Hello world! Greetings from my bedroom to yours as we enter Week 6 of Stay-At-Home! I haven’t put out any content in MONTHS (it’s been a tough year, lol) but I have 42 drafts sitting in WordPress so I figured I’d publish one of those :). As some of you might remember, this past summer I started a series called “The Cut,” which is basically full of photos I love, but that never actually made “the cut” for my instagram. This is where I delve in very in-depth on people and places I have pictured this month. I take lots of pictures, so this post ends up with a lot of paragraphs. It’s a #LongRead for sure.
These pictures are from EIGHT months ago. 2 semesters, 4 roommates, 31 units, and many adventures later, here I am, finally posting about the final month of my summer before the CRAZINESS of sophomore year started. So here it is, drafted, unedited, and unfinished from several months ago– I hope you can enjoy looking back and reminiscing on the days when we were still allowed to go outside and hug our friends hello. Oh, to be young and 18 in 2019. Ladies and gentlefolk of WordPress, I present to you: The Cut, August 2019 Edition:
More pictures I enjoyed this month that didn’t make my Instagram. A basic summary of the month of August is that I finished working at Yogurtland, moved out of the house and back to school, said my goodbyes to most of my friends moving back to the Midwest and Colorado for school, attended a week of training for my on-campus job, went to Mammoth for cross country training camp, and began classes. It’s been a packed and very busy month, and that’s just the kickoff to a packed and busy semester– but hey, as a Type 7 on the Enneagram, busy and stimulated is the best state for me to be in. These photos are just some little peeks (or, in the case of the mammoth pictures, “peaks”) into my experiences of the past month! Enjoy.
- Floral shots and gum spots. This is a picture I took one night as I walked back to my car from my friend Daisy’s performance at Steelcraft. It was a rare occasion in which I felt like looking nice for no reason, so I spiffied up in a new dress I received from my aunt and strapped on some heels! It felt nice to look nice. Also, 10/10 would recommend the gourmet tacos at Steelcraft Bellflower. They’re a little pricey, but you’ll never have another taco like it, so if you’re in the area, give it a go! (The second picture is a clearer shot so you can appreciate the actual print of my denim dress! Ah, I just love it; what a wonderful gift! I can’t wait for it to get cooler in Azusa so I can wear it again :))
- Summer’s end. These are shots I took at my friend Ryan’s house when we had our final get-together as a big group before everyone went their separate ways once again. On an unrelated note, I find it really remarkable how my friends from high school have stayed so close; this bond has truly lasted the test of time and distance and for that, I am unbelievably grateful! The second picture is one of my good friend Anneka Bakker (check out her blog here!) gliding toward me on a boogie board. This photo really just makes me laugh every time because I almost feel like she’s going to push through the screen with the motion in the picture.
- A spontaneous reunion. One morning this month, I woke up to a missed call from my oldest brother Nico, and within an hour I was in Long Beach eating Vietnamese food with him. It was one of those days where the first thing I should have done in the morning is run, but when one has the opportunity to see her brother for the first time in two months, a medium run day is second priority. (Besides, my summer training had been fire, so I could afford one day to slack off a little). So I packed my workout clothes in my trunk, put on a summer dress instead, and met up con mi hermano. It was so good to see him again.
- Now the following few pictures are sights from my run after seeing my brother. After a meal, I kind of just accepted that my run that day might not be ideal. I also wanted to get out and explore, since I’ve lived in the 562 for almost 7 years and haven’t seen very much of Downtown Long Beach until very recently. So I took myself over to DTLB, started an account on Strava (since I forgot my GPS watch at home… rookie move), and set off for a short little run. Here are some sights from that day:
construction. there is an unseen staircase ascending up back onto the street; it is hidden in the shadow.) 
wall art. (A travel blog insert: there are SO many cool murals in DTLB! They’re everywhere! If you ever get the chance, you MUST go on a walk or bike ride through the area and check them out!) spOtted in lOng beach. (taking this photo made me feel like SUCH a tourist… passerby on the street staring at me, I’m from here, I SWEAR).
I also got side tracked and checked out a thrift store in the middle of my run. This was one of the rooms in there that I found it so eerie and interesting that I had to take a picture of it. There was also a fluffy white cat living in the store, which I thought was hilarious, though maybe also a little weird; couldn’t help but fantasize that it was secretly a person, like Professor McGonagall in Harry Potter). - “Boulder? I barely know her!” I’m a little frugal to buy a climbing membership when I don’t go climbing all that often, but thankfully I have friends with Hangar 18 memberships that allow them to bring one guest in for free every month! So my good friend (and high school training partner) Payton and I went climbing at our local climbing gym. It was so fun to spend an afternoon with him confronting physical challenges and achieving a couple of accomplishments (I made it up a V2, which by Hangar 18 LB’s standards, is pretty good for a rookie like me, if I may say!).
- Late nights. I found myself very stressed about many a thing in my last week before moving home, but thankfully, my mileage goals were increasing for training, so that gave me the perfect excuse to embark on some late night runs! Twice that week I took off alone on some doubles at 10:30, 11:00 p.m. Unfortunately, my late night running buddy, Josh, had left for college by then, so I had to go alone, but I actually found that I loved the feeling of running alone in the cool of the night, and without annoyingly loud traffic whizzing past me. Part of me is sad I didn’t discover the wonderful feeling of running at night earlier in the summer, but it’s probably for the better that I didn’t, because it probably isn’t super safe for me to do so anyway (#SorryMom).
- CLOSING CRU. This photo was taken at an ungodly hour of the night as my coworkers and I went to Raising Canes after work.
- Reunited! Just seven hours after that last picture was taken, I was running with my college teammates. It was nice to run with other girls again for the first time in months, to talk, and to have boba at 9:00 in the morning.
- Some church-related lasts: one last beach day with The Upper Room before going off to college, one last Sunday lunch with my mom after church service, and what I wore the last time I attended the Upper Room this summer. It was my first time borrowing this shirt of my brother’s and I just loved how it looked with my baggy cropped slacks and bare feet.
- These next two pictures feature my move-out day. In the first, you have to zoom in on my windows to show just how full my car is, but I was pretty proud of how I moved out in just one trip, filling up my car. In the second picture, you get a better idea of just how much stuff there is (but miraculously I could still see out my rearview mirror). I’m also exposing myself here for having worn the same shirt two days in a row :)
- ALL MOVED IN! Shoutout to Han for helping me unpack and delivering my futon to the mod!! I loved taking this tooth-brushing selfie because it showcases just how clean our recently remodeled bathroom is, and how great the lighting is!
- Also, I didn’t cut Hannah any break when she was washing her face, and this look of her mascara rinsing off was too funny to resist posting.
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The beautiful morning view of the Azusa mountains. This sight will truly never, ever get old. This view is like an old friend, and taking this picture in the clean a.m. air, I think I had a sense of, “ah, it’s good to be back.”
- This is a random little shot of the ceiling of my new home for the year. The first night of sleeping on my own (Hannah had gone home), I didn’t like the contradictory sense that came from sleeping in what would be my own bed yet Not Feeling At Home. So I picked up my blankets, relocated to the living room, and slept on the floor to at least have some uniformity in my senses; if I was sleeping on the floor like a guest, then that would at least line up with my feeling of unfamiliarity in my own home. I took this picture in the morning when I woke up.
- Azusa Sunset. From the weight room exit, where I’d been treadmill running.
- And now, a look at my favorite place in the world! Mammoth Lakes, CA! This first picture is at the top of Red Cone, which to this day continues to be the most difficult, painful run of my life. 2k feet of elevation gain in only 2 miles is no joke, but I made it up, and with an improvement from last year, because I managed it without crying! Here’s my triumphant picture at the top:
- Mammoth sunrise over the Minarets:
- Devils Postpile/Rainbow Falls run! We do this run on 6 miles of the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail), which is single-track and has some pretty sketchy footing. Thus, we always run together on this one, and always in single file. We were all really happy not to get lost this year :)
- View from the top of Devil’s Postpile. This is where the PCT continues (though we break off the trail to get to the Postpile).
Aaaaand– That’s all folks! More photos in my camera roll from the month of August, but I suppose they will remain unposted… Unless I’ll have A Cut of The Cut of August 2019 (#Cutception??)… But that remains to be seen. Thanks for reading and Happy Quarantine!
The More the Marianer 