Weekend Recap: Lake House + Bike Rides

What a weekend! It started out with a breakfast-themed party at my apartment, thanks to my roommate who generously cooked literally everything - from mushroom and leek galette with gorgonzola to breakfast tacos to tater tots to frittata. Then she surprised us at the end by presenting a huge (and very delicious) monkey bread that we devoured within 20 minutes. (please excuse the iPhone photos)

Then I got up pretty early for a Saturday (8:30...yup) because I was so excited to finally bike around, since weekends are the only time I can actually do anything outdoorsy. So I decided to ride it all the way to M.E. Swing Coffee Co in Del Ray, near Old Town Alexandria. The ride was smooth and breezy, but one thing I should've thought of beforehand: those damn hills. But anyway, the espresso shot was definitely worth the ride.

then, the afternoon was spent at a beautiful lake house for a company-wide picnic. I sort of learned how to eat a crab...sort of.

Sunday bike-riding along the Potomac, then around the monument to the memorials to museums - and I finally met the light tunnel!

I am absolutely loving the crispiness of autumn here. Can't wait for the leaves to change colors soon!

Lazy Saturday

There are two kinds of weekends for me. One, is the one where I pack a camera and wear some comfy shoes and I go meet up with friends, explore the area, get some coffee, etc etc. Those weekends, I usually stay out all day and come home to pass out. The other one, is pretty unusual but absolutely necessary every month or so - is the one with homemade coffee and crackers and netflix and blog surfing and reading.

This past weekend, my body chose the latter. And it was awesome. Much needed rest indeed.

March On Washington, 50 Years Later.

On August 28, 1963, thousands gathered right here in the capital city of the United States under the shadow of the 16th President and managed to pull off a peaceful, nonviolent political rally that would go down in history as one of the monumental fights for civil rights and freedom. "The Great March on Washington," it was called, and reports say that thousands drove to Washington D.C. from all over the country to protest their rights with much hope. They dreamt of equal opportunities to have a chance at being tested for a job, and of getting equal treatment in public places. I simply cannot imagine the hush and emotional movement in the air as thousands quietly listened to Martin Luther King Jr.'s infamous speech.

50 years later, the celebration of freedom and equal rights continue as people gathered again in Washington D.C. to reenact the march. Although I was stuck at work on the 28th and couldn't be a part of the march, several coworkers and I did get to witness some action the weekend before.

Lots of T-shirt selling, lawn chairs, food trucks, reporters and journalism students, OVERFLOWING trashcans, signs and banners, and lingering Trayvon Martin talks as the nation was faced with such tragedy and some serious questions of justice the past year and a half.

Then there are, of course, the ones that busted out a trumpet in the middle of the day at the top of the Lincoln Memorial and serenaded a bunch of confused Asian tourists. We actually ran into an old tourist couple who had absolutely no idea why the National Mall was so dang packed. Nope, it's not like this every weekend - maybe every 50 years or so. ;)

Happy Hump Day!

Flat Track Coffee, Austin TX -- iPhone 4s

I woke up to a completely gray weather this morning. It was so gloomy that it felt like we were in a giant white box . After realizing I had woken up half an hour too late to go on a morning run, I tossed around until I had to force myself out of bed. Another Wednesday, the groggy middle child of the week. I have nothing against Wednesdays, actually. But what I did really appreciate about this morning was the gloomy, cloudy, drizzly weather. Yes, even with the 80% humidity. I’m not gonna lie, I felt myself breathing more and more heavily as I made my usual morning walk to work, but for some reason -- I adore this kind of weather. Maybe it’s the Vancouver-bred childhood that immunized my moods from this otherwise depressing gloom. For me, it brings me a healthy dose of nostalgia as I smell the earth and leaves and wet grass. 

and here is some weather-appropriate music for the day:

Little Sam, Informal Portrait Session

This is my cousin's baby, Sam. Sam was afraid of me from the get-go. But why?! (he probably smelled my baby fears from afar)

Anyway. Meeting Susan and her little cute family was definitely refreshing, even though we're distant cousins. They have a cute little townhouse in Palisades too - and I can't wait to watch Sam grow up to be a big boy!

Why I fell in love with Columbia Heights

I had a chance to go to this neighborhood this past weekend to help out a coworker who's writing a story about this app that basically crowdsources cool public art tucked away in corners of neighborhoods that your tour guide book probably won't tell you about. We chose Columbia Heights and U Street, where every corner is stamped with some sort of history, African American history to be exact, because they have been mostly populated by blacks since 1930s and 40s. I wish this area wasn't so gentrified as it is now since the metro station was built in 1999, but it's evidently still Washington's most ethnically and economically diverse neighborhood (but now, hipsters are taking over with their organic brunches and posh greaser fashion).

Raw Thoughts

So here's a bit of a personal post. I took this photo with my Nikon FM10 last year around this time. It's not the greatest photo, I haven't edited it in any way, and it's still saved onto my hard drive in the most raw form it could exist.

There are a lot of times I'd go through archives after archives of photos I've taken in the past, whether they'd be digital or on film, and I would find one that would resonate with the current state of my being. A year ago, I discovered that flowers brighten my mood without fail every time. Upon that discovery, I began to spend lavishly on buying myself a stem or two when I really needed it -- I find this phenomenon parallel to the whole hype with puppy therapy or taking a vacation into the woods. Any form of rawness, or the nature, comforts me in mysterious ways.

We live in a hyper digitized world. I can't say I'm not guilty of being glued to my apple products or having the fear of missing out when I'm not surfing on the web. But the digital presence, I've found, is not exactly qualitative nor all that significant. I often stop and find myself craving something raw, something natural, and finding emotions within myself that I haven't found a way to express.