Scott and I went up to my old college town to visit our grad school friend Chris Dunn in her new work town. So of course, I had to show them around campus.

We found this squirrel inside the trashcan. He scared the pants off us at first. Scott put a stick into the lid to keep it open and our little friend eventually made his way out.

Then we went to see my sorority house, wherein we scared the pants off some of the sisters. When I lived there, every so often we would get some random old-looking alumni poking around the yard and coming to the door to show off the house. We thought it was creepy, yet endearing. I totally earned the “creepy alumni” pearl today.

We ended up back at Chris’s place and sat around discussing the merits and usage of ‘backs of people’ photographs and other news-y things. This was our ‘campfire.’ Chris is in the middle of a move. I’m just happy to spend time with a friend.

We capped off our evening with glow bowling, but I opted to fully enjoy it* instead of taking photographs.

Funny, in hindsight I wish I hadn’t.

* I have this strange theory that I don’t necessarily ‘fully enjoy’ experiences when I’m behind my camera. Not that I don’t enjoy being behind it – it just changes the way I see the events unfolding. I look for moments before they happen when I’m photographing, hitting that shutter just at the right time to capture something so fleeting. But when I’m just me, no camera in hand, I let time take its own course and I watch moments that could be photographs pass me by. Perhaps the fact that I still recognize those moments is why I feel like I wish I had taken some pictures that night. I see them in my memory, but not on my card. Alas, the perils of attempting to ‘just be normal’ for a moment.

For size comparison, see here.

Um, Steph – that’s not a zoo animal. That’s the baby.

Funny, because it was over 40 degrees. The rink was packed. I wanted to simplify.

(An homage to Josh Bickel.)

“Thundersnow” was most rampant. “Snowmageddon” also appeared, but not quite warranted compared to last year’s blizzard. “Commute from hell” was likely most accurate.

At the time of this photo, I had no idea that it would be five more hours until I could walk through my apartment door. I felt on top of the world with my 35/f2 and semi-water resistant D700. Strangers told me to get my camera out of the snow. I laughed and told them it had been through worse. (Three days of thunderstorms while camping at a burning man-esque event only made a piece of the rubber housing come loose.)

More snow photos to come soon. Cliché, I’m sure, but snow makes every gritty city look beautiful.

Right?

I’ve never been to the west coast before. Technically, I still haven’t been, but Seattle is pretty darn close – and in Pacific time – so it counts in my book. Scott’s family lives in Everett, so we didn’t spend the entire trip within city lines. However, the few times we were able to visit were fantastic.

On our first trip, we went to the Seattle Center, which is home to the Space Needle, SciFi Museum, and the Experience Music Project (collectively known as the EMP|SFM). A bit touristy, a bit awesome. While I don’t think I would go up in the Space Needle all the time, it was incredible to see the entire city from the air.

The second trip kept us on the ground and put us down in the center of the Pike Place Market. What an incredible place! If I lived in Seattle, I would go there every week to buy fresh fish for dinner. I usually get squeamish seeing whole fish or meat on display at the supermarket, but here all I wanted to do was look at it and eat it. Mmm, fish.

We really lucked out with the weather on this trip. The only sort of precipitation we saw was in the form of thick frost on the ground in the morning and fog over the bay once. Other than that, we had beautiful blue skies and golden sunsets. I almost wish it rained a little just so I’d get to see what typical weather is like in Seattle. I really loved this city and can’t wait to go back and explore more.

(Don’t worry DC – I don’t love it more than you. Seattle’s an adventure. You’re home.)

Ironically though, the only photos I have uploaded so far are my project365 selects. More photos to come in subsequent posts. I’ll keep ‘em short and sweet.