One last trip to Philly

Last week after leaving DC, I ventured back into Philly for a few days to see my college friends.  On Saturday night we all got together for a final night out before my trip at Lucky Strike to enjoy some food, drinks, a few games of pool, and the age old sport of bowling.  Here are some pictures from the night.

Paul had some special bowling gloves on, they were supposed to guarantee strikes every time.  They didn't work so well and as a result he thought team Kim+Paul might lose to team Christian + Eris...

We shot some pool before our lane opened up, glad Kim grabbed my camera, this would have been tough to set up using self timer and I never get good pictures of me... Thanks Kim

Most of the group got together for this family type posed shot- we were mising a few but one of our lane neighbors offered to take the picture so we took her up on her offer.  Thanks neighbor.

Despite Paul's special bowling gloves not working out for him so well, Team Paul+Kim still won the battle...Eris rolled at 7.  That's right, 10 frames, 7 pins.  She loves bowling.

Christian isn't competitive at all so he had no problem paying up at the end of the game

Here's Matt.  He had a thumb issue and couldn't bowl, so he kept busy making strange faces for the camera.  He is very camera shy

The National Cathedral

I realize I JUST left DC at the end of last month, so my recent 10 day visit (January 13-23) can't really count as travel, but to be honest, considering most of my time was spent in Glover Park instead of Mount Pleasant, it really did feel like visiting a new place. I had passed the National Cathedral hundreds of times over the past 5 years, but never got a good chance to stop. This time around, not only did I stop, but I realized a very important lesson- when you pass something and think to yourself that you would really like to see it, STOP, see it, because if you put it off once you will put it off twice, and before you know it, you will be leaving and wont have another chance.

This is the cathedral as seen from the northeast corner on a cloudy day, late in the afternoon.

The staircase leading up to the main space from the crypt...

A view looking east to west along the main nave.
Structural details in the ceiling

And finally, my home away from home... the Beecher St. House... I know they most likely will not be reading my blog, well all but Jen anyway, but thank you very much, girls, for allowing me to spend my time in your place while I was in town!

In the meantime...

I neglected to mention in my first posting that I want my blog to be mixed media. My mediocre writing + my photographs. So I hope that even if you can't get past all the grammatical errors in my writing, you can at least browse through and take a look at the pictures. I take great pleasure in photography and am often spotted toting my SLR around in my geeky backpack when I know there might be some good images to be captured...

I wanted to share a few that I shot last week while at a (long overdue) visit with my good friend Dan and his family at their incredibly welcoming, and cozy home in Highland Mills, NY. They have 5 amazing dogs all of which, I might add, are well behaved, so I had to take out the camera to capture a few shots of them in character... While outside I was also able to grab a few shots of Dan's Dad's Tea House... He has been building it, in an authentic fashion, for the past year. It blew my mind.

The tranquil tea house...

This sculpture was spotted while walking around back from the front of their house towards the tea house... A good desktop background, if you ask me.

And here are three of the dogs...

In the words of Kimmy Greenholtz "that perfect Golden Retriever over there, is Sadie..." I like to think that she is in a deep state of meditation here... (though in reality she was blinking her eyes after starring at a squirrel out the window for about 10 minutes)

I think this was Lucy... but ill have to confirm that with Dan. There are two of these little guys and they look a like.

And the boss, Sammie. He's just checkin things around the yard, making sure all is well.

My First Post- why my blog came to be

I suppose now is a good time to start writing... 7:54 pm on a monday evening.

It all starts with the Goonies--for those of you who have not seen the Goonies, take a break from reading now and go watch it-- The film takes place in Astoria, Oregon which is a picturesque, Pacific Northwest, Coastal town. It's an adventure film about a group of kids who are in search of ancient pirate treasure with great hopes that it will help them to pay off their parents debts so they can stay in their homes and not be forced out by a rich (evil) developer... I first watched it when I was just a little guy, it quickly became my favorite movie (and still is) and I like to believe that my first aspirations to move to the Pacific Northwest started there.

(random side note... if you open the cargo bin on top of my car, you will see pasted inside the top cover a HUGE sticker that sports an ancient philosophical quote... "Goonies never say Die"- I like to live by those profound words of wisdom)

The next recollection I have of a desire to be out west comes from yet another movie, but this one won't be a requirement to watch in order to keep reading. Do you remember the movie Fear? It starred Mark Wahlberg... The story line was somewhat scary, i guess... but really is not important to my point. What WAS important, to me at least, was that the dad in the story was a successful architect and designed and built his home on this beautiful cliff edge overlooking the water- also somewhere in the pacific northwest... (a quick search on IMDB shows that more specifically, it was Mercer Island, Washington) he had what I knew I eventually wanted- a nice family (less the creeping from Mark Wahlberg) and a beautiful home. So from the age of 14, a small part of me wondered what it would be like to live out there... Little did I know that 13 years later I would be packing my car up to go.

For the next handful of years I finished up high school in New York, went to college for Architecture in Philly, moved to DC for a job related to design after college, started my own small company, made a lot of new friends, drifted from others, reconnected with some from a long time ago, and generally speaking, just lived life as best I knew how... and until the economy tanked, I really didn't know if I would ever make my dream trip.

Funny to think that I'm putting those 13 years in one (long) sentence. Those of you who know me well know that I've considered writing (or co-writing- with Deb) a book all about the past 13 years, but Ill save that for another time, or maybe just another blog... This blog is going to be about now. About what a young man does when he decides after 27 years living on one coast and building a life for himself, that it is time to let go of a lot, in order to follow a little.

here is the basic timeline, for reference.

Dec 7th 2009 Negotiated terms with my job to leave, effective Jan 1...

Dec 7-29th Sell my things, and find someone to take over my bedroom at my group house

Dec 29th- Current- Move back in with my parents in New York.

Feb 9th- HIT THE ROAD

Currently I am in DC, back already to visit my close friends so I don't have to feel like my exit was rushed. This coming weekend ill be in Philly to see my friends from college. And on Feb 9th, Ill hit the road with expectations to spend some time in Chicago with my best friend Joe doing some construction work for a while, then bounce around the country, hopefully to arrive in (the other) Washington by spring.