Seeeyahhh...

Tonight I leave for Hong Kong. Strangely, I'm not too excited. Most people seem to be more excited than I am. I think it's because I have work on my brain.

I gotta visit Modern Mouse for an inventory restock, mail out a box of plush to NJ for a toy art exhibit, & prep my sister for maintaining my etsy shop. Oh & pack! These are all wonderful things but it's incredibly overwhelming to only have a day to accomplish it all. I must say it's very strange having to delegate tasks & modify my system so that someone can easily step in & take over. It's definitely a good adjustment & a sign that my business is growing. I think once I get all the business stuff outta the way, it'll be smooth sailing. I'll put on some Community, pack & drink Pinot Noir until it's time to fly.

On the drive from LA to San Jose, James asked me what my intentions were for the trip. This is something Karen suggested two nights ago and it made me really happy that James asked me before I could ask him. My intentions: to rediscover and experience that wonder, openness and overwhelming inspiration that comes from wandering a new world. It's been 8 months since I got back from the Philippines and I can feel myself getting comfortable in my American ways. I gotta shake things up again! Feel unsettled & unsatisfied and reconnect to my art. This trip comes at a good time & a marker that I can still self-finance my travels to foreign countries. LIVE THE DREAM!

Oh man... I didn't even get to finish writing but I gotta go! SEEEYAAHHHH

Last Days in LA

Oldest letter welcomes the latest letter

salad of csa goodies

& roasted squash seeds

bruce kindly showed off his costume collection. the utility belt really ties the outfit together

you can't really see it but that's 4 cartons of ice cream: b&j's oatmeal cookie chunk, b&j's chocolate fudge brownie, scoops's brown bread & dreyers's limited edition samoas cookies. yep. all devoured. soo good.

good time in la. now it's on to HONG KONG. Hey holler heeeeeeeeyyyy

Fridays are for farms, friends & fast heart beats

Amy & I made sweet Korean pancakes while Nikos provided the tunes. It was so fun.

MORE GOOEY FILLING!

Afterwards James & I went to the farm to visit Rachel & Bruce, your Silverlake Farms/CSA gurus.

Bruce gave us a tour of the COMPOST. Soo many worms.

little bok choy

For the evening, we saw John Isaac Waters's band perform at Lot 1. So good. I totally crashed the bro party while the ladies celebrated Kendall's sweet accomplishment. We all then reunited for dancing at Short Stop. Gee, I forgot how bad/good the music is there. It's okay though. Singing Psycho Killer at the end sealed the deal.

Dancing & shutting down Short Stop makes you sleepy.

LACMA

I visited LACMA again to drop off a few orders (yay!) & lingered to eat my lunch & work a little.

While there I chatted with Seymour, a mid-70s gentleman spending the day with Lola, his 3 year old granddaughter. We talked about books, traveling and his disinterest with visiting India. He shared something he recently read: You should ignore the ego. It prevents you from living in the present moment. We then started talking about its meaning & importance. There was something grandfatherly in how he cracked cheesy jokes & professor-ly in how he recited quotations verbatim but stumbled when it came to who said it. We chatted about yoga, which scares him but he still does it every day. He left me with a knee-slapping joke that was just about the cherry on top of the sundae.

After talking with Seymour, I volunteered to take a picture of two older Korean tourists. One really didn't want me to and the other was incredibly excited about it. He threw his hat at his friend with a grunt and pulled him to a picturesque spot with the LACMA lawn behind him (why he didn't pick the lamps is beyond me). I took the picture and they returned to me asking where I was from. I said I was Filipino. The crankier old man immediately relaxed and started listing off every famous Filipino he knew starting with Corazon Acquino. No mention of Manny. Dang.

H is for hungry. CSA carrots were gold.

The Breakfast of Champions

7am yoga reward with your cool guy

More from the LA artwalk night

photos by josh/bruce using josh's camera

The Best Earmuffs I've Made

are sitting nicely in the UK :)
& yes, they're fuzzy inside.