“Don’t you know you can’t go home again?”

Before I moved away, I wasn’t very thrilled about moving to Oklahoma. I kept saying that I’d be back often enough, so I shouldn’t be so sad, but… I was moving away from home, from everything familiar. More than a few people told me the same thing: “You can’t go home again.”

I know this is true. I know that the places I frequented will be forever altered for me when I return, even if nothing has changed at all. Places may be almost permanent, but the sentiment attached to a place is, sadly, transitory. Even with the growing independence of living in Oklahoma, with all the good and bad memories I’ve created there, I always look forward to going home. I know it won’t be the same, I won’t have my old room, but I just get so excited at the prospect of being where things are so familiar.

The thing everyone left out is that coming back to your home, that place you grew and loved and hated and needed to leave but never did, makes you appreciate everything you used to dislike. I love West Virginia. It’s my home. It’s the one place in my nomadic childhood that I stayed. I grew to love. I think it’s beauty is unparalleled. I’ve lived many places, and visited even more within the continental United States, and I always come back to West Virginia as my favorite.

I mean, come on, guys. I have the state tattooed on my foot.

There’s an increasing feeling of calm the longer I’m in West Virginia. The first morning I woke up at my parents house, I couldn’t help but notice that I never realized how quiet it is when you sleep far away from the road. Or how dark it gets at night. How many stars you can see. How many things are just different. I forgot so many things, like how many trees there are, and I have an entirely new appreciation for all of it… Even if I’m constantly suffering an allergy attack.

Josh & Jess [Stillwater, OK Wedding Photography]

I’ve said before that weddings just aren’t my thing. While I still think that’s largely true, I do have to say that after taking a long break, it was really, really nice to shoot a wedding again. And I couldn’t have had a better couple to photograph.

Josh and Jess are two of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. I don’t say that lightly. They are both kind, generous, loving, witty, smart, AND talented. And, can I just say, they are both incredibly attractive as well. Just look at those photos!

I don’t have too much to say about the entire day other than that it was a beautiful day, a beautiful couple, and I’m grateful that I could be a part of it.

It never hurts to have a really fun wedding party to photograph as well.

 

Sweet Potato Tacos

Awhile ago, I asked my buddies on Facebook what they thought of sweet potato tacos. Reactions were mixed, but leaning toward “sounds good to me.” See, I’d spotted quite a few recipes for them, and while the mixture sounded odd in my head, I like my sweet potatoes to have spice. I used to eat just sweet potatoes with soy butter and chipotle chili powder. Then I switched it to curry powder. I add chipotle chili powder to all my sweet potato french fries. I’m kind of nuts for chipotle spiced sweet potatoes. Or curry spiced. You get it. I like my sweet potatoes to be spicy.

Let me just say, THESE ARE AMAZING! 

I’m not kidding. The flavor and texture mix just works. I can’t describe it. I highly recommend you do what I did and follow this recipe to heaven… in your mouth.

I did a few things different. First, no onion or cilantro. Second, I only used cumin and chipotle chili powder. And I used white corn tortillas.

 

 

May 22, 2013 - 2:54 am

Jess Dang - So glad you liked this recipe! Beautiful photography too!

May 22, 2013 - 10:19 pm

Stephanie - Thank you for sharing the recipe! It was really easy to follow and super tasty!

San Francisco Part 2: Books, Coffee, and Tattoos

I spent an entire day in San Francisco, toward the end of the my trip, limping from place to place, or taking a cab to get where I wanted to go. I still managed to limp 6 miles that day. See, I had developed a blister on my foot. Whether it was the hot water from my bath or all the walking, I’ll never know, but my blister decided it was tired of living and just popped itself. After the initial pain and shock, I tried to limp my way to bed and twisted my ankle. It was all very painful, and I’m sure also very funny to watch.

The day I limped around will probably go down in history as my favorite day that I ever spent by myself.

I woke early, caught a cab to City Lights Books, and limped my way around. I didn’t take too many pictures, but I did spend a lot of money on books. (Note: When you’re traveling, it’s pretty dumb to buy a bunch of books. You have to pack them, you big idiot.)

Now, as a reformed English major and poetry writer, going to City Lights is a pretty big deal. All of those beat poets I read in college, who I was forced to emulate by my poetry teacher (don’t get me wrong, it’s a good writing exercise!), were all here at some point or another. Published here. Read here. I was in the very spot where so many men, for better or worse, shaped poetry.

And then I got over myself and started browsing the books. They have an amazing selection!

After spending too much time and dropping too much money on books I didn’t need, I decided to ask the clerk where the best coffee could be found. City Lights is in North Beach, which I’ve been told has amazing food, but I hadn’t heard anything about the coffee. He advised me that I could get a pretty good soy latte at The Station, gave me directions, and sent me on my merry way.

He was right.

This was the best latte I think I’ve ever had.

  

Charles Bukowski is not my favorite writer. He’s probably not even in the top ten. He did, however, write one of my favorite poems. Hopped up on the San Francisco vibe, all the amazing coffee, and an excellent salad, I decided on a whim to get a tattoo. I decided on a line from my favorite Bukowski poem because I was in a place. I made an appointment at a well reviewed place, with excellent portfolios, and made a quick appointment.

After another awesome soy latte at Rouge et Blanc, which is a fun coffee and wine bar, I settled in for my tattoo.

I suppose the place to do something irresponsible is on vacation. So…. woo, vacation!

May 12, 2013 - 1:16 pm

Kelly - Stephanie! I love the tattoo- and in the tattoo photo your hair looks fabulous :)

San Francisco Part 1: Alcatraz

I’ve been a tourist in a few American cities, and even lived in one. I’ve been to Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Dallas, Oklahoma City (duh), Orlando, New York City (although briefly), Washington DC, and none of them ever quite appealed to me. Chicago seemed like it could be fun, but everything was so spread out, it made going to all the different neighborhoods difficult. Seattle was beautiful, beautiful, but I wasn’t a fan of the people for some reason. The others either weren’t interesting enough, or I outright hated for some reason or another.

San Francisco, however, completely won my heart. I went for a work conference and decided, months ago, to stay a few extra days. My dad was flying to San Fran for a conference just as mine was ending. I used my extra days to do my fair share of touristy things, as well as a lot of lounging about and eating as much as possible.

I’m going to use my next few posts to talk about the different things I loved in San Francisco, and what exactly I loved about the city.

First, the major tourist attraction of San Francisco: Alcatraz!

If you plan on making a trip to The Rock, get your tickets in advance. You can order them from a couple of different websites, but everything I read and everyone I talked to advised getting your tickets well in advance. Apparently, at times, the tickets will sell out weeks ahead of time. After taking the tour, I can see why.

When you take the ferry to the island, you have a beautiful view of the city, the Golden Gate Bridge, and, of course, The Rock. There are also some fun birds that trail along behind the ferry, waiting for people to throw food overboard, I guess.

Alcatraz is also a walking audio tour. They say to set aside two and a half hours to take in the whole island. After being there for an hour and fifteeen minutes, I can see why. After all that time walking around, listening to the audio tour, we weren’t even through the main prison building. My only complaint was that, as it is an audio tour, I felt like I was constantly bumping into people. But once you get the hang of looking to make sure you aren’t going to run into anyone, it’s quite a lot of fun. It’s actually the best audio tour I’ve ever been on. It’s also just an incredibly beautiful island, which sounds weird since it was a prison. But… the gardens, the views. It was all pretty amazing.

It’s also a LOT of walking. Up hill, down hill, all over. Just a lot of hoofin’. There is a little golf cart trolley that takes people to the top of the hill to the main prison, and it seems very handicap accessible, if you’re worried about that.

Anyway… on to the pictures! Which were taken both with my phone and my camera.

Can you spot the Golden Gate in the picture above? That’s the view from the Alcatraz recreation yard…

And this picture is San Francisco as seen from the Island, by the Warden’s Quarters and office.

Next post: City Lights, coffee, and tattoos!

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