Poste Maroc, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
I found this post languishing in my Drafts folder, dated nearly 2 years ago. You all seemed to enjoy my previous post on Open Letters to My Fellow Commuters so much, I thought I would post something similar again, this time open letters to a series of people I’ve encountered […]

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In Chicago: What separates us?, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
This is a story about the afternoon I went to Target. And no, it is not about how I walked in to return a few items and buy some placemats and a pack of nails to hammer into the walls for my latest creative project, and somehow, […]

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Outside the post office, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
The man sitting at the table next to mine in the coffeeshop this morning left his fancy-looking sunglasses on the table as he was leaving. I glanced over and noticed them just as the shop door was closing behind his retreating figure—and just as casually glanced away, making […]

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Public transport is ROCKING, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
ZB suggested one evening in Toronto that I should create a weblog-category based around BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), so that everyone can read all my stories of being hit on while using public transportation. The idea made me laugh, but I’ve taken it under consideration and created […]

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Post office errands, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
3 Beautiful Things, the downtown Berkeley post office edition
I. One morning, I was at the post office and somehow got into a conversation about languages with the woman at the counter who was helping me with my express-mail packages. And she told me that her now-29years-old grandson, almost 30, […]

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Purple at Casa420, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
Walking out of work the other evening, I crossed paths yet again with everyone’s favorite security guard, he of the 86,400 seconds in a day.
As I strode past, he called out after me, “Purple is in!”
I turned back, confused. “Oh?”
“Yeah! Didn’t you know that? Purple is the color of […]

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Public library, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
It’s afternoon, and I’m sitting inside a coffeeshop, right beside the large window overlooking the street. I’ve been here for hours, watching the way the light shifts and feeling the sunshine and shadows spill across my table.
The two men sitting right outside my window seem to know nearly every […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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. […]

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