8/31/08

Teun Hocks- amazing photographer

I want his book but it's pretty spendy :( love his whimsical photos
though.

I fought the law...and the law (didn't really) win

So I got pulled over for the first time in my life today. I always wondered what I would do if that happened: be totally sweet and talk the cop out of the ticket, pull the girl card and start bawling, or wink and mention my passion for men in uniform. I did not think that being an asshole was the way I was going to go.

But I did.

So I was with Beth on Sunday and we were driving to Venice. I drove down a little street that dead-ends into the boardwalk where there is usually parking. There wasn't, so I u-turned at the end of the street to get out. Well, 2 seconds later a motorcycle cop pulls me over to let me know that there is no U-turn there. But there wasn't any other way out other than into a $20 parking lot! It didn't help that I snarkily said, "Well, where was I supposed to go?" or that I didn't have my current insurance on me, or that my car still has Michigan plates OR that "I fought the law and the law won" was playing on the radio. And I left it on. No joke!! For some reason though, (I'm guessing it was because Beth and I are totally hott) he let me go with a warning and a "Fix-it" ticket to prove my car has insurance.

Oh, womanly power :)

8/25/08

Found at Marian's house...

Awesome license plate.

The plate said "PMS x 6" and the plate frame said "one wife, five
daughters"

8/22/08

Bullets.

Working at a startup is pretty crazy. As our website gets ready to go live in less than three weeks, it’s pretty normal for members of the Causecast team to stick around until 3 in the morning to get work done. Now, as an intern who gets paid $11/hour, it’s not really in my job description to be working such hours. So, come 6pm, I’m out the door amidst sarcastic cries of, “Oh, it must be nice to take a half-day.”

But last night, I stayed late to help my boss send out a bunch of urgent e-mails. I left work and walked the 5 blocks to my bus stop and made it there by 9:30pm. I waited about 25 minutes (so much for the Big Blue Bus motto of not waiting more than 10 minutes). I fiddled with my iPhone, updated my twitter status and got a bit annoyed by the wait—I had a friend’s birthday party to get to! I watched as a woman pedaled her bike through the intersection of 4th and Colorado, thinking how dangerous it was for her to be swerving among the cars.

Right as I was noticing her, several things happened simultaneously. I heard the woman on the bike yell, “Oh, shit,” I heard two loud gunshots from behind the corner I was leaning against, and I saw a man run in front of me, across the intersection and disappear. It was one of those odd reactions, where everyone just kind of stands around, not really knowing what to do, like in an earthquake. Like when you hear a car backfire, immediately think it’s a gunshot, then realize it’s merely a car. Well, I heard what I thought were gunshots, then thought it must be something else, then realized what the noise really was. But I just stood there. Several people around me just froze, another woman ducked behind a door, and one woman immediately called the police. Then I heard a car door slam and a truck honking it’s horn go racing through the red light of the intersection. That car made a circle around the block, eventually returning to the intersection just as police and ambulances arrived, obviously carrying the person who got shot. I could smell the gunpowder lingering in the air. I remained standing, looking around as police cars came swarming into the intersection, as helicopter flew overhead.

That’s when I started calling friends. Still clutching the seventy-five cents for my bus fare in my hand, I dialed my roommate, who didn’t pick up, then called another friend who volunteered to pick me up but was on the other side of town, then finally, got my thoughts together enough to call my boss, Sloane, who was a few blocks away at the office. I didn’t think I would be so affected, but I was crying on the phone and shaking. Sloane immediately said she would come get me, and I walked a block over to wait for her. This whole time couldn’t have been more than 5 minutes.
What got me most was not witnessing a crime that was obviously gang-related, but it was thinking back to the day before when I visited Homeboy Industries downtown to check on an order my company had placed there. I spent a lot of my time in college down in Boyle Heights in the Dolores Mission community, where gang violence was a regular occurrence, and where 148 kids had been killed by gunfire over ten years. Things have gotten better there over the last decade, but it’s still rough growing up in Boyle Heights. I have a friend Juan who works at Homeboy, who is the sweetest guy, and who only the day before had told me about the baby he just had. I realized that this was the sort of shit he grew up seeing, the sort of crime that had affected him personally, and had ultimately shaped his life enough to make him enter a gang. I got so mad thinking about the kids that grew up seeing gunfire, to even have such vile occurrences happen in the presence of children makes my knees go weak with anger.

I don’t really know what else to say. I feel shaken, and not because pristinely yuppie Santa Monica was marred by violence. I feel shaken because I witnessed something for the first time today that people around the world see daily, and they shouldn’t have to.

8/21/08

Lunch of champions.

French fries, milkshakes, mac n cheese and French toast (there were 4
of us!) this is what working at a startup does to you!

8/10/08

It was a beautiful day in manhattan

Movin' on up

Lana, Jenn and I are moving out and moving on. Jenn to Seattle and
lana and I to a little house in westchester (pictures to come after we
get settled!) all that's left of us in the old place are a few nails
lana couldn't reach :)

8/8/08

My favorite part of the end of the day

Walking to the bus from work and running my hands through the cattails
on the way.

8/6/08

At the bus stop

Excellent, bright colors to wake me up this morning.