(Or, how I've spent my time while on an unintentional hiatus.)

Well shit. It's been a while, hasn't it? Life took a turn for the surreal and I feel like I'm finally getting my land-legs back. In no particular order, this is what the past year has been like in my world:

• Found my roommate bleeding, in the living room, after a suicide attempt (he's pulled through and is now seeing a psychiatrist)
• Got dumped (and found out via Facebook status change)
• Went out on some great dates, and some other not so great ones 
• Rejoined a dance troupe of which I was a co-founder
• Learned that some of my closest friends' parents were diagnosed with cancer (and Cancer? Fuck you!)
• Lost some friends (again, fuck you Cancer and Murder/Suicide)
• Gained some new ones
• Woke up to a phone call from my cousin that Nana's house burned, and in doing so, almost lost part of my family (thank the universe that one particular door was closed)
• Regained my sense of self and decided to travel more
• Spent a day at the beach photographing my friend and her son
• Evicted my uncle from my house (apparently telling him for months that he had to move wasn't enough, oh no! Had to tape an actual notice to the door of the bedroom ... )
• After evicting said uncle, found out he stole my planter amongst other very random stuff (I shit you not, he stole the planter that was part of the master bedroom patio. The PLANTER! Dude jack-hammered the bricks to take them. What the ... ?) 

So.

All in all, a jam packed year, no? By the end of 2010 I needed a break. The company I work for has mandatory time off the week between Christmas and New Years, and a friend invited me to go to NYC for New Years, so ... I went. (Hell, wouldn't you?)

I went from this:


(View from the fam's living room window on Xmas eve)

To this:


(View from the Highline on 12/26)

I was able to make it from Brooklyn to JFK on the 26th, but couldn't make the last 1.5 miles from JFK to my hotel room. (Let me just say, Terminal 5's baggage claim area was a quite cozy place to sleep. Ahem.)

After many, many, many, manymanymany hours I made it back to my hotel and then promptly passed out. The next day I went out exploring. First stop? Central Park:


(As a child, and current denizen of, Southern California, and with almost a decade spent in the SF Bay Area, I am no stranger to street art. However, the concept of snow art is new to me.)

After a while, I got the hang of the subway system:

Since I was on the East Coast, it was time to hop the train to head to Buffalo to visit my old SF roomie, Ken. (If you are a Mac lover, and a fan of podcasts, check out that link.) Ken and his wonderful girlfriend were gracious hosts and dutifully carted me, the tourist, around. Did we go to "The Falls"? OH yes, yes we did:


(I must admit, I'm quite giddy over how this photo turned out.)

Back on the train to meet up with a friend for our NYE weekend. We were dumb enough to head to Times Square:



I'm very grateful to have experienced the madness that is Times Square, and have no clue who this guy is, but for some reason he made me smile:

I'll be back in NYC in March, for more exploration, but hopefully this time without the blizzard. And after that trip, I'll also come back with more ink. And more photos.