Photo of the Day - January

From the late eighteenth century onwards, it is no longer from the practice of community but from being a wanderer that the instinct of fellow-feeling is derived. Thus an essential isolation and silence and loneliness become the carriers of nature and community against the rigours, the cold abstinence, the selfish ease of ordinary society.

Raymond Williams, The Country and the City

I'm sure most people who read this (2 out of the 3?) know that I spent the last year working on a project where I took one photo each day. That was pretty much the only rule; it could be the most exciting thing that day, something I thought was pretty, or just a hastily assembled still life because it was late and I had forgotten to take a photo earlier. I started the project on my birthday last year, so it (clearly) came to an end this past week. All photos are taken with the same camera, and are unedited (except for one or two that are cropped or the one panorama that is stitched). It is odd not to no longer carry a camera every day, and it is odd to look back on my life in a series of 365 photos.

Here's January, 2010. (click to enlarge)

January 18th


January 19th


January 20th


January 21st


January 22nd


January 23rd


January 24th



January 25th


January 26th


January 27th



January 28th


January 29th



January 30th


January 31st



Carriage, take me with you! Ship, steal me away from here!
Take me far, far away. Here the mud is made of our tears!

Charles Baudelaire

Finally! Liechtenstein!

For Christmas, I did a little bit of travelling. I originally wasn't sure how many days I could take off of my new job, so I decided to go to my Aunt's for Christmas rather than my parents'. Later (after tickets had been booked) I realized I could take off a lot more days that I thought, so I also booked a flight to my parents' lining me up for a nice week of travel.

Christmas at my Aunt's was really nice. We always did Christmas at our house because we lived so far away, so I don't even remember having a cousin Christmas before this one. So, it was 3 days in Minneapolis well spent.


The plan was to fly back to DC for 24 hours before boarding my flight to Switzerland, but then there was Snownami or whatever it was called this year. So, long story of shenanigans aside, I boarded a flight from Minneapolis to DC via Atlanta, and then spent the evening in Detroit. Made it to DC with 4 hours to spare before my next flight - scheduled to leave from the same gate I arrived in - and realized I had to go back to my apartment regardless because I didn't have my passport. Insult to injury, my Frankfurt-Basel flight was then cancelled, but I eventually made it to Therwil.




The family ended up renting a car and driving to Liechtenstein and Austria for a few days of good skiing (and better alps/weather than Switz). I sang Edelweiss and really enjoyed St. Anton and rode a lot of T bars. I also took some photos.






We drove back to Switzerland on New Years Eve where I had a pretty lackluster evening that involved the Berlin Ball Drop and yodeling competitions. So, about 500 pounds of cheese and chocolate later, my 2010 year and travels came to a close.

With my birthday coming up in a few days, my year long photo a day project is about to end. I'll start posting the results on here after that. Get excited, and happy belated new year!

-L

Morning Routines, at long last.

I promised to post my commute video a while ago, but then life happened and I never got around to editing it.

So here is some of the really shaky footage. I think the handlebars on Big Purple were way easier to use with a camera in hand than the ones on Seventies Puffer Vest. I take several different routes to work, but this is one of my favorite variations, especially when the leaves were all different colors.



Merry almost Christmas everyone! I think I may go to Austria next week, in which case I may be blogging again sooner than planned.

-L

In which Lauren attempts becoming an adult

It's been a while since my last post, and a lot has changed. I haven't written because I typically use this blog to tell people about my travels and for the moment I'm no longer nomading about. Which is sad, and good, all at the same time. In the past few months I've moved to DC, found an apartment, a job, a new bike and a cell phone. I'm practically a real person.

Kyla, I'm sorry that I never posted about the Portland/Seattle portion of the road trip. Honestly, it's because I was so excited to see you that I didn't take the time to write in my diary, and then had no notes when I returned.

Anyway, the Northwest was fabulous as always, due in very large part to my wonderful hostess(es - thanks Rosie!!).

Here is a quick photographic journey of life from September 16th to the present (as always, click to enlarge):

Amy and I stayed at a ridiculawesome motel in Bend. We had the romantic Lavender Room.



We also drove through some beautiful scenery, stumbled upon a lava pit, and parted with Blue Betty (tear), trading her for a bus in Eugene.





We had a few lovely days in Portland, lost Amy to Chicago (tear) and went to Octoberfest. In Seattle I met some wonderful people and didn't see a single raindrop.



Eventually I got my act together and moved to DC. I slept on a lot of couches, for which I owe a lot of lovely people a significant amount of love and beer. I moved into Yellow House, started refurbishing my awesome ride, and then immediately left for Erin's wedding.




Now I'm working at the National Board and traipsing about DC.







Luckily I've moved to Chinatown. A girl just can't let go.


Clearly this past year has given me a lot to be thankful for. Perfect to culminate in a wonderful roommate Thanksgiving last night.
(We left the volcano up for the obvious Thanksgiving ambiance it adds)


I'm thankful for every single one of the friends, family and strangers that have made this past year what it was, and me who I am.

-L


P.S. I filmed my commute the other day in an attempt at reliving past glories. Just a teaser for an upcoming post.

EoB: Bamboozlery and Boise

I'm continuing to repost (post-dated) diary entries from my trip. I'm in DC now, but if you scroll down you can relive my Oregon Trail odyssey in real time. As always, pictures are click to enlarge.

Before getting to Boise, we figured we had enough time to stop off and see Shoshone Falls. but, we didn't have enough milage to take the scenic route along highway 30, so we were just going to pop off, look at the falls, and pop back on gain. We followed the brown signs to "waterfalls" but were BAMBOOZLED! Bamboozled onto the scenic route and we didn't even see the falls! To be fair, the scenic route was quite pretty during the second half, but the first half was all strip malls and no Shoshone falls. Incredibly disappointing to be hoodwinked in such a way.

The scenic route did redeem itself with multiple crossings of the Snake River:


And it did get pretty:


But this is not Shoshone Falls:


We got to Boise, had dinner and bounced around while we waited for Kristen, our couchsurfing host, to get off her shift at work. She took us home where Amy went to bed and I went out with her and her friends to a goodbye party. Our first stop was at her friend Angel's house, which is so cool. It's a converted grocery/corner store, so the whole first floor is big open space. She even turned the deli counter into a mini bar.

Idaho State House:


We took a (five dollar!) cab downtown to Mulligan's, a silly bar that reminded me of McFadden's, for (two dollar!) drinks. Once the goodbyes to the kid who was moving had been said, and we picked up a friend named Eric, we headed to other, more legitimate, places.

Woke up at 9 the next morning and hung out around Kristen's amazing apartment and wandered neighborhood until lunch. A few of her neighbors grow corn (!) in the little space between their sidewalks and curbs, which is SO COOL. We went to lunch at Donnie Macs Trailer Park Cuisine, as awesome as it sounds. We met Angel and Eric there, and sat on couches in the parking lot surrounded by old toilets used as planters. Inside the garage, they had a car on risers that had been converted into a table. Some little kids were eating there when we arrived (and we wanted to take advantage of the amazing weather), but Amy and I made sure to get a photo op.




Across the Street from Donnie Mac's was the Spearmint Rhino! When Amy was prepping for our trip, she Googled "Boise Night Life." The first thing to pop up was The Spearmint Rhino, a sleezy strip club with a website to match. Anyway, we joked about it the whole trip, and were absolutely thrilled to just stumble upon the Best Chest in the West!



After lunch, Kristen took us on a walking tour of Boise and the Boise State campus. We saw the blue turf, as promised. Boise is definitely a city, but it's super friendly and Kristen kept seeking people on and off campus that she knew. The city is also relatively small - the perfect size for biking.


After lolling about by the river a bit, we went to a few different happy hours, and then to Live after Five. Every Wednesday afternoon, there's live music and a beer garden in the center of town. It was really nice and had some pretty epic people watching.



Back at Kristen's, we hung out for a bit and collected her boyfriend to go to dinner at a brewery just out of town where I had amazing polenta. A lot of people know that polenta is something I feel passionately about, and I was very glad to see this incredibly underrated item on a restaurant menu.

We were all too tired to go out agin so we played with the kitty, chatted a bit and went to bed. This morning we ran a few errands downtown before heading out again. We stopped at a little coffee shop that happened to be near Kinkos for some coffee before hitting the road, and Eric was the barista! It was all very serendipitous and exciting and a really nice ending to an absolutely amazing stop in Boise.

There hasn't been much on our drive so far today. (Literally, ranches in Eastern Oregon are 100 miles apart, not to mention small towns or gas stations). It's beautiful but desolate. We listed to a really awful right wing advice show on AM radio, and the first Britney Spears CD, and stopped for lunch in the bustling hamlet of Burns. We've decided to stop in Bend for the night to make the car rop off and catching a bus easier tomorrow. I'm looking forward to a sketch motel.

I can't believe our trip is almost over! It's so spacious and free here that I get a littler claustrophobic and scared thinking about flying back East. But that's in a week or so, and for now, we have the Oregon badlands!


~L