Dear friends,

I have decided that this will be my final post on this blog. It has been truly wonderful sharing my adventures with you over the last few years, but I think I’m ready to bring this thing to a close.

I’ve met wonderful people from all over the world on here, and parting is very bittersweet. Your friendship, support, and encouragement have meant so much to me. From my year in Japan to my adventures in the Pacific Northwest to my new home in California, you’ve helped me to see the beauty in all of my surroundings and to grow into a more curious and appreciative person than I ever was.

I hope those of you I’ve been in touch with over the years will stay in touch, and I’d love it if you would join me on instagram, where I’m still sharing snapshots of my wanderings.

Thank you, truly!

Allison

Few are altogether deaf to the preaching of pine trees. Their sermons on the mountains go to our hearts; and if people in general could be got into the woods, even for once, to hear the trees speak for themselves, all difficulties in the way of forest preservation would vanish.
- John Muir, “The National Parks and Forest Reservations,” Sierra Club Bulletin, v. 1, no. 7, January 1896

Happy New Year! Here’s to lots of love and adventure in 2013.

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My friend Avalonne has a film coming out soon! It’s called Shyness, and I just had to share it.

You may remember Avalonne from her fashion blogging days in San Francisco (she is part of what inspired me to move to the Bay Area!), but she’s now living out her dreams in New York City. We met up a couple times in SF before I moved there, and she told me of her love of Woody Allen and determination to pursue a career in film. It’s pretty cool to see that she’s really making it happen now.

Shyness is a story of two people with very different backgrounds, who meet by chance at a coffee shop in Brooklyn. It explores how an ordinary event can lead to various possibilities of adventure and self discovery, and looks at why it is that we all even want to connect with others. Intriguing, right?

It’s still in post-processing, but you can follow along with the film’s progress at http://www.facebook.com/shynessfilm and see more stills from behind the scenes.

I’ll keep you posted about when it comes out too. : )

These photos don’t even begin to capture all the majesty of Yosemite, but I hope you enjoy looking at them anyway!

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“I used to envy the father of our race, dwelling as he did in contact with the new-made fields and plants of Eden; but I do so no more, because I have discovered that I also live in ‘creation’s dawn.’ The morning stars still sing together, and the world, not yet half made, becomes more beautiful every day.” – John Muir

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I visited Yosemite National Park for the first time a month or so ago, and still haven’t been able to shake off the sense of wonder it filled me with. Not that I want to! I could spend every weekend there.

I took these photos with expired film on my Canon Rebel. They turned out a bit grainy, but not too bad for film that’s years old, right? More in my next post : )

I imagine New York City doesn’t look much like this at the moment, and I hope all of you over on the east coast are safe and sound indoors right now.

I took these back in spring when it looked like we would be moving to NYC for Nick’s grad program. He showed me around his old stomping grounds at Columbia and I met up with my lovely, inspirational friend Sarah Kim, who I hadn’t seen since high school. We walked in the sun, sat in the grass at Prospect Park, and reveled in the passing moments. A perfect short weekend away.

Speaking of time away: I know I’ve been absent from this blog for a while, but I think I’m ready to come back and start sharing photos again. Thank you for continuing to follow along with my adventures!

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A few photos around the new apartment!

All of these are instagram photos. My username is allisonoconnor if you’d like to follow me there!

Coming soon: photos from Fort Collins, Ben & Jen’s wedding, San Diego, the Bay Area!

I promise!
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We spent our final day in Seattle packing up boxes, clearing out the fridge and pouring perishables down the drain, and napping on the floor between trips to load the moving truck. It was clear, sunny, and warm – an exceptional send-off from a city we’d long berated for always being so glum. We climbed into the truck, heaved a few final sighs of excitement and anxiety (“Can you believe we’re really doing this?!”, “Yeah, we’re doing this!”) and hit the road. We stopped at my parents’ house a few hours down the freeway to rest for the night and enjoy a big O’Connor family goodbye, then hopped back in the truck and continued on our way.

Our decision to start the final 12-hour leg of our journey at 11pm probably wasn’t the smartest, but we made the most of it with frequent, giggly visits to truck stop gift shops (think sleeveless, frayed jean-jackets and biblical guides to money management), and high-volume pop songs. The sun finally broke just as we crossed the border into California, so we stopped for breakfast in the small, nostalgic town of Yreka. I wondered what it must be like to live in a place that people are always passing through on their way elsewhere.

We passed through so many towns so different than the one we were leaving and the one we were heading to. America is a vast and varied place, and it’s easy to forget that it means such different things to different people when you spend your life in small pockets of it.

The stretches of grain that went on for miles, punctuated only by the occasional gas station or dairy farm, made us feel small, distorted our sense of distance and time. The hills looked like they would continue rolling forever. Nothing does, though, and soon we saw what we were looking for: the traffic signs directing us to our new city. With heavy eyes and weary hearts, we turned the corner onto our new street, hurried to unload the truck, and once again fell asleep on the floor, surrounded by boxes. The sky overhead clear, sunny, and warm.

Home, sweet home.

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Oh, Cap Hill. I’m going to miss you.

It’s been a while since I’ve popped in to say hello over here. I’m leaving the Emerald City for sunny California in about a week and I’ve been busy with preparations for that. I’ll share more soon (I promise!), but in the meantime I’d love to hear how your summer is going! What’s new?

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