I still do this:

Breakfast is my favorite meal. I have my reasons. One day, I would like to have taken enough thoughtful photos of delicious breakfasts to make a little gallery of them. I have so few currently because they are usually consumed before that can happen, as it should be. Yes, that's fake bacon. I have my reasons.



Ever since the dentist cleared all the stuff out of her side of the garage, I look like the one with a bit more of a stuff-collection. Granted, I live there. She just stores her printer paper and outdated machinery in there.


Fred's fur is iridescent in the sun.


Really, Mario? Really? That's clever...

Neighbors: the gift that keeps on giving...

It's been just over two years now since I moved into my charming one bedroom apartment. My blog is punctuated with little details about the place that allude to it's many perks despite its small size: the backyard space that houses (what I used to think was) a lime tree; the front courtyard that came with a little doggy I don't have to take care of but who still sits on my porch and warns me of possible danger, joggers, and old ladies (as if the bars on my windows weren't enough); and the spacious two-car gar garage/studio which I share with a dentist (not mine!!) who doesn't care/know when I discover some new horror she's got back there, photograph it and post it online! Is anybody else thinking of the movie "The Host" right now? Any number of other movies coming to mind..?

back to normal(ish)...

"The more things change, the more they stay the same."

I'm really digging this quote this week. It really applies to my non-existent work life and somewhat to the home life as well. For with everything that's changed these past few months (employment status, the State of the Courtyard apartments and it's inhabitants, the coming and going of new and old friends), I realize how concrete certain people and things are becoming in my seemingly "unattached" lifestyle. It's hard to put into photos in a simple yet convoluted manner the minute flux of life over time without revealing to much about myself, since I haven't been taking as many photos lately, just thinking about them...

Things that haven't changed much:


I'm still cooking a lot. This was a veggie and Mahi coconut curry. It was delicious.


The garden's been kind of on and off sucky lately since I haven't had time to build the planter boxes for organic veggies like I wanted to. In the mean time, I have these tiny burgundy beans and some vines that will hopefully someday produce cantaloupe. I'm fascinated by the way the send out little "grabber" shoots to help propel themselves upward!

Some serious changes:


My 17-year-old cat with the recent kidney disease? SO MUCH BETTER! It's insane - with no treatment other than some new food, this sweet little buddy is back to her old antics. Excited about her new office assistant job, here she is expressing her boredom with my line of work and then attempting to engage me in a game of "knock over the wacom pen" - an afternoon favorite.


Remember the gutter cat that showed up shortly after my 30th birthday? It managed to adopt the only family in the courtyard with a little kid. The dad managed somehow to tame the ferile thing just enough to feed it and name it Jonsey. That neighbor is English and I think they have a certain obligation to naming things Jonsey, male or (even in this case) female. Even the little neighbor-dog has made peace with gutter cat, knowing to keep his distance from the little thing that's gone up against racoons and won. Everyone in the complex, however (human and animal), are doing their best to adjust to the new neighbor. Well, maybe not the animals. Neighbor-dog barks like a crazy chihuaua every time he sees the guy and gutter cat just runs and hides. Too bad it doesn't work that easy for people!

I think the biggest change, though, is the thing I can't express in images, really. Or just really wouldn't here, I suppose. It started a while ago as the unemployment rate rose and friends within the industry started moving away for better work opportunities. It's weird when you realize that you've spent all this time trying to keep from getting comfortable with your job or your surroundings, only to have to admit that it's the people and the interactions that have become so familiar. With or without the corporate or social structure, the relationships we've built are still very much in tact. Months after working with my former boss, I'm still stopping by his house to exchange camera gear the night before he sets off for location; and months after tossing back a last beer on some balcony at work, I'm still at a bar on a weeknight saying good bye to more and more colleagues that will always be more than just people I once worked with.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same."

the kind of thing you just can't make up...

A while back, I expressed some overzealous excitement about all the crazy old junk on the other side of my shared garage belonging to the dentist, who uses it just for storage. Well, I discovered another "treasure" yesterday while cleaning out my side of the garage for another project. This must be new because how could I have never noticed until now the DECONTAMINATED SOLID MEDICAL WASTE sitting right in front of the old box of syringes??

Neighbor Dog

The next best thing to actually having a dog, in fact - maybe even better, is having a really great little neighbor-dog. This one likes to hang out on my (dying) lawn (if you could call it that) and on my door step and just generally in front of my apartment so when I come home sometimes, it looks like I actually have a little apartment-sized dog, when in fact, I don't.

scary things in the dentist's garage:

I feel very lucky to have a 2-car garage, basically to myself in which I can either park my car, shoot up-n-coming bands, or spray-paint my latest domestic creations without the annoyance of someone else's car getting in the way; or worse, a lifetime's worth of their most important junk like my neighbors who share the other 2-car garage.

I share my garage with the dentist who occupies the commercial space at the front of my building, and she uses it mainly for storage of items which (I assume) she just doesn't know how to dispose of properly. Anyway, the dentist herself seems perfectly nice (as in, she doesn't mind/know if I use her miscellaneous items for photo shoots and generally leaves me alone), but lets just say I'm glad she's not my dentist...