California

I’ve got a peaceful, easy feeling

Photography

The desert. I promised I would write about the desert.

A couple of months ago I visited my Dad and stepmother at their new winter home in Needles California. Needles is on the border of California and Arizona, located in the Mojave Desert. I mentioned in an earlier blog post that I grew up in Spokane, WA, which is on the edge of a desert, and we drove through it on our way to other places. So my experience with the desert is limited to the High Desert of Eastern Washington.

I was delighted to finally visit this part of the country. I’ve never been to Arizona. I had an interesting reaction to this place. I felt very at-home here. It surprised me, frankly. I am not a hot-weather person. Physically, I don’t do well in anything above 80 degrees. But the heat didn’t bother me on this trip. I was really entranced by the place. It’s stunning in it’s stark beauty. The emptiness calmed me, made me feel at peace.

The history is interesting as well. Needles is on Route 66 and was once a very thriving town. The town has fallen into poverty in the years since Route 66 is no longer used as much. There are lots of vestiges from this time period. It’s both romantic and sad at the same time.

Here are some photos I took while I was there. The color shots were taken with my pinhole camera, and the black and white were made with an Olympus XA.

“The Classy Ass”
Get your kicks on Route 66
Zero 2000 + Portra 160 @ < 5 seconds
Zeor 2000 + Portra 160 @ < 5 seconds
66 Motel in B&W
window reflection
Zero 2000 + Portra 160 @ < 5 seconds
Desert Sunset
a couple of bucks
Zero 2000 + Portra 160 @ 5 seconds.

I was hoping to make it to the Grand Canyon, but unfortunately we couldn’t get out there this time. It is, for sure, on the books for next year.

You can read about Oatman Arizona at Pinhole Obscura, where I recently wrote a blog post about it. Many of the photos above were taken there.

Flickr Time Machine

Life

Lone beachcomber

I am determined to post something on this blog 3 times a week, dammit. I was tempted not to today because I am feeling blah and cranky and irritable and I have nothing interesting to say. But then I remembered Flickr Time Machine. YES!

Here is a photo from this day (January 28) in 2008. That was 7 years ago. SEVEN YEARS AGO. Where has the time gone? I was in Capitola, CA, visiting my in-laws and was watching the sunset with Rafael. Oh how I wish I was in Capitola right now. If I remember right, we returned to an unbelievable amount of snow and at the tail end of The Storm Of The Century.

Here are some more photos from that day.

The Santa Cruz Monica

Poetry

Sometimes I wonder
If there is another me
who still lives in Santa Cruz.
The Santa Cruz Monica.
The me who chose to be
A creative writing major at UCSC.
She had guts.
She is the one who runs on the beach at sunrise.
She is the one who surfs The Hook.
She is the one who Is not afraid
Of wasps’s nests as she rappels
The cliff at Castle Rock.
She is the one who
Writes stories about the Sea.
I can feel her when I visit.
Her happy soul bleeds
Through the crack in our worlds.

 

Highlights

Random

Shipwreck found on the beach in Santa Cruz in 2005

I’ve been spending some time updating the photos on older blog posts and have been enjoying the walk down memory lane.

Some of these old posts document some really great quotes I’ve heard from random people over the years. Here are a few highlights:

“I died in Spring and was resurrected in Winter.” – guy on a bike at Santa Clara University.

“This is about me proposing to Chloe’s ashes at the memorial isn’t it?” – Heard on Days of Our Lives in April 2005

“But when I listen to music it is transmitted to the whole world.” – guy at public library listening station when told to turn down the Britney Spears. November 2005

“Hey, I think that’s the library lady..Is that the library lady? Yeah, it is! That’s the library lady, guys!” – kid at the bus station. December 2005.