from pacific coast to no coast

I turned 23 this week. I have been looking forward to this since the frist time I heard that Blink 182 song What’s My Age Again. I listened to it on repeat for over an hour. It inspired this year’s birthday notification, which I have yet to send out…

I love thunderstorms, rain and weather in general. I think it has something to do with growing up in a place where the daily forecast is perpetually 72 degree and partly cloudy. This summer in Michigan we had some serious storms. I was so excited. Natives felt otherwise. The storms have continued into October, which is traditionally the driest month of the year. I fear this is just a warm-up for a long and wet winter.

The photo is from the courtyard of the Art & Architecture Building at the University of Michigan. It started to rain mere seconds after I snapped this photo in early August.

I promised myself I would be mailing out my September postcard. As you can see, I got right on top of that. Well, better late than never, right?

Studio can be really boring. After about 3 hours of class, we start to get restless and we need a break. Some people go for a smoke. Others crack open a beer. There are coffee, tea and food runs. I go down to the courtyard and sit for a bit. However, I also have beautiful set of rubber stamps in my desk. One time Steven spied them and asked if he could take a closer look. He and Joe took them out and played with them. It was a nice break from the everyday.

Every year for my birthday, I make birthday notifications. This can be confusing at times. Even when I write on the back that it is purely a notification and not an invitation—I repeat this is not an invitation—people tell me they got my invitation, but it doesn’t say when or where the party is. This year I didn’t bother and just included them in my postcard series as a bonus for March. However, I did make 6 varieties. It is like a limited release or rarities.

March brings lots of changes in my life. I am graduating from college. I am hearing back from graduate schools. And I am moving back home to Los Angeles. How I miss that salty, carcinogenic air.

Antarctica is the largest desert in the world. After the blizzard we had in Chicago a couple weeks ago, inspiration finally struck for my February postcard. The images were all taken on my trips to Egypt, Jordan and Morocco. I love the diversity the desert has to offer. It is making me miss home and the Mojave Desert.

I am graduating from school a term early. Many people have questioned this decision, namely my father, who said in our family newsletter: Apparently is unfamiliar with the real world. However, if you look at the facts (the money I would save, the weather, etc.), it makes sense for me to graduate this coming March.

Thus the inspiration for this winter postcard is the weather. The other day it was 85 in Los Angeles and 19 in Chicago. Why wouldn’t I want to move back to the west coast?

The picture on the left is the view of Santa Monica Bay looking north towards Malibu. It was a perfect clear day. The photo was taken from Palisades Park in Santa Monica. The picture of the right is a view of the walk from my dorm to the cafeteria. The photo was taken after our first big snow storm in December. However, the view has not changed much since.

Last summer (2009), my family adopted a new dog. She was first named Bonnie. Then jokingly called Killer, but that stuck. That is until my two brothers took a shine to her and renamed her The Kitty. My mother complains that the dog has an identity crisis. At any rate, my two brothers are irrationally obsessed with The Kitty. As one brother says, “It is not a fetish. It’s a life style.”

Of late, when they are not singing made up songs to her using only her name, they had been going on and on about how she (the dog that is) controls the world with her mind. For their enjoyment I made this postcard. The photo is from Thanksgiving when they had the dog at the table in the place of our absent sister.