photoAday_ Jan 22

DAY 22, YOUR SHOES: Docs, Y-3, Campbells, Theyskens', Vans, et des chausurres mignons. Part of the whole. What can I say? I love shoes.

photoAday_ Jan 11

DAY 11, WHERE YOU SLEEP: it's not like sleeping on a cloud (it's a fold-out futon, going to get a mattress for it eventually), but a bed is a bed. Regardless of what kind you have, when it's your own it's the first place you want to be as the day wanes to its close. My bed is a throne waiting for it's queen.

photoAday_ Jan 10

DAY 10, CHILDHOOD: this letter is exactly 10-years-old. Wow. It was sent by an old penpal of mine named Ameenah. We found each other on a Koreananime (for real) penpal exchange guestbook. I don't remember who answered the penpal inquiry of who, but somehow we developed a very strong friendship out of our letter exchanges that lasted for several years: 2000 to perhaps 2004-2005. In August of 2001, I managed to convince my dad into letting me stay at her family's house in Circleville, Va. for a week, while my dad was in D.C. for various projects. The day I left was the day Aaliyah died, and that's all you heard about on music media outlets - especially radio. So that's how I remember all this, I guess. Anyway, apparently this is the only letter that managed to survive the years. I swear I managed to hold on to most of them because I keep every single personal memo, note, letter, card that comes my way. This was a very special friendship that stuck with me because it was my first success in connecting with someone outside of geographical reach. I don't think I would have done this if websites like Myspace and Facebook existed. I'm very happy they didn't taint my efforts of making a strong bond** back when social developments go through a very dramatic milestone: the adolescent years.

Update Jan. 20: changed "bond" from "bong." Dumbest typo ever, or best?

photoAday_ Jan 9

DAY 9, DAILY ROUTINE: my eyes sting and I'm tearing up profusely. Oh, it's that big bowl of onions I just cut. Let me just wipe my ey- oh shit, now my vision's all blurry. Now I can't see the notification someone left me on Facebook via my Blackberry app.

I always make sure that at least one of my meals is made from scratch. I rarely buy TV dinners/microwavable/oven-baked meals because for one, we don't have a microwave; and second, I know how to cook and I like to know what I'm eating so why not? For breakfast I ate brown sugar wheat waffles (the batter was made from scratch days ago), leftover lentils sloppy joe (made two days ago) on spinach and wheat for lunch, and in this photo I'm prepping up some tofu scrambles. Can you tell I love to cook? Apparently there was a full moon out today, which kind of explains why today felt like a drop down the Millennium Force roller coaster at Cedar Point. I calmed down after I made this meal, served with a side of blackberry spinach salad. Cooking is my daily therapy. And sometimes my phone is too.

photoAday_ Jan 8

I decided to cave in on this "photo a day" activity after seeing a few of my friends upload their daily Instagram snaps in lieu of the challenge. Unfortunately I am not "with it" and don't have an iPhone, and therefore, don't have the Instagram app. I have a Blackberry Curve with no flash and a sepia setting as its COOL, QUIRKY photo filter. Also, it tends to blur badly with the slightest move. Anyway, these will be taken with my Fujifilm camera and I'm still deciding if I should play catch-up on the past seven days or just forget about them.

DAY 8, YOUR SKY: every morning I do some warm-up stretches and cardio activity so I can face the day with some energy and a great body. This photo was taken in the living room of my third floor apartment. When I'm lying down with my back against the floor, maybe after doing leg lifts, maybe exhaling deeply from stationary drills, my eyes often inquisitively greet the blue skies. When we question our existence, our purpose, we look to the skies. When we experience miraculous moments in our lives, we look to the skies. When it's just a need to simply escape but can't really do so under current restraints, we look to the sky. I do all of that when I cool down: I bask in my existence and escape in a dream.