
All our explorations
I'm Erin.
I love Christine.
That's all for today.
P.S. . . . I don't know. GIGGLE.
-----------
All of this came from Christine's mouth not seven minutes ago. She wanted me to update my blog. Currently, I am sitting on Sophie's bed listening to her music. Which is also my music, because we like the same music. Kings of Convenience. Simon and Garfunkel. Ratatat. One of these things is not like the other. She's also into this band called The Dodos, which will be interesting to hear once we download it. We've been on an iTunes shopping spree, because we both have gift cards. Anyway. Christine is leaning on my arm and it's very pleasant. I like being near my friends, but of course this is not always the case. Because we are sometimes far away, and it makes me sad. But it's also my fault because I am the one who goes away. The truth of this fact is corroborated by Sophie, who has only been within 50 miles of me for like 4 days this summer. So whatever.
Christine is my only one true friend who has not ventured away. Hanson. They're coming to the House of Blues in Anaheim in a couple months. [Christine said this. I merely record what she says.]
She is mad that I don't blog on LiveJournal anymore. "Why the change?" she asks. Because, Christine. I am not 15 anymore. Because blogging on Google is so much superior. 'Why?" Because everyone else is doing it.
Oh, stream of consciousness. Kind of. I am really digging this music. Sophia is going to Hume tomorrow, and we will miss her. I am going to Disneyland tomorrow, and on Saturday.
Shantih Shantih Shantih.
I love Christine.
That's all for today.
P.S. . . . I don't know. GIGGLE.
-----------
All of this came from Christine's mouth not seven minutes ago. She wanted me to update my blog. Currently, I am sitting on Sophie's bed listening to her music. Which is also my music, because we like the same music. Kings of Convenience. Simon and Garfunkel. Ratatat. One of these things is not like the other. She's also into this band called The Dodos, which will be interesting to hear once we download it. We've been on an iTunes shopping spree, because we both have gift cards. Anyway. Christine is leaning on my arm and it's very pleasant. I like being near my friends, but of course this is not always the case. Because we are sometimes far away, and it makes me sad. But it's also my fault because I am the one who goes away. The truth of this fact is corroborated by Sophie, who has only been within 50 miles of me for like 4 days this summer. So whatever.
Christine is my only one true friend who has not ventured away. Hanson. They're coming to the House of Blues in Anaheim in a couple months. [Christine said this. I merely record what she says.]
She is mad that I don't blog on LiveJournal anymore. "Why the change?" she asks. Because, Christine. I am not 15 anymore. Because blogging on Google is so much superior. 'Why?" Because everyone else is doing it.
Oh, stream of consciousness. Kind of. I am really digging this music. Sophia is going to Hume tomorrow, and we will miss her. I am going to Disneyland tomorrow, and on Saturday.
Shantih Shantih Shantih.
27 July 2009
Despair
"Despair is the loss of consciousness that God wants to give us eternal life. The world is living in despair. People have condemned themselves to death. We must struggle resolutely against despondency."
Elder Sophrony (Sakharov) of Essex
Words of Life
Elder Sophrony
Elder Sophrony (Sakharov) of Essex
Words of Life
Elder Sophrony27 June 2009
Romania (FINALLY!)
Sometimes extroverts get the blues, too. Right now, I definitely have the blues. I just graduated from college, which is a great relief and anti-climax all at once. My closest friends live at least 30 miles away, which is ridiculously inconvenient. My social life in Riverside...well, let's just say that I've become really close with Clinton and Stacey. And I'm at home, writing this, on a Saturday night. It's an in-between season of life, which is necessary but extremely unsatisfying. So I went back and looked at pictures from Romania, which makes me happy. This is probably the happiest I've been in a while. So here are some pictures that I never posted. Maybe I did (I don't think I did though). Click them to make them bigger. In no particular order:
New friends in our new favorite living room.
After (during, really) Sunday liturgy at Holy Trinity. The church was packed! Can you tell how cold it is?
Us, on the bus from the airport to our temporary home. It was about 3 hours up winding mountain roads. Not unlike the roads upon which Jonathan Harker traveled. Perhaps even the self-same roads!
Jesse, myself, Adina, Ksenia, and Paul. Adina is blind, and a student at the only primary school for blind children in all of Romania. She's an amazing little girl.
At the Center for Social Integration, they love Americans, particularly ones from Dallas. Here, Matt & I demonstrate our enthusiasm for both America and Romania.
We spent our whole Tuesday doing this: scraping (lead-based?) paint off of the walls of the hallway at the Center for Social Integration. Things got pretty powdery. Some of the guys who live there helped us, like Adi in the green shirt.
On our last night with our new friends, we went to pizza. Here Lillian and I are eating and trying to converse with Nicu (short for Nicholai/Nicholas) and Florin, who runs the program for these guys. He grew up in orphanages, and when he had to leave upon adulthood he had no one to support him. He establish the Center for Social Integration for young men like him who need support so that they can finish their educations and become good members of society.
This is myself with Florin. He smiled like this THE WHOLE TIME we were there. I am sure he smiled like this THE WHOLE TIME we were not there. I am sure he is smiling like this RIGHT NOW, because he is full of love and joy.
This is Mihai. He became good friends with us, because he speaks a lot of English. He has a tender heart and a sly sense of humor, and took great pleasure in singing some good old Backstreet Boys for me.
Calin, Dany, and Adi. Dany and Adi are brothers, and Calin is great. This picture is from Thursday afternoon, when we went to play pool and go bowling with the guys instead of finishing the project. We intended to finish the project, but when we got there it was all done! They had stayed up into the wee hours of the morning finishing the small job we had left from the day before. So we all just hung out instead. :)
Dany. One of my favorites. I was really sad to say goodbye, and I said goodbye to him last. He IMed me the other day on Facebook, which kind of made my day. <3>
The view from Bran Castle. Beautiful, even it if was freezing cold.
Adi and I. He and Dany both love dancing. They were a lot of fun to spend time with, and even though they were unimpressed by my premium knowledge of the Romanian pop band O-Zone, they loved to show us other music and the dances that go along with it. Awesome.
The whole group after finishing the hallway renovation, friends from the U.S. and Romania.
I miss this.
New friends in our new favorite living room.
After (during, really) Sunday liturgy at Holy Trinity. The church was packed! Can you tell how cold it is?
Us, on the bus from the airport to our temporary home. It was about 3 hours up winding mountain roads. Not unlike the roads upon which Jonathan Harker traveled. Perhaps even the self-same roads!
Jesse, myself, Adina, Ksenia, and Paul. Adina is blind, and a student at the only primary school for blind children in all of Romania. She's an amazing little girl.
At the Center for Social Integration, they love Americans, particularly ones from Dallas. Here, Matt & I demonstrate our enthusiasm for both America and Romania.
We spent our whole Tuesday doing this: scraping (lead-based?) paint off of the walls of the hallway at the Center for Social Integration. Things got pretty powdery. Some of the guys who live there helped us, like Adi in the green shirt.
On our last night with our new friends, we went to pizza. Here Lillian and I are eating and trying to converse with Nicu (short for Nicholai/Nicholas) and Florin, who runs the program for these guys. He grew up in orphanages, and when he had to leave upon adulthood he had no one to support him. He establish the Center for Social Integration for young men like him who need support so that they can finish their educations and become good members of society.
This is myself with Florin. He smiled like this THE WHOLE TIME we were there. I am sure he smiled like this THE WHOLE TIME we were not there. I am sure he is smiling like this RIGHT NOW, because he is full of love and joy.
This is Mihai. He became good friends with us, because he speaks a lot of English. He has a tender heart and a sly sense of humor, and took great pleasure in singing some good old Backstreet Boys for me.
Calin, Dany, and Adi. Dany and Adi are brothers, and Calin is great. This picture is from Thursday afternoon, when we went to play pool and go bowling with the guys instead of finishing the project. We intended to finish the project, but when we got there it was all done! They had stayed up into the wee hours of the morning finishing the small job we had left from the day before. So we all just hung out instead. :)
Dany. One of my favorites. I was really sad to say goodbye, and I said goodbye to him last. He IMed me the other day on Facebook, which kind of made my day. <3>
The view from Bran Castle. Beautiful, even it if was freezing cold.
Adi and I. He and Dany both love dancing. They were a lot of fun to spend time with, and even though they were unimpressed by my premium knowledge of the Romanian pop band O-Zone, they loved to show us other music and the dances that go along with it. Awesome.
The whole group after finishing the hallway renovation, friends from the U.S. and Romania.I miss this.
21 June 2009
Father's Day
Today is Father's Day, as you all well know. My pops is pretty much the greatest. He has taken me all over the world. He sacrifices for his family. He has taught me the value of an education, to care for others, to watch baseball, and to appreciate a pulled-pork sandwich. I know that he loves me and my brother, both because he says and because he lives it. Happy Father's Day, Dad. I love you.
My father is a man of adventure.
Even though he is pretty good with a camera, alas, I am less so.
And he has the best smile in the world.18 June 2009
Summer Reading II
I finished Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer, and I have to say that I did not enjoy it as much as I enjoyed Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I was greatly pleased by the development of Alex's character, as opposed to the film (sorry for the comparison, but it's rather inevitable since I saw the film first). I haven't had a crush on a character in a book in a while, and I definitely wished he was a real person. The novel is comprised of alternating chapters: a letter from Alex to Jonathan, a portion of Jonathan's narrative about his mythologized family history, and a portion of Alex's narrative about his and Jonathan's journey to Ukraine. The entire storyline provided by Jonathan's narrative was left out of the film. It was some beautiful storytelling, a family history made mythical and mysterious and wonderful. It was that part of the story that had the most gratuitous sexual content, however, and it continued as the novel progressed. I was also disappointed in the ending. It was without love or hope, and that seemed unfortunately contrary to the experience of Jonathan and Alex throughout.
I also finished The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. It read like an overgrown short story. There was little going on in the way of plot, except for the quotidian movements of a young man's life - travel, cultural and generational tensions, sexual awakening, going to college, girlfriends, getting a job and getting married, etc. This was also made into a film, but I have not seen it. The struggle that Gogol has with accepting his name and accepting his family and himself would be more strongly conveyed in a short story. As it is, the existential details get buried under the material details, and that kind of just makes it boring.
So now I am on to On the Road. I happened to visit City Lights bookstore in San Francisco on Monday, where Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsburg and that whole Beat crew would socialize and whatnot. The top floor is dedicated entirely to poetry and the Beat authors, and it was creepily quiet up there. They had one of the best selections of poetry I've ever seen, though, for a bookstore, and some awesome anthologies that I would never even think to look for, much less even attempt to find. I was impressed, though I found the whole Beat thing a bit overdone. But I am not far into On the Road, but so far it is interesting. Kerouac's voice is light, pleasurable, and I appreciate his vivid and frequent but not overbearing use of exclamation points. I think this tone comes from the fact that the stories are semi-autobiographical. Well, they are probably more than semi-autobiographical. I love reading his impressions of different local folk across the country. It's like Travels with Charley in that way, but probably with more sex and booze and benzos and no adorable poodle that I want in my own life.
I'm also reading Czelaw Milosz' Unattainable Earth, and I don't know what to make of it quite yet. That's all I have to say about that. Except that I kind of love it.
After On the Road is done, I will dedicate myself entirely to East of Eden. And then I don't know where I will go from there. I might crack Kevin Starr's California, which I bought at Copperfield's used (in hardcover) for $9.
I also finished The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. It read like an overgrown short story. There was little going on in the way of plot, except for the quotidian movements of a young man's life - travel, cultural and generational tensions, sexual awakening, going to college, girlfriends, getting a job and getting married, etc. This was also made into a film, but I have not seen it. The struggle that Gogol has with accepting his name and accepting his family and himself would be more strongly conveyed in a short story. As it is, the existential details get buried under the material details, and that kind of just makes it boring.
So now I am on to On the Road. I happened to visit City Lights bookstore in San Francisco on Monday, where Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsburg and that whole Beat crew would socialize and whatnot. The top floor is dedicated entirely to poetry and the Beat authors, and it was creepily quiet up there. They had one of the best selections of poetry I've ever seen, though, for a bookstore, and some awesome anthologies that I would never even think to look for, much less even attempt to find. I was impressed, though I found the whole Beat thing a bit overdone. But I am not far into On the Road, but so far it is interesting. Kerouac's voice is light, pleasurable, and I appreciate his vivid and frequent but not overbearing use of exclamation points. I think this tone comes from the fact that the stories are semi-autobiographical. Well, they are probably more than semi-autobiographical. I love reading his impressions of different local folk across the country. It's like Travels with Charley in that way, but probably with more sex and booze and benzos and no adorable poodle that I want in my own life.
I'm also reading Czelaw Milosz' Unattainable Earth, and I don't know what to make of it quite yet. That's all I have to say about that. Except that I kind of love it.
After On the Road is done, I will dedicate myself entirely to East of Eden. And then I don't know where I will go from there. I might crack Kevin Starr's California, which I bought at Copperfield's used (in hardcover) for $9.
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