Random quotes

Your mistakes are the only thing you can truly call your own.
-Paraphrased Billy Joel

Weaknesses are just overdeveloped strengths.

Only muggles talk of mind 'reading'. The mind is not a book to be opened at will and examined at leisure. Thoughts are not sketched on the insides of skulls to be pursued by any invader. The mind is a complex and many layered thing. ~ Professor Severus Snape (Harry Potter series)

“Men always call women crazy when caught with their pants down.”
Faye Dunaway on Alias (of course, actually written my the Alias writers)

Dante says souls in heaven dream of the day they’ll get their bodies back. I wonder if in heaven I’ll still dream of yours. –Marisa Escolar (artist at CityArt Gallery)

Meeting Hate with Love

I just got home and switched on the radio. On it was an interview with Dr. Arun Gandhi. Growing up, Arun's grandfather (who is so famous) spent an hour with him every day asking him to track the violent acts of the day. Violence, he learned, was any act where you hurt another person: calling them names, imposing injustices on them, disappointing them. These passive acts of violence hurt people who may then respond in violence themselves until it's escalated to a point where Hitler or Bin Laden are doing their things. Violence can be passive (aka passive aggressive) or active, subconscious or conscious, but in any case, we can chose to respond to it with violence or with humility. In contemporary society humility may seem like powerlessness at first, it can have a very powerful impact on the outcome by redirecting the relationship out of an escalating cycle of violence.

Meeting Hate with Love: Stories of King and Gandhi

Random quote

"The human plant needs warmth to flower"
Selected Shorts just now on KQED (public radio), author unknown

Most women are now living without a spouse

NYT: 51% of Women Are Now Living Without Spouse
In response to this article, Forum (KQED) had a panel discuss this trend. They said that most people do want to be in a LTR, but that they are less willing to settle than before. People want a relationship for a real partnership, to be witness of another person’s life.... But that relationships also require a lot of flexibility, and most people seek one where they are encouraged to be their best self.

"I like loving. I like mostly all the ways one can have of having loving feelings in them. Slowly it has come to be in me that any way of being a loving one is interesting and not unpleasant to me."-Gertrude Stein (Ilana has this on her wall.)

Interestingly, two men called in with concerns. One worried about this trend reflecting increasing selfishness in our society. The other said that as a result of this trend, men feel left, abandoned, that this is emotional devastating for men. Change is upsetting. The other thing people observed is that the role of work in our society, the way it is supposed to take up so much of our time in order for us to succeed, forces a choice. And many people are choosing friends over an exclusive partnership to go with the work they signed up for (of course, you can only have 2, never all 3).

Platinum Rule

Do unto others as they want to be done unto them.

Can sex ed prevent rape?

This is very disturbing.
Willful Ignorance
If we want to change the toxic sexual culture on our nations’ college campuses, we need to start looking at the sex education our high-schoolers receive.

Emotional Maturity

Life is funny. Two months ago, I had my heart completely broken. Tonight, I had to break up with someone. In the past, I would have just not returned his phone calls, but Brian said that’s bad “dating karma” and that I needed to tell him how I feel. I’m finally learning not to be such a wimp.

The thing is, I really like this guy. We have great conversations. I enjoy the time I spend with him. As I told him, I don’t know if I’m not ready or he’s just not the right person, but I’m not feeling it. I also told him that I could just keep hanging out with him and keep it ambiguous, but that’d be selfish. I’d be getting attention for something I don’t feel. I’d be taking up his time under false pretenses. I don’t want to be that person.

Brian says I need to get in touch with my inner bitch. I say, only if that bitch is profoundly ethical, considerate of other people’s feelings, and consistent. He says that’s possible. He also says he’s going to start charging me for advice… but I think we can work out a trade.

So, what did this guy say when I broke up with him? He said, “I’ve been trying to find time for our relationship. But if that’s not what this is, then I’d rather have that time for myself.” I was so shocked because, the thing is, we’ve been on exactly two (2) dates. I didn’t realize we were having a Relationship. Man, dating is tough. Dating is a mystery.

Maybe this is just a matter of vocabulary. I don’t know. There have been so many times I’ve been on both sides of this, and there is only like…one person I can think of who handled it well. I mean, the guy I just broke up with had plenty of warning. I was blowing him off. I was taking 3 days to return his calls. I indicated how I felt, and then I said it along with a lot of complements. At least Brian and Julie think I handled it well. I’m sure the gentleman in question can find plenty of faults with me as, of course, I can.

I think this just became a new year’s resolution. I am going to communicate my feelings, my needs, and my expectations with anyone they impact. I will set appropriate boundaries. I will tell people how much I appreciate them not only when I have bad news but whenever I can. I will ask for what I want and, even more so, what I need. I will, essentially, be someone I can be completely in love with as much of the time as humanly possible.

Poem: "A Color of the Sky" by Tony Hoagland

I found this poem incredibly moving.
Poem: "A Color of the Sky" by Tony Hoagland

Baby, it’s cold out there….

On Saturday, I went sailing. It wasn’t the usual lesson bc the tide was low; so, I went out on a keel boat with a non-teacher cruising sailor. The Bay is gorgeous, and I wasn’t even that cold on the boat. We put up the spinnaker for the way back, and that was my first time using one. A spinnaker is this additional sail, lighter and made out of nylon so usually brightly colored, that provides an more power when the wind isn’t cooperating with the direction you want to go.

Later in the day, Carolyn and I went for a little bike ride along with Bay Trail. My hands went numb from the cold as the sun set north of the Golden Gate. We got back to her place in the dark and began making risotto for dinner. Time spent with Carolyn is always time well-spent, and I left around 11 and got on the 3rd to last BART train back to the City.

It had been a long day, what with sailing and biking and socializing, and I fell asleep on the train. I was listening to my iPod, and the voices must have lulled me sleep too. I woke up at Daly City, the end of the line, to find that there were no more trains heading the other direction. There were a couple other people in my situation. There was also a guy heading further south who offered I could stay at his place. He said that since he is a taxi driver he knows that there isn’t a good way to get from Daly City BART to my place near Mission and 24th Street.

I would love to be able to lead you to believe, even if just for a moment, that I considered his offer. But I didn’t. The attendant told me that I could take the 14 bus. But I didn’t see one right away. So, I decided to ride. Of course, I hadn’t planned on doing any night biking, and I had no lights or even my reflective jacket. The air has also been something like the coldest ever recorded here recently. But I was tired, and I couldn't wait. I biked the 5 miles, and I still have all my fingers and toes.

(mid-Richmond) Pastries lost and found, a neighborhood tour

It’s come to my attention that I need to post a more upbeat entry. The good news is that I can do that.

A few weeks ago there was a bridal celebration dinner for Ria in the mid-Richmond district of San Francisco. I was a few minutes early. So, I wandered around the looked at the shops. One shop had a sign reading “sausagerie” or whatever the word is in English – they make sausages. I love sausages; so, I went inside.

It was a little deli, and 2 old men hunched in front of a TV that was about 2 inches by 3 inches and was spewing a language I didn’t recognize. There was sausage behind the glass. I wasn’t really going to get any sausage, or maybe I was, but I didn’t want to interrupt their viewing. So, I left for the bridal dinner, which was at this Thai place with amazing decor.

Yesterday, I met Julie and Sultan at the Ferry Building. The plan had been to take a ferry to Marin and hike. But Julie was a little sick and worried about the commitment and all the cold air. I checked with Cowgirl Creamery for my friend Emily’s Twig Farm Cheese, but they were out. Alas! Julie mentioned dim sum, and for some reason I told them the story above. We headed for the mid-Richmond for a self-guided neighborhood tour.

It was time for my feeding, but Julie would not let me get a donut. Soon after, we found the Russian Bakery and bought way too many baked goods. (How I feel about baked goods is no secret.) But they wouldn’t let me eat them until after lunch – dim sum. I admired the dish on another table, but it turned out to be chicken feet, and that was a bit too much for us. I don’t think there was a white person in there, besides us, and we had to wait for a table. But the food was delicious (even without ordering the chicken feet). The lunch was also unbelievably affordable; Sultan said “we’re stealing our lunch!”

Sultan wanted to dig into the pastries right away, but we told him he had to wait until we got a coffee in GG Park. Along the way, there was an open house that, of course, we had to take a look at. I love to poke around in people’s lives, and see what it looks like from the inside. Around 20th Ave, we had trouble finding an entry into the park and ended up “hiking” along the side of a freeway eventually entering at the Rose Garden.

The last and only other time I’ve been to the de Young Museum since its reconstruction was at night, when it first opened and people could visit any time, and for free. That time, we went about 10 PM, and the line to get in was even longer when we left at 1 AM. But I never saw the gardens during the day, and with my limited rub-off knowledge of landscape architecture, I thought it was super cool. They had rows of pitasperum tenuafolium (sp?) just like Grayson and I had planted at the house on Benvenue. The magnolia trees had only purple flowers and no leaves. Everything was in rows and forming patterns and textures at a human scale but with variation brought about by good design as much as nature.

We got beverages at the café and enjoyed our Russian pastries there. If we were anywhere near that bakery again, I would have gone back for 6 more. The light poured thru the café windows nearly crossways and the colored light fixtures did their best to compete. Is that a perfect enough happy ending? We, and especially Sultan, were united with pastries…. I think so!

Stages of Heartbreak

I’ve been interested in this idea of the stages of heartbreak for years now, cyclically, as it’s come up in my life. “Getting over it” has, for me, taken between a month and 5+ years and seems not to correlate in any linear fashion to the length of the relationship. (There is that theory that it takes half the length of the relationship to get over it – not my experience.) Instead, it depends almost entirely on how I strongly I felt about the person. Strong feelings are, of course, a function of a lot of things including personality, sex, hopes for the future, and other intangibles.

I’m toying with the idea of mentioning names, but I don’t want to hurt any feelings (or bolster any egos). That’s not what this is about. And it seems like no matter what I say, it can’t possibly do justice to some relationships, good or bad.

The other thing I’ve noticed is that the stages are different for each relationship, and, based on my search of the internet, for each individual. But, to be perfectly honest, what interests me most is not the intangible what one “feels” – bc that can’t really be quantified – but rather, how that influences behavior. For example:

Stage 1: disbelief – never one I’ve experienced for more than a few minutes unless messed with, but it seems that some people just love it.

Stage 2: bargaining – how can I fix this? I, personally, love to fix things, to find a solution that works for everyone. For some people, it appears, this stage comes later.

Stage 3: guilt – again, this stage seems to come later for many people on the internet. I spend my time thinking of every thing I ever did wrong, and, in tandem with stage 2, try to negotiate with my former partner. This, BTW, has never worked. But I can get this perverse idea that if I confess every error I made, I can fix the problem and not have to “get over” this person (the painful part).

Stages 1-3 are accompanied by continual crying and the inability to eat any food. This time, I lost 15 lbs. That’s, to me, the interesting part.

Stage 4: anger – this is, I believe, very healthy. One begins to regain their sense of personal value. It’s no longer “I must be fundamentally unlovable.” Instead, it’s “you must be a horrible person for” (either) 1) “letting me get away,” 2) “treating me so badly”, 3) “leaving” or all of the above. This can include a detailed analysis of every humility or perceived wrong from the relationship; however, I’ve only felt humiliated by what I put up with in… 2 of my relationships.

That said, I admire humility… even strive towards it. I just don’t think it should ever be imposed by those who claim to love us. That’s called Emotional Abuse.

The anger stage can be accompanied by copious drinking. A recent article in the Economist about Country Music stated that booze dulls the pain of heartbreak, one of the main themes of country music, and while New Yorkers spend thousands on therapy, Southerners get the same result by drinking too much and listening to Country Music they empathize with. I haven’t found a good country station in the Bay Area, but the drinking sure is effective. And since I could stand to gain some weight at this point (if only to fit into my clothes again), I can afford it.

Stage 5: acceptance – I read on the internet that this happens. I think I, more often, just move on. The irony here (or whatever) is that I’ve been dating this whole time. I think my light was on (you know, like on a taxi), and I can’t think of a good reason not to stop when guys wave me down. It’s not as interesting as it might sound.

What next? Well, I love my friends, and I give them my complete and undying devotion. Sometimes, I have to break up with them. I used to (like 15 years ago) take pride in staying friends with my exes; my thinking being that if someone was great enough for me to Love, then they are great enough to keep even if the Relationship we hoped for isn’t possible. But I learned the hard way. Friendship is, to me, a huge thing to offer someone. I have a lot of friends, but I pick them carefully and over years.

This may sound self-important, but I still have a lot of friends. And not everyone wants to be friends with me either. Some people take me for a test drive and then lose interest. I don’t blame them. I wish them luck in finding the right friends for them. Let’s not waste each other’s time.

I still haven’t gotten to the point. The point is that if I don’t want to be partners with someone, or they don’t want to be that for me, it’s usually the same reasons we can’t be Friends afterwards. Again, I won’t list off the faults of my exes. But there are things that bug me about people. Maybe they’re too stubborn about some big philosophical thing that I can’t relate to. Maybe they’re emotionally disconnected. Maybe they’re completely selfish. I don’t want to have friends with those qualities either. Without the emotional component, and the sex, I can see that more clearly than with people with whom I once hoped for a Partnership.

I met this guy recently who believes that the foods we crave indicates our life purpose. Although we’ve had coffee together a couple times and forgotten to explore this topic in person, I can’t help but relate it to my experience with heartbreak – how I can’t eat, and then later I just want to drink. I still want to hear his explanation. But I believe our cravings for food are a function of both our emotional and physical states of being (ie, what vitamins and nutrients we need). In fact, I wonder, now, if the two aren’t the same system.

Wrapping-up Alaska, part 2

I’ve been routing thru stuff which I guess is a healthy reaction to the New Year and all. Anyway, I finally found my rain pants, which I thought I had gotten rid of already. I thought I would have decided that I’m not going to be a fanatical bicycle commuter any more, but I guess I didn’t think that hard enough. Good! Anyway, they reminded me how much I would have appreciated having them in AK. And that reminded me to finish my last story.

When we last saw our heroes they were waiting for the Ranger’s office to open in Petersburg in hopes of reserving a cabin in the wilderness but out of the rain for a day or so. Finally, it did, and a squat little local lady manned the desk.
“Are there any cabins available for tonight and/or tomorrow that we can hike to?”
“Oh, no, there all booked,” She shook her head.
“How do you know without looking?”
“I’m in charge of reserving them. So, I know.”
I took out a booklet that listed the cabins and began asking her about each in turn. “What about Raven’s Roost?” This one had been written up in both our Lonely Planet guide and an article I’d found someplace. “It came highly recommended” were Jared’s words.
“Oh, that one’s available, I think. Let me check.” She pulled out a big binder and began leafing through the pages. I was not allowed to look at them as she did. “Yes, that one’s free for tonight and tomorrow night.” I asked to book it. “For the same day, you have to book online,” She replied.
“Can we book it on your computer here?” I motioned towards the computer at her desk. “Or is there an internet café in town?”
“No, I guess you can’t use the cabin,” she shook her head.
At this point, her supervisor popped out from behind the cubical walls and set her straight. Then, there was some kind of delay during which she began to tell me about her daughter’s wedding and all the seafood they caught for it. The daughter now lived in Seattle, but she had her wedding in Petersburg where she grew up. They caught all the food from the sea – it cost them nothing! Anyway, about 2 hours later, she finally managed to book the cabin, but not finish telling me about her daughter’s wedding. Her phone rang, and Jared took this opportunity to extract me.

Raven’s Roost is a 4 mile “difficult” hike from the roadway near the airport. First, I misread the map and we ambled in the rain for a while on the wrong road in search of the trailhead. The map quickly disintegrated. Jared was sure to emphasize that this was the kind of situation that made him question our relationship. Was I not sorry enough? I don’t know. But eventually, with Jared navigating, we found the trailhead and began walking our bikes up it.

This lasted about 200 feet. The trail turned into a series of uneven steps, and the rest thick mud. Quickly, we decided to leave the bikes in the shrubbery and carry our panniers ourselves along with our sleeping equipment (which had been strapped to the top of the racks). It’s only 4 miles, right? That should take us about an hour... Wrong! So, Jared turned into a pack animal, with the panniers and sleeping mat strapped across his shoulders using ropes that dug into his muscles. I believe I continued to carry mine like shopping bags. The part I think I haven’t mentioned recently enough was that the trail was deep with mud and required hands a good bit of the time (like bouldering but on roots and thru mud). This continued for 4 miles, or, in our case, 6 hours… in the pouring rain. Remember, more rain means more mud.

I’m sure there are many entertaining anecdotes from the hike, but I have blocked them out. When we thought we were pretty close, we left some of the bags behind, with plans to return for them once we found the cabin. Except, it turned out to be about half way. Every time we rounded a bend, I hallucinated a cabin, and, eventually, about 2 hours after I thought we must be on the wrong trail or we would have found it by now, my hallucination became real. You’ve seen the photos.

We were completely wrecked. But there was still the small matter of the bags we’d left 2ish miles back. Jared went for them. I stayed at the cabin intending to get the heat going and have some tea and dinner ready for him when he got back. But, alas, the heater didn’t work. I tinkered for a while, and then entertained myself instead by unpacking all of our soaking wet belongings. The food and camp stove were not among them.

Once Jared returned, he was able to rig up something (again, you saw the photo) to keep the heat going thru drip from a fuel-refilled whisky bottle. It was kind of amazing. We never found the spring for fresh water but contented ourselves with drinking boiled bog water during our 2 days there.

Before I let the whole Alaska thing die, I wanted to include some suggestions:
• Ludvig’s Bistro in Sitka is so tasty. Imagine gourmet food with AK-scale seafood. I’ve never had anything like it.
• We were also really taken with the small businesses in Haines such as Sockeye Cycle Co. (the only full-service bicycle shop in the state), Dejon Delights (selling smoked fish), and, as I mentioned earlier, the Haines Brewing Company (!).

Christmas Family Bike Trip

My mother, sister and I rode our bikes from Colma BART to Pigeon Point on the 22nd. The next day, we rode the remaining 25 miles to Santa Cruz. On Christmas Eve morning, I rode by myself over the hill (Glen Canyon Road, Scotts Valley Drive, Glenwood Drive, Mount Charlie Road) to Los Gatos where the others picked me up, and we drove back to SF.

Along our entire route down the coast, our path was marked with brussels sprouts. They were infrequent in the beginning, but as we neared Santa Cruz, a brussels sprout rested on the edge of the road every few feet. I thought of them as Gretel’s bread crumbs directing us through our coastline “forest”.

Of course, the view was incredibly beautiful – it’s almost not even worth saying. The hot tub at Pigeon Point was mind-blowing as usual with the stars and the crashing waves. The lighthouse itself is also remarkable, and the hostel’s common space comfortable and pleasant. I was worried my mother wouldn’t be able to ride the first day’s 40 miles, but they pulled into Pigeon Point just as the sun went down (I had ridden ahead to get us some food in Pescadero). The local food (bread, cheese, wine…) from Pescadero was so yummy.

The next morning we had a reservation an Ano Nuevo for 9:30 to see the elephant seals. Mother had figured out something with her gears and was getting much faster. So, we actually made it! Elephant seals have an interesting society. Each year, the males attempt to bread with as many females as possible. About 5% get to. Each year, every female reproduces. Which males get to mate is based on fighting between the males to determine dominance. Dominant males often die that same year bc they have exhausted themselves fighting and mating. However, they have fulfilled their biological imperative by siring a great many young with their DNA. The females are only interested in the male during the short period of time when they are fertile, and then they focus on their pregnancy and their young. To the untrained human eye, the seals are mostly lying around sunbathing.

It was our guide’s first tour of the year, and he was very excited. His enthusiasm was effective; we especially enjoyed our tour. The gift shop sold stuffed animal birds that made the same sound as the bird represented. My mother bought one of each. Then we sat next to a rock where we left the bikes and ate chicken from the night before as our first lunch.

We rode along the gorgeous Pacific Ocean to our next stop of Davenport. I love the café there. However, their fish and chips (my second lunch) was so-so, a bit dry. The sauces were good though. Then we rode the rest of the way to Santa Cruz.

John met us there. We stayed again at the Santa Cruz Youth Hostel, but got 2 private rooms. My mother’s and John’s was a bit noisy, but Ilana’s and mine, on the second floor of the main building, was perfect. The Carmelita Cottages are so lovely. That night we ate unremarkable Thai food served by the nicest wait-staff ever. The other interesting thing about the hostel is it’s wealth in left foods. One could stay there and never have to buy any. For example, for breakfast I had a soft-boiled egg on half a bagel, all free to guests.

The others all had friends they wanted to visit in the morning, and I was antsy to hit the road. So, that’s what we did. I’ve done a lot of rides by myself, and I’ve done a lot of new rides with other people. But I don’t think I’ve ever done a completely new ride all by myself. Mt Charlie Road was… well… over a mountain, and there were a couple points there I thought I was going to have a heart attack, but I didn’t (“is that all there is?”). I would totally do that ride again!

They picked me up in Los Gatos, and we all drove back to the City together, which was faster than the Caltrain would have been.

On believing....

I had dinner at Gabriel's last night. Of course, he had a lot of stories from his life and interesting insights into mine. We hadn't seen each other in a while. We spent most of the evening discussing relationships, and one of his early thoughts was this Henry Ford quote: “Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.”

I figured this out a long long time ago, but I think I lost track of that "knowledge" along the way. I observed when I was 20, and remembered now, that all that it really takes to share your life with another person is the firm belief that you can.

Brian likes to tease me for being such a girl. I talk a little about politics and a little about happiness and mostly about relationships and how hard they are. But I don't believe that's really all I'm talking about. I'm talking about the Middle East. I'm talking about human nature. I'm talking about economics. I just talk about all of it in terms of two people who love each other finding a way to share their lives. It's like a _metaphor_, you know?

But back to Ford... I was perusing the internet today and someone was talking about how in "On Intelligence" Jeff Hawkins posits that for the brain to learn it requires pattern recognition. It won't record new patterns until they have been used several times indicating that those patterns work. Likewise, if you already have the patterns for success at whatever you're trying to do (whether it's get along with someone, build an automobile, or climb a mountain), it's more likely to happen.

Similarly, children in school tend to perform as well as they are expected to. So, if you expect your neighbors to try to kill you, or your partner to be insanely jealous or leave you, or to fail professionally... is that internal expectation really translatable to the outside world? After all, not everyone can hear your thoughts and act accordingly.

In life, we repeat the same mistakes until we're tired of them and refuse to continue. They say the definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Every time you "learn" something, inside or outside of your brain, you're being predisposed to "learn" it again but potentially permanently.

To combat this, "The Rules" advises eligible bachelorettes to act on the assumption that men adore them. This way, eventually, the right one will get the message and fall in love. It also keeps the way clear when men who don't and can't adore them attempt to waste the young woman's time and affections. Here, again, ones expectations should eventually be met with reality.

There are a couple different ways to manifest these events. You can tell yourself about your success over and over (a l'Affirmations) or you can act like a successful person (a la Rules and probably lots of business books too). (I remind myself of that song: "whenever I feel afraid, I hold my head up high and whistle a happy tune....") Both systems probably work, and maybe they even work best in combination with each other, but it doesn't really matter bc ultimately you need to "learn" to believe it by creating and affirming the desirable patterns in your brain.

Sometimes my posts pour out in perfect order. Other times they’re a big scrabbled mess. I fear this accidental post may be the latter. Sorry about that.

Punk Rock and Marriage

There was this guy in my printmaking class, Ryan. He wore vests and had a handlebar mustache despite being in his 20s. He considered himself “punk rock”. Another young guy in the class (also married, but in his 30s, also alternative) asked him how he reconciled being a punk rocker with doing something so traditional as to get married. He said something like: “Punk is about commitment. For example, when you get a tattoo, you’re committing to it for life. So, what could be more punk rock than getting married? It’s saying ‘I believe in you. I am willing to commit to believing in you, like I believe in punk rock, for life.”

Say Yes to Mess

NYT: IT is a truism of American life that we’re too darn messy....

I first clicked on this article thinking of sending it to Grace, who is a professional organizer. But the more I read the more people I thought of: my mother, my sister, Grayson, Sam.... The list goes on. While my associations are somewhat personal (do you remember the time when you said...), a long list still merits the blog. Here it is.

Slate on the U-Boat watch

Slate: Mr. Hitler, Do You Have the Time?
I found this essay very interesting.

I did this!

NYT: The Rediscovery of Nicaragua
The volcano hike, that is....

Things I want/Things I have

I would like:
arm and leg warmers for biking
noise cancelling earphones
sweaters (good colors, but not with that wide neck I see in all the stores right now)
gloves for sailing
a bag for my yoga mat
a new "safety" jacket for biking (bright colors, water proof (pref), with pockets)
a pressure cooker

I have (to give you):
circular slide carousels
house plants
various articles of clothing and used cds

Photos of my DC/NC trip

A little bird reminded me to upload these photos.