Still Here. Kinda.

I don't really have a whole lot to say, nor do I have a lot of time to say it. 

We're in the home stretch now--my thesis defense will be in about two months. I'm excited, overwhelmed and anxious. There's so much to do, and it feels like there's not enough time.

Anyway, here are a few photos from my garden. I pruned  my tomato plants because they were just too much for me to deal with right now. What really happened was a strange cathartic destruction of the plants involving me hacking away at them and then sitting in my front yard, sweating and crying. The next day I came back out to look at the damage (not that bad, just nicely trimmed back plants, really), and I brought my camera. No, you may not see a photo of the plants. THEY'RE FINE. 

There is such an astounding amount of life outside of our air conditioned, concreted world. The outside vibrates with life, and here I am, struggling to feel alive in the depths of finishing my graduate work. The irony is not lost on me, folks.

No color modifications here. This guy is really this bright.

Strawberry leaf.

Rushing, rushing, rushing. 

Eye sees you.

5 Year Anniversary Caravan Safari: Part 2

Ah, the rhinos.

Huge, lumbering beasts.

They act like me before I've had my coffee...but they do so all day long. Poor things.

"Hey, what are you lookin' at?"

Big ol' horns.

"Hey! Hey guys! Wait for me!"

Lazy Asian Rhino. We were allowed to feed these guys some apples if they came up to the truck. Too bad they were too preoccupied with being lazy lame-os. 

Two lazy females. Wait...is the one on the right stirring?

Nah. She's just opening her mouth to smell us better. This world is pretty weird.

There were lots of these deer pictures. I got bored scrolling through them, and I figured you would too. 

A great morning spent at the Safari park!

5 Year Anniversary: Caravan Safari! Pt. 1

It's hard to believe Tony and I have been married for 5 years. It seems like that number is too big and too small at the same time.

I'm blessed to have him as my husband, and I'm thankful for him everyday.

We decided to stay local for our 5 year anniversary, mostly because I'm desperately trying to finish my PhD and I can't afford to take a week off right now. Romantic, no?

So, we took a trip down the road to the San Diego safari park (about 5 miles from our house) and went on a special, 2 hour photo caravan safari. There were about a dozen of us on the truck total, so it was a nice, small group. We traveled around Africa and Asia, all while staying comfortably in Escondido :).

I took about 300 photos, and I didn't want to cram everything in one blog post (read: I got tired of editing), so here's the first part of our journey--namely feeding the giraffes!

Before the safari begins...

Oh hey! It's the ice cream truck. 

"Wait up guys!"

Tony made a friend...

The giraffes really liked Tony's head. They kept sniffing and nuzzling it. I was dying laughing...

Well done, Lisa. Very photogenic.

"You guys come back soon with some more Acacia leaves, K?"

Up next...RHINOS!

Puppers

I love my buddies. They bring so much joy (and energy) to our household. 

Lazy buddies, watching me garden from our deck.

Golden Ed, galloping towards Momma.

Sweet, loyal Ralph, sitting by my side.

Grinning Ed.

"Hey Ed, you gonna finish that?"

"Yes, Ralph, you hog."

CHOMP.

Retaliation.

Dandelion Puffs

I'm hanging on for dear life.

When you were a kid, did you ever blow on dandelion puffs? I used to get scolded for it, because then dandelions would be everywhere in a few weeks.

Now that I'm an adult, and I have to take care of my lawn, I definitely get why I was scolded. 

But...

When no one is looking, sometimes I'll pick one and make a wish.

Can you guess what my most recent wish was? I'll give you a hint. It has something to do with graduate school. And having it end :).

Maintaining Radio Silence

Well, it's been a while.

There are lots of reasons for my absence, but the overarching theme is this: work (i.e. graduate school) is getting in the way.

Until I graduate, I will probably not be the best at maintaining this blog (or any of the other ones, for that matter). Since most of the people who read this blog know me well outside of the internet, I'm not feeling too guilty about not updating.

Sometimes, life just gets busy.

I took pictures today for the first time in a month, and enjoyed doing so for the first time in many months. This week I'm at home writing. I've extracted myself from the environment that causes me so much grief on a daily basis, and let me tell y'all, it makes a difference.

So here are a few photos from today:

My front flowerbed is a jungle.

This picture makes me yearn for lazy days in August. Someone: make that (laziness) happen.

My ridiculous-ass tomato plants are here on the left. Sorry for the foul language--there's just no other way to describe them. They are taller than me (5'9") and show no signs of slowing their growth. Tomato jungle.

 My neighbor's lovely purple tree.

Meet Smitty. He's our 1967 Ford F100. He fits in with our family better than any of our other cars, strangely enough. To me represents everything classic, hardworking and American.

 Sometimes it's okay to keep just the little things in focus in order to hurdle the big things.