That familiar excited feeling

Today I was looking back through some old photos and came across the ones I took on the first day I had my new camera. I remember the giddiness of running around playing with each of its settings and experimenting during various light conditions through the remainder of the day. I was home for Thanksgiving, so I would bound off to take a picture and then bring my camera back to show my parents what it had captured. It was so much fun. It's encouraging to see my first photos with this camera and get excited again about my little companion.

Flowers

Love-hate-love

Oh, the subway. How quickly I earned my City of Constant Motion cred by learning to grumble about this system. I've shaken my fists when I've followed the instructions of a service alert to wait on the local platform, only to watch my train arrive across the station on the express platform a few minutes later. I've sighed very melodramatically while pacing about the platform, wondering where the next train could be. I've groaned with exasperation as the overly perky announcement calls out, "Ladies and gentlemen, be-cause of construction, trains are not! running between --- and ---. As an alternative, free shuttle buses ..." And I've rolled my eyes at the beats (cht! cht! cht-t-t-cht - cht-t-ch - cht!) that bleed out of seemingly everyone's ear buds.

But I'm so grateful for the subway. It always does come, even when I feel like I've waited forever. And then I can sit and rearrange my messenger bag or rummage around for my chapstick, or take out my book, or do some writing for work (I do my best writing on the train!) or sketching. Then there's the break dancers and the mariachi. And my favorite thing about it - it's environmentally friendly. I love my Saturday morning routine of bundling my compost up and taking the subway three stops to the farmer's market, where I drop the compost off and fill up again on heirloom apples. It's wonderful.

And then, once in a while, you come across something like these scenes. The subway beautiful? The subway cute? Really and truly!

St. Patrick's Day (From Lesser-known Angles)

St. Patrick's Day comes but once a year!

 Yesterday was a lovely day that began with a mass as Gaeilge (in the Irish language) and a vegetarian Irish breakfast with brown bread, beans, and perfectly seasoned mushrooms. Yes, it's the simple pleasures. I understood nearly half of what my friends were saying in Irish which feels like a major, major accomplishment, but Ireland lost to England in rugby, besmirching the day in what was the opposite of a major accomplishment. However, we bounced back quickly and spirits were high. After the game, I went to the end of the parade. The air was warm and the trees along the route had put out little green buds, bright St. Patrick's Day finery. The sun began to fall and stretched its arms out in longer tendrils between the shadows of tree branches and legs marching. Then I climbed onto the rocks on the hillside of the park and watched the last scragglers and the cleanup crew, and had a burrito delicioso for dinner in tribute to the Batallón de San Patricio. (It's a stretch, I know, but I need to justify my desire for a burrito somehow.)

There are a thousand pictures you could see of pipe bands, pint glasses, and spectators in outrageous, shamrock-themed get ups. I don't know what would make you want to see mine, in particular, so I tried to take photos while keeping in mind that it wouldn't be the subject matter that set them apart, but an unusual perspective, angle or composition.  In any case, it was a great day for taking pictures!

watching and waiting:

sunshine and shadow:

 Watching from walls and hillsides:

(Okay, so this angle's not so unusual!)

At the end of the day:

Arts and Crafts

I think I'll let the story tell itself.