#32 Wheelin’ Thru Target
01 February 2019 // San Diego, California
We had some Target errands to run, so Deanna surprised me with how well she could Tokyo Drift around the store on one of their shopper wheelchairs. (She injured her knee rock climbing and can’t put any weight on it for several weeks.)
#33 Mentone Street
02 February 2019 // San Diego, California
Didn’t let the rain stop us for getting out to a couple open houses over the weekend.
#34 Live in the Moment
03 February 2019 // San Diego, California
No leg injury is gonna slow us down from living in the moment and eating some tacos.
Deanna messed her knee up rock climbing a few weeks ago, but we remain committed to figuring out who has the best tacos in town by way of a 32 seed bracket.
Check my stories for the latest matchups this weekend between a couple PB faves and a couple North Park faves. Taco Madness marches onward.
#35 Desk View
04 February 2019 // San Diego, California
Trying to make a messy desk brighter.
#36 Scrimshaw
05 February 2019 // San Diego, California
I’ve been at an increasing amount of offsite workspaces lately, AKA coffee shops. It’s been a good month for trying to discover a bunch of new ones. Here’s a new discovery I enjoyed: Scrimshaw Coffee.
#37 Streets of Lemon Grove
06 February 2019 // Lemon Grove, California
My temporary daily commute is a long one, but it’s kinda pretty too.
#38 Work At Brew
07 February 2019 // La Mesa, California
Back at it working at coffee shops once again. This time: Brew Coffee.
#39 Hector & Kaitlin
08 February 2019 // San Diego, California
Pho with friends, plus the spontaneous purchase of some Vampire Weekend tickets.
#40 Recycling Redemption
09 February 2019 // National City, California
Just took over an entire porch’s worth of bottles and cans to redeem for cash… basically everything Deanna and I drank over the span of a year.
The prize? $16.88
We’ve been saving this cash to treat ourselves to a nice dinner paid for by bottles since we got married. I think we’re pretty close!
#41 Beware of Dog
10 February 2019 // San Diego, California
I’m gonna be real happy when this whole housing ordeal is over with.
#42 Behold the Dreamers
11 February 2019 // San Diego, California
“It's the fear that kills us. Sometimes it happens and it's not even as bad as the fear. That is what I have learned in this life. It is the fear.”
This was a good read and I needed a good novel.
Immigrant fiction isn’t new. The Joy Luck Club and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent have been around awhile. But the past decade has been such a boom for this subgenre. It could have its own canon.
I’d start with Americanah, We Need New Names, Everything I Never Told You, The Leavers, American Born Chinese, and this book. And probably so many more.
These more recent ones are less about feeling cut off from home and are more about being a person with two places that wear that name, each with their good and bad. That’s a fascinating reflection about how the immigrant experience keeps evolving.
#43 Sorting Books
12 February 2019 // San Diego, California
How does one prepare to move?
If you’re me, you start by organizing all your books with some system only you understand.
#44 Show Some Love
13 February 2019 // San Diego, California
Good day to show some love.
Made this little reminder for two good reasons.
First, it’s almost Valentine’s Day and no matter what you’ve got going on in that department, you’re worthy of some Love.
Second, I was listening to @perspectivepodcast and @prspctv_cllctv gave us the challenge to go show some love with shoutouts to three of our favorite creatives.
Most podcasts I listen to don’t assign homework. But I like this assignment. And it’ll be tough to keep it at 3. But here we go!
1️⃣ @bradmontague - constantly making things that are so full of heart. And Brad is just as fantastic offline too.
2️⃣ I’ve been really digging @toddhenry’s Daily Creative Podcast. It’s a quick 3 minute listen full of really good insight on doing creative and meaningful work.
3️⃣ I also wanted to shoutout somebody I knew IRL who I think does work more folks should be familiar with, @garyware - his mission to remind us to play more is as fun as it sounds.
There are also so many others. I should do these lists more often. Maybe I will!
#45 Valentines Day 2019
14 February 2019 // San Diego, California
Life has been all kinds of chaos lately but tonight we had pie.
Aussie meat pie and guava hand pie and guava cider and mango sticky rice ice cream and heavy rains and roses.
Thankful that even when life is mostly chaos, I’ve got the best teammate to steady the ship with.
#46 Stray Dog
15 February 2019 // San Diego, California
I decided to work the last part of my day from a coffee shop. Walking back to my car, I crossed paths with this sweet girl. No owner, just a dog taking a stroll. I thought it was just a bit odd and she looked like she could use a hand, so I let her in the backseat and went to pick up Deanna.
We turned her in to the humane society. But we’ve got a finder’s hold on her. So this story has a happy ending either way. Either she’s reunited with her owners or Beignet gets a new sister.
#47 Friend to Strays
16 February 2019 // San Diego, California
Earning this badge this week. Patch by: @frogandtoadpress
#48 Red Truck on Marlborough
17 February 2019 // San Diego, California
Went to a couple of open houses in this neighborhood and man, found some at a real good price!
#49 Charcuterie 21
18 February 2019 // San Diego, California
Tried not to eat this entire spread until my parents showed up at the restaurant. Failed.
#50 Harborview
19 February 2019 // San Diego, California
Taking this in as a quiet moment that breaks up a ridiculous week.
#51 Moniker Workday
20 February 2019 // San Diego, California
Thankful to have a squad of volunteers making my work life way better this month.
#52 Ready to Move
21 February 2019 // San Diego, California
I don’t know too many fans of moving.
#53 Cultivate Gathering
22 February 2019 // San Diego, California
“If the place where you’ve been placed in doesn’t prosper, you don’t prosper.”
–@leroybarber
Challenged to lament over the things that harm them, since lament isn’t exactly an easy practice for me. Reenergized to keep trying to build proximity to our neighbors, especially the ones who are hurting.
#54 Jonathan Brooks
23 February 2019 // San Diego, California
Lead us to the end of us versus them.
I spent the past weekend at #cultivategathering getting to hear from a wide range of folks who have been helpful voices in helping me turn my faith into action over the years... plus a few new friends.
“The more we break bread together, the harder it is for us to see things as us versus them.”
–@pastahj
#55 Dog Runs
24 February 2019 // San Diego, California
A dog park on a Sunday is tough to compete with.
#56 Storage Units
25 February 2019 // San Diego, California
I used to hold it as a source of pride that I didn’t need a storage unit… if you have so much stuff that your place can’t hold it all, you probably have too much stuff!
But now, I’m moving twice in two months and this unit is saving me a whole bunch of trouble. My new point of pride is how well I Tetris’ed this whole closet.
#57 10 Years of Corbyn
26 February 2019 // San Diego, California
Got to celebrate ten years of a great coworker raising the bar at Plant With Purpose.
#58 Yay, February’s Ending!
27 February 2019 // San Diego, California
February 2019 is officially over and it’s hard for me to overstate how good it feels to be DONE with that month.
Two weeks ago, we had no idea where we’d be living by today. Our lease ended yesterday, and after Plan A-F fell apart, it was crunch time to figure that out. Oh, and we’d also have to orchestrate a move with Deanna on crutches and me being the only driver for a while.
There were some other bits of chaos too, but now I can say, it was rough, we figured it out, and it’s all over. I won’t miss it that much.
#59 Mariners Cove
28 February 2019 // San Diego, California
And we’ve officially moved out of our first apartment that we lived in after moving to San Diego. To be honest, the past six months or so haven’t really been my fave and I think some change in scenery will be really, really good. But this was a great spot for us to live the past two years, and the fact that we found it so quickly was a sign that moving to town was the right call, even if it wasn’t an easy one.
Some stuff I’ll miss about this place:
• The parrots that lived in our trees. I loved watching their red heads and green bodies, even though most neighbors found them a nuisance.
• The truly diverse mix of neighbors we had. Military members, East African mothers, high schoolers on skateboards, surfers, OB hippies, retired couples, etc.
• My extremely easy commute to work and church driving along the coast.
• Being 10 min from Dog Beach. Not that we’ll be going any less.
• How easy it was to pick out where we lived from an airplane window when flying out of town.