zen zero.

Tonight my family came to Lawrence to help me celebrate my receipt of the FLAS academic year fellowship & admission to the CIRMA Guatemala program this summer! It's been a very exciting week for me.

We patronized Zen Zero & really enjoyed the pad thai, which most of us ordered. The spring rolls were funky & I tried to eat them with an open mind.

Also, the great thing about having a big family is if you go to Three Spoons afterward & give them your punch card with the order, you can basically fill up the whole thing. I'm only one yogurt away from Three Spoons "spooning me!"

czekolada.

Lauren brought me Polish chocolate from Detroit (a.k.a. Little Poland)! Let me tell you, those Europeans know how to do their cocoa right. Think of the best chocolate you've ever had & then accept that this stuff is even better. That's about accurate.

mutant strawberry.

This strawberry is huge. Look at the size of that sucker. It reminds me of those giant pods in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" that turn people into robot clones of themselves. If there's any risk in this being the same thing, I probably shouldn't have eaten it. But it's too late for that.

myself.

I'm not really one for taking pictures of myself, but photo blog experts say I should post a self-portrait every month to see how I change over the year. It's been almost two months, so I guess it's about time I do so. & I got my nose ring in it - score!

here, fishy, fishy.

Is this the reflection goldfish see in their fishbowls?

feliz cumple!

Hoy, tenia la oportunidad para celebrar el cumpleanos de mi querida amiga Monica, quien tiene solo 28 anos. [Verdad? ;) ] Aqui en la foto, puedes ver a Adrian, Moni y Cynthia. Gozo de compartir mi cumpleanos cada ano con estos amigos.

healing.

Today, my family went to see "The Grace Card." I recommend it to everyone. The message of healing was strong throughout: healing of a broken family, of racial tension, of strained friendships. Aloe vera can't fix everything, but God can tackle the big problems.

my wrist hurts.

This young boy wants to get his driver's license tomorrow. But I ask, is a boy who drags his sister from room to room & won't let go of her arm really mature enough to maneuver a large machine without a parent? I think not.

vegas baby.

Nah, not really. Just fun with dice at our home in Overland Park. You can see David's hand featured in the above photo.

philanthropist.

My brother Thomas bought all these books - just to give to people. Even though he's younger than me, I think I can really learn a lot from him. He's already seeing the bigger picture - something some people never see. In buying these books, he's not concerned with the money he spent on them but the lives of people for whom he cares. He's quite an amazing 16-year-old.

three months.

Less than three months until I (almost certainly) go to Guatemala! I can't wait to put a pin south of Mexico & north of Costa Rica.

Also, is this what pilots see when they're flying east from Asia?

monkey.

My youngest brother climbed high into our backyard tree with the latent colors of sunset behind him. Ironically, but not quite surprisingly, my mom's top concern as he reached the top was not about whether he would fall, but about whether he would break her branches. Typical.

how embarrassing.

Look at this rudimentary beast. The creature you are viewing is my mom's dog (because I could never take ownership of her).

werewolf?

This weekend, the moon is supposed to look bigger than it has in almost twenty years. But how big can it look from a photograph?

In pursuit of this photo, I got so caught up in finding the best angle that I almost started running toward the moon to position myself directly under it. I was disappointed when I remembered that wouldn't work.

irish jig.

I so much enjoyed Margaret's festive fiddle playing today. With red hair & all, she totally fits the Irish bill. Happy St Patrick's Day!

south park.

Three-year-olds are pretty fun to talk to, whether you're discussing their take on serious matters or how much they love their Batman ensemble. Either way, watching them play is a refreshing break from midterms.

bloom.

It snowed yesterday, guys. It snowed.

And now look at those plants pushing their way to the surface! I said it after the last snow, and I'll say it again: spring is here now for sure. Fingers crossed.

disgusting sky dandruff.

I might have thought this were pretty in December. Now that it's March, I wanted to climb in a dumpster to escape from this snow. Let's hope the weather got snow out of its system for the season.

On the other hand, how weird, right? Last night at supper, I didn't know it would snow. Tonight, twenty-four hours later, you couldn't tell it HAD snowed. No wonder it's "Mother" Nature; I think she's going through menopause. I can only hope she has a hot flash soon.

boyfriend #1.

A couple clever residents of Sellards surprised me with a new & improved in/out board. The weird thing is people were already taking the tape off their names by this morning. I mean, who wouldn't want to be known by their boyfriend's name or as "le naughty"? And Boyfriends 1, 2 & 3 in the blank spots at the bottom? Come on, that was good. Have a sense of humor.

it could be yours if the price is right.

Tonight, KU Student Activities hosted The Price is Right at the Union. It was great fun to watch & I won a free large pizza from Rudy's! I am not sure exactly what was going on in this picture but Bob's face is entertaining.

go with god.

Today, Yasi & I went on a field trip to the cemetery. I did not realize how different east Lawrence is from the rest of town. We saw many wondrous things & we also got hailed from guys in big trucks. People over there also have an affinity for windmills. This was probably my favorite gravestone there.

mormon baby.

Watch as he is mesmerized by Beth & Gelareh. Or he might be scared; that's also a real possibility.

kids.

This is Demetri, who I met today at Z's. I love watching kids play because they're not worrying about anything else & they're totally focused on the matter at hand. Also, his mom taught me how to use the manual setting on my camera.

like a kid again.

Capri Sun makes me feel like a kid again. I think a long time from now, it's one of the things of which I'll think when I remember the nineties. Why drink Four Loko when we've got this around? I will say, however, it is inadvisable to drink two Capri Sun pouches in one sitting.

college, man.

This is the growing mountain of books on my desk. I guess this is what being a junior is: my homework load is unusually light, but for the first time, I have to write three full-sized research papers in a semester. Thankfully, they all concern topics about which I am passionate.

ham & yam.

Yes, I made this meal all by myself.

we get buck errday, but especially today!

Today is Prohaska's twentieth so we ventured out to Mass St for a night on the town. 5 March is the best day to get buck in here!

UNcomfortably numb.

I love rainy days & chose to take advantage of this one. South Park was beautiful covered in raindrops, but the walk was windy & chilly. I have to point out that Pink Floyd was totally wrong about being comfortably numb.

emma.

The weirdest thing happened tonight.

I was walking down Mass St & this pretty guitar player caught my eye. I thought I'd snap a few shots; at least they'd be better than the ones from the jiu-jitsu class which I had just watched. So I asked her if I could take a picture & she obliged.

Then, after introducing herself as Emma, she explained that she had just obtained a modeling job & was looking for a photographer. It was too weird of a coincidence to pass up, she said, & I agree. All week, I've been brainstorming ways to smoothly break into the photography business. Why not help each other out?

roy g biv.

As you can see from Lana's goosebumps, it's not quite spring yet, but it's getting there! Spring always makes me think in technicolor. Can you taste the rainbow?

bailey hall redux.

After her Spanish midterm, Laura wanted to blow off steam, & let's be honest, I'm in the mood for an adventure every day. So here we are at the top of Bailey Hall (she was a Bailey virgin), relaxing & enjoying the first evening of March.