Growing up in Hawaii it is expensive to travel far. I give my mom a lot of credit for taking us on family trips. Mostly along West Coast, I haven’t seen a whole lot more of the United States. After living on the East Coast and visiting a few places in between, one of my goals is to explore more of the United States. Bigger goals include international travel, but for now I’ll take what I can get.

I’m going to work backwards a little bit to fill in the blanks of what happened to me in the last two months of 2016.  In December 2016, I took a quick trip to Las Vegas to crash a convention and on the way there I settled in the window seat. If I was traveling alone I would have had a different attitude about this, but with two friends? Zero problem.

Driving to Vegas you see a whole lot of nothing, but flying is a completely different experience. I was awake more most of the flight, staring into the horizon. I saw cities, mountains and most of all felt like I was in a completely different world. This was only an hour flight but the landscapes changed quickly and greatly. I felt so small traveling a very short distance. I know there is more out there and I can’t wait to see it. The window seat does not suck, it gives you perspective and a lot of good photos.

This is probably one of the most ridiculous picture I have ever had taken of myself but isn’t it funny?? Yes it’s three days after I turned twenty seven and this totally happened on Wednesday in the middle of the workweek. When you’re freelance this can happen and it’s ok too (sometimes as long as you did all your work and are waiting for edits to come back to you). A lot can happen in a year. Last year this time, my big thing was figuring out how I was going to move home to Hawaii. Here I am a year later, living in a completely different place–San Diego.

Twenty seven is a big number. Out of the single digits, out of the teens, and no longer in the early 20’s. Mid-to-late twenties it is. Ready to see what this new year has to offer and figure out how I’m gonna float through life. Preferably with a caramel apple lollipop in hand!

The Art Department at USD is a hidden gem. Well at least for me anyway. Returning to the “Basement of Camino” (the name it is known by the majors), reminds me of where my journey as an artist and designer began. I struggled there and overcame challenges there. I grew from being shy to working on being confident. I also made friends there who were going through the same things as me. I found these cute little books that chronicles the students form each graduating class and some of our work. I  found myself as well as my friends. In fact, the cover art from 2010 and 2011 from two of my very best friends that still inspire me today.

I drink a lot of drinks. Not alcoholic ones–the occasional cocktail or glass of wine doesn’t hurt–but caffeinated ones. I picked up the tea habit in NYC pulling long days and even longer nights. I started drinking everything UN-sweetened, which was unheard of for me in college. I also learned  “getting coffee” or “meeting up in the afternoon” with clients or friends usually meant it was happening over a beverage and a cute overpriced croissant or baked good. Well duh, you don’t plan to “get coffee” with someone and get something to drink. So drinking drinks also became a social thing. I would once complain about it being SO overpriced and overrated and something I could make at home, but here I am today, enjoying non-alcoholic drinks with friends just because. 

On a recent friend meet-up in North Park, we did just that. Meeting up for coffee, just because. Except coffee is still not an option for me (never will be) and I’m all about iced tea or chai tea lattes. We got these tall and short drinks at Coffee & Tea Collective, a place that is nothing short of “hip.” From the white painted brick wall, wood counter tops, stools, rebar and Edison bulbs, it’s hip on point. Seen a lot of these from New York to North Park and I think they are here to stay, for a while. Get familiar.

As all tourist would (even though we’re not), we sought out the picture perfect postcard down the street. This photo of me looks pretty ridiculous (I have a number of friend who would agree), but hey, it’s very fitting for this time in my life. I’m back to a place where I lived the first time I left home. While I take a lot of pictures, there are some times I wish I got a picture of me at certain place. After all, “pic or it didn’t happen.”

Before my day was over, I had two more drinks. I forgot to take a picture of one, but this tea from Lofty Coffee was delish. That’s right, if you clicked the link you know Lofty is in Solana Beach, so I traveled far for this one. With a new sidekick, this lavender infused black tea really hit the spot. It’s supposed to be fall but SoCal doesn’t quite do it like the east coast does and it was pretty warm.

My last tea of the day, Thai Tea, was paired with pad see ew, from Bahn Thai in University Heights. I don’t really know how I ended up there with yet another friend, but we did. Friends and food go hand-in-and and this particular day was full of chatting, eating and drinking–tea. Sometimes it’s not about how good the coffee/tea/food is (although that’s the goal), but it’s about the company and throughout this day I totally scored.

USD’s got it güd.

Yesterday, I posted a pic similar to this to my Insta-story. Still trying to figure out why I would need to do that, Snapchat, and maybe even a real Insta-post that only some of my friends would see thanks to the new algorithms. I could even share all that to my Facebook feed if I really wanted to (and at times, I do). Let’s not forget Twitter because this will end up there too. With so many ways to stay connected and share, when does it become an over-share? I’m struggling with the idea of having so many ways to post.  I wouldn’t want people to see the same image 10x. Instead, I’d want them to see something different, every time. This is a new challenge to me. I remember when the challenge was to take a picture of something interesting everyday. Now I’ll have to take at least 20. Catch me where you can, I won’t promise it’ll be super interesting, but I’ll do my best to try!

My last trip to SF happened because of some real cheap flights to Oakland. This route was the best way for me to get myself down to SD and lucky for me I have friends in a few places. I was able to turn this 36 hour layover into one filled with the the typical and atypical tourist activities. The day started gloomy, of course so to brighten it up we got latte’s from the cutest corner cafe, Angelina’s in the Richmond district. The next stop was Golden Gate Park to walk through the Academy of Sciences. We went across the way to Sausalito and back again to lunch in the Marina. Then finally making it to Alamo Square to get the perfect pic at the “Painted Ladies” after all these years and trips to the Bay. Dinner and drinks in the Mission closed the night and the next day was spent in Oakland. This was a quick trip filled with going to common spots and hidden treasures, seeing the bay and bridges at all angles, and most of all, reconnecting with friends. Making the most of what I got because when I look at what I have, it’s definitely a lot.

Actually, no. What is not chill is I can’t believe the last post I made was from July 31, 2015. I’m writing this and scolding myself about that. Now that’s I’m finally here, the secret’s out. Okay, it really wasn’t a secret, but it also wasn’t announced. I’ve made my way back to San Diego, the University of San Diego to be exact. I’m not longer a student, but I’m a teacher. I’m teaching a class I took as a freshman, in the same classroom I took it in as a freshman. I have the same e-mail address and ID number (they never get rid of those) and I’m walking the same halls I walked nine (what.) years ago.

I haven’t kept my digital life as updated as it should be. From tying up the lose ends at home, to prepping for my second cycle in San Diego, AND working (because we have to make money honey), it hasn’t been chill. But now I’m here and I’m pretty happy about it. There’s a lot going on here on the west side of America, and I’ll keep working on posting here, so I will forget about it never. ;)

And it’s times like these that make me even more thankful to end my day this way.

For the first seven weeks of summer we were planning a mural and for the last 10 days we were painting it. A team of BHS Art Alumni gathered together in the same place we all started–the Art Room. If it wasn’t for our Art teacher and Art Mother,  we wouldn’t be here. In her teaching career, Mrs. Janet Sato has given students a lot more than an art education, but encouraged, challenged, and guided us in our life and careers. She may not realize what she has done for all of us but I think the success of this mural shows all that and more.  I found myself doing a lot of “back-end” work. I can not take credit for painting huge parts of the mural, but instead I was keeping tabs on our digital needs and building us a website. After the start of the project, I had flashbacks to grad school. I realized there had to be a way to document the process and share what everyone was putting into this project. I was impressed daily by the team and honored to be among so many talents artists. We sweat through our shirts and suffered bumps and bruises too, but no matter what we kept going until the mural was DONE. 

I took a chance and painted those little white flowers on the bottom. We saw this special flower, the Nohoanu (Geranium multiform, on our hike in Waikamoi Preserve. A very rare flower that only grows there, up in Haleakala. I haven’t picked up a paintbrush in years. Well, not one that required more than painting a single color on walls, but I am glad I did. I didn’t forget how to paint and I even got to collaborate with my junior and senior year English teacher on this one. How about that! Now that this is over, it’s a little bittersweet. We are happy to see the product of all our planning, but we are also sad to part ways again. This project brought together people who would not cross paths on a regular basis. Mrs. Sato holds us all together and we are lucky to have her to inspire, challenge, and bring out the best in us. This mural is one of the reasons I am happy to be here, giving back the the community and place that gave me so much. For the whole story visit www.bhsmural.com.

There’s a lot going on at Baldwin High School right now. The center of campus has been home to a mural for years. We are respectfully replacing the one that was there through all my high school years and the focal point of campus. All the artists involved are donating their time, spending hours working to get this done. We have been planning this for seven weeks, and these last two are gonna be the best. Wait for it, it will only get better from here.

Going up 10,000 feet to see what the birds and native plants are doing up on Haleakala. This was just the beginning. The rest of Maui is down there, somewhere!