just press post
Jan. 29th, 2019 11:39![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ursamajor... my Swedish Chef icon was based on a US stamp back when letter stamps cost $0.37, and this weekend they went up to $0.55, so hi, I'm old, how are you.
At some point, my Instagram crossposts failed, which was basically how I felt like being on the internet for a long while - pictures as a signal flare of "I'm still alive, here's a good thing I want to remember."
In the interim couple of years, I've:
* spent most holidays in LA soaking up warmth and fruit and Pacific Ocean zen to fortify myself through yet another New England winter (starting to get real tired of the latter part of that cycle); Park family gatherings annually uniting all of us scattered kids to hang out with each other and eat a lot of good Korean food. Making sure to get out to Santa Monica at least one Wednesday per trip for the farmers' market and dipping my toes in my beloved Pacific, frigid to everyone else but merely invigorating to me; that's what twenty-odd New England winters'll do for ya, I guess! Supplementing with my other favorite LA farmers market (the Sunday Hollywood one, though you do have to dodge the creepy slant-rhymes-with-gynecologists).
* went to Hawai'i for a milestone birthday. Managed to spend almost all of that particular December away from the bitter New England chill - an overnight in SF allowing us time at the Exploratorium, time to ice skate under the palm trees on the Embarcadero (thanks per usual, Kristi Yamaguchi!), time to devour the precious in-season Dungeness crab at Hog Island and the first-of-the-season kishus from Bi-Rite.
Then out to Kona the next day. 10 days circumnavigating the Big Island in a bright orange Mustang, volcanos and waterfalls and lava and beaches in every color and the brightest, most eye-catching flora. Worshiping the honu from a sensible distance; swimming among the sea life; encountering so many tiny lizards and aggressive chickens. Devouring tropical jams at the farmers' markets, coffee and vanilla and macadamia nuts at the plantations, shave ice or gelato every afternoon as it warmed up, a different type of poke everywhere we see it (whether right at the docks or at the local Foodland). Donning our winter clothing to go stargazing on Mauna Kea, so many twinkling points of faraway light usually invisible to us in the city; while watching the sun set, welcome news beamed into our phones, a tiny pinprick of hope that a Democrat can win a Senate seat even in a blood-red state. Being presumed kama'aina by the locals even as we acknowledge that we are tourists, removing an omnipresent weight off our shoulders because we're somewhere we blend in. Wrapping up our time in Hawai'i with three days on Oahu, watching expert surfers do their thing, karaoke and dinner with Angela at the Pig and the Lady, roadside garlic shrimp, all of the musubi. Boarding our red-eye back to the continent, toting a brand new ukelele and knowledge of how to play both simple folk songs and the Star Wars theme.
And then another two weeks in Los Angeles for the holidays, missing Jewmas with friend-family back in Boston but grateful to see family in the sun and to explore LA at leisure; to stumble across a woman-owned bike shop while at the grocery store in Echo Park; to slip into the Infinity Mirrors show; to revel in another two weeks of Filipino food being so easily accessible the same way my in-laws are cherishing their time with far easier access to Korean food than is available in Knoxville; to smuggle all of the strawberries and avocados back across the country into temperatures 60 degrees colder than I'd experienced nearly all month.
* managed to fly red-eyes in both directions for a Las Vegas work trip (again with that New England winter crap)
* went to Nashville for the first time (and recognized a LOT of LA and NYC brands setting up shop). They're in for iiinteresting times there; I used public transit for most of my getting around and had conversations about density and sudden growth and just how was everyone supposed to be getting around based on the population increasing by X but the roads only having so far to widen, which meant I got to evangelize about induced demand and transit to some very bemused locals).
* popped down to NYC on various day trips
* failed to Kondo my stuff except in dribs and drabs
* spent pretty much every other scrap of free time at the farmers' markets or the bookstores.
So, you know, me being me.
I still don't know if I have much to talk about on an ongoing basis, but it's nice to remember that this place exists. Catch up with people. Hello.
At some point, my Instagram crossposts failed, which was basically how I felt like being on the internet for a long while - pictures as a signal flare of "I'm still alive, here's a good thing I want to remember."
In the interim couple of years, I've:
* spent most holidays in LA soaking up warmth and fruit and Pacific Ocean zen to fortify myself through yet another New England winter (starting to get real tired of the latter part of that cycle); Park family gatherings annually uniting all of us scattered kids to hang out with each other and eat a lot of good Korean food. Making sure to get out to Santa Monica at least one Wednesday per trip for the farmers' market and dipping my toes in my beloved Pacific, frigid to everyone else but merely invigorating to me; that's what twenty-odd New England winters'll do for ya, I guess! Supplementing with my other favorite LA farmers market (the Sunday Hollywood one, though you do have to dodge the creepy slant-rhymes-with-gynecologists).
* went to Hawai'i for a milestone birthday. Managed to spend almost all of that particular December away from the bitter New England chill - an overnight in SF allowing us time at the Exploratorium, time to ice skate under the palm trees on the Embarcadero (thanks per usual, Kristi Yamaguchi!), time to devour the precious in-season Dungeness crab at Hog Island and the first-of-the-season kishus from Bi-Rite.
Then out to Kona the next day. 10 days circumnavigating the Big Island in a bright orange Mustang, volcanos and waterfalls and lava and beaches in every color and the brightest, most eye-catching flora. Worshiping the honu from a sensible distance; swimming among the sea life; encountering so many tiny lizards and aggressive chickens. Devouring tropical jams at the farmers' markets, coffee and vanilla and macadamia nuts at the plantations, shave ice or gelato every afternoon as it warmed up, a different type of poke everywhere we see it (whether right at the docks or at the local Foodland). Donning our winter clothing to go stargazing on Mauna Kea, so many twinkling points of faraway light usually invisible to us in the city; while watching the sun set, welcome news beamed into our phones, a tiny pinprick of hope that a Democrat can win a Senate seat even in a blood-red state. Being presumed kama'aina by the locals even as we acknowledge that we are tourists, removing an omnipresent weight off our shoulders because we're somewhere we blend in. Wrapping up our time in Hawai'i with three days on Oahu, watching expert surfers do their thing, karaoke and dinner with Angela at the Pig and the Lady, roadside garlic shrimp, all of the musubi. Boarding our red-eye back to the continent, toting a brand new ukelele and knowledge of how to play both simple folk songs and the Star Wars theme.
And then another two weeks in Los Angeles for the holidays, missing Jewmas with friend-family back in Boston but grateful to see family in the sun and to explore LA at leisure; to stumble across a woman-owned bike shop while at the grocery store in Echo Park; to slip into the Infinity Mirrors show; to revel in another two weeks of Filipino food being so easily accessible the same way my in-laws are cherishing their time with far easier access to Korean food than is available in Knoxville; to smuggle all of the strawberries and avocados back across the country into temperatures 60 degrees colder than I'd experienced nearly all month.
* managed to fly red-eyes in both directions for a Las Vegas work trip (again with that New England winter crap)
* went to Nashville for the first time (and recognized a LOT of LA and NYC brands setting up shop). They're in for iiinteresting times there; I used public transit for most of my getting around and had conversations about density and sudden growth and just how was everyone supposed to be getting around based on the population increasing by X but the roads only having so far to widen, which meant I got to evangelize about induced demand and transit to some very bemused locals).
* popped down to NYC on various day trips
* failed to Kondo my stuff except in dribs and drabs
* spent pretty much every other scrap of free time at the farmers' markets or the bookstores.
So, you know, me being me.
I still don't know if I have much to talk about on an ongoing basis, but it's nice to remember that this place exists. Catch up with people. Hello.
Tags:
no subject
Date: 2019-01-29 22:34 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-29 22:38 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-29 22:46 (UTC)Dev work in particular rapidly turned into a complicated Thing for me; I miss it sometimes but not enough to want to go back.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-29 23:49 (UTC)I haven't yet decided if I'm going to be public or private posting, predominantly, but granting access in return in case I do decide to swing that way. I think I'm going to be public-ish for now and see how that goes.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-29 23:59 (UTC)Sure, whatever works for you. (I didn't quite realize what posting locked would do for my headspace until I did it for other reasons, but it's been nice to have that particular mental block much less present.) It's so nice to have the option. :)