A Day in the Life, In Photos

A lot of my favorite bloggers are doing this week in the life documentary project, which I think is really awesome. The whole idea is to be mindful of the moments as they occur, and to record things that you might think ordinary, but that you will treasure having as photographic memories in the future. I realize that in the past few months, as I’ve been busy with work, I haven’t taken as many photos as I used to, and I really want to start making that a habit again. I thought one day of pictures would be a good place to start, and it just so happens that today was kind of a special day, my first day off in months. I thought it was auspicious. And so, without further ado, here was my day. I had a quiet morning at home–I did not manage to sleep in, but I did at least experience the joy of not having to inhale my coffee on the way out the door. I got to see my Besfrinn and her sweet baby (almost one month old!) via Skype, and it was a fantastic way to start the day. After a few projects around the house (yes! the laundry has finally been put away!), I headed out to the grocery store, since we have not had any bread for the last three days. I haven’t had time to bake any in the past week, so we were feeling starchless. I found the grocery store wonderfully uncrowded in the middle of the day. On the way home, I snapped a picture of this building that I really like, which is completely covered by ivy. Even the window. It must be a pretty, if obscured view.

As I turned up our street, I was struck by how pretty the palm trees were against the backdrop of the mountains. I am so grateful that we have such a beautiful place to call home. This block of our street has always struck me as idyllic, and I’ve never taken a picture of it before. I am sure I will be glad to have it when we move away, and that’s kind of the whole idea of this project: take pictures of things you consider too ordinary to record; you’ll be surprised by how powerful they are, especially as time passes. I took this shot with my phone from the car (hoping that no one would pull up behind me), and that’s something I never would have done otherwise. It makes me happy to think that what this project is really about is seeing things, things you’ve seen so many times that you don’t really see them anymore. It’s the basic line of my most favorite Russian formalist theory, and I think the week in the life project would make good old Shklovsky smile.

In the afternoon I had just a quick minute to knit a row on this cable blanket that I’ve been making for ages. I am just going to knit it until I run out of yarn, and it’s really fun and relaxing. When I finally finish it, I am going to have to dream up another project like it because I will miss it so much.

Then my sweet friend Lisa came over bearing many gifts. She picked these Meyer lemons from the tree of another friend of ours, and the avocados were a gift to her from another friend. Can you believe the size of them?! I am so excited for all the guacamole they are going to make!

Lisa and I had a mission: lemon meringue pie. We had so much fun making it, and I hope I always remember how hard we laughed at ourselves trying to spread the pastry crusts in the pie plates and as we both peered over the side of the mixer, trying not to mess up the meringue. The pies we made were so delicious and rather…interesting looking. I am no meringue expert, but I had a fabulous time!

After Lisa headed home for dinner, I had a quick sandwich and opened the mail. My copyright notice for my dissertation arrived from the Library of Congress. Fancy!

After dinner I headed out with Lisa and her husband to meet Eric for a lecture at Caltech. The speaker is a colleague of Eric’s, and he never disappoints. It was a lovely evening spent pondering the stars and how we discover them, with plenty of hilarious jokes thrown in. The auditorium (the same one where we attended the red carpet premiere of the PhD movie) always makes me smile. It is so unusual and pretty in all its details. After the talk we headed home, where I am now writing this blog post (my weeknight routine), and soon I’ll curl up in bed with my riveting David Lodge novel. A really wonderful day. I’m grateful to have experienced it, grateful to have captured it. Thanks for coming along for the ride!