The August Break Day 31: Smile

Here I am, 31 days later! August 1st feels like a lifetime ago...

Stay tuned for what I learned from this project.

Thank you everyone for keeping up with me this past month! I'll see you next year :)

The August Break Day 30: Sign

At Shotwell's, where Dave and I met almost three years ago:

The August Break Day 29: Your (My) Fave Thing

My fave thing? There are a couple of practices I keep every day that keep my feet on the ground. The first are morning pages, which you can read about here; the second is a movement practice, which typically means rolling out my mat and practicing yoga (although, more recently, I've incorporated dance to the mix).

Settling in at Laughing Lotus

These are my favorite things--the moments in the day when I get to be with myself. After so many years spent spinning my energy outward, this daily reconnecting to my guts is my biggest priority. As a person who tends toward extremes, I have to cultivate moderation like my life depended on it--which, in some ways, it absolutely does.

Here's an extra photo from yesterday:

August Break Day 28: Smell

Mas comida Cubana:

Arroz con pollo, ensalada, tostones

The August Break Day 27: Number

I danced ballet from age 3 or 4 until I was 15. At about 12 or so, I started dancing on pointe and for years after I stopped my toes were crumpled together. Ten plus years of yoga, and they are all nice and spread out again:

10 little yogi toes. 

The August Break Day 26: Yes

I looked forward to today's prompt for a few days, and then when the time came I felt stumped. "Yes?" How does one capture yes? I kept looking around for what physical things in my life or environment symbolized this. I thought of posting a photo of Dave, and how I say "yes" to our commitment every day, but I didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea (that I was saying yes to a certain type of question). So I am posting my business cards, to symbolize the greater and ongoing YES of my current life, that being, the YES of entrepreneurship, of being my own boss, of stepping fully into my place as business owner. It's exciting, exhilarating, and a great challenge all at the same time; I am practicing gratitude at every moment, even the overwhelming ones.

The August Break Day 25: Sunday Morning

Sunday morning view out of my friend Rebecca's third floor apartment on Dolores street. This is such a quintessentially Mission scene: beautiful Victorian homes, the fog barely poking out over Twin Peaks, and, if you squint, the J Muni line cruising south.

The August Break Day 24: Hear

Dave and I met up with some friends at the 20th Street Block Party. I managed not to have a panic attack while being surrounded by so many people (I'm only slightly exagerrating) and we found a nice spot stage right to watch Two Gallants, who I'd never heard of but ended up liking a lot. Here they are covering Nirvana's "Aneurism." 

The August Break Day 23: Sacred

Here you see an image of my home altar. I've kept one for the past 5 or 6 years. I guess I need an entire arsenal of goddesses to watch over me: You see Kali, Durga, Frida Kahlo, The Virgin of Guadalupe, and a photo of my mom when she was 19. There's Royal Violets perfume, used by all the women on my mom's side of the family; various shells (and one vial of sand) from various oceans and seas all around the world; found hawk feathers; tarot cards; stones; messages from loved ones; a wallet sized photo of myself as a baby...little reminders from all of my lives, past, present, and future.

The August Break Day 22: Midday

I set an alarm for noon today. This is the photo I took:

Out the window of Fix Studios

The August Break Day 21: Something Old

There are so many amazing, pimped out rides in the Mission--I caught this one showing off on 24th Street:

My favorite street

The August Break Day 20: Sight

So the prompt read "taste," however; I think it was an accidental redundancy because we already did that on the ninth. So, I chose "Sight" instead.

And how could I not! The moon was HUGE. I usually think it's silly to take photos of the moon because they always come out fuzzy, never doing her justice--but I think I found a way to capture her tonight:

Can you guess which one is the moon??? 

This is the field on Golden Gate where we play softball every week. We got our asses handed to us--but it was super fun anyway!

The August Break Day 19: White

Scenes from 18th Street:

The August Break Day 18: Looking Down

No words needed for this one:

LOOK AT DAT FACE!!!!!! i die

The August Break Day 17: Touch

My photo of the day, plus a couple extras:

Me and Zoie 

Melvin and Dave--Pony pals

Melvin

The August Break Day 16: Floral

 

I get caught up in city life sometimes. Often, it's not positive. I start to get small, and bitch about little things, like waiting in line, or crowds, or how much I hate doing laundry. And then on a bike ride to AT&T park to watch a Giants game with my boo, we stop to grab lunch from a taco truck and as I lean up on the metal fence I glance up only to see I am surrounded by this:

Swoon City USA, aka passiflora, aka passionflower

The August Break Day 15: Books

I read Cheryl Strayed's Wild in three days. There were dozens of passages that felt expressly written for me. This book felt like a dear friend, and ever since I finished, I feel like a piece of me is missing.

The August Break Day 14: Stillness

A view from the Huntington Beach pier:

Little sun pokin out the top

The August Break Day 13: Home

A photo from my first meal home:

Cuban black beans and rice

The August Break Day 12: Far Away

My mother is first generation Cuban. I grew up in Southern California surrounded by my large extended family, among my grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and the occasional transplant who had glommed on to our family for so long that they too had become part of our blood. I am grateful every day for the family experience I had growing up--such warmth and love and good food and arriving at parties only to spend the first 20 minutes making sure you said hello and gave a hug and a kiss to everyone there, even if you had only seen them the day before.

I remember every holiday, the men would gather in the backyard and shoot the shit for a couple of hours while smoking Cuban cigars. Whoever supplied the cigars (usually my dad) was a Big Deal-you could tell by the way they would marvel and fawn over the quality, the smell, the sight of the after dinner treat. The smell of cigar smoke, and my favorite, the inside of cigar boxes, is as familiar to me as the aroma of the sofrito simmering away on the stove top. Omnipresent, familiar, comforting, and evoking such nostalgia in me now that sometimes it's all I can do not to cry with longing. The older generation, the ones who came here in the late 50's, creating a new home, never to return to their own, are getting older; normal functions are breaking down, and I already find myself bracing for the impending loss.

Dave and I rolled up to my parents' house at about 6 on Monday night. My dad was still at work, and my mom, in her excitement to see us, had an announcement:

"I have two Cohiba's I've been saving; let's smoke one!"

So we did, out on the patio, drinking beer and playing gin (I won again).

The oldies no longer smoke cigars, the laundry list of ailments no longer conducive to the ritual. Passing the cigar back and forth with my mother felt almost like a rite of passage-moving from the world of child to one of taking my place at the grown-ups table, bridging the gap between two worlds.

The August Break Day 11: Play

Dave and I spent most of today on the road. We arrived in Ventura at about 5, got cleaned up at the hotel, and headed into town to cruise around and have dinner. It felt so good to walk around in the warm summer night air...completely refreshing after spending the last month boxed in by the Norcal fog.

Then, I kicked his ass at Gin Rummy.

The August Break Day 10: Red

First day on the road:

The view across from my apartment

The August Break Day 9: Taste

As you all know by now, summer 2013 is going down in San Francisco history as THE SUMMER THE SUN NEVER CAME OUT. So I decided to eat the sun instead:

Tomorrow we hit the road for a 9 day trip up and down the coast. See you on Highway 1!

The August Break Day 8: A Selfie

I'll admit, I took like 9,000 photos of myself before I chose this one. I'm sure I'm not the only one :)

Aqui estoy:

The August Break Day 7: Skyline

Today's word was Skyline. I'll be honest, I was completely uninspired, as we haven't seen the sun in San Francisco since June. No lie.

Here's what I got for you (yes, this was taken in June. I'm using my free pass for this one).

Bernal Hill, San Francisco CA

Happy Wednesday! xo

The August Break Day 6: Diagonals

There is a Buddhist temple across the street from my apartment. I've been noticing this busy confluence for a while now, whenever I cruise down Capp Street on my bike.

More and more, as the wires get sent underground, I'm getting fonder and fonder of running into a bit of wiry chaos here and there. My favorite are the places where a bunch of bus lines converge and the cables create an urban web pressed up against the sky. 

The August Break Day 5: Close Up

A couple close ups from my Monday:

My sweet ride

At The Lucky Pork Store, my local bodega

Ganesha...my favorite image of him.

See you tomorrow!

The August Break Day 4: Love

Words, my first true love:

Since March 2009 I have kept a daily journal, a practice that stuck after I completed The Artist's Way. I now have a gorgeous stack of completed notebooks perched on a shelf in my closet--I fantasize about the day when enough time has passed that I can cull all the juicy bits and write my book.

I knew I was a writer since, well, since I learned to write. When I was seven I used to write stories on 3x5 cards, and my best friend and I would collaborate on stapled together picture books we'd write on legal pads. We didn't watch much TV in my house, and every summer, I would regularly read double, even triple the amount of books on the recommended summer reading lists. In 8th grade I won a contest for an essay I wrote on Madame Bovary (I know, kind of a weird pick for a 14 year old). Occasionally I would get in trouble for my reading choices--that was the extent of my precociousness through my childhood. Whenever anyone asked me "what do you want to be when you grow up?" my answer was, invariably, "a writer."

Somewhere along the line, I decided that being a writer was a silly choice, that I could never be good enough to be published. I stopped writing, outside of what was necessary to get through high school and college. I kept a journal sporadically, never being consistent about it for more than two or three days at a time.

I've always been anxious and a worrywart (see here and here); after a few weeks of Morning Pages it struck me how beneficial it was to start my day by getting all that chitter chatter out of my brain, through my pen and on to paper. I could then access my day from a place of presence, now that I had already attended to the usual concerns and worries. As time went on, and I continued to learn how to dwell more in my body and less and less in my overactive head, I began to use this practice as a way to fuel my creativity. I can't tell you how many times a spark of inspiration at 6:30 in the morning would later transform into a lively theme during yoga class or some of my best creative writing here on this blog.

As I reconnected to the great love of my youth, I reconnected with my GUTS. It's so funny to me now--as if I had a choice in the matter! As if I could actually decide that I could never be a writer. I see now that it has never been a choice; it's simply what has always been so. I didn't choose to write; it chose me. I am a writer regardless whether I ever get published. It is as intrinsic to my identity as is "woman" or "daughter."

This practice has also reawakened my own artistry. For the past 15 years (at least) if you would have asked me if I was an artist, I would have said "Hell no." I'd look around and see my friends painting and drawing and making things with their hands and I longed for that mythical one day to arrive where my own talent would be revealed. To look back now and see that it was always there, patiently waiting to be acknowledged...

Now, I show up every day for the muse. She will never be ignored, ever again. It sounds dramatic but this practice is literally my life-line-it keeps me honest and sane.

If you are curious about The Artist's Way, reach out to me. Or, just buy the book. You can find it used for less than $10 and even if you aren't a writer, I guarantee it will revive any dormant creative impulses. I especially recommend it if you are like me--someone who doesn't consider themselves the "creative type." I promise you it's in there--you just gotta show up.

The August Break Day 3: Yellow

I now present you with my humble abode:

The 3143~!

When I saw that Day 3's theme was "Yellow," I immediately knew what I would capture. This is where I've hung my hat since September 2006. Built in the late 1880's, this baby withstood the 1906 earthquake and ensuing fires, and, after a fresh coat of paint last year, is actually visible from space :) My front door (you can see the red doors on the second floor) originally was ground level; in the 1940's, the entire structure was raised up to add in all the storefronts. 

The August Break Day 2: Circles

First, a scene from my work:

Circles at Fix Studios, where I spend my work days

Tonight we had a dinner party. I cooked my favorite Cuban dishes, and couldn't resist snapping this photo when I realized it fell in to today's theme. A little late but too circular not to share:

Alabao!

These are tostones, twice fried green plantains--aka the flavor of my childhood. See you all tomorrow!

The August Break Day 1: Breakfast

My friend Becky over at Clean White Paper turned me on to Susannah Conway, a photographer, blogger, storyteller, and creative sparker, (seriously, go check out her site). Every summer for the past four years she hosts The August Break, a creative exercise where every day for the month of August, you take a photo and post it to your blog/Instagram/insertsocialmediaofyourchoicehere. While I don't consider myself a photographer by any means, I thought this would be a great way to fuel some creative inspiration and give me the opportunity to interact with my environment in a new way.

Here are the prompts for the month: 

I'll be posting my photos here, here, and here all month. It's not too late to participate! I'll be on vacation for 10 days this month and I'm really excited to see what shows up! 

Ok, now for my Day 1: Breakfast

I am the type of person who gets in ruts when it comes to food. If I don't push myself, I'm perfectly happy eating the same meal day after day, week after week--especially when it comes to breakfast. Sometimes it takes MONTHS before I hit burn-out and need to switch it up. 

This smoothie is perfect: I can bust it out in less than five minutes, it's delicious, protein rich (so I don't get hungry 30 minutes later), and I can take it with me when I'm short on time. Give it a go yourself! Find the recipe here.