Day 366 - A New Year, A New Chapter

Today I signed the lease for my new apartment—the first one that’s ever been truly mine. This is a silly shot of Brian looking through the enormous peephole in my front door.

Hard to believe that this challenge has finally come to an end. It’s been an eventful year—perhaps the most eventful year in my life—and I’m thankful the blog was here to record it all: the vacation in South America; the breakup with Nick; trips to Big Sur, Encino, Riverside, and Yosemite; the countless little adventures with the amazing friends I made and then said goodbye to; the promotion at work; and, of course, the move.

I’ve learned a lot about photography, although I know I didn’t push myself as hard as I could have. Some days this challenge felt like a chore—something I just had to muddle through. But then there were days of motivation and inspiration and days of accidentally stumbling upon an amazing shot. So, in other words, it was just like life—a mix of active pursuit, serendipitous chance, and, mostly, just showing up and putting in the time.

I wanted to say more in this last post, to wrap things up neatly, but I’m running into the same problem that plagued me for the entirety of this challenge: It’s so hard to strike a balance between taking the time to document your life and taking the time to actually live it. And right now there’s so much living I need to do—new places to explore, new people to meet, new things to discover. A new chapter of my life to start.

Day 365 - A Day to Relax

Linda's house is amazing, and she's one of the nicest, most laid-back people I've met. This week will be a weird combination of vacationing, moving, and staying at someone's house, but today was mostly a rest day. Since it's Labor Day, we drove around a bit and then I bought a new bed, but that's about all we got done. Jennifer and I (and later Linda) did a fair amount of drinking by the pool, while Nell and Brian horsed around in it. I like this shot of Brian falling off his floaty into the (quite cold) water.

Day 364 - Moving Day

This was the day I've been working up to for the last few months, and it was about as stressful as I thought it would be. On the plus side, the stress prevented me from being sad. Woke up at about 6:00, my parents were here by 7:00, and we left for the Ontario airport around 7:30. The cats were fighting the sedative hard in the car, so the three-hour car ride (three hours because we missed a freeway change, which added a whole new level of stress) featured nonstop yowling and frantic scratching to get out. Perdita even managed to claw a decent-sized hole in the front of her carrier (although luckily there was a flap that covered it). Met Jennifer at the airport, and the cats settled down and slipped into drugged stupor. Luckily no one asked me for the health certificates I didn't have, and walking with the cats through the metal detector in security proved to be no big deal. A few minutes before boarding, I discovered I'd left the extra sedative in the car, but luckily my parents were still around and were able to run it up to security for Jennifer to pick up.

The flight from Ontario to Atlanta, the layover in Atlanta, and the flight from Atlanta to Albany were all uneventful. The cats were high as kites and didn't even mind the little girl in the Atlanta airport who wanted to pet them. I had so much pent-up stress, though, that on the first flight I ended up chugging a beer and taking a quick nap. Brian was there to pick us up at the airport, and it was only a 15-minute drive to Linda's house. The cats managed to hold it the entire 12 hours of travel!

I'm pleased with how well this sunset photo came out, considering I was using my point-and-shoot and it was through the very dirty window of the plane.

Day 363 - Best Parents Ever

I spent the morning and early afternoon hanging out with Jeff, Carey, Nicole, and Bryant. I'm trying to subscribe to Carey's method of dealing with goodbyes (by pretending they're not actually happening), but it's not really working. Then I met up with my parents to do the last bit of cleaning, collect the final boxes, and have dinner together at The Palace Grill. They really are the best parents ever, and I will miss having them close by. But, because they're so awesome, I know they'll support me in whatever I do... even if it's a crazy move across the country. (Decided to make the photo black and white because the lighting outside Palace was kind of meh.)

Day 362 - A Final Drink at HBC

Today was my last day of work in the office! I think I'll miss it more than I expect. We got to leave early, so I went to sushi with my coworker Cathleen and then ran a few errands. Carey and Jeff made me an amazing stir-fry for dinner, then we headed off to Hollister Brewing Company for one final drink together. After hanging out a bit at their house, Carey drove me home and we came thisclose to getting skunk'd right outside my front door. I don't even want to think about how much extra stress that would have added to the next few days.

Day 361 - Lily, (Mostly) All Growed Up

My coworkers threw me a going-away party! They all signed a card and got both a pie and a cake. As much as work has slowly eroded my soul over the last seven years, and as much as I generally dislike being in the office on a day-to-day basis, I'm really going to miss the regular face-to-face interaction. Tonight I had dinner with Andrew and Liz (I love how everyone has been feeding me this week). Their puppy Lily is now six months old and has grown a lot since the last time I saw her.

Day 360 - The Marketplace

I spent the evening finishing up a bunch of moving-related tasks (although there's still more to do) and so decided to take a quick photo of the Camino Real Marketplace while I was over there picking up my dinner. It's not the best shopping center in the world (and this isn't even a good shot of it—plus I realized after the fact that I should have gotten a shot that included HBC), but it's where I've come for farmers' markets, movies, carousing with friends, and shopping for the last seven years. I'm excited to explore the little plaza that's across the street from my future apartment.