Finally it's Friday

Cheers to a Happy Friday! And hopefully a better week next week!

Not going to lie, this week was the kind of week that made me really look forward to Friday.  But instead of complaining like I have been doing the last few days (on and off the blog), I am going to focus on the positives and things that I'm thankful for.  Here they are in bullet format!

• My coffee maker in the morning has been back for almost a week now!!!  Coffee delivered to bed? YES PLEASE :) Thank YOU!
• Sidebar...sure their service has been rather slow (mostly because they seem to be extremely under-staffed), but their drinks continue to be delicious and their decor continues to be an inspiration.
• People who go to Sidebar with me...they listen to me bitch and they tell me funny and sometimes tragic stories.  
• An awesome meet up with an old friend of a friend...sometimes, you meet people who are super beautiful inside and out and they blow you away - genuine, kind, loving, funny, and smart.  It was so fun to just catch up and learn more about each others' lives. So thankful to meet people like that in my life!!
• And of course...good food!!!  Highlights this week:  Jaleo (I love you, Duck Confit)...and home cooking!

More photos from Sidebar!

Cooking seems to be therapeutic for me, so on Thursday, when I needed a break from being annoyed and wanted something like Hainan Chicken, I decided to make it!  Here's a recipe if you're interested in trying (click for link)

I love shallots.  Yes, that's a whole chicken submerged in ice water...

Lastly...a quote for you :)
Albert Einstein said, "Life is like riding a bicycle.  To keep your balance, you must keep moving!"  Okay, I added the exclamation mark myself....and I should have taken a photo of a moving bicycle to better illustrate the quote...but I really liked the pink handle bars.


Have a great weekend, everybody!

Hola!

Let’s see. What’s happening in the World? Last Friday, Standard & Poor downgraded the U.S. credit rating, which removed USA's perfect triple-A designation for the first time in history. CRAZY STUFF. And since then, that’s all that’s really been talked about. Oh yeah, that and the stock market crashing :( because of the downgrading, and of course the finger pointing that is happening on the Hill. What I haven’t seen explained much are the long term impacts from being downgraded. What is going to happen to us common folks? Maybe I’m burnt out but hearing this talked about all day on the news is tiring to me…and perhaps this makes me sound really pathetic, but I prefer to watch Saved by the Bell right now because it is much more relaxing.

On another note, I am growing increasingly tired of myself for not enjoying work as much as I used to…lately, there is just this dreadful feeling.  I think I'm inching closer and closer to really being sick of it and maybe the tipping point to finding an exit is just around the corner!

At this moment I know that I need to keep moving forward and somehow things will fall into place, I know they will because they have to! In the meanwhile,  we must all focus on things that make us happy...like eating Nando Peri Peri chicken AND froyo for lunch...of course that experience is made infinitely better and more special if you can share it with someone cool like you!

I love their mashed potatoes with their spicy sauces..yummmm

T-0 Days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had exciting plans for this post....I've been cleaning my apartment all day...and after all that, I was going to go take a photo to celebrate the fact that today's the day that ICM returns home and that this is the last post of the challenge!  It involved a jumping picture of course.  

Well, 2 seconds ago I went to take out the trash and recycling.  2 seconds after, now, it started thundering and storming.  It is pouring!  My plan sabotaged by crazy amount of precipitation!!! GRRRRRRR.

Oh well.  I guess this lets me off easy and is begging me to veg out a little more :)  Though I hope this does not delay his flight!

A drawing will have to do :) 

T-1 Days! So glad it's Friday.

If I had to summarize what this week at work was like, then I only have three letters for you "WTF?"
For the first time in my adult life, someone said "Screw You" to me in a work place even though I was only trying to be nice. I've had to work with multiple incompetent and inefficient human beings this week (which isn't a rare occasion) but these people were also confrontational and also obviously suffered some sort of entitlement issues.  In addition, today I was reminded of how much I cannot stand dishonesty...so let me just vent a little bit.  I HATE IT, I HATE IT, and if I think you are a dishonest person, then please remove yourself from my sight because I don't like you and I no longer respect you...especially if you lie for self gain and do it even if you know you are doing something wrong.  SO DISGUSTING.  And no, I will not keep silent and condone this kind of behavior!!!!!!

Because of all these people...I've had to remind myself over and over again this week: "For every crap person out there, there is an extraordinary and awesome person there as well."  Thank goodness school kept me occupied most of this week and took my mind off of these things...I can't imagine behind more annoyed...

To put this behind me for the wonderful upcoming weekend and so I can be ready for T-0 days, I decided to select photos that make me happy!  Going through my files, I realized I never posted photos from our trip to San Francisco and Glen Ellen from back in November.  I picked a couple of my favorites and here they are.

Photos from the Little Red Barn - one of my most favorite places in this world. When I used to live in Glen Ellen, I loved going to the Red Barn to pick up leafy greens with poppy petals.  I miss those days!

The office I worked at in Glen Ellen was right across from a Sonoma State Park pictured below..

how lucky was I, huh? 

I love lavender.  My goal is to do a photo shoot at a lavender farm!!!  Too bad I missed their bloom this year.  Lavender melts all stress away. Really!

And how can I be in a bad mood in the presence of a sweet sweet dog.  :)  Too bad it's not mine!

Going to go make myself some Tranquil Herb Tea now.

T-2 Days!!

This morning I woke up with a mission...to pick up my prints and my portfolio book at Penn Camera as soon as the store opened.  The metro ride downtown was a breeze...early...not too many people, actually relaxing.  Sadly, the ride from Chinatown back to Silver Spring was horrendous!!!  The metro station was humid, tons of people on both platforms, no trains came by for 15 minute except a "no passenger train."  It caused a lot of stress.  As I stared across the platform where TONS of people were pushing past each other to get on the train or to get out of the station, I thought...is that my blood pressure going up???  OH NO. How do these people deal with this EVERYDAY???  At that moment, I was super thankful that I live in Takoma and my commute consists of 1 metro stop.  Thank goodness. 

Commuters.  Just looking at them stresses me out.

On a brighter note...one of the houses on my street has a beautiful garden out front.  Included are 2 gigantic sunflowers on the side walk and I've been eyeing them since I saw the 2 big flower buds.

My favorite of all the others.

Notice the cool spirals in the center!

Another great news is I turned in both of my final projects today!!!  I get a 2 week break now.  YIPPIE!!!!  On my walk home tonight, I saw this kid with his headphones underneath a bunch of street lamps and couldn't help but take a picture.  At that moment, I kind of wanted to be him...

Takoma.

Tomorrow is Friday and ICM will be back in T-2!!!

T-3 Days! (Yes, I failed..no T-4 post)

So yes, I failed my own challenge on the 8th day.  RIDICULOUS!  Perhaps I really am incapable of doing the 365 days photo-a-day challenge :(

<--I'm not happy about this and this is precisely how I feel about my failure!!  Thank you to the two people who called me out on it...this is a good thing...there needs to be accountability in this world!!!

To be honest, I am a little tired of posting photos from my projects since I've been staring at them for too many hours.  I miss the ocean right now, so I picked a few photos from Costa Rica. 

I want to be where that guy is standing.

It's not super clean water...but I'll take that right now anyways. I just want to be OUTSIDE!

And to anyone who might be dabbling in a little bit of bird watching...GOOD LUCK :)

I think I took this when I was at the Monteverde Cloud Forest in 2007.  I miss Costa Rica SO MUCH.

All of these were taken with my Canon Powershot IS2...I loved that camera!

It's 07:38PM, I am super sleepy.  So good night!

T-5 Days!

Pigeons outside Union Station

Last night, I had a dream that I was in Asia somewhere.  When I was on a really busy street, I noticed my camera got stolen!  :(  Needless to say, I was super stressed about losing all my travel photos and basically spent the rest of my dream trying to find the person who stole my d300s :( 

Ultra short post because:  I've always had bad study habits, however, I believe I am a pretty awesome procrastinator.  I was glad to find out I am not a procrastinator when it comes to photographing assignments (because it would be impossible to turn in photos that I like) but sadly, that is not the case for exams.  So it is now cram time.

T-6 Days!

Happy Sunday!  This countdown posting thing is making the days feel like it's going by slower!!! nOOO.

Will have to keep this post ultra-concise...shouldn't have taken a napped when I was supposed to study.  So here are a few other photos from the Forbidden Meadow on Friday...the one thing they have in common is that they all remind me of pencil sketches and drawings rather than actual photos themselves.  Sorry, no storyline today! 

Dinner time!