jackson towers

dinner party. wow, these pictures are several months old...oh well.

norma on the phone, navy blue dress and boots.

chef emily rocking an apron and miniskirt in the kitchen

i'm wearing a disturbingly yellow dress from a neighborhood church rummage sale. it has lace cutouts on the back and also came with a shoulderpadded short-sleeved jacket! extreme...too extreme for me to wear as a set until i'm about 60 years old.

marie and lizzie, pondering in glitter and blue and black.

striped glynis and plaid flannel todd.

the general scene

ladies who lunch

we lunched at a perfect french restaurant...bethesda, maryland. blazers, pommes frites, catching up on gossip.

qianmen

i had my farewell dinner to beijing with my chinese roommate and two high school friends who were also living in the city. we ate in a fairly empty two-story hotpot place just off qianmen that was a) not a chain restaurant, b) not fast food, and c) not overpriced! amazing. i miss eating two-hour meals in large groups.

qianmen was renovated pretty recently. i visited the area when in china in high school and it is now completely different. it's beautiful, but it is basically just a touristy outdoor mall, which i guess is what is was intended to be. this past december, i turned right off qianmen down my beloved and mercifully not-yet-completely-sanitized dazhalan alley and wandered to the west through some unlit hutongs until i emerged in the liulichang antiques area. this is another one of the many places in beijing where i would love to live.

it was really cold:

nanluogu alley evening

nanluoguxiang, a haunt of nels frye of my beloved stylites in beijing, is in one of my favorite areas of the city, just east of houhai. it's a traditional-ish hutong alley that now features boutiques, restaurants, bars, and cafes. some pictures of my first time on the alley below...more to follow.

 bradford, allison, kari at evening...allison in a nice skirt, as usual.

a bar: utopianism.

allison's gold scarf, at a restaurant in a restored old courtyard house.

i'm addicted to this place.

bradford

here are a bunch of glimpses of bradford. his clothes always have a perfect fit and strong colors, and are never fussy.

modelesque at the lama temple/yonghegong and the nearby confucius temple. love the sneakers. this is how guys should deal with warm weather.

relaxing at our local park on national day.

in the process of peeling a pomelo, one of a billion fruits available at our nearby market and at stands on the street. allison's excellent dressy skirt/orange slipper combo also made it into the photo...pure essence of college.

and the feeling is easy

summertime. a few last shots to commemorate the end of the season.

luigi swimming in a river during weekend break at my job. hooray, my camera is waterproof!

this, to me, pretty much exemplifies what summer should look like: love, dirt, rocks, water, and "jewelry" that can stand up to it all.

dancing dancing dancing, and wearing crazy prints.

smoothie in a metro station, en route to a club on u street in dc. i've basically spent the last month, since work ended, doing nothing except hanging around the city and seeing people, going out day and night and just exploring. u street is especially incredible at night--you can walk up and down u or 14th at 11 pm on a weekend night and people are spilling out of every doorway, dressed excellently, eating or listening to jazz or going dancing. my friends and i found this crazy caribbean hole-in-the-wall cafe on u where there is always loud soca music playing, and they sell pizza slices as long as your forearm, and THEY HAVE MULTIPLE DISCO BALLS. in a cafe. it is insanity.

nicole's

a week or two ago i went over to a friend's house for food, love, and clothes.

nicole's parents are foodies and it appears she's inherited something. she made apple/mango chutney/grilled cheese sandwiches. jeez. she is wearing a high-waisted (vintage?) skirt...i have similarly been finding myself tucking everything in recently.

going through her clothes.

shiny dresses.

dissapearing!

american summer

some summer shots...these should give you the idea of my summer: lots of friends, trees, and wanderings.

en route to georgetown from dupont circle.

national mall.

a class act.