Foiled!!

2-28-11

Alternate title for this photo: "I packed your angry eyes."

I decided to go for a swim after my Spanish class tonight, thinking it would help loosen my neck and shoulders up and just help me feel better in general as a swim usually does. I was really looking forward to swimming laps and then sitting in the hot tub. However, when I got to the locker room I discovered that somehow my goggles had been broken! I decided to try and swim without them since I really really needed the swim. I made it about 200 yds before I had to admit this was NOT going to work. I just couldn't see. Chlorine + eyes = ouchie = panicky feeling the entire time = counterproductive. I ended up lying in the sauna for a while though, which was really nice so it wasn't a complete bust. So anyhow, here is a picture of my busted goggles. I like that you can see my angry reflection in the lens. It's sad. I loved these goggles. They're perfect for outdoor swims b/c they're tinted and they fit ever-so-snugly. RIP faithful goggles. I'll always remember our first mile, our first open water swim, and our first triathlon together. *single tear*

Poppin' Da Pillz

2-27-11

Ok. I don't know if I'm sick or just really stressed out, but my shoulders/neck have been killing me since Friday night. And this morning I woke up and felt like I'd been hit by a bus*. My entire body just ached. So basically I've been living on these little blue ibuprofin pills this weekend, which fortunately allowed me to at least fall asleep for a little while this afternoon. Which was really nice since last night was one of the most horrible nights of "sleep" I've ever experienced.  I made the mistake of watching Glee right before I went to bed. I've only seen Glee once, and I didn't love it, or hate it...well, I loved the music and I looooved the cheer leading coach, but the rest of it? The side stories and the other characters? Meh. I could take 'em or leave 'em. But I'd been wanting to see how they did "Singin in the Rain" for a while, so I figured I'd watch it. 

Boy that was a mistake.

It give me the most effed up dreams in which secret agents were sitting me down to tell me that there were secret hidden messages in Glee and that they knew I had noticed them because they'd found files I saved at work that indicated I started looking into it, but then didn't follow through. And that it was my duty to pay more attention and to try to begin to uncover these hidden messages because they contained the secret to happiness. And I had to like, put them in little boxes that changed shape, and it was sort of like a sci fi movie. I can't remember all the details now but it was kind of disturbing and was one of those weird half awake/half asleep dreaming states so I was almost sort of convinced it was really happening.

I don't think I'll be watching Glee before I go to sleep again...

*hopefully this doesn't jinx me like it did Gigi...

S'no Good. :(

I would just like to take a moment to express my deep consternation at the weather. We have been getting threatening forecasts of the storm of the century and a record breaking snow fall that was going to hit the Bay Area on Friday night. Now. Part of the reason I live here, and not in Michigan (among many other even more important reasons) is the fact that I am not a huge fan of the cold, or the winter. However, it's not because I'm necessarily opposed to cold or winter or snow in and of themselves. I just hate that these things last so LONG. Two months would be perfect. In January, I still enjoy the fact that my boogers freeze in my nose immediately upon opening the front door (well "enjoy" may be a bit strong - find amusing?), and sliding on the ice to my car instead of walking on firm ground, and going sledding and looking up at the falling flakes. But come February, for the most part, the novelty has worn off and you just want some sunshine and MAYBE a temperature above 0, and you're dreaming about how amazing it would be to go for a run without your lungs exploding. And yet. It will continue on this way for another three months.

For all of these reasons, I'm glad it doesn't normally snow here. But I was really excited about the prospect of seeing some flurries at least and getting to experience all the good things about winter and snow, without any of the drudgery that usually accompanies it. Because I DO love watching snow fall. And when you know it's going to be gone as quickly as it arrived, snow is even more exciting: all of the fun, none of the depressing after-effects of having to trudge through brown dirty snow and rub feeling back into your toes even though you were wearing 5 pairs of socks and 2 of them were wool (you think I exaggerate but I really did wear that many pairs of socks in MI. And I was always still cold) on a daily basis.

We were even going to take Nicole's kids up to Mt. Diablo to see snow for the first time. There is really nothing better than hanging out with kids who are experiencing snow for the first time (well, until they suddenly realize how cold they are and they start crying...but it usually takes at least 30 minutes for that to happen, and THEN you get hot chocolate!). So. I was excited. I wanted it to snow SO BADLY. I shook my fist in the faces of the naysayers at work, and when at midnight, when it was supposed to start snowing, Suneal kept giving me a play by play of the clear, snowless weather forecast on his stupid iphone I shook my fist at him and said "It's coming, just you wait! They laughed at Noah too!!!!"

But alas. To no avail. My positive thinking, and snow dancing, and biblical references were no match for the gods of good weather that live in the Bay. Not. A single. FLAKE. Instead we woke up to a bright sunny day, with only a few nominal clouds in the sky. In fact, it was gorgeous.

Sigh.

Well...there's always next year!

Hey Everyone, Come See How Good I Look!

2-25-11

My hair was so freaking awesome this morning, I can't even begin to explain it. This picture doesn't really capture how amazingly it was standing out. I stumbled into the bathroom this morning after a fun night at the Albatross, looked in the mirror and thought dear god what is that thing?! I didn't even know my hair could twist and turn like that. 

Como Se Dice "Pathetic"?

2-23-11

Here is my frantic attempt at translating a really long passage into Spanish in the hour I had between work and class tonight. I've been seriously slacking in this class so far this semester which makes me irritated with myself. Because I really want to learn this language. And while it made me feel a little bit better that everyone else in class seemed to have used google translate to figure this assignment out, really...it's pretty pathetic that everyone else is doing as poorly as I am. We should have been able to do this without using google translate. And I should have been able to remember to bring my dictionary to class. And I should have been able to figure out whether I should conjugate in the preterit or imperfect tense when the professor called on me. And yet...

I think I'm going to have a serious date with a coffee shop and senor espanol this weekend. 

On a related, but different note, today I also discovered that I am much better at Cha-cha-cha-ing than I am at Salsa-ing (is it called Cha-Cha? Or just Cha...? Cha-cha-cha? I remember getting laughed at recently when I tried to say what kind of dance it was...but I can't remember what the right term was. More mocking and laughter are surely in my future). Some of the guys in class, however, are really awkward when the professor makes us dance in pairs. I feel like saying, "Hey, bud, it's ok to actually hold my hands instead of awkwardly holding my wrists. I promise I won't like, hit on you, or anything..." I'm not sure if I'm intimidating them with my incredible looks and womanly wiles or if I just smell funny. Probably the latter! bwahahah!
It's certainly entertaining, to say the least.

Not Dead Yet

2-22-11

I took a walk down to University Ave. today after work because I wanted to go look at GoodWill and Out of the Closet for a cheap chair for my bedroom (found one, by the way). I also just really needed a walk - a chance to clear my head and be alone for a bit. Walking everywhere for the last month has caused me to notice what's around me a lot more than when I drove everywhere. I kind of like it (biking too...though I feel it's when I'm walking that I really notice what's around me more). Anyway, in addition to noticing several businesses I'd never noticed before - there are several thrift shops I was unaware of and a Radio Shack (had NO idea it was there, but lucky me 'cause I needed some new headphones! Check!) - I saw this loverly flower someone had stuck into a garbage can. I'm not sure, is it a daisy or a chrysanthemum? I think it's a 'mum because don't daisies only have 13 petals? Whatever it is, I appreciated the juxtaposition.

Blog Changes

Oh, also I changed my title and url. The original url was specific to this being about the Picture-a-Day Project. And while that's still what I'm doing, for the most part, I want to feel free to post whatever I feel like and to let this blog evolve. And because I'm anal, the url being bekahspicaday bothered me and made me feel like a big fat liar. So it's changed. I was going to just put it back to bekah-untitled.blogspot again, but meh. I think the title "Untitled" is over so I didn't really want it to be my url. So I decided to just go with tried and true nickname my uncle gave me as a kid: bekahbeans. 'Cause it's got sentimental value and all that.

Title-wise, I just thought Re: Bekah was kinda funny. It's just one of those stupid things that popped into my head once and I giggled at. And now I think it to myself whenever I write my full name...which isn't all that often, really. I don't know why I don't just write "Bekah" everywhere. Maybe because if I did I wouldn't be able to think "heh heh, if I put a colon here between the Re and the Bekah it'd be like I was saying Regarding Bekah, which actually makes sense! heh heh. I'm so clever."

Yeah...um...so there you go. I bet you're super happy I shared all that pointless information with you.

Don't act like you're not every bit as weird as I am!

Longing

2-21-11

Jonathan lusting after someone else's floating ice cream. Hey, you already ate yours, man. Deal with it. 

This was actually taken on 2-20-11. Oh well.

Animals are People Too!!! Wait...No, No They're Not.

2-20-11

Check out the bumper stickers on the car. Vegans are so crazy! I'm shocked Jonathan didn't get shot in the time it took to take this picture of him in his leather jacket in front of the crazy-vegan-car. 

Anosmia

2-19-11

I am in L.A!!! I didn't really take any pictures today. I did, however, continue to obsessively read Lauren Barnett's webcomics while waiting for people to take showers and the like. I seriously love her comics...even if no one else I know seems to get the humor.

Here is one of my favorites. Because this IS my life. 

Bridesmaiding

2-18-11

Today I went with Kristi to look for and try on bridesmaid dresses for her wedding. Here is the winner! It's going to be red, though. It's really comfortable and totally re-usable, which is AMAZING and more than I can say for other dresses I've had to wear. It could only be better if it had pockets. 

Does my smile look fake? I tried on a lot of dresses today. And then the lady measured me and her hands were cold. Haha, I act like it was horrible, but really it was pretty fun because at least at this shop they were really nice and helpful.

Also, apparently I'm actually 3 different sizes. I know that's probably somewhat normal, but it sort makes me feel like I'm weird and disfigured. 

HA!

2-17-11

So I was just talking to Jonathan on the phone just now, listening intently to his problems, insecurities, and the experiences of his week, when I bust out laughing because I was browsing through another online comic/blog and saw the comic above. Since my burst of laughter interrupted what I'm sure was an important point Jonathan was making, of course I had to send it to him. I e-mail it to him while he's still on the phone and when he receives it in his e-mail box what is his response? "..." "That's what you were laughing at?"

Obviously my sense of humor > Jonathan's sense of humor. Anyway, this is from Lauren Barnett's blog. Because after finishing Liz Prince's comics last night I started looking at the people on her blogroll. This is my 2nd favorite so far. I am inspired to draw stupid crap that will make me laugh. Even if it won't make Jonathan laugh. Forget you and your lofty art, Jonathan! ;) 

Hmm...it seems that, for the moment, this blog is morphing into a non-picture-a-day blog. I'm sure it will transfer back soon. But right now I'm just sort of obsessed with these comic blogs. Or maybe I'll post again today, since I DID take a picture. But I'm feeling indecisive...probably because I had some serious insomnia last night and didn't sleep until like 4am. I feel amazingly perky, at this particular moment, however. I am not very articulate, though. I just read through this blog and I repeat myself, or at least the same words/phrases a lot. Poop. I shall now end this blog. Because it is turning into rambling. The end.

I am Sexy

2-16-10
(If you can't read it, click on the comic to see the strip actual size)

This exact scenario happens to me more often than I'd like to admit. It's not that I don't shower on a regular basis, because I do. But I swear that whenever I wake up in the morning and decide to sleep for 20 extra minutes instead of shower I either get asked if I got a haircut, or get complimented on my hair. I'm not sure if I should take this as a hint to shower less frequently or what.

Anyhow, clearly, this is not a picture on the theme of the week, nor is it a picture I took at all. But oh well. I'm not going to say "sorry, I'll do better" 'cause frankly I don't really care at this particular moment. I'll just blog/do what I need to do for this particular moment, and in this particular moment I need to say "this particular moment" about a billion times. Oh, and read and share with you this awesome comic. And when I'm ready to get back to pictures...I'll get back to pictures. 

In the meantime, what I share with you today is the only thing (besides the awesome HAIL that we got this morning! I love storms!) that has kept me somewhat sane today. I've read Liz Prince's comics before, but I had not gone back to the beginning and read them all. Until today. I relate to many of them far too much and they really make me smile. And today I really I needed that, since it has felt like, no joke or exaggeration here, one of the longest days I've ever experienced. And I'm not gonna lie. I'm not feeling so hot (mentally, emotionally) today. I feel completely drained and like I really need to cry. Not because anything is so horrible; I just need the emotional release. But. I can't. No worries. It'll come, probably when I least want it to (i..e. any time when I am not alone. I really hate crying in front of other people).

 Until then, I'm gonna read more Liz Prince's comics. And you should too. 'Cause they're awesome.

This American Life: Original Recipe

2-15-11

This week's This American Life was an interesting combination of acts. The first act was about discovering an old document that quite possibly contained the secret recipe (or one of them) for coca cola. The 2nd act was about a man who found what seemed to be authentic letters and documents that proved JFK and Marilyn Monroe were indeed lovers. The theme, it seemed, was making important discoveries in old, forgotten documents. 

In 2004 my family made our life-changing move from California to Michigan. From that time until I was in high school/college, I exchanged letters with my grandmother who was still in CA. I had stashed them all away years ago and hadn't really thought much about them. But then my grandma died, and suddenly I really wanted those letters, and made a point of searching for them when I visited my parents' house over Christmas break. I found them, and brought them back home with me in this box. Which has been sitting, hidden in my desk drawer ever since. It's been 2 and a half years, but I haven't yet had the courage to actually read them. Because I know it will make me cry.

But with everything going on in my life right now I think it is the perfect time to finally take a look at these letters. What important discoveries, tidbits of wisdom, or pieces of history that have been forgotten might I find? I can already see the little twinkle in her eye she would get when making a joke, or telling me about how she met my grandfather, or how proud she was of my mother (her daughter). Even if that twinkle is all I find in these letters, that's really the most important re-discovery I can think of. 

Valentine's Day

2-14-11

Happy Valentine's Day! I don't really have any strong feelings towards Valentine's Day. Any day that gives people an excuse to show love to whomever you choose seems like an alright idea to me. Katherine shared this wonderful comic with me earlier today. It's about Valentine's Day, and pretty much sums up how I feel about people who for whatever reason feel they need to complain about V-Day.

General feelings about Valentine's Day aside, what was really great about this Valentine's Day, in particular, was that this morning my boss received this box of chocolate-covered strawberries from a suitor, of whom she is apparently none to fond. Bahahaha. I'm not going to lie. Witnessing this event sort of made my day for a variety of reasons. Plus, we got to eat the strawberries for her so win-win. Actually...I guess those are both wins for me. Meh, I'm still going with win-win. 

Anyhoo, whatever you do today and however you feel towards a potential suitor, or chocolate-covered strawberries, or love, or Hallmark, just remember: "Less complaining, more sexy rumpus."

Pseudo Nerds

2-13-11

Tonight Eric, Katherine, Kris, and I went and performed as the rock band band "Bait and Switch" at the Flybar in San Francisco. It was actually...really fun...and nerdy, but not as nerdy as you might expect. 

To fit with our band name here was our set list:

Katherine - "Du Hast" by Rammstein (NEEEEIIIIN!) 

Kris - "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga (lol)

Bekah - "Buddy Holly" by Weezer (I can't believe I sang in public)

Eric - "I Love Rock and Roll" by Joan Jett (because he sounds like Grover when he attempts to sing Alanis)

Fun fun. Then I BARTed/biked home in the dark. Biking at night is kiiiinda creepy, but not as bad as I expected it to be.

Well I completely failed at the This American Life challenge this week. But! No worries because it is a new week; I'll try to step it up and do better this week :) 

Goals

2-12-11

My picture of the day is actually a screen shot (and please, no comments from the peanut gallery about how many tabs I have open at any given time). Technically...I took this Sunday morning, but I was pretty out of it last night and when I got home fell asleep almost immediately while watching a HIMYM rerun (I think I got some flour in my diet Friday night, and that along with the beers made my stomach none to happy about it the next day. Now, I can usually handle my alcohol, just so you know. But my body seems to become immediately intolerant of any alcohol when wheat is also introduced into the picture. I'll spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say I did little else yesterday but watch every single special feature on the Dr. Horrible DVD). Anyway, EVEN in my not-so-pretty state, I did do some grad school research because I had made it a goal to at the very least e-mail the professor at Cal who's done research w/ASL linguistics. I really want to apply for fall 2012, so although I've been doing research, it's time to get the ball seriously rolling. I hope he is willing to meet with me, but even if he's not at least I did what I said I'd do, and sent him an e-mail. Because, really, at least a portion of getting into schools is making contacts and finding professors who would want you there and would want you to work with them. So. On to the next professor (Boston U.)! 

A Good Friday

2-11-11

Kap and I went for a bike ride to this great beer garden today. It was about a 9 mile bike ride from work to Jack London Square. They had at least 2 different gluten free beers, which was awesome. Just what we needed this week! 

It'saME

2-10-11

Ok. I didn't take this picture today and it's not on the This American Life theme at all. But quite frankly, the intensity of this week has left me with little time to think about taking photos or the project. I guess that's sort of an excuse. I could think about it, but really I wasn't in the mood and was doing other things like biking, reading, and researching grad schools. I feel ok about that. Anyway, I liked this picture of Mario in someone's window (saw it while we were walking around SF). Jonathan thinks it was created using post it notes. Whatever it's made from it's cool. 

A Bleh Day

2-9-11

Well...what can I say about today? It sorta sucked. I'm not really at liberty to say why, at least publicly.Wow that makes me sound so mysterious like I'm some bigwig in the government with top secret secrets or something. Call me Jack. Jack Bauer. Oh yeah. But really, it's nothing world-shattering. Just MY world-shattering. Anyway, enough vagueness. I find vagueness really irritating and I'm starting to irritate myself, so if you want to know, just ask me. Point being: when I got home Jess had bought me chocolate because she is a good friend and roomie. Aaah. Nothing like chocolate to make a crappy day a little bit brighter. Especially Toblerone! It's from SWITZERLAND. So exotic.

Side note: I finally listened to this week's This American Life this morning during my commute. SO GOOD. It's all about "tough rooms" i.e. difficult audiences. I so wish I'd been able to take a picture during my Spanish class tonight because it was PERFECT. I'll have to try and come up with pictures along the theme tomorrow and Friday. Until then, let me try and describe to you my class tonight: picture an incredibly enthusiastic instructor who is trying his best to get the entire class (about 30 people standing in a circle, with the professor in the middle) to sing and salsa to what I would call mediocre success. Talk about a tough room. It was beyond hilarious. This class is so different than last semester. Not only have I not been yelled at once, but our homework, in addition to writing a composition? No joke?

Practice salsa. 

So...today wasn't completely horrible.

Welcome

2-8-11

The neighborhood kids (I assume) have gone around and drawn welcome mats with chalk on everyone's door step/walkway. Pretty adorable. It's funny, but...I DO feel more welcome now.

Irony

2-7-11

Steven gave me a purple dragon for the Chinese New Year. He's weird, but likable, like that. Anyway, yes. This is my desk. Yay. I haven't had time to listen to this week's NPR yet, hence the lack of thematic posts. I apologize. I'm feeling rather overwhelmed this week. I can't seem to sleep very well...and I just have way too much to do and too much I WANT to do that I can't seem to get to. Le sigh. Ain't it the way things go sometimes?

Tacooooos!

2-6-11

Tacos tacos TAAAcooooos! (to be read in a Gir voice. If you don't know what that means, let's talk. You have some learnin' to do). Jonathan visited this weekend so I made him go get tacos at my favorite taco truck. Mmmmm...lo es muy sabroso. Me lo gusta mucho! Did you see that? I used pronouns. I will learn Spanish pronouns if it's the last thing I do. And at the rate I'm going it very well might be. 

Happy New Year

2-5-11

Walkin' around Chinatown, San Francisco. 

Souffle

2-4-11

So I actually took this yesterday, and I was going to post it yesterday thinking I wouldn't find anything to take a picture of for the This American Life project. But then I did take a picture for that project (which I like way more than the first pic I took - and I posted it to the group). Can I just say - tangent... 

...I was super nervous posting it? Like, literally my heart rate went up. Everyone else's pictures were so beautiful, and well composed and seemed so deep. I had flashbacks to writing workshops when everyone would write these interesting or philosophical stories and I'd just write something ridiculous or funny and would feel inferior because I couldn't write anything with real depth. It's not that I don't have deep thoughts (like Jack Handy), I just get ridiculously uncomfortable when I have to express my feelings or thoughts (to any degree) to people I don't already deeply trust, respect, and love. So I get uncomfortable often, and then I just make up something silly, sarcastic, or try to make the other person laugh so they'll forget whatever topic was at hand.  So this uncomfortable feeling I get whenever I am putting myself out there at ALL was rising up and I thought to myself as I uploaded my picture "What am I doing?! These people are amazing. Should I put a warning that I am not what anyone would call a photographer, even an amateur one, and that I just wanted to try something new? Maybe I should say, 'This is just a stupid cereal box, I know it's dumb. Sorry!'" But I didn't. I just posted the picture and reminded myself that I have a valid perspective and viewpoint too, even if it might seem silly. And trying to express or capture or develop one's viewpoint is what is important. Not comparing oneself to others - that can only paralyze you. Yeah. Anyway, all that to say: Yay I posted it! It was scary! One small step forward in not worrying about comparing myself to others AND exercising some creative-ness.

Uh...what was this blog post supposed to be about? Oh. Right. Souffle. Look everyone! I made a souffle! I've sort of been subsisting on...well...crackers, apples and cheese for the last couple of weeks and decided I needed to start cooking again and NOT let the veggies that come in our veggie box go bad. So I had a squash, and a recipe, and bam there you go. It took me 3 hours. But it turned out delicious. The end.

#399 Contents Unknown, pt. 2

This week's This American Life:

Stories of Filling in the Blank

2-3-11

#399 Contents Unknown

This week's This American Life: "Stories of filling in the blank." The stories for this week all had to do with trying to guess at something, trying to figure out what is hidden - guessing at what is inside a storage unit, a package, about one's identity, about history. In many ways the stories were about what is true or real - and about how perception can be, and often is, deceptive.

My first picture for this week's theme is a bit too literal for my liking, but at least it's something. 

2-2-11

New Goals

Alright so here's the thing. I don't have a picture for today. Well, I do but I'm not posting it because it's boring to me. Much like this blog so far this year. I feel like I've fallen too much into "Aaaand here's what I did today!" mode vs. using this blog as it was intended - to try and challenge myself to be creative and consistently exercise my eye on a daily basis. I'm not saying that last every picture in 2010 was good, or interesting, or artistic, or creative (yeah! I separated artistic and creative - I have been reading Sir Ken Robinson's stuff lately...you should check it out), or non-"Aaaand here's what I did today!" Some of it was more less than creative for sure. But that's to be expected, and the point was that I was trying to take more creative pictures.

Or at least I felt like I was. Whether the end result was really something creative or interesting is a different topic all together.

The point, I think, is in order to challenge my brain and my creative muscles I need to switch up this challenge a bit because I'm bored and feel like I'm stagnating. SO! I saw this on...I don't remember actually...twitter, probably: This American Life: Theme of the Week. The group basically follows each week's This American Life theme. You listen to the show and then post pictures that illustrate that theme, or your interpretation of it. What a great idea! I like it because a) I love This American Life and this gives me a good excuse to take the time to listen to it, and b) it'll be a fun way to have a topic and have to think about it more thoroughly and how I'd interpret and express it. I think it's going to be kind of hard. So far the topics haven't necessarily been easy to figure out how to depict, or at least how to depict in non-obvious ways. But I'm up for a challenge!

I'm kind of thinking I'll try to listen to the show on the day its posted, and then each day take a picture (well probably more, but I'll post one) that I feel fits the theme. Then by the end of the week I can choose the 2 I want to post to the flickr site! I am afraid I'm going to feel slightly embarrassed by my photos compared to everyone else on there, but no matter. Letting yourself feel embarrassed and inferior is part of how we improve and grow, right? Right.

That doesn't mean I won't post pics not along the theme. I am still going to let myself take pictures of whatever strikes my fancy, and sometimes that might be an "Aaaand this is what I did today!" post. Which is ok. It's all about challenging oneself, and exercising one's creative muscles which always means finding a way to be flexible.

We'll see how it goes!