North Georgia Mountain Sunset

Fire in the Berry Trees

Also for the list of favorites: visiting my alma mater during beautiful leaves season.

Northwest Georgia Fall Fire

For the list of favorite things: A campfire in the mountains on one of the first cold weekends of the season.

My Annual Trip to Minneapolis

What a wonderful weekend in Minneapolis with my friend Michelle! As a birthday gift, her husband Michael flew me in to surprise her (truly a gift for me too). With any surprise, there is the unveiling. Michael decided to build a "fort" out of chairs and a blanket for me to hide in (while still in his scrubs from work):



I had an incredibly difficult time being quiet and not laughing as she came down the stairs. Later Michelle told me that she had been hoping that I was her surprise but when she saw the fort she got worried that her surprise was actually this device from the SkyMall catalogue that allows you to hang from your ankles. (Apparently even after nearly 7 years of knowing each other I still have a lot to learn about my friend...) But she was really happy that it was me and not the Inversion Stretch Station.

The best thing that happened this weekend was that I got to meet Michelle and Michael's son Phoenix for the first time. He is an absolutely delightful 5 month old who smiles and chats all the time and is clearly in LOVE with his amazing parents. He even maintained his sweet disposition while having his first cold ever - (courtesy of a sick playmate at daycare named Salvatore, who I imagine to look like Maggie Simpson's arch-nemesis Baby Gerald).



Michelle and Michael's family is complete with Little Cat, also known as the Hall Monitor. She patrols the house checking on the baby, the parents and the leaves falling outside the window on her neon-colored toenails.



I am amazed at how much Michelle and Michael are able to do in addition to caring for a very young person. They whipped up all sorts of delicious food all weekend long. For dinner on Saturday we made think, savory Spanakopita, an abundance of sauteed beets and homemade pita bread with zaatar. Thankfully Michelle did the kneading with the pita bread because I can't handle the way flour feels- it's like nails on a chalkboard to me, ugh.



It was a beautiful dinner, complimented by a game of "would you still be my friend if..." (They did not want to be my friend anymore if all I ever ate ever was plain hot dogs, no bun.)

The cherry on top of the weekend (not the spoon this time guys) was stopping to get the new Guns N' Roses album Chinese Democracy. We were worried that it was going to be sold out and that we were going to have to go searching at various Best Buy stores in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area- I mean my god, we've been waiting 17 years for this! I asked one person beside us if he wanted his picture taken for posterity next to the display; Michelle asked the store manager if they brought in extra staff to deal with the crowds. (If you're not laughing right now then you just might be as lame as the snow queen manager who didn't crack a smile at our hilarity.)



I love my friend Michelle so much and am so grateful to hubby Michael for making this weekend possible. Since this is the second year in a row that I came to Minneapolis on the weekend before Thanksgiving, we decided that we should make it an annual tradition. What a wonderful trip to look forward to!

I Can Finally Publish this Secret

Secrets are challenging. I love them, I adore juicy tidbits whispered only to me. But how I detest actually having to keep certain ones to myself! I get that playground chant in my head: “Secrets, secrets are no fun. Secrets, secrets hurt someone.” My lips seal easily with hurtful secrets; it’s the good news (or good gossip) that gives me problems.

I am in the midst of a beautiful secret as I fly 30,000 feet in the air towards Minneapolis. My eyes flit between the shadow of the plane floating on the tops of trees and the Atlanta skyline growing smaller. I’m always amazed how far away you can still see the glint or the Georgia State Capital’s gold dome.

My seatmate is subject to my urge to tell my secret. I surprise myself by exhibiting uncharacteristic plane-friendliness as opposed to keeping my eyes down and my thumbs punching out texts till I’m forced to turn off my phone. The poor man looked a little frightened when I joked about how we should all probably stop eating french-fries in response to the captain’s statement that we carrying unusually heavy cargo. He glued his eyes to his bible when I added, “Wait till the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Captain!”

Ok, I get it. Not everyone is excited as me that I am about to surprise one of my favorite people on earth with a visit in celebration of her birthday.(Why else would I journey somewhere that boasts a morning temperature of 7 degrees?) Michelle’s lovely husband Michael called me a couple weeks ago and asked if he could fly me out to surprise her – um yes! A series of cryptic emails with titles like “the eagle has landed” later – he also apparently has me listed under an Asian name in his phone- and I am on my way to see my dear friend and meet her new son for the very first time.

I love Minneapolis. Coincidentally, I visited Michelle on this same weekend one year ago; it was that weekend that she told me she was pregnant, 5 weeks along at that point. We had a marvelous time on our weekend defined by art, delicious food and great friends; the highlights included seeing the original painting “My Dress Hangs There” by Frida Kahlo, a heart-and-soul-warming dinner with Michael and Michelle at a cozy Greek restaurant, being an audience member of a taping of Prairie Home Companion and standing at the base of the Minneapolis’ magnificent sculpture, Spoonbridge and Cherry.

I have been daydreaming all day about what Michelle will say when she sees me. I simply cannot wait to tell this secret. I’m wondering if I can try to take a picture of that moment…

Spoonbridge and Cherry, Minneapolis Sculpture Gardens

November in the North Georgia Mountains

Driving up to the North Georgia mountains, the sun set highlighting the majesty of the purple-red mountains. Landscape marred briefly by a number of signs that read “McCain not Hussein”, I recovered quickly by queuing up Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet and let it run loud. I take pictures over the steering wheel as I drive.



Underneath a star-filled approaching-midnight sky (see OPI nail lacquer Russian Navy), I listened to the stories of the proud mother of two of the stout men that make up Bang Camaro. I can’t help but grin quietly while my hot tub-wet bangs curl on my forehead.



The lovely weekend rolls out, full of delicious food including Sandy's deftly discovered real whipped cream/crack-filled fresh-baked donuts, Georgia barbeque and collectively built homemade meals with gallons of wine. Note: as tempting as it was, we did not eat the Confederate Hotdogs.

All the while the backdrop was the beautiful mountain:



the brightest reds, oranges and yellows that define autumn:



and breathtaking sunsets, preludes to crystal clear glimpses of Orion



all framed and embraced by beautiful people I am so lucky to be welcomed by.

San Francisco in September #3: the Murals in the Mission

Perhaps our most favorite part of my Mom and my trip to San Francisco last month was a mural tour we took in the Mission put together by Precita Eyes Mural Arts Center. Our guide's name was Jorge, a kind and gentle spirit who told the stories behind the murals that we felt so lucky to hear.

One of the first murals we saw was called "Solidarity: Breaking Down Barriers" and was painted by youth in the Mission. It was dedicated "from the heart of the Mission to the barriers around the world that separate our families... la lucha continua!" Here are three pictures of it:







We saw several pieces by this artist whose name I regrettably cannot remember. This piece is called "The Immigrant" and it shows a man leaving his wife and homeland for the blank TV stares of the United States.



Ultimately the immigrant is able to find his own community here, surrounded by friends and watched over by the gods of his homeland.



This next one was painted by the great muralist, Susan Kelk Cervantes, and is on the Cesar Chaves Elementary School, a lovely and welcoming school that fully integrates deaf children.



The Clarion Alley Mural Project is at least 20 individual murals that run through the alley between Mission and Valencia, parallel to 17th and 18th streets. One mural after another took my breath away. This one shows Archbishop Oscar Romero, bishop of the Poor, surrounded by community and milagros:



I loved this paint bucket heart milagros, a perfect symbol for the murals:



This alley mural shows New Orleans after Katrina. Each of the little pictures shows all sorts of things that were lost in the Storm.



At the beginning of the alley, the Virgen de Guadalupe was painted to offer protection.



If you find yourself in San Francisco for some period of time, I cannot encourage you enough to go visit the Mission and take this tour offered by Precita Eyes Gallery and get to know the district through the eyes of its artists. Read more about our San Francisco trip in my posts about the delicious food and sea lions.

San Francisco in September #2: the Delicious Food

Mom and I had a marvelous trip to San Francisco in mid-September- this is the second installment of our tales and today I'm focusing on the amazing food we ate- complete with pictures of course.

We got great tips before we left- I relied on the two folks in my life who are San Francisco experts, Mica and Sandy. Mica sent me a list of her suggestions, Sandy lent me what wound up being an invaluable resource, the Slow Food Guide to San Francisco and we made our dining choices with these as our guides. As a result, we consistently had delicious food, saw lovely places, and experienced San Francisco's culinary offerings quite well for a 5 day trip.

Our first lunch was at Sliding Door, a great Vietnamese restaurant in the Ferry Building that Sandy took me to on my last trip here where we dined on Vietnamese spring rolls and crepes.



That night we ate at an absolutely lovely Basque restaurant recommended by Mica and her Mom called Piperade. We ate the most delicious salmon ever- it came with a tomato and onion sauce (a little reminiscent of the Iraqi style of preparing whitefish) and on the side was a fried chick pea and tofu patty- the combinations together are permanently impressed upon my tongues memory.



We had a great lunch from a Japanese Deli inside the Ferry Building called DELICA rf1 - this is spinach with tofu, green beans with carrots and sesame, and a tofu hijiki patty.



Another of my favorites from the Ferry Building were the macarons from Miette, a delightful bakery. Mom loved the chocolate ones but I couldn't get enough of the Rose Geranium ones. They were delicate, flaky and gently sweet. We went back twice for more.



In the middle of our day trip through the vineyards, we stopped in Sonoma for lunch and enjoyed this Tuna Tartine with yellow tomatoes at Girl & the Fig restaurant.



My favorite meal was dinner at Brindisi Cucina di Mare. It started with the best Manhattan I've ever had - made with sweet instead of dry vermouth. It followed with seared tuna and avocado bruschetta:



Our entrees were Gnocchi with Braised Duck Ragout and Pecorino Sardo and Risotto with salmon and green peas, saffron broth, mushroom sauce. Both absolutely melted in our mouths. We ate as Sandy would say, like piglets.





During our walk in the Mission, we stopped to try one of the purported "best veggie burritos in San Francisco" at Taqueria Cancun, a bright and festive stop on our journey. We found out about this place in this great article from the New York Times about the Mission. The burritos are huge and delicious- we should have ordered just one and split it.



Our final night was spent at Mela Tandoori Kitchen, another spot that Sandy and I found during my last trip to San Francisco. I can't recommend this restaurant more- its top notch Indian food and is inexpensive to boot. We gorged on Chicken Tikka Masala, Daal Gosh and Matter Paneer. I should have skipped the filling but fabulous mango lassi at the beginning of the meal.





As you can see, we ate some damn good foods, y'all! At least we walked pretty much everywhere so were constantly working off all that we ate. That's the story I'm sticking with anyway.

San Francisco in September #1: Sea Lions make me use too many exclamation marks!!

I know its like the most touristy thing ever to go to Fisherman's Wharf to see the Sea Lions when you come to San Francisco, but it still of my favorite things to do. I love these massive beasts SO much.

The Sea Lions of Pier 39 started coming in 1989 (ironically the year of my my first ever visit to San Francisco) after the earthquake that year. I thought they had always been there, but I suppose "always" is relative.

They are SO funny. They have territorial fights on each of the platforms. One guy will try to jump up on one and the guy who is already there will shove him off with his flippers and giant neck and ultimately there will be a huge splash! And they bark like crazy! They never shut up! I took a movie of them that i will post when i get back, you will laugh. The boys can grow to be 850 pounds! And they grow this weird lump on their forehead- the bigger it is the more dominant they are. Oh my god, I love them so much...

(better pictures will be posted when I get back- I forgot my camera cord so I can only post pics taken with the cell phone.)

When your friends lock you out of the cabin

I got to spend a couple days last week in the Blue Ridge Mountains on a retreat with my coworkers. It was beautiful up there; we stayed in this lovely cabin with a hot tub, pool table and the most beautiful view of the mountains.

Since there were ten of us staying there, some of us brought air mattresses for ourselves. Mica and I decided that we should set ours up on the big old deck and sleep under the stars.



We stayed up pretty late that night, eating, drinking, bonding as is proper during "retreating" type scenarios, and at about 1 am I set up my bed space. Almost everyone else was still awake and hanging out. I fell asleep inhaling the clean crisp perfect-temperature mountain air.

I woke up around 5am. The sky was this amazing charcoally misty grey. It was stunning and I felt so lucky to have this opportunity to be out of the city and see dawn in a way I never do. I also felt like I had to pee, per usual considering I've had a lifetime case of nocturia.

I head towards the kitchen door to go inside to the bathroom. Oddly, it was locked and clearly not opening. Huh. That's weird, I think to myself. I walk around to the other door that leads to the master bedroom and find it locked too. Mica stirred at this point from her air mattress and I whisper to her "did they lock us out?"

Well now this is getting kind of hilarious but I'm also feeling some uh, increased bladder pressure. I'm notorious for my teeny tiny bladder. Its also 5 am and I'm kinda asleep and maybe not thinking as swiftly as possible.

I assess the situation I'm in: the only way you can access the deck are through these two doors- its high off the ground. There's no getting on or off of it. I have no problem peeing in the woods but the "woods" are about 20 feet beneath me and I am SO not about to attempt to pee off the side of the deck. I contemplate for a split second the hot tub on the far end of the deck but decide that I'm nowhere near that desperate yet.

I walk back to the other side and try the kitchen door again. Its still locked. I really just couldn't believe that my urban-ass coworkers locked us out. I mean, and locked themselves in, in the middle of the country-ass country. There was a lot of disbelief and concern when Mica and I announced that we were setting up camp outside - discussion of bear attacks and the like - and how do they support our decision? By locking us out with the bears. Unbelievable yet also hilarious that you can take the city kids out the city but you can't take our we're-so-used-to-getting-robbed-in-Atlanta out of our lock turning, alarm-code punching fingers.

At this point I realize that Kori is asleep on the futon right next to the window on which I decide to tap with increasing urgency until he wakes up. I gesture madly at him to let me in- I really gotta go. And when you gotta go, you gotta go.

God bless you Kori. My bladder and I thank you for and apologize for interrupting the sleep you so very much need to gear up for starting the revolution.

After all this I still have a pretty lovely night- I wake up at various points and see the sun rising over the gorgeous mountain. The charcoal turned to purple turned to pink framed by trees that waved in the wind.

When confronted, none of my coworkers cop to being the perpetrator of our external imprisonment. None! Mmm hmm. Either they were too drunk to remember- or they are liars. I am delighted by either of the possibilities.

I realized later that I got a million chigger bites. So did Mica. But despite the bites and near bladder explosion, I am so grateful I was able to spend a night on that deck with that beautiful view and a couple days with some of the most wonderful people on earth. Despite their door-locking propensities.

The Private Dancer Singers

I thought I might need to lighten things up around here and finding some old videos on my hard drive gave me some perfect material.

In December 2006 I took a month-long sabbatical from my work and spent it living, crafting and loving my family in Chicago. At the end, I had to drive back to Atlanta but wound up being sicky the day I was leaving. So my wonderful sister Reem and her BFF Sarah offered to drive me back to Atlanta from Chicago.

It should be known that Reem and Sarah are known for their musical endeavours. The early days included them making their own videos - lip synced and choreographed of course - to the Spice Girls' classic, Wannabe. They pulled it together a bit more later on with their band The Cover Girls, playing songs like the Sex Pistols Anarchy in the UK and the Misfits' Skulls, as arranged for piano and cello that is. But the pièce de résistance was their senior recital when they performed on piano and cello Guns N' Roses' November Rain and we all held up lighters and got a little weepy. If you want to laugh really hard, go read about Reem's recent experience with a GN'R cover band.

I laid in the backseat for hours, drinking tea and whimpering for 736 miles while being chauffeured by two of the loveliest, most hilarious, best friends that exist. It was the best home-going ever.

Some funny things happened while crossing the Tennessee border. Here is video documentation of one of them:

Reem and Emil

My favorites in the world, in Madison for a 29th Birthday.

2007 in Photos

Taking a cue from Audacity, here is the 2007 review in photos.

January: The winter sky on the drive from Chicago back to Atlanta. I rode in the backseat and Reem and her BFF Sarah were my chauffeurs for the longest hitchhike in history.

February: Flying into Chicagoland

March: Springtime appears in Atlanta with the dogwoods blooming at Oakland Cemetery during my parents' visit.

April: The very first Blah Girl picture. Driving documentation begins.

May: Rain, wind, 800 cocktails, Irish music, kisses, bliss, 2 am in Savannah.

June: Spiderweb Houseleek on a trip with Dad to the Chicago Botanic Gardens.

June: Eek gets shaved and looks like an old man

July: Jamaican Sunset for Ela's birthday

July: Mica's Metalsome birthday

August: Troy Davis gets a Stay of Execution. We hold a press conference featuring exonorees Gary Drinkard, Darryl Hunt and survivor Jennifer Thomas Canino


September: Dad and I share another birthday party. Note the bite already taken out of the front of the delicious coconut cake.

October: Greatest Halloween party in Atlanta made perfect by the sister and brother plus 4 cousins.

November: Mom, Reem and I go back to Ireland.

December: Steve Bright argues Snyder v. Louisiana in the US Supreme Court. I marvel and choke back tears as he makes friends of Justices Scalia and Alito. One of the most amazing experiences of my life.

December: Christmas at the Hodi's with the Clan