The better to stab you with, originally uploaded to flickr by yaznotjaz.
Last night, I joined ZMan and my sister and our friend F in Berkeley for dinner and dessert (gelato!) and a catching-up session. I’d not seen Z since our South Bay dinner back in November, and we decided it must have been a […]

[Read more →]

Originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
Last Wednesday, I went to a Mohja Kahf poetry reading at Mudraker’s in Berkeley (it was rocking, by the way!), and ended up seeing some old buddies and making a couple of new friends. One guy I shook hands with towards the end of the evening exclaimed, “You have a really firm […]

[Read more →]

From an IM conversation with a friend:
M: bas yaara, sorry for boring you
Yasmine: dude, not at all, hope i helped in some way

M: I need some crack
Yasmine: crack is always good
just stay away from the real deal crazy estuff
i don’t want to have to tell your ummy i introduced you to […]

[Read more →]

From the Textures & Textiles set, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
I’m sitting outside the Nordstrom’s fitting rooms - impatiently checking my watch, hating the idea of being in that specific store, and waiting for my friend, N - when a guy settles into the armchair next to me with a loud, long-suffering sigh. I look over […]

[Read more →]

Mid-day meditation, orginally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
From Wednesday, September 26, 2007:
D text-messaged me again late on Tuesday night: Can we please go to meditation group tomorrow? She is in graduate school now, and I detected a hint of desperation.
So, we did. And it was beautiful, as always. D drove down from Vallejo, S came from San […]

[Read more →]

Near MACLA, downtown San Jose, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
I was taking BART into San Francisco one Sunday a few weeks ago when a young man got on the train at the MacArthur station and glanced curiously at me for much longer than I was comfortable with as he made his way down the aisle.
A […]

[Read more →]

A child’s shoes on Muir Beach, September2005, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
At the start of every single week, I think to myself, Let’s go to meditation this week. The last couple of months, I have had to defer my personal Wednesday evening preferences in favor of work-related meetings and events. Last Wednesday was different: Today is […]

[Read more →]

Having ordered and paid for a caramel pecan cream pie at Baker’s Square last week, I was idly checking out the tattoos on the young man named Brian who was boxing up and bagging my purchase. Suddenly, Brian glanced at me across the counter and asked, “Do you know what sundar means?”
“Sorry, what was that?”
“Sundar. […]

[Read more →]

After leaving work the other day, I stopped for gas. Fidgeting impatiently while the gas tank filled up, I decided to duck inside the gas station to satisfy my hunger. As my co-workers are all-too-fond of reminding me, this “eating a granola bar for lunch” business has to stop sometime. Real meals are the key. […]

[Read more →]

Did I tell all y’all that my camera’s broken? I probably didn’t. I think I got saltwater and sand in it, but who knows. Not I, since I was too busy blithely taking photos in said saltwater and sand to really be careful. Right smart of me, I know.
Anyway, a few days after my beach […]

[Read more →]

Originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
[Because even if no one sees your hair, there will still always be conversations nonetheless.]
* Last December, at home:
I walk into my room with my hair all tousled and standing up in weird waves and curls all over my head because I just took it out of the […]

[Read more →]

Feeding the birds, Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
[You can find all my photos from this day here. They’re more fun when you view them individually, so take the time to click through one by one, if you get a chance.]
Three days ago, I stepped inside the County of Alameda Administration Building […]

[Read more →]

This past weekend, my father and I stopped by a car dealership in an effort to alleviate my pain and suffering at not having had a car for the past…oh, thirty-six days. [Which pain, by the way, is finally over, as of three days ago. Good lookin’ out, God.]
As we were getting out of […]

[Read more →]

one.I made a fruit smoothie (out of peach yoghurt, cherries, orange juice, and crushed ice; it was a’ight) and stood at the kitchen sink, drinking the excess straight out of the blender, and I felt like such a boy. It was fun.
two.I stopped by the drugstore a couple days ago to drop off a disposable […]

[Read more →]

While studying inside Peet’s Coffee&Tea for the first time and loving their tall stools with the slightly-curved backs:
1.Little Girl: Coffee!Mother, firmly: No coffee.Little Girl: Coffee beans!Mother: No, honey.
A little, fluffy white dog paces to and fro outside in front of the door, wagging its tail. The mother and daughter step outside and the little girl […]

[Read more →]