A Random Smattering

The first signs of Spring have begun to bloom and my mood is already elevating to a much more relaxed state. Given that I am graduating so soon I am a baffled that I am able to relax for even a few minutes of the day, but hey, I am not complaining! My family (hopefully) understands why I am a nut-ball even more-so now than usual. I will share some of the pictures I've been snapping from my Samsung Vibrant... love... and my new favorite combination : Take pictures with the "vignette" application and edit them with "little photo". Snazzy names... snazzy pics.

A lamp surrounded by COLOR in city hall park. My first though when I saw that there was some alien blossoms popping up around me... HOLY F*&^ BALLS!

This is a tree right outside my work that I get to look at now with envy instead of pity. What a difference a month makes. "Oh poor flowerless tree getting snowed on while I'm inside warm-ish watching your sadness" has since morphed into a jealous fit, "F'in tree... flowers suckling from the teats of its awesomeness basking in the warmth spilling from the sun and kissing this tree while I watch, feet away, inside a glass hell..."

This is a beautiful flower I passed in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn while walking in the rain with my friend Lauren. We were both cursing the rain but mostly the fact that the temperature dropped to 39. I mean, seriously... can you say mother nature is a tease? Gorgeous weather with random days of gloom. I guess it's kind of like life... you need death to appreciate the own mediocrity of your own life. It's the little things.

Honestly, I am impressed that my phone can take pictures of this quality. Makes me wonder why I spent so much on my new one... wait a minute... not really.

Have I already shared this? I don't care actually because it is a badass picture. I took this while walking around with one of my besties, Helen, before she left for Europe for two months! Forget that freaking piece of shit tree... I am jealous of Helen!

This is a shot I got while walking around with Irina at the Seaport. I would love to tell you that I am a master at post-processing and I'm some genius with photography (at which point you smile politely and nod hysterically in approval so I don't cut you) however, this application on my phone captured these colors better than I could have imagined.

Other notable architecture includes:

The Beekman Tower, or whatever they are calling it this week, which was a parking lot when I first came to Pace. Nothing iconicity juxtaposes a symbolic and metaphysical experience like getting a degree like a building being built and completed at the exact same time!

And the Empire State Building...

What? This old thing?

The next picture was taken outside of Roberta's in Brooklyn where my, I'm going to say cousin for lack of a more accurate description, works.

It was a beautiful day and I though the contrasting colors looked pretty swell.

A little DD to make everyone jealous. Just making sure you're paying attention...

And what's this?

Hipster/ Model Christian?

Lookout!

And just because I can and this post is already a random smattering of photos... a deliciously scrumdidliumptious wine I had the other day. $10 at Trader Joe's, yeah I swear. Tribunal... worth every penny!

The next make a little more sense grouped together as they all include an aspect of photography. The first is none other than me adding "creamer" to my cup o' Joe at a place I love in Brooklyn Heights.

The following is one of my favorite pictures that I have ever taken. I have no clue why and I wish that I could articulate it but I just love that it is a picture of what I love doing most from my vantage point... well I guess that pretty much sums it up doesn't it?

(I didn't even take the picture you see on the screen)

This was something I found on a subway platform while waiting for the train. Everyone probably though I was crazy trying to take this picture on all fours but I had to capture this moment. There were three smoked cigarettes and three 24oz beer cans all lined up artistically. Probably by either an artist or a serial killer...

Heidi's shoe! God, those purple shoes rock my socks...

Posing with her film camera.

Next was an awesome picture of my hanging half my body out of a cab to get. I just though this perspective was perfect and even though the cab driver was half nervous-laughing half grabbing my belt loops to pull my back in, I think he secretly knew it would work out.

I am always happy to share my views of the world around me.

With this change of season comes a change in my life. I am graduating from College and moving forward and in-so-doing am grappling with the unwanted changes that are occurring at the same time.

I have come terms with some difficulties in life that some friends, family, and lovers will not be in my life forever. I guess I could have learned that from my biological father's absence in my life or the myriad friends that have gone from my life almost as quickly as they came.

I have more recently learned this from a few friends that without warning or provocation have decided they want to move forward with their own lives...

or from my Aunt's decision to not speak to me because of a misunderstanding.

I am still learning from these difficult losses but life goes on and seasons continue to change and minutes continue to pass.

All I can do is smile and nod in agreement to the world and keep my eyes open to the wisdom tangled in these situations and thank the Heavens for those incredibly special people in my life that I do have faith with be stuck with my crazy ass forever.

A few events deduced (because it's Monday)

I just thought I'd open your eyes to what Christian was like as a four-year-old little tot. (Yes I just spoke in the third person, I mean Christian did). What is remarkably crazy is that my mom still looks like this minus the hair and the tan (lack thereof). Actually I still look like this... bowl haircut and rockin' awesome long sleeve purple and turquoise shirt! Weird!

Sorry, moving right along I have about ten different sets of photos I want to share and they have absolutely nothing to do with one another, except that I took pictures at said events :) Buckle up and I will take you on a roller coaster of hodgepodge craziness known as my life.

This was taken when I was out with Irina and I really wanted a cup of coffee so I whipped out my handy dandy phone to find the nearest coffee place and I saw a place I think is called La Colombe. Thank goodness! We got these niffty cups to serve our delicious coffee on a super cold day. By the way, sidebar, why the F%$# is it 19 degrees outside?

You go Glen Coco!!! I have no idea who this badass is rockin' the razor scooter. I'm not even being remotely facetious when I say that because as ridiculous as I think it is for someone over seven to use a razor he was jumping off the F'in courthouse steps! This is roughly a five foot jump... kid's got some brass balls. You go Mr. Coco!

The next random photo is one I took while I was out with Karin and Rochelle... after we went to the zoo (photos below). I have never seen the moon look as big as it did when we walked to the end of the pier, margaritas in tow. This picture obviously does not capture exactly what it looked like but trust me... HUGE! Wow, that doesn't sound quite right... or does it? Anywho, my mom and I have this "thing" about the moon because I live so far away and only get to see her every once in a blue... while, we always say that we see the same moon where ever we may be in our respective lives. So when it is particularly massive it makes me wish I were having a glass of wine with her in California.

Okay now there will be a little more cohesion. This is event one. I went to the Central Park Zoo for the first time with my friends Karin and Rochelle. It was so much fun! Let me spell it out more clearly. The night before I was a little tipsy for St. Patrick's day... that is a euphemism but h-e-l-l-o it was the right thing to do given the circumstances. So I rolled out of bed bright and early at 1pm the next day and I had a text from Rochelle that she was in the city and at the zoo. I threw clothes on and tried to get myself together (just notice how there aren't any pictures of me and you'll get it) and the next thing I know I'm running into the entrance with my camera knocking children over left and right screaming wildly, "I freakin' love the zoo!". Let me just say though that the central park zoo has approximately six animals. The best part is clearly the "tropical" attraction where you go into a tent like building with birds squawking and buzzing around. Normally I hate birds but on the occasion I was really into it. Here are the following pictures:

The crane striking a pose courtesy of The Karate Kid

This reminds me for some reason of a mob boss and his lackey. Yeah, I am like that.

Bird with a come-over and a Scarlet Ibis. Another sidebar, I read a short story in the ninth grade titled The Scarlet Ibis and it made me cry. True story.

Blackbeard's bitch

Red Panda. So cute but questionable position.

Obviously there are more pictures but you get the point... cute animals and fun day at the zoo :)

Next vignette is meeting up with my great aunt and her husband and son and his girlfriend.

Here are the three of them all happy and fun to be with. I had so much fun seeing them because the last time was in Rhode Island three years ago and before that was at my Aunt's wedding a few years before that... I guess we're on a three year rotation?

Having a blast! Normally I would have a thousand pictures of the brunch but we ate it up so quickly I didn't even register that I had my camera with me! It was at Chris' work, Roberta's in Brooklyn about twenty minutes from my house. And now Chris lives in BK too so we will for sure have to meet up again soon.

See, look how cool they look! ...and trust me they are.

Okay, random picture interjection... I saw this wall outside Roberta's with barbed wire and I saw this and it totally looks like it says "I Lost"! Right? ....Right?

And on to the next one...

Last event for this post that has been more all over the place than a housecleaner at the Sober Valley Lodge.

To the Bronx with Irina for an orchid show at the Bronx Botanical Garden. This was the first time I've been to the Bronx and it was quite a trek up there. But so much fun! I got to put my new camera to good use. LOTS of macro shots. It took every fiber of my body, and there are lots of fibers, to keep from posting all four-hundred pictures of flowers I have... Instead I will post a few:

This was a cool Japanese Cherry Blossom with a rainbow in the background (so what if the "rainbow" is my lens reacting to the sun?)

And a random shot of this colorful ball... but come on, who doesn't love a glass ball?

Flower #1

#2a and 2b

What the hell color is this? I did not know they made flowers in this color! Chartreuse?

This one reminds me of a beehive...

This reminds me of VanGough...

This one reminds me of a tiger... oh flower #... idk 754?

Drum roll!!! My favorite... I love these three.

January and February phone photos -- my life

Where the bad people go in Southampton... circa 1780 something.

The most delicious day ever! I treated myself to a salmon sandwich and a ginger martini followed by flour-less chocolate cake and a irish coffee + Baileys :) So necessary sometimes.

I am not even sure how I managed to take a picture of myself with my touchscreen phone but what do you know? I did it! I woke up the next day after a pretty hefty amount of Tito's and said, "what skill I must possess!".... then I tripped and all was right in the world... balance.

I love this shot of Lexi... she is so photogenic it is unreal sometimes.

This totally captures the essence of that morning! And for a phone photo not too shabby. Nothin' like a cup o'joe and a pile of cigarettes to realize what your life has come to.

Waiting on the tracks to head back into the city on a ridiculously cold morning.

I took this when my amazing friend Natalie came to town with her mom and sister. She called me up, "We have Tattinger Champagne and chocolate dipped Godiva strawberries at the Waldorf-Astoria... want to co---- what's that? You're at the door?".

When I started school at Pace this was a parking lot across the street from the school/dorms and I had the pleasure of listening to the construction when it was under ten stories... look at it now!

This is a picture of the Woolworth building on my way to night class. I love how it looks so dark and mysterious. Spooooky.

It pains me to look at this because this Winter has sucked major balls. Just look at this and imagine seeing this for months on end. I miss you California!

Sums up the beauty of the snow... which is very rare.

I love this shot of this bike on my front porch which was completely invisible for a few months due to the piles of snow that dumped all over Brooklyn. Thank God it is almost over... (what's that weatherman? Snow tonight and tomorrow? But it's almost APRIL are you sure? ... you are... well F**K you too!)

More pictures coming very, very, soon!