bought my ticket to bangkok yesterday. i leave august 5. very insane, and i'm so glad my brother and mother can come for a month. bali bali bali bali. we need to get tickets there. trying to convince her that 4 days is not enough and it needs to be more like 10 days.

been laying around home like crazy, but my ankle is getting better so i won't have to do this for that much longer. had a great girl hang with amanda and lauren. you know like, white wine and ice cream. it was awesome. and relationship talks. awesome.

too many people to catch up with LA. i only really feel like hanging with a few. what to do?

emmet gowin

“It might take us a lifetime to find out what it is we need to say. Most of us fall into where our feelings are headed while we’re quite young. But the beauty of all this uncertainty would be that in the process of exhausting all the possibilities, we might actually stumble unconsciously into the recognition of something that’s useful to us, that speaks to a deep need within ourselves. At the same time, I like to think that in order for any of us to really do anything new, we can’t know exactly what it is we are doing.
So we can’t possibly know what it is we really need. At least, from the view point of originality, we can’t. And still there can be a good sense to what all our drives and needs are expressing.”

from this interview

laying home all day, with exception to having israeli and yemeni brunch delights at eliana's house, with a baseball sized ankle. a few good things have come out of this though, which is discovering:

-two new institutions who offer travel grants for humanitarian work
-a new photographer that i love by the name of ann wadden, particularly her work in china.

i believe she uses large format, which makes me want to fix my large camera before i leave. i should certainly try.

i am continuing to redraft my ideas and itinerary to develop a more effective participation. it will happen!

Despite an amazing trip out east, it feels great to wake up in LA. Gray morning spent with my new electric tea pot watching internet tv and eating sticky rice with mangoes for breakfast. My greenhouse is looking good thanks to mom. I woke up to more budding orchids. Now it's a bike ride around town for a good film processing establishment to reveal photographs from my trip, help mom out at the store, eat with pops, and then an evening swim. Now that I am back, I'll be doing serious planning for my yearlong trip in Thailand- kind of frightening, but what I've been waiting all year for.

I can't believe the last two weeks. I was so lucky to experience all that I did from visiting great friends, eating fresh fish to seeing so much of more of new england and meeting so many gracious and hospitable folks. How am I so lucky to know such lovely people? So very happy!

Also there is a seed planted for another New England project. I think it will be two or so years before it happens, but I'm already brain storming.

mama comments on the magic of coconuts

"they're quite great, aren't they? they make so many babies, and each one is filled with such clear, CLEAR, water. not only do they manage to put water in each one, but they share their sugar in the water. can you believe there are so many of these babies and these plants are responsible for making them all taste so good? they are very great plants. they are better in thailand though."