New York. Minolta.

Another quick post with pictures from my last visit to New York with the Minolta. We visited family in upstate New York to celebrate my birthday. The city isn't the same without my cousin.

The Wydown of DC

About a month ago, I had the privilege of shooting + writing for Sprudge about The Wydown's new location on 14th & U St. I had a blast interviewing Alex and Chad -- they're truly some real nice guys (from the midwest!) having so much fun with coffee. Here are some outtakes from the shoot:

Probably the only ALS ice bucket challenge I'll ever be involved in

This weekend has been absolutely fantastic. There is really no other way to describe it. Not only am I having a full weekend back home in TX for the first time in 5 months, but we (some NewsHour staff) also got to dump some ice water onto our awesome anchors for their ALS ice bucket challenge in the wee hours of the morning. After all the donut, bagel and ice bucket challenge excitement, I hopped on the plane to finally come home for once. Home is so good for the soul.

five things: Monday inspirations

I love starting Mondays with finding inspirational things around the net. Here are a few things that boosted the beginning of my week, including incredible photo finds on Flickr, articles shared by friends, and other stuff you're lucky enough to run into around the web:

1) A glimpse into life in South Korea shared by Flickr user Eric Youn, whose photos I found while navigating through the Minolta X-700 group. I was mesmerized by some of these incredible shots that bring out the best in Minolta and capture personal moments and some Korean culture. It's been exactly 10 years since I left Korea for good, and I haven't back since. I can't help but always wonder how it's changed, how it's the same, and how I can go back somehow someday.

2) Coffee for thought: a story of the transforming coffee culture in India

3) This incredibly moving piece shared by a friend this morning - about using soccer as a metaphor during the WWI era.

"It’s a way to hide the horror under one layer of spectacle and another layer of moral virtue — a way to pretend that war is like a game, that there are rules, that there is safety."

4) Ever heard of six-man football? Apparently it was developed in the 30's for smaller high schools in rural towns because they were too small even for eleven-on-eleven. Six-man football enables the these towns - towns with a population of less than 1,000 - to compete in top-level competition and experience the glory of "State." In this little documentary beautifully shot by Victory Journal, two tiny Texas football towns make it to the top - giving the 16-17 year olds a chance to be the towns' heroes.

Texas Six from Victory Journal on Vimeo.

5) A guest post on Wit and Delight about PEACH GALETTES totally captured my heart this past weekend. I've been crazy about anything peach-related, especially peach pies, but I've been dying to attempt to make some peach galettes before peach season is over. I promise myself I will make this sometime before August is ovah. Please keep me accountable, mom. (Probably the only person who reads my blog) Photo by Sarah Kieffer of Vanilla Bean Blog.

Spoiling myself a bit

I may not be the type of girl that spoils herself with brand name shoes. But that doesn't mean I don't splurge on the "extra" on the rare occasions when I do have some money and time. For example, coffee. Food outings, including ostentatious brunch trips, hah. Expensive film lab services. Yeah -- I finally got these film scans back from Film Box Lab in Nashville -- expensive but worth it. All photos taken back in early May.

Of course, Madcap coffee tasting event was completely free. After the jitters from all the free coffee, Lauren and I headed over to Bub and Pop's sandwich shop next door for some real food (we think it'd be extra charming if they provided pastries or food at coffee tasting events...heh heh). I have a thing for Italian hoagies. GAH.

Brunch at Ted's Bulletin on 14th when Sammy surprise-visited me that weekend: Also: let's please not forget that they make pop-tarts from scratch. Random thought: I feel like I end up getting lunch food 90% of the time I go get "brunch." Anyone with me?

slow it down

Back in January, I knew my visit to NYC was going to be the last one for awhile. Yet I wasn't too insistent on doing much. Maybe it was the cold, dreary winter that put a damper on my spirit. My last memory of New York is so gray. Even though I spent a brief, brighter day there in May, frozen New York City lasted a bit longer in my mind.

Gray, blurry and cold. Hours spent sitting at my favorite cafe in East Village. The long, brisk walk to the Met. The first time I took New York slow.

Sweet home Texas.

Back in February, I faced the first set of the darkest days of the year.

I was in between jobs so there was that whole what-am-i-doing-with-my-life job insecurity issues and the reality of being back in Plano. Then my boyfriend left for the military and we had absolutely no communication for about a month. And one fine morning in February, I slipped on ice on interstate 35, spun out of control and crashed into the construction barriers multiple times while an NPR reporter's voice blended into a wild mixture of indecipherable sounds of cars screeching and things crashing into other things. I felt my body swinging against the seatbelt in slow motion -- the seatbelt that probably single-handedly saved my life. When it all stopped, I was nauseated - and oh, all the delayed a shock that paralyzed my body as the car finally came to a full stop. How am I going to pay for this? Was the first question that popped in my head. Crying and shaking were all to come later. Everything was so cold and hectic. A truck driver got out of his car and immediately ran over to see if I were okay. I told him I was fine. He stopped the entire incoming traffic and motioned me to pull over. I pulled over and he left. I tried to get out of the car but the door was jammed.

Oh, it was dark. Trust me.

It obviously took me awhile to recuperate from everything. When I finally came home, I resolved to do absolutely nothing for at least 3 weeks. Such dark days. I basically became a serial homebody and refused to go out or do anything for awhile. But the truth is, there are so many what-if's and why-me's you can ask yourself til it becomes torturous. Yeah, I initially kept asking myself if I should've just stayed in DC to look for a job, if I shouldn't have decided to drive back to Dallas from Austin that morning, etc. But the afterthought is never going to change anything. The truth is that you make decisions and you own up to them because they were yours after all. And it's your life.

What I'm trying to say is that things got dark so I did something totally despicable: I baked cookies. If you know me at all, I am literally the worst person in the kitchen. Like I basically microwave all my meals and I feel like I'm sometimes bad at even that.

The cookies actually turned out pretty well. My dad baked his signature scones. And slowly, somewhere between carefully studying the recipe for the chocolate chip cookies and listening for the oven timer, I started feeling okay about everything. Home. Baked goods. Time. They're always good for the soul.