Shadows Fall.

"Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you." 
Peter took this photo of me the day we went pumpkin picking @ Tigges Farm. I post processed it in Photoshop. Have a great weekend!

Attitude of Silence

"In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in an clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness.  Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth."  

-Mahatma Gandhi

One reason why I simply must have a fully converted IR camera-- the photos are irresistibly beautiful.  Image via: tavelkyosoba.  With IR, photographs turn out so whimsical, almost dream like.  It literally captures the unseen beauty in nature, the very essence of life.  Mother Earth is such a wonderful thing, don't you agree?

Oh & I happened to change the address/title of my blog.  It is now http://maisoli.blogspot.com ... I came across the term while doing some random reading last night.  I like the ring to it and it's much shorter than the previous title.  Mai Soli = Never Alone.  I like it.  It can either really creepy or really comforting ;)

In any case, most of today was spent working on a website and converting .pdf's to .docs and then back to .pdf's once I got them all uniform and in the same template.  Quite a long, arduous task.  I had to take a break from it a few times.  Ah, I still have to do some research for another client & reply to all these other e-mails/potential clients.  Hopefully I get more work done tomorrow.  I see it's going to be a cold cold day in Colorado!  I might just want to snuggle up in bed all day :)

Labor Day Weekend

I had a great dream last night.  I know I had 3 dreams, that I should remember, but the 2nd dream overshadowed the rest.  Hence, it's the one I remember most vividly.  I love how real my dreams feel sometimes.  I know this dream was a reflection of my subconscious as well.  I woke up unable to help the smile :)


Yesterday was a pretty fun, event-filled day.  Peter & I headed down to Denver to enjoy Labor Day.  Since it took us FOREVER to find FREE parking, we decided to go to the Rockies vs. Reds game first.  HAHA.  Actually, we decided to eat first since stadium food costs an arm & a leg!  I had a chili dog and fries for lunch & he got a Chicago dog.  We watched the first 3 innings in the bar while we ate.


All the Rockpile ($5) tickets were sold out, so we got the next best seats at $10 a pop.  Peter thought we were in the right seats, but I knew we were supposed to be higher, but I didn't say anything.  Hahah.  This was my first Rockies game so I was pretty pumped!  The sun was glaring, the seats were hot.  Before long, our pants were & shirts were soaked with sweat.  I KNEW I should've stayed in shorts.  By the bottom of the 7th the clouds finally made their way over, bringing temporary relief from the sun.  It was SO hot, but at least we won 4-3!


After the game, we headed towards 16th St. Mall for the Taste of Colorado.  We got ourselves some tickets and walked around.  It was $5 for 8 tickets & it was usually 2 tix for a 'Taste'.. I tried some strawberry banana gelato, bacon wrapped chicken, rum marinated grilled pork, rice pudding, crab dip (freakin` awesomely delicious!), & got myself a small shave ice. There was a lot of people there.  I can't believe the things some people wore, their make-up, & hairstyle.  HAHA.  Anyway, it was fun.  I should've got the packs of dip though, it was seriously amazing!


After that we headed out to Peter's mom's working place & brought her some stuff from London.  We picked up some Pho to-go & I got a snow honeydew melon boba! I LOVE BOBA!  It was muy delicioso :)  Once we got home we ate the Pho for dinner and watched "Rockstar."  Not too bad of a movie.


Good times.  We were soooo tired after that!  I almost slept-in past 10am today!  Hahah.

London Photos: Day 1

Just a few photos from our trip to London: Day 1.  I spent a good amount of yesterday editing these photos, so enjoy.  I'd post more, but I don't know how to do an "lj-cut" type of thing here on blogger.  Haha.  Please click on the photos to see the full-size resolution.   

At DIA - waiting for our flight out to Chicago!

Our room - The Radisson Leicester Square Hotel

In Chinatown - just a block from our hotel.

The National Gallery - Just behind our hotel

The National Gallery (left) & St. Martins In The Fields (right)

Trafalgar Square - We probably went here everyday. Haha. It's the 4th most popular tourist attraction in the world.  It's always busy here.

Pretty building I saw while walking.  It's hard to do night photography without a tripod, but I do enjoy it!

Big Ben - I finally got to see him!

Westminster Bridge

The River Thames & The London Eye

Houses of Parliament & Big Ben

Waterloo Bridge, I think.

Having a drink on a boat on the River Thames!

Cheers!

There was a bar/club downstairs on the boat & we met this random group of guys there & hung out with them for a bit :)

With the London Eye behind us.

and that's our first day/night in London!  I actually have to download the other photos from my little camera.  I'll post a round 2 of day 1 sometime later.  I took wayyyy too many pictures.  Hahah.  I got a couple great photos though :)  More to come later!

 

Sex Dream Interrupted

"Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened."

 ~Jennifer Yane

Hahahaha, SO SO true!  A friend of mine posted all these photos of us during our Freshman year of college.  In looking back on these things, you really can't help yourself but wonder, where did all that time go?  What happened?  How did we get to this point now?  

I feel like the past 5 years have been such a blur.  An awesome blur that I wish could go on forever.  Then there's reality.  We're growing up!  Kinda.  I'd prefer to be a kid forever.  I'll try my hardest to resist the oncoming reality.

Oh, before I forget... I had awesome dreams last night.  The first had a bunch of my good friends, but I don't clearly remember the details.  My second dream... it was so vivid.  It took place in the room that I fell asleep in.  The time, the daylight, everything matched up between my dreamstate & reality.  I was laying in bed with my boyfriend (in my dream) and then as I was about to rip his clothes off, mount him, & have the greatest sexual extravaganza of my life.... I hear "Baby, it's 9:22. You should get up."  HAHAHAH.  Ultimate epic fail.  Total buzzkill.  I can't believe I was woken up from my dream.  It was going to be epic.  I've been waiting for a "sex dream" for a while.  Have you ever had one?  It's pretty amazing.  HAHA.  My dreams lately have been so vivid.  So happy.  I woke up this morning with a smile :)

Just a slight afterthought to tie the picture in more....

Everyday should be like your birthday.  Reborn.  Refreshed.  Renewed.  A new day.  A happy day.

The photo above is the birthday cake that I got for Peter earlier this month.  It's a single layer German Chocolate Cake.  It was quite delicious.

Happy Day.

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

  ~Mahatma Gandhi

I took time off from all the cover letter writing & application filling to stop and make myself feel pretty.. er, prettier.  Hey, nothing wrong with that.  I find that when I feel pretty, I feel happier.  Hah!  Not that I am lacking confidence ;)  Not the case.  It simply feels nice.

I also stopped and took a few photos.  I haven't really played with my camera in a long time.  I'm happy with the results :)  I got some great photos of Lexi & Zeus.  I'll have to post those in a follow-up entry.

I spent a good amount of yesterday, TEXTING those two.  Funny.  I enjoyed it.  I am rather happy with the results as well.  Makes me feel like a played a hand in it all in a strange way.  I usually try to avoid these situations, but this one was simply unavoidable.  Best of luck, loves.

Today wasn't as productive as I would've liked it to be, but there's always tomorrow.  Peter & I will be heading to Denver to visit his mom for a bit.  Haven't seen her in forever.  Maybe I can get my iPod fixed as well?  Hopefully there's time.  We shall see :)  

Here's a full-shot of the photo I posted above:

Chautauqua Park

Boulder, Colorado

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."

~John Muir

I took this on our way back down from the Royal Arch Trail in Chautauqua Park. I post-processed the photo in Photoshop to make the colors really pop and bring out the scenery below the rolling hills.  Coming out from the clearing of trees, the space opens up to a pretty meadow overlooking Boulder County.  Click on the photo for a full-sized image via flickr.  There on the right you can see the CU- Boulder.  Sight's like these make me even more doubtless that of a kind and loving God exists.  Blessed assurance.

Exhausted.

I am completely .. utterly.. EXHAUSTED!  I have been running on 2 1/2 hours of sleep since 6AM and my body is barely functioning at the moment.  I'm surprised I didn't give in to my bodies desperate attempt for a nap and instead kept myself awake.  If I took that nap, I would either 1) be up all night once I got up or  2) still be sleeping and would eventually wake up way to early to know what to do with myself.

I woke up at 6AM to take my mom to the farmer's market.  Yes, every Tuesday I need to take her so that she can get fresh papayas cheap:  3 for $1.00.  It takes all but 20-25 minutes really, but it screws with my sleep!  What I would give for loooong, continuous sleep.  The thought/feeling seems so foreign to me now.

I needed to get some website work done so I worked on that instead of going back to sleep.  I had more work to than I thought.  That's always a good thing.  I had less than an hour before my mom guys had to leave and I had to watch the patients so again, it was useless to sleep.  Once my brother & mom left for her appointment, I was left to watch my mother's patients.  At 11:30, I got their lunch ready and round them up to eat.  My Filipino shows came on shortly thereafter and I was able to just veg out on my shows for a little bit.

Later on, I went to the post office to send off a 

surprise mini care package for Peter.  Hope he likes the candy :)  Actually, that kid just loves candy!  Any kind of candy will do!  After that, I went over to Long's and picked up more 2 liter bottles of soda.  10 of them to be exact.  At 99 cents each, that's a bargain in Hawaii!  Talked to Peter for a while, sat on my computer... I am running on empty.  I need to sleep soon so that I can recoup the lost energy and prepare myself for our planned hiking trip tomorrow.  Hopefully the 'unsures' will be sure to come tomorrow morning.

I took these self-portraits during Sunday's shoot.  The lighting was perfectly awesome :)

The second photo has the wind swept effect in action!  Haha.  Can't wait to go back to this place next week.  Portraits will be our main focus this time around.  Woohoo.

Become One With Nature

The last time I went out on a mission to specifically to take photographs was a time so long ago I can't even remember when it was.  I've since forgotten how therapeutic photography is to my mind, body, and soul.

I may lack the understanding of all the technicalities of the camera and will probably never be able to use my camera to it's full potential.  However, I think my 'eye' and PHOTOSHOP make up for my shortcomings.  Surprisingly though, I didn't have to do much to these photos!  I wish I didn't have to rely on Photoshop.  Perhaps the day will come when I'll be able to let go of my security blanket ;)

ABOUT THE SHOOT:  Michael and I set out for our shoot on Sunday afternoon, just ahead of 'golden hour.'  This gave us time to shoot in and around the grounds.  I've never been to this place, although I've seen it in photos before.  Simply put, it's a hidden treasure in Maui's sugar cane fields... all but abandoned left to succumb to Mother Earth.

We took a trip through the cane fields, along a bumpy dirt road.  You won't see the building, but you know you're almost there when you spot the gathering of Banyan trees.  The building was built in 1879 (I'm assuming this because the year is engraved into the building!) and since it's abandonment, Banyan trees have made their home ON and THROUGH the decaying structure.  Here we see the power of Mother Nature's hands overcoming the power of man's hands. It's a beautiful thing.  A lesson of humility.

The roots fused themselves to the building kind of in a "you're mine!" sort of attitude.  Graffiti litters the structure's walls everywhere you turn.  The aluminum roof is almost completely gone.  Remnants of crazy nights and a time long forgotten can undoubtedly be seen and felt.  This place definitely brings the term "Becoming one with nature" into a literal sense.

I loved it here.  I love abandoned/decaying buildings.  This place is no exception!  I hope to explore and discover more places here on Maui with what little time I have here on this island.  I've lived here most my life and yet I feel I still have so much to see, so much to experience, and SO much to yet discover.

I took 300 or so photos that day.  These are just a taste of what is to come.  It might take me a while to get everything up online.  We know how that goes!  Haha.  We'll be going back to this place next week to shoot portraits :))  I can't wait!  For now, I've uploaded a few more photos on my flickr account.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mariacaridad/

My Lovely Kim Samsoon.

Her name is Samsoon.  She is half papillion, half pomeranian.  She weighs about 10lbs and her head is smaller than my hand.  I am stuck with this little monster for the next couple of days.

So far she has peed on me when we were introducing her to our dogs, who by the way, are 5x her size (probably more).  She pooped and peed on my car mats.  She also pooped in the

 kitchen.

Lexi grew accustomed to her and quickly became bored of her.  Zeus however.. he must think Samsoon is a little toy or a squirrel or something.  He's still fascinated by her and I spent a good amount of yesterday yelling at him to leave her alone.

Samsoon is Peter's boss' dog.  Of course, I'm left to take care of the dog since Peter works most of the day.  Not to mention this dog requires WAY more work & attention than Zeus and Lexi.  She lacks in training and house manners.  She just walks all over you, bites you, licks your face, etc.  At least she's made it to her puppy pad to poop and pee last night. Ok, and she is cute... but still.. really small.

THANKFULLY... all the dogs have been sleeping for most of the day.  As long as I don't excite any of them, I think I'll be good.  I am completely exhausted by this dog. Peter put her in her cage this morning so that I could sleep.  Once he left... all I heard was barking, howling, & whining.  I finally cracked and let her out of the cage.  She couldn't handle being in there for 10 minutes!!  She was very well behaved once I let her sleep with me though.

I snapped some photos of her... she doesn't stay still for very long.  She's still a puppy and has soo much energy.  & yehh... she currently has double fangs.

Game 3 Nuggets vs. Lakers

photo: Colorado, August 2005

I suppose living in Colorado does have it perks at times.  Then again, I believe you can find beauty in everything.  I took this photo on the way back up to Greeley after bringing my first year of "college summer vacation" to an end.  This photo is nostalgic at best.

Tonight is the Game 3 of the Nuggets vs. Lakers series.  THIS IS OUR HOUSE!  The Nuggets have won 16 straight at home and I believe we will win again tonight!  The Lakers will of course will provide a good challenge, but we can do it!  I definitely WILL NOT fall asleep during this game!  

Last night, I fell asleep during the Cavaliers vs. Magic game!  Ahhhh.  I watched the first two quarters & fell asleep during half-time.  I half woke up during the last 3 minutes of the 3rd quarter (thinking it was the 5th) and quickly fell asleep again.  I woke up during the last minute or so during the 4th.  I TOTALLY THOUGHT I WAS AWAKE (because I could hear the TV), but I apparently missed the most clutch shot of the night/finals series.  The roar of the announces/crowd quickly woke me up as I saw King James erupting in excitement.  The constant replays of his game winning shot throughout the rest of the night totally made up for it though.  This play was the talk of the town.

I'm making sure I'm not falling asleep this time.  This game will be crucial to the momentum and morale of the team.  GO NUGGETS!  I need to put my nuggets gear on.  Since I don't have anyone to watch the game with (Peter's at work), I can go crazy and jump up and down without a care in the world.  Lol.  It'll be fun.

Yes, I'm sure everyone has noticed by now the way in which Peter has influenced me, my life, & my choice of sports entertainment these days.  Not that I didn't enjoy these things before, but I've actually taken it upon myself to watch sports.. even if I'm by myself.  5 years ago, I wouldn't be able to say the same.

On a side note, before I take a quick shower... writing has proved to be a challenge.  Endorsing a check & writing a deposit slip shot sharp pains through my fingers.  Ugh.  It made driving a biatch to say the least.  I grinded my gears TWICE yesterday.  It's the first time I've done this to my car in the 8 months that I've owned it.  It's not a pretty sound.  Anyway, I just have to laugh because my mom is really sad about not being able to write as nice & neat as she used to (side effect of .. yah).  She's been practicing her handwriting daily.  Me, I think I'll just avoid it altogether for now.

GAME TIME!

------------------------

heart.shatter   ... good thing its a 7 game series. wayyyyy too many stupid plays.  way too many fouls.  & way too many selfish plays.  get smarter nuggets!

The Journey Home.

Last night at 9:45pm while watching the Nuggets vs. Lakers game coming down to the wire... I realized I had less than 15 minutes to book my flight to Maui!  I originally put this flight on hold 2 days before and prices jumped over those 2 days, so I knew I had to book my flight.

All in all, with taxes and everything, $373 round-trip to Maui on United Airlines.  That's with one stop-over in LAX and one in DEN on the way back. Oh yes, there's a catch, I have to fly out of Colorado Springs instead of Denver.  I'm going to see if I can just stay in DEN on my way back up though.  Haha.  Saving $100 seems to be worth the extra 1 1/2 hour trip down to COS ;)  So, it's official, I'll be home June 4th - July 28th.  I gave heed to my mother's request to stay longer, at least till the end of the month.  My mom deserves it and I did promise to take care of her.

I have quite a few things to take care of when I get home.  I don't want to be a slave to my thoughts and ill-feelings toward numerous parties.  My mother won't say anything and I can clearly see the burden that everything is causing.  Therefore, I'm going to take it upon myself to let all the assholes of the world know that karma is alive and kicking.  Frankly, I'm tired of all the bullshit and ungrateful people.  My mother is too great a woman to confront others, but I love her too much to let anyone else hurt her.

My mom can't afford to be stressed about anything right now.  These things can prove to be detrimental to her health as she continues to go through therapy and is recovering.  Unforunately, things just never stop though.  Today, we received word that Mr. Suzuki (Suzuki Sensei in the Aikido world) passed away in the early morning hours.  He was 92.  Mr. Suzuki was my mom's patient and lived with us for about 2 years or so under the care of my mom.  She called him "Papa" and really loved him.  As for myself, I really respected him as a person.  He was a legend in his own right.  It's rare to witness a humble spirit in a man with his status.  

I wrote a 10 page paper about him my senior year of college. I need to re-write it to fit the occasion and probably condense it to no more than 2 pages. My mom wants me to send my paper to his family.  All I know is, Maui lost a great soul today.  The Aikido world lost a great teacher.  Some things I'd like to highlight about Mr. Suzuki:

• At the age of 90, he attained of kyudan, or 9th degree black belt in Aikido.
• He is the first non-Japanese citizen and only the fourth person ever to achieve a 9th degree black belt rank in his martial art.
  
• His promotion made Suzuki Sensei highest-ranked aikido instructor in the world outside of Japan.
  
• He was a police officer for the Maui Police Department for 32 years & retired as a Major.
• He volunteered his time to teach new MPD recruits the art of self-defense from 1953 until 2007.
• Shin’ichi Suzuki Sensei: Head Instructor, Maui Ki-Aikido
  
• Maui aikido ’sensei’ attains 9th-degree black belt rank
  
• Honored Teacher

He had quite a life and I am grateful and honored to have met someone like him.  I wish he held on just a few weeks more.  I would've liked to visit him and present him with the paper I wrote about him.  I'll always remember him sitting at the table with a pile of Christmas cards, painstakingly hand-writing a card to each and every person that sent him cards & well-wishes.  We talked and talked and talked that day.  Until we meet again Mr. Suzuki.  'Let your ki flow like a stream.'  May the waters embrace your soul and like a river lead you home.

Photo: Iao Valley circa 2007. Cotton candy effect.

It was a pretty day yesterday.

Yesterday was in the 90s!! After doing some webwork, I met up with Ken at Noodles N Company for lunch. We ate outside, chatted, and all-around had a great conversation about life. It's always nice to meet up with friends you rarely see or talk to and catch up. We ate outside on the patio and the weather was just perfect. I had the stroganoff with braised beef and it was delicious.

After lunch, I stopped by Starbucks across the street and decided to surprise Peter with a Iced Chai Tea Latte since he was working just a block away. It was hot and he was wearing a long-sleeved dress shirt. I figured he'd enjoy a nice cold drink :) He was taking in a delivery when I got there, so I waited outside in my car. It just got hotter and HOTTER ... I thought I was going to have a heat stroke!! My A/C refused to work either for some odd reason and kept blowing out hot air (my car is new, there's no reason for that!)... Alas, i walked in with his drink. He looked quite surprised! Lol. It's the first time I've done anything like this, so I hope it was appreciated :)

I went home, had a convo with my nephew (cousin's son) via text. I told Peter my hand hurt & no more driving for me today. Haha. Damn stick shift. He called me during his break on his way to Fort Collins. On the way there, something went wrong with his car and he decided to turn around and head back to town.  Sooo, I had to drive down to the dealership to pick him up and he borrowed my car for the rest of the day.  

I took the liberty of putting on some make-up and snapping a picture or two afterwards .  It was really nice outside once 'golden hour' hit.  I really wanted to take photos out where the sun was shining, but there were people outside.  Lol.

I just lounged around for the next couple of hours.  I watched TV,  chatted, and cooked some dinner for Peter.  When he got home, he told me, "Babe, you're a good girlfriend."  :)  Perhaps.. that has to do with everything I did for him today.  To that I say, "Of course. I'm awesome!"  You'd probably be an idiot not to see that and that's that!  ;)

Today, I'm excited for the Denver Nuggets game!!  I believe in you NUGGIES!!  We can do it and clench the Western Conference Finals in SIX.  Hehe.  Just a hunch... maybe it'll go to SEVEN.  Exciting!  I think we're going to try and go somewhere to watch it.  It's much more fun when there's other people cheering with you.  Maybe we'll go to B-Dubs!  I love wings and today is 'wing tuesday' ... 40 cent wings!  & now for pics..

*Note, I had to edit this post. There was an overload of smilies.  I need a smiley intervention.  Lol.  & yes, my eyes are quite large sometimes.  & I was trying really hard for that peace sign.

Weatherman Was Right

Sunrise, 4 years ago.. one of my favorite photos.

Majority of my photos on flickr need to be found doing a manual search since my "Pro" account expired months ago. Thats pretty much when I stopped using flickr as well. Publicly, only 200 of my photos are displayed because of the restrictions on basic accounts. I do have hundreds of other photos on there though :)

Anyhow, for once the weatherman was right! I took the dogs out early this morning and it was raining. "Arbis Ti Gracia" (Ilocano) as I'd call it or Showers Of Blessings. I love the smell of rain, especially in the morning.

Tonight I'm having dinner with Layne guys at their new house in Loveland. It'll be nice to spend some time with friends. I'm going to make my cheesecake cookie cupcakes, but I didn't know I only had one box of cream cheese at home. Damnit. I knew I should've bought more. I cant afford to drive again since I have a stick shift. What shall I do in this little predicament? I have a few hours to figure it out. Haha.

Currently, Lexi is sitting at the top of the stairs trying to get my attention. She's telling me she needs to go to the bathroom. Sometimes, I despise how smart she is. A dog that tells you what she wants and is persistent at it until she gets it whether it be needing water, food, attention, or using bathroom. What she's come to understand in these past 2 years boggles my mind. Lol. The newest thing she's learned, "Lexi, where's daddy?" Haha! Its too cute. When I ask her, she'll immediately look towards the door to see if Peter's coming. If she thinks he's almost at the door she starts going up the stairs to look for him. Perhaps having 2 smart dogs is quite entertaining most of the time.

News I've read so far today, will read more later. Too many about death right now:

• Suspect in pregnant Marine's death not father of unborn child
  
• Boy found buried in NM park still unidentified