A newfound appreciation for water

Today started off with a bang... literally. A water pipe broke in the street right outside of our apartment, resulting in an early morning wake up and no water for getting ready. It's crazy because the night before I was pouring out our tea kettle to refill with fresh water and I thought about how much water I waste throughout the day. I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm not very water conscious, despite being in a drought right now, but it's not something I ever really thing about. I completely take advantage of the fact that I can turn on a faucet and get clean, delicious water to use to bathe, drink, and cook. Many people have to walk miles upon miles just to get buckets full of dirty water, and here I am pouring out perfectly good water that was just sitting in a kettle because I was being picky. I feel like it was a sign that this morning I woke up and had to carefully conserve the water that was left over from my water glass by my bed, and I felt a slight panic as I tried to figure out if I'd have enough water to brush my teeth and take my vitamins (again, two things that I'm so blessed to be able to do and take advantage of everyday). It didn't help that I stayed up working until 2am with the justification that that a hot shower and cups of tea in the morning would wake me up. Needless to say, it was not fun starting the day off in a zombie daze and in dire need of a shower (sorry coworkers).  Anywho, I'm feeling extra fortunate that by 1 pm I'll have ample amounts of water to wash my hands however many times I want and drink by the glassful, but from now on I'm going to try to be extra conscious of the amount of water I'm using and give silent gratitude every day for how lucky I am.

And now to end my rant, here are a few awesome links from around the web that I've been loving this week:

• These old photos show a different side to history and are a perfect example of the power of photography. 
• This Between Two Ferns interview with Obama is hilariously awkward, like they always are. I think it's awesome that Obama went onto the show and I thought he was actually really funny.
• This inspiring video about a brilliant boy from Sierra Leon brought me to tears. Not only has he taught himself how to created amazing technology from garbage (literally), but his outlook on life and how he just wants to provide for his family is so inspiring. Definitely a must watch. 

11 Reasons Why Jennifer Lawrence Is My BFF in My Head

Adore. Her. and apparently I'm not alone in this. I doubt even Meryl could recover that well from tripping up the academy stairs (and did anyone else notice her picking her wedgie before presenting best actor?!).

Image credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

These clips are all over everywhere, but in case you haven't been blessed enough to watch them yet... ENJOY.

feeling like a little kid

Today, I don't want to work. I don't want to take important calls. I don't want to go to important meetings. I don't want to go grocery shopping and unload the dishwasher and do the laundry.

Today, I want to eat peanut butter and banana bagels for every meal.  I want to watch early morning cartoons in my pajamas. I want to play outside all day long until the sun goes down. I want my only worries to be about why the sky is blue and how to build the biggest fort in my living room and which book I'm going to read before going to bed tonight.

Today, I just want to be a kid again.

fall back

I can't tell you how many times I've been pressed for a tight deadline or been running around wishing I could add an extra hour to my day to get things done.Well, this Sunday I get my wish! Thanks to daylight savings  we'll get an extra hour to our Sunday, but since I don't expect my Sunday to be crazy busy I'll have an extra hour to do whatever I what. But what to do with that extra hour?? The possibilities are endless.

I could do some fall crafty projects like this

or even ride one of these

but most likely I'll be doing this.

What are you plans for your free extra hour?

Happy weekend!!!

I wish I was

in here

reading this

while drinking this

and wearing these

is it friday yet?

in charge of the world

source: Jennifer Causey

So apparently I talk in my sleep… Jack so kindly sent me this email recapping our unconscious conversation last night:
I am sitting here next to you working away as you sleep.... I wanted to record what you just said so you could enjoy it tomorrow

you:  ....of the world?

me:  what?

you:  in charge of the world.

me:  who is?

you:  I'm tired.

me:  what?

you:  you're in charge of the world.

me:  oh, ok well you can be in charge too.

you:  I'm tired.

I'm pretty sure I can foresee the future because Jack very well could run the world one day. Either that or I was just really really tired. 

the little things

Sometimes things are hard. Sometimes I let my mind get all wound up and stressed, worried about where I should be with my life instead of where I am. Sometimes I think too much about my next steps instead of thinking about the present. Sometimes I don't appreciate the good things in life.

But this weekend I didn't. I didn't fret, I didn't worry, I didn't stress. This weekend I had a moment of complete contentment where I realized I'm the happiest I've been in a whole long while. I live in a grown up apartment and do grown up things like cook healthy meals and do laundry. I have a job where I get to help people and still be able to pay rent. I get to eating pancakes for breakfast whenever I want. I have the freedom to go on spontaneous trips to visit far away friends because I miss them. I get to spend all my free time with my the love of my life. I can hop in my car and drive a short distance to see my family whenever I feel like it.  I finally feel in control of my life, and get to make the choices I want to make and do what I want to do. It's the little moments like this that makes me realize that no matter how stressed or frazzled  I get about the future, it's important to take a second to remember that things are pretty dang great right now.

you never really realize

how much you use your cell phone camera until it's broken. I feel like I've lost my little finger.. (gross... but true)

how cruel mother nature can be by giving us a cold rainy day in the middle of July. But really.. what the heck is going on??

how much a song can pump you up until you take it off repeat and immediately feel like you want to fall asleep

how sometimes three cups of coffee really isn't enough. (Come to me cup number 4...)

how much you can truly miss someone special until you don't see them for days

life by phone

Boyfriend gets home today

I could not be more excited

It's no fun when he is gone

I eat microwave dinners and force myself to work out to waste time

No fun at all

little conversations

My four-year-old Cutie: Where do you live Anna?

Me: In San Francisco.

My Cutie: I live in Tiburon. Is that why you don't hang out with us all the time?

Me: Yes, I wish I could more.

My Cutie: Me too. You are funny, Anna.

Jack: You're perfect, you know that?

Me: What? I am not, silly, but that is very sweet of you

Jack: You are though. Do you know how good you smell 100% of the time? Even when you wake up in the morning- you smell so good! And you are always so warm.

Mom: You know who I heard perform the other day and I really like?
Me: Who?
Mom: PIT-bull. 
Me: uh, what? I thought you were going to say Norah Jones or something.
Mom: Nope. He has really good dance moves and his songs are so catchy. Also, I really like those "Party Rockin" guys... 
Me: LMFAO? oh dear... 

today is blah

Today is very blah. There really is no better way to describe it. Just plain blah.  

+ I woke up from a horrible nightmare and haven't felt comfortable the rest of the day. It was one of those where my worst case scenarios came true and it was so realistic that when I woke up I had a 5 second panic attack because I though my nightmare was reality.

+ I was on a high all day yesterday from shooting our amazing golf tournament and couldn't wait to edit the photos, only to try to upload them and have my computer complete break. We're talking white screen, black mouse, completely frozen-wont-restart-no-matter-how-many-times-I-press-the-restart-button broken.

+ My to-do list gets longer and longer and longer but no matter how hard I try to just complete one thing I can't seem to stay focused and motivated. So the list gets longer. 

+ I'm hating Tacoma, Washington, and the Army Corps for taking my boy away from me this week. Yeah, he's getting trained to save the world in case of a natural disaster, but I'm having my own personal disaster over here and need him to come save me. Waaaa

It's not even that these things are the worst things to happen- I've had worse problems and haven't even been phased by them. I think it's just that sometimes you need a day to feel sad and down in the dumps. A day to have a pitty party for yourself and be blue and feel like a bum. And it's days like this that you realize the small things that make you happy. Like pizza party lunch days with amazing friends. And having a comfy bed and a good book to escape away with later. And that goodnight phone call from loved ones to put good thoughts in your head before bed. So here's to you, end of the day cocktail and soft pillow, I will be seeing you shortly. 

anna and the coral pants {a love story}

Ladies and Gentlemen, you see these here pants? Aren't they just the perfect color for spring? And don't they look oh so comfy? {oh they are} I'd like to tell you a beautiful love story that I call "Anna and the Coral Pants." Grab some tea, settle in, and get ready for a wild and extremely long and pointless story.

You see, for months now I've been in search of the perfect pants for spring. I recently had a bad breakup with my regular jeans (we weren't getting along very well, they were just being too clingy! har har) so I had been searching for pants that will make me feel ooolalalovely as well as fitting the current fashion trend of colorful jeans. Well, one not so special day I was feeling particularly stressed at work so I decided to venture out of my cubicle and somehow stumbled into Gap. Oops. I almost left without getting anything but my all of a sudden, from across the store,  my eyes caught site of these beautiful colored pants. {Let me just rewind for a minute by saying coral is my all time favorite color. If everything I owned had to be one color, I would choose coral. If my entire house needed to be decorated in one color, I'm telling ya, it would be coral. It makes me feel all goo-y inside and reminds me of a tropical vacation.} So, you shouldn't be surprised that I just about died when I saw them. These were them. I was so excited. And, to top things off, they fit PERFECTLY. Then I saw the price. Sadly, no can do $70 for some pants when you work at a nonprofit. I quickly did some mental calculations and figured if I ate beans and rice for the next week I could maybe afford them, so I went ahead and did it. Daredevil over here folks.

I was biting my nails when the lady rang me up, waiting for the final price, when I looked down and saw $4.41. That's right. FOUR DOLLARS AND FORTY ONE CENTS. " Um, ma'am, you must be mistaken??" The wonderful,beautiful, spectacular sales lady (obviously my new BFF) then told me how I saved this much money because of my Gap card and that much money in rewards and all I could do was look at her and these beautiful pants with completely creepy look of love.

So you see, folks, good things do happen. After working my butt off for the last two days I was rewarded by the shopping gods with these lovely thangs AND an unbelievable deal. I might just have to wear them to work and to the store and to dinner and to the gym and to bed. Too much? Too bad. These babies are never coming off.


ps- weekend and wedding recaps coming tomorrow, don't you worry. I feel like I need a weekend from my weekend just to edit photos and relive our glorious adventure to Ashland!

my one wild and precious life

"tell me world. what should I do?"

One of my favorite and most thought provoking quote is from Mary Oliver's poem Summer Thought.

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

Oh, how I wish I could tell you! But unfortunately I have been blessed with a wild and crazy spirit that wants to experience ever aspect of life there is to experience, and therefore, I feel like I will never be able to decide what I want to do with my life. One day I want to be a successful business woman working downtown, then the next I decide I want to be an artist and work at a cafe to support myself, then the next day I want to sell everything I own to travel the world and work for a humanitarian organization. Come on mind, make a decision! What I do know is that I want to be happy {that's a pretty easy one} and I know I want to do something everyday that challenges me both creativity and intellectually. I'm at a career fork in the road right now and I need to choose a path to take. But which one??

I have always known that I have a passion for teaching (hence, my minor in Education) but the horrible job market has deterred me from following this career path. Lucky for me, the nonprofit I work for (Junior Achievement) provides financial literacy programs for K-12th grade students and I have been able to teach some of our programs in the classroom. I have always taught 1st grade, mainly because 6 year olds are pretty dang cute and just want to play and hold your hand, but last week I was asked to teach a 4th grade class. I'll admit, I was a little bit nervous because 4th graders can be challenging, but my time with this amazing class only solidified my desire to become a teacher. I had the best morning with these kids, teaching them about how to start a business and creating one of our own, and I walked away with an incredible high and feeling of self worth. There really isn't any better feeling than helping someone learn and grow, and watching that lightbulb go off when something clicks. Not to mention they kids were adorable and so much fun to be around. My favorite part:

Teacher: Ok everyone, it's time for Ms. Marks to leave

Students: {groaning} Oh man! Noooo! 

One Student: Ms. Marks, will you be coming back next week?

Me: Sadly no, but I wish I could!

Student: Me too. You are the best! Will you sign my notebook?

That's right, I'm pretty much a celebrity. Handing out autographs left and right. 

So, moral of this story is that I think I need to follow my heart and do what I love and what I'm good at. I can dream all day about becoming a professional photographer or a hip graphic designer or a super successful business woman, but when it comes down to it, I know that I will always be waiting to fill that void of incompleteness that I know will only be filled by being a teacher. I know it will be a hard and challenging road, but in the end I've been dreaming about this for years and know it is was I was meant to do. And hey, maybe I can still be a photographer or graphic designer on the side, right? One perk of being a teacher- you get summers off!!

3 things I wish I knew more about

yes, i know we are awesome at making funny faces

1. The Giants. We went to a game last night and had a blast, but I really don't know as much as I wish I did about all the players. I know there are about 5 different players that have animals as nicknames ( panda, baby giraffe, ect.) and I know the main players ( love me some crazy beard and bright blue eyes, Brian Wilson) but besides that I'm kinda in the dark. Jack and my first date back in high school was to a Giants game and he tried to teach me all the players, but things have changed so much over the years so I feel like I need to learn them all over again!

2. Graphic Design. This is definitely my flavor of the week this week- I think being a graphic designer would be the coolest job!! There is so much room for creativity and I feel like there are always jobs out there for graphic designers. Thoughts?? Is this true?

3. Hair. I've worn my hair the same way for the past 23 years ( let be real, when I was 1 my hair wasn't the way it is now), and I am so bored with it! I wish I knew how to style it to make it look like perfect Gisele hair, but no matter how hard I try it will not curl, stay, or cooperate with anything I try to do besides wear it down. Today I did a nice little twisty ponytail dooda and I felt like I was 5, but hey, it's something new. And right now me and my hair need some change.

ADVENTURES IN THE KITCHEN: a five course meal

I have a problem with chicken. I do not like it, but for some reason I always try to make it just in case my taste buds decide to change their mind. But for some reason we just don't get along. I do, however, LOVE chicken drumsticks. LOVE them. I feel like a pirate whenever I eat them, and who doesn't want to be a pirate? However, my lack of cooking skills has led me to never be able to successfully make drumsticks. You'd think they'd be easy, right? WRONG. Last time I tried to fry them and ended up setting off the fire alarm and almost burning the house down, only to be left with burnt chicken skin with raw chicken underneath. I guess that's what you get when you ignore your super savvy chef of a dad growing up and instead spent hours on AIM talking to your boyfriend of the week (does AIM even exist anymore? those were the days...)

Short story even shorter, I attempted to make drumsticks for dinner last night. And, as a result of my random cooking spurt, I made an entire 5 course meal (mainly because I didn't take into account that green beens and rice take different amounts of time to cook). Not only was I successful, but it was deeeelectable if I do say so myself. I'm quite proud of my little feast and happy to be able to be closer to crossing off number 9 on my 24 before 25 list.

sick days

There's nothing like shutting the sun out on a beautiful day, putting on a pair of comfy polka dot socks, and munchin on some chicken noodle soup to combat a horrible sick day. And watching Despicable Me on repeat doesn't hurt either. 

currently

Going along with my 24 before 25 list, I tried to think of what would make me more inclined to post more on my blog and I realized I still don't know really why I'm blogging. I guess I love reading blogs and love taking pictures, so I figure I would join in on the fun and share my photos and ideas with others. However, I realize I need more structure and need to have a focus on what I post about. This has definitely turned into more of a "lifestyle" blog instead of just solely photography like I intended, so I hope to develop more of a personal style based on what I post and what I read on other blogs. So, I've decided to take bits and pieces of ideas from other blogs and mash them with my own to create a ( hopefully) weekly schedule of blogposts. Stay tuned for more details on the exact plan ( still working that out), but for now I'll leave you with some current thoughts:

avoiding doing actual work today by refreshing the blog and coming up with really awesome ideas of how to make it amazing :)

Call Me Maybe. Sorry I'm not sorry. ( It's becoming a daily ritual to play CMM at 4pm in our little cubicle and have a dance party. We gotta have something to look forward to...)

popcorn. It's 4'clock, duh.



we were taking naps in the sun at the park like yesterday. Only 4.3 more days to go until the weekend...

 the sloppy joes I made for dinner will still be good as leftovers tonight. Yes I am lazy and yes I eat like a 7 year old.

about next weekend - Jack and friends are doing the Wildflower Triathlon next weekend at Lake San Antonio ( which is absolutely GORGEOUS) and we get to camp and hang in the sun and cheer really loudly and scream ridiculous things to keep the boys motivated. My favorite cheer from past races: " RIP THEIR FACES OFF!" It has a proven effect to motivate the boys while simultaneously terrifying the opponents. win win for us. 

thoughts lately

Summer can't get here soon enough. The other day my friend and I spent lunch lounging in the sun at a nearby park drinking root beer floats and it reminded me of hour much I LOVE warm weather and summertime. In anticipation for the best season there is, here are some things I'm stoked for:

sundresses. cut off shorts. popsicles. lemonade. picnics. soaking up the sun. diving into a cold pool on a hot day. summer concerts!. taking naps in our hammock to the music of the cicadas on a hot day. the sound of kids playing in a pool. BBQs. fireworks. lake swimming. sandals. bathing suit tans. sun streaked hair. how it stays light out until 9pm. camp fires. s'mores. the smell of Coppertone water babies sunscreen. watermelon slices. baseball games. summer fairs and festivals.

i miss my converse

This morning we woke up with the ambitious plan to go on an epic adventure. However, cold weather and peer pressure resulted in an afternoon spent on the sofa watching hours of movies and hanging with friends. We did venture outside at one point to walk down to the classy establishment of Chipotle for some delicious burritos, and for that treturous 3 block walk I decided to break out my destroyed and much missed converse. I've always been a converse girl- in high school I owned just about every color from maroon to bright blue to dark green- but I realized today it's been ages since I rocked the cons. Sadly, adulthood has brought less adventures in my cons and more work pumps and ballet flats, so I sported these gems all day and plan on bringing them back into my wardrobe as much as possible.

The Birth of a Blog

Back in January I become OBSESSED with pintrest, the most amazingly awesome photo- sharing, bookmarking, image loving website ever created, and as a result of the endless hours I've spent on this site I've discovered so many inspiring blogs. Now I've decided that  facebook and twitter and pintrest and all my blogs are not enough and that I need yet another social media form to occupy my time. 

Hence, the creation of this blog. I've always been a lover of all things photo related ( taking photos, admiring photos, attending photo exhibits) so I thought this could be a place to share my work and others' inspiring images that make me want to be a better. I will probably throw in some random, non-photo-related posts every now and then as I hope this can also serve as a place to record awesome moments from this time in my life, but for now, enjoy!