i too love oblivion why not it is full of second chances

Today is autumnal & I'm into it. I am trying to run again, read more.... No marathons or Russian novels at the moment. Just small steps—around some familiar city blocks—toward betterment. Reclaiming/reinventing a bit of routine. Now I will get up early. Now I will eat root vegetables.

But the couple wks. before my birthday are always like this: ambitious, revisionary. Birthday resolutions are like New Year's ones, only a little sadder somehow...more personal. You v. you.

Not that they have to be that way. Mostly I would like to practice—now, presently—seeing DAYS as DAYS!

But speaking of root vegetables: SOUP.

Who wants to make it? We could put it in tupperware containers, freeze it, and eat it forever...or at least weeks.

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Went to a couple epic shows this past weekend. My Bloody Valentine ended with a furious wall of sound. Nick Cave kicked the air, sang ballads, sat down.

At MBV, Amanda and I wore sunglasses to counteract the semi-blinding nature of the strobes. We are dorks, yes—but it worked so well.



Pics stolen from ARM!



No light show="show." But light show="concert"??

running, returning

Happy Birthday, Golden Age!



Karyn's Cooked. Yessssss.





The past few days have included a lot of running, baking, celebrating, and banh mi. Chicago has been golden lately and, above all, still blooming. "Halcyon days," my mom would say. And she would be right.

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I can't stop thinking about this.

namesake

Now: if here while you are walking, or there when you've attained the far ridge and can see the yellow plain and the river shining through it—if you notice unbidden that you are afoot on this paritcular mountain on this particular day in the company of these particular changing fragments of clouds,—if you pause in your daze to connect your own skull-locked and interior mumble with the skin of your senses and sense, and notice you are living,—then will you not conjure up in imagination a map or a globe and locate this low mountain ridge on it, and find on one western slope the dot which represents you walking here astonished?

You may then wonder where they have gone, those other dim dots that were you: you in the flesh swimming in a swift river, swinging a bat on the first pitch, opening a footlocker with a screwdriver, inking and painting clowns on celluloid, stepping out of a revolving door into the swift crowd on a sidewalk, being kissed and kissing till your brain grew smooth, stepping out of the cold woods into a warm field full of crows, or lying awake in bed aware of your legs and suddenly aware of all of it, that the ceiling above you was under the sky—in what country, what town?


—An American Childhood

outside the leaves were falling as they died

Despite my frustration with everyone—media outlets, meteorologists, clothing stores (where shorts and flip-flops are now on clearance)—emphatically reminding us that these are the final days of summer, I will admit that the air lately has felt distinctly fall-esque. I guess the autumnal equinox is only a couple weeks away. And when James, Ben, and I ate Sunday lunch on the back patio at Kuma's, some leaves fell into our sandwiches.

"...and they cried

Too soon! too soon!"

The last few weeks have been somewhat of a whirlwind: end of my editorial stint at PIL; benefit show at AV-aerie; bday of the lovely Amanda R. Mullins; driving from LA to Prescott, AZ, in a PT Cruiser (PT Loser) with Mary; hanging with Katie, Adam, Brooke, Kale, and—the new! the chubby!—Banner; hiking up Arizona hills and making wildflower wreaths and watching CGI Barbie DVDs with the niece + nephews; heading back to LA and taking naps on beaches; returning to Chicago for the post-Dog Days; DNC, RNC, OMG; having dear friends from Washington visit; karaoke-ing and block party-ing and eating Hot Doug's for the first time in a long time and getting a cold (lame) and getting rejected from lots of jobs I applied to; spending too much time thinking about jobs in general, and also patterns, habits, ambition, seasons; listing, always listing; getting reacquainted with local coffeeshops and free Wifi.

Here's more or less the photographic version:



Last lunch in the forest preserve. Goodbye suburbs, Noodles, Emily Oaks Nature Center, St. Paul Woods!







Bonbons for the benefit show bake sale. Always wkg on my food shots.



















First order of business after arriving in LA=tacos.



Second order of business=Manhattan Beach.



Becky and Aaron's nice pad in Silver Lake.



Soy Cafe.





Brooklyn Jane.



Brooke's creative idea #1: Wear a dress as a skirt.



Brooke's creative idea #2: Have your brother and aunt shut you in a cupboard.



Camp Pinerock.









Hiking up Thumb Butte.











Banner sporting his baby-already-in-retirement AZ style.



B. and Kaleos Adams.



Back in LA: brunch in Silver Lake.



Robbie B. in Chinatown.





Malibu.







Back in the Chi: outside show with Hecuba...



...and Lucky Dragons.



Apt.









Amanda was so not gonna let that Kuma's burger defeat her.











Impromptu street fashion show featuring Amanda's Village Discount purchases.



Ben is enjoying life right here.



And here.





Family Fun Fest at Misericordia. I was stoked to see some amazing performances by the Heartbreakers dance crew.



Back at Sidekicks.



Kim owned it.



Mandar owned it.