i was walking down mission street (2600 block) when i turned around to see a girl and her mother next to a UPS truck. the girl was vomiting on the street while the UPS delivery woman was unloading packages. *snap*

i love these little moments. this is why you prefocus and stop your lens all the way down.

met this canadian guy named ryan last wekeend at a picnic. he seems really nice. this morning i caught myself thinking, what am i doing? what are my intentions? it just all seems so natural.. maybe that’s not the kind of think you should question? and tonight we’re having dinner together. it sounds like a date.

from my journal, dated august 8th, 2003.

dad would be 62 today. although it is easily searchable in my blog, i like to let pass the memory of his last few days and replace it instead with the day he was born, december 9th.  people have the most potential on the day they were born. i like this entry from wikipedia:

The term birth is used metaphorically to refer to a beginning, especially of a natural phenomenon, one that is impressive in its scope or complexity, or one that is viewed favorably.

thanks, branden, for digging up, scanning, and sending me this photo.

zbigniew pik was a foreign exchange student from poland, who attended our highschool in indiana. we recently re-connected on facebook. he told me he bought a bunch of broken-and-repaired cameras and accessories in sweden. he sold a lot of it but had a few items left. he saw that i was shooting with a pentax 6×7 and had a waist level viewer for it. he sent it to me in a padded envelope — the one pictured above.

when i received it, i saw a lot of the address had been eliminated due to some sort of moisture on the sticker. it still found its way to me, thanks to human oversight in package delivery. when i opened it, i was surprised by seeing the WLF, and laughed. one of the few pentax accessories i don’t have yet. my system is one step towards being comprehensive.

i love seeing packages from foreign countries. what struck me most about this one was the stamp, which seems like nylon or some sort of fabric. it’s iridescent and very detailed — beautiful.

thanks pike, for the great gift.