knees are shaking. fears are breaking.

chicken - home - napa, ca

let me tell you something that i learned this weekend.  wiggle your way inside my brain, and try to imagine yourself a closeted perfectionist--a serious over-thinker.  imagine--for a moment-- that you plan and are aware of essentially everything you do (stumbles on the sidewalk and food-in-teeth aside). now look down at your cell phone because it's ringing--a sound that you half enjoy. now answer.  and brace yourself, because the person on the other line is going to invite you to play beer pong on this, a beautiful saturday afternoon, without an hour's notice.  sure, you're on your way home from buying steamed lentils, spinach, and gorgonzola cheese, and you're not exactly in the mood. but don't you dare say no.  don't consider that you haven't showered and that you're far from good at the game.  just go for it.  be young.  get over yourself.  and be spontaneous for once in your picture-perfect-posed life.  sure, you might not look like a dime piece.  you might very well make an ass out of yourself.  but at least you won't be the boring chick who flocks to the coop like the other hens.

happily trapped in a page-turning galaxy.

a humane alternative - my garden - napa, ca

i've just discovered san francisco magazine, and i'm hooked.  no worm necessary.  reel me in.  throw me in the bucket with the other fishies.  i'm ready for the ride to the frying pan.

swEEEt sounding birthday serenade.

german chocolate cake - for erin's 22nd birthday - home - napa, ca

it's march 18th.  my sister's 22nd birthday.  and though i can't be in isla vista to squish her little face with my own two hands, i know she knows that i love her in a theereeuthly caraythee way.

plaidma nu.  clam hands. sugar lemons. and ?)))) and :)))))) and qvc and all of my love spun into a huge hive of cotton-candy-colored obsession.  

theethter.  i. loba. yu.  

if there's gold in them hills, why ain't we walkin' faster?

view from hollister ranch -  santa barbara county, ca

i know i'm not the only twenty-something out there wondering how to get from a life of getting by to one of success and savvy.  figuring that billionaires past would probably have an idea in the matter, i googled jean paul getty, whose legacy--and bank roll--continues to reign over this very city.  his formula for success? "rise early, work hard, strike oil." well that's nothing i haven't heard every day of my life, though my dad puts it a little differently.  his motto--one of hundreds, i kid you not--reads, "work hard, save your money. "  looks like what it comes down to is getting down to the get down--to seizing opportunity, whether it be fuel in the ground or a mine in your brilliant little head.  on your mark...get set...g to the o.

fixating on the screen, while the little people stand and scream.

prickly cactus - cacti nursery - phoenix, az

what is it with people and karaoke? i suppose i understand the appeal of fulfilling unsung dreams of sing-song stardom. and i guess there is that inevitable element of being supremely hammered that can coax anyone into the arms of a stranger bearing both mic and lyric sheet.  but today, i discovered an entirely different genre of the audible sport.  while walking by a small apothecary on the 1000 block of stockton street, i took notice to a small group of people huddled around a fifteen-inch zenith tv.  and what were they watching?  yep.  karaoke on tape.  i liken their screen fixation to that of my relationship to earthly creatures like the cactus pictured above.  even though i know it'll pain me, i touch the damn thing anyway.