One Year and Counting

How'd that happen?

You encouraged me to start this blog.

Thanks for reading. For commenting. For indulging me. I've written mostly about travel, people, commuting, arts and culture, books, obligatory happy lists and of course, food. Here's to the next year!

I Feel Alive When

I paint my toenails raspberry slushie blue.

I get up extra early to participate in Bike to Work day

I listen to Crooked Fingers Pandora radio station.

I anticipate upcoming European adventures.

I receive a phone call from a dear friend, that I don't talk to often enough.

I exchange smiles with a stranger.

I volunteer.

I feel the sun warming my spirit.

I get unexpected handwritten surprises in the mail.

I inhale heaps of wild honeysuckle.

I have a moment of clarity.

Saturday at the Phillips

The meaning of a word—to me—is not as exact as the meaning of a color. 
                                           Georgia O'Keeffe

After lunching at a cozy Greek restaurant in Dupont Circle, a dear friend and I headed over to the Phillips Collection to meditate on art, catching the second to last day of the Georgia O'Keeffe exhibit. Although we had to share the gallery space with several other cultured white people, I managed to feel an overwhelming sense of peace moving within me as I roamed from room to room.

Perhaps it was the pulsating fluid organic movement of her work.

The charcoal abstracts and distinct composition.

Scenes from Lake George and sensual silver gelatin prints.

It's easy to see why O'Keeffe was received with so much criticism. Her work is both evocative and emotional— frequently depicting abstracts of female anatomy and microscopic reproductive plant parts. Yet, there were moments when I simply wanted to fall into one of her pieces, ensconce myself in movement and color and emerge reborn.

At another frame, it was almost as though I saw the idea of a white rose, while being left to interpret the unknown aspects of the actual representation. And maybe, that's what she aimed to create after all.
Casting aside conventions of her day.
Conveying art as unknown.

In that sense, I suppose she succeeded.

165,104 Steps

Steps in the past two weeks.

This is what happens when you muster together a walking team, get a handful of free pedometers, and lace up your Asics. (I'll admit, Bill Bryson's ambition spurred me on...but I have no intention of walking the entire AT.) Ever.

10 Things I L-O-V-E May

1. This little ditty.

2. 100 Bowls of Compassion.

3. Rocket launch.

4. Walking/Biking town D.C.



5. Capitol Hill Society open house tour.



6. Three book clubs.

7. 5th Sunday.


8. Vivaldi's Gloria.

(which was this past Saturday night...much to my delight!)

9. Pick-your-own strawberries!

10. IAD>JFK>DUB

Did I mention May is my favorite month? No. Well, it is!