Feeding My Passion

It’s been juuuuuust over a month since I last posted, a month and 2 days since I finished my degree. I had a glorious 2 1/2 weeks with Kamila in LA. I got to see the city like I’d never seen it before in the dozens and dozens of times I’ve been down there, mostly with my family, mostly visiting family (or Disneyland).

Kamila lives in a sweet, quiet house in W Hollywood, in a neighborhood that veers from tarnished (or burnished, take your pick) apartment buildings down one street and incredibly tidy and gorgeous examples of single-family residential architecture down the next. And since it’s between Santa Monica Blvd. and Melrose, it feels like the epicenter of American pop culture, from Chaplin to Beach Boys to the Jonas Brothers (Who the hell are they by the way? Do they make music with more than 2 chords?).

So what did we do for 2 1/2 weeks? Well, she worked during the week, so I volunteered in the Shumei Natural Agriculture Garden three days a week and stayed home (yes, it felt like home – I seem to be supremely adaptable) the other 2 days, read, caught up on my email, recovered from the gardening, whatever.

And I enjoyed cooking for her: Breakfast, packing her lunch, and making dinner. Of course I love cooking already, no surprise there, but I rarely do it everyday, three meals a day. I didn’t have to be particularly creative, my own money ran out after the first week (LA is expensive, go loaded for bear), and I didn’t want to be extravagant, but I had a lot of fun being creative with what I had and what was inexpensive: brown rice, legumes, greens. I actually made mayonnaise from scratch –  raw yolk and everything – for the first time while I was there out of necessity. And it was awesomely delicious!

And without being indiscreet, Kamila is truly amazing and we had a magical time. I were but little happy if I could say how much…

I’m all about the food in one form or another, even if I don’t eat it. We were staying at my youngest sister’s place at Soil Born Farm’s Hurley location, where she lives with her boyfriend, Ryan (they’ve been together more than 10 years). We didn’t have the pleasure of their company this time since they were in New York visiting friends.

However, some of the other farm animals kept us from getting too lonely or bored. The chickens are cooped up, but one of them can fly out of the coop, and seems to enjoy getting out and walking around. I started stalking it, cornered it, and then picked it up and put it back in the pen with the rest of them. Then the same bird expressed her displeasure with me by flying at me! The nerve!

They just got a couple of piglets, very cute. Those are Ryan’s mother, brother, and father, great folks.

I didn’t get a photo on Monday, so I’m a day behind on the 30-day assignment. This afternoon I’ll post the pictures I took of a radio DJ this morning (7a!), along with the pictures I’m going to take at the main Merced Fire Department. That will catch me up, and then I’ll have another 7 days of photos. Then I’ll do my 1-Day project, do a book report on Loup’s book, pitch my essay, and photograph it!

Oh, I need to get a portfolio together and submit it, but that might be challenging since I’ve moved 11 times (no kidding) since I left Columbia in December 1999, and my photos aren’t as together as they should be for this type of thing. I’ll talk to David about it for some guidance.