+ Landscapes from inside a speeding car

The most beautiful part of my job is the drive. Sometimes I catch the sun rise and set on the same day. Sometimes its really foggy when you are getting close to the Wyoming boarder in Colorado. There are often pronghorn herds roaming the rolling prairie hills. 

resting Pronghorns 

leaving work to drive home

+ Darker

Dear Leonard Cohen passed away last thursday. He was one of my favorite songwriters. I had "I still have my dusty Song of Leonard Cohen Vinyl record. He just came out with a new album not long ago, I found it on Spotify and was playing it on repeat during my not-sporatic-enough long commutes. His song "You want it darker" seems like a prophecy. I think he knew he was going to 

die soon, and listening it now after the results of 11/8, it feels like such a comment on America. 

Listen to his new album when you get the chance, and all of his old ones too. His writing is beautiful, haunting, full of truth. 

If you are the dealer, I'm out of the game
If you are the healer, it means I'm broken and lame
If thine is the glory then mine must be the shame
You want it darker
We kill the flame

+ Me and my pup

+

+

My art portfolio is up! Soon I will post the illustrations that will be showing at Wash Perk Coffee Shop next month in the Washington Park West neighborhood. Check it out!

www.lightningminded.com

+ My sister is a comic genius

This is her web series! http://weekenddetectives.com

+ Quote of the day

However many ways there may be of being alive, it is certain that there are vastly more ways of being dead, or rather not alive.

– Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker,

+ Penny Pepper and Otis the Wolfmouse

+ Our last two days, in Bangkok again before the long trip home.

We went to a Hindu Temple in the city, they did not allow pictures so this is just a peak at the amazing buildings within the walls. Prayers and offereings were plentiful in the colorful complex. 

A record shop that offered many Thai Albums 

Sunday market with food and artisans.  It was rainy and humid.

We ate dinner one evening on the patio here. Small delicious plates and wine. It had two tiny staircases upstairs. We sat behind a white sheet that was installed for a movie and performance by a french woman who made a movie about Marylin Monroe. 

+ Temple of the Golden Buddha in a Thunderstorm

This was one of my favorite temples we went to during the trip. The paths around the property were lined with giant bonsais like these and many benches to sit and relax and soak up the beauty around you.

Vietnam Buddhas were very different from Thailand and Cambodia. They liked to give them halos of neon.

Temple dogs

offerings on a small shrine

A miniature shrine with offerings nestles between a couple Bonsai trees

The temple next to the golden buddha. The storm rolled in at the same time as we did. We took shelter in this beautiful space for about an hour while it poured. 

+ Dalat pt. II

We found a bakery in town and went three days in a row. Thier mung bean pies were my favorite. 

the view from a pizza shop we liked. We ate dinner the next night across the way at Long Hoa

the wine was...ok

A completely vegetarian restaurant we ate at our last night in Dalat.

This Daewoo stole my heart. I hope we meet again and she becomes mine. 

My mint macha Latte from Zen garden cafe

This is the hostel we rented our scooters from.

+ Dalat

After our day and a half in the big city of Ho Chi Minh, we flew to the small town of Dalat. We stayed with an older couple in their home on the top of a hill. Dalat is nestled in rolling lush green mountains and produces flowers in greenhouses for much of the region. We at 4 nights in the town and rented motorbikes everyday, exploring the countryside, visiting Buddhist shrines, getting caught in rainstorms on windy roads looking for a coffee shop to take us in.

roadside flowers

we did not stay here, we wish! We cam across this quiet and mostly empty resort and took a walk in their gardens

Notice the fisherman nets and tiny old boats

passionfruit vine