Revisiting San Carlos

Light in VA

Richmond has an outdoor light art show called InLight. Last year's was held on October 22 and featured 37 installations of visual and performance light pieces. The photo above, however, is not a photo of part of one of those installations. In one of the alleyways, they covered the street lights to diminish the light coming off of them, and I liked the patterns and light enough to snap this photo.

Textures of AZ

night of the bats, woooooo

So, I guess once a season, Tucson holds this little celebration to honor the Mexican free-tailed bat. The bats emerge in great numbers out from under the bridges around town. This bat night was held on Saturday, Sept 12. It was crazy! Here is one picture of the bats and two pictures of the Tucson sky.

just beautiful!

ocean meets rock in la jolla, just beautiful!

just an observation

So, I was walking into a store this past weekend, and I witnessed something that was pretty disappointing. Like most grossly and unecessarily large department stores that I should be ashamed to shop at, this one had two sets of doors; one set was automatic and opened when you came near, and one set was manual and you had to use your own strength to open the doors. I was about 20 steps away from the doors when I saw the following: A man approached the manual set of doors, but stood infront of them for a few seconds, apparently assuming that they were going to open for him. Then, since he was close enough to them, the set of automatic doors to his right opened. For about 4 seconds, he stood infront of the manual doors and looked back and forth between them and the automatic ones, trying to decide what to do. Finally, EVEN THOUGH HE WAS RIGHT INFRONT OF THE MANUAL ONES, he walked over to the other set of doors and walked through them. So, instead of reaching out his little arm to open a door on his own, he went out of his way to walk through the automatic doors. I think that this is a fine example of contradiction and laziness. He was too lazy to open the door himself, but he walked extra steps to go out of his way to walk through the door that opened for him. I think automatic doors are fine when used to comply with accessibility standards. For people who use wheelchairs or even mothers with strollers, the automatic doors make sense. But for people with full use of their extremities, the automatic doors only serve to highlight laziness. If you are capable, please consider using the muscles in your arms to open a door!

volcano mouth!

My biggest culture shock in moving to Tucson has been the shock of riding the bus...everywhere...for everything, everyday. Tucson is spread out, and despite what the tourist office might say, Tucson is NOT bicyclist/pedestrian friendly. Riding the bus is a hardening experience, and the act of which could easily be made into a top quality video game. A game with a simple premise and many things standing in the way of victory.

First of all, when riding the Tucson SunTran, you need to carefully plan out which route(s) you are going to take to your destination. Forgoing planning = ensuring a later arrival to your destination. Basically, buses run infrequently and it's your job to schedule yourself around this little inconvenience. Example: I live 3.5 miles from my job, but I have to take TWO buses to get there. Including time walking to the bus stop and waiting to transfer to the second bus, it takes me about an hour and fifteen minutes to get to work. Anyway, planning is important, good thing I like to plan. So, I guess in the video game, you'd earn top points for choosing the bus route(s) that (supposedly) will get you there in the shortest amount of time.

I say supposedly, because after planning out your route, you have to actually get to the bus. This could be as easy as walking down to the corner and waiting calmly for the bus to arrive. Or, as is more commonly the case for me, getting to the bus has meant emptying the pockets of every purse and pair of pants to try and find enough change or a spare dollar bill, hastily throwing on my backpack, running half a mile to the Walgreen's to buy a pack of gum in order to get money out because I could not find enough change in said purse/pants pockets, JUST missing the bus because the lady in front of me at Walgreen's just needed to buy cigarettes that weren't currently on the shelf, and waiting thirty minutes for the next bus because the buses don't run very often on Saturdays. Okay, I admit this exact scenario only happened to me one time, but similarly frustrating adventures in getting to the bus happen all too frequently. So, in the video game I suppose you would earn top points for overcoming obstacles and getting to the bus stop on time, even more points for getting to the bus stop with time to spare.

Now, there is the ride itself. The crowd that rides the bus is diverse, to say the least. This is where the true culture shock comes in. In Tucson, if you're riding the bus, it's certainly not because it's the easiest mode of transporation and it's not because you're trying to be eco-friendly. In Tucson, if you're riding the bus it's generally because you're poor. I've been riding the bus for two months now and have yet to find one exceptionally clean, nicely-dressed person. The first two weeks I lived here, I was just in awe. Young, half-dressed mothers shoving McDonald's french fries down their two-year-old's mouth; cracked-out women shouting obscenities at a bus driver who only tried to inform them that their stop was next; a man caked in dirt carrying ten paper-in-plastic grocery bags filled with...well, filled with his life I guess; people going to their jobs but who certainly look like their work clothes could use a could turn in a washing machine. The prevelance of poverty is overwhelming, and for the first couple weeks I could hardly even keep from tearing up, observing my fellow bus riders, wondering what their lives are like. I guess in the video game you'd earn top points for avoiding crackheads and not letting your emotions show.

For now, I live here. It's a nice small house in an okay neighborhood next to a nice neighborhood. The house came with a cat and most appliances, so I'm not complaining. Everyone compliments the cactus garden.

the shortest update

So, I live in Arizona now. I'm a bus urchin. And, more often than not, I work seven days per week. Such is life as a VISTA!

view from atop the astronomical clock tower

the color of praha

things happen

here are some things that happened since my last entry four months ago:

1) i quit my job at the portrait studio, didn't work for 3 months, and went back to work at the group home. how exciting, eh?

2) i bought a plane ticket to london and another plane ticket to prague and, in no particular order: went to london and prague for a combined total of 15 days, fell in love, fell out of love (sorta), cried a LOT at heathrow airport, drank really excellent beer, hung out with 3 albanian men one night, hung out with 1 albanian man 4 nights, hung out by myself for most other nights, walked a lot, spent 5 quality days with my best friend, got acquainted with australia, ate two delicious bacon/egg/cheese sandwiches in old town, ate 3 really delicious meals prepared by a man named bujar and took a lot of lovely photos.

3) i applied for 7 americorps programs and...

4) got offered a position with one program located in arizona and...

5) accepted the offer! aka I'M MOVING TO ARIZONA.

6) got "kicked out" of porter's pub. HA. HA.

line dancers and spectators at easton heritage day festival--easton Pa

graf big and small