jessica lee writes.

Back to Reality.

i'm knackered from an extended weekend in NYC with my sisters. pictures later but for now... one of the best things i saw was on the rooftop of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. i'm more of a MoMA gal but this took my breath away: Maelstrom by Roxy Paine. totally amazing... and now, back to reality. i hope y'all have lovely mondays.

White House Easter Egg Roll.

one of the benefits of being in DC? access. to interesting people (politicos), the unique events... i love it. and this past Monday? another unique DC experience - the White House Easter egg roll. cool experience - me, my sister, my nephew, and a family friend's son... just the four of us, and thousands of others running around the White House south lawn. it took tremendous patience getting in - but once inside... it was like a little oasis and the kids went wild rolling around and hopping about the grass. a little photo montage for you below. for some reason, i was obsessed with the kids' shoes that day. such little, cute feet and shoes they have! (click through, RSS/email readers!)

Why I Love DC.

i'm thinking about chronicling reasons why i love DC via Twitter - and you can follow along using the #whyiloveDC hashtag. i've only done a few tweets so far - but there are so many days i wander about and am re-impressed with and re-inspired by my surroundings. check out this picture i snapped last night on my walk home from work. the White House isn't direclty on my route home, but by taking just a three block detour, i am able to see gorgeous tableaus like this. i never get tired of it...

Digital Memories.

this picture, quite simply, makes me happy.

the shot was taken in chicago a few years ago at millennium park where they had an awesome water fountain of sorts. it was a summer day, obviously, and it was so much fun watching these kids cool down and play.

A First.

my nephew's first pet, taylor, the beta fish. how cute.

My Nephew Loves Ice Cream.

so the child had a bit of ice cream for dessert at lunch today. and he devoured this bowl in about... four minutes. watch the progress in this little slide show. (click through, subscribers!)

Nice Shot, If I Might Say So Myself...

The Inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama.

totally unreal. i don't know what else to really say about the inauguration - i'm still digesting and taking it all in. getting down to the mall for the inauguration was madness. there were people everywhere.

and it was a slightly strange experience because you knew everyone had the same purpose - to get down to the inauguration. i'm not sure i've ever been in the middle of anything like that, where while in movement, we all had a completely common purpose. nice, yeah? and everyone was definitely in great spirits. it was celebratory.

the walk down to the mall was long; roads were closed. everyone had to funnel onto the National Mall through a single entry point on 18th and Constitution - but once you made it - the sheer mass of people was amazing. people carried forward past the Monument to get closer to the Capitol.



and once things filled up a bit more... the site was even more amazing. it was completely jam packed.

i had a hard time taking photographs at the event - i struggled because i'm short, for one (and wasn't wearing heels!). but that aside, the inauguration was a deeply personal and moving experience for so many who made the trek down to the National Mall. i heard and saw the crying - and for some reason, it just felt wrong capturing their moment with my lens. i know that this means so much more to many others than it does for me. i share in the joy. i'm happy and i'm hopeful for what the Obama administration will bring. and still, completely surreal but amazing to me is that we have our first Black President of the United States of America! but this means more to others, so i've gotta respect that, and them.

the images from geoeye-1/google earth show just how many people packed down onto the Mall - and somewhere in the middle of all of this, we were there. and i wouldn't have traded it for anything else. i hope you enjoyed it as well.

Just Hanging Out.

i needed a four hour nap after four and a half hours of baby sitting today. i love my nephew - but children are exhausting. goodness. the child is obsessed with trains so we spent some quality time at the American History Museum transportation exhibit. he always surprises me with the new and funny things he says. today, he kept trying to hang on some handrails at the museum - and once he managed to hang off of them like a monkey, he'd look over at me and say, "we're hanging out together! i'm hanging out!" clever! pictures below from our day...

Looking @ Things Through a Different Lens.

i dunno if you're this way at all... but when i'm carrying a camera, i see the world as if it were a giant photo album. everything has the potential to be a photograph. i pay attention to my surroundings a bit more. the angles and lines of my environment stand out. things catch my eye. and all i see are potentially great photographs. 

i was just organizing my photos on flickr and came across this one i snapped off of the side of a random building in the hoxton square neighborhood of london a while back. my sister said the gal seems sad. i don't see it but that's only because i can't get passed how awesome the shine of her hair is. what do you see?  

Shoes + Chuck Close.

i walked right past this piece, Shine by Willie Cole, and just thought it was a face. turns out it is a mashing of women's shoes. very cool. below that, a close up of a Chuck Close piece. i love, love Chuck Close. he makes art accessible, which i appreciate.

Box. Cube. Empty. Clear. Glass.

interesting display that i saw when at the Hirshhorn the other day which by the way, is totally my favorite museum in DC. these five cubes were about 3 feet wide/tall/deep.

ONTJ Training, POTUS Style & Hello Big Apple.

something is wrong with the whole gig of president of the united states of america. bush and obama are spending some time together today but it's mostly formalities. the new first family gets a tour of the digs by the current first family. the outgoing potus and the incoming potus will spend some time talking it up... but i don't think there will be any substantive on-the-job-training happening between the two today. isn't that kinda the ideal situation in real life? outgoing person trains the incoming person on the ropes? having some kind of overlap is always nice. sure, the newbie is going to do things differently - obama will repeal some of bush's more controversial executive orders, stem cell research being one big thing on that list -  but there's always the matter of teaching the new person all those things that weren't spelled out nicely for them when he or she started, or all those things that aren't really written down anywhere per se, but things that you've gotta know to be successful on the job... i honestly think the two men are grown enough to be able to put aside their differences and spend some more time together than just this friendly exchange today. perhaps someone can come up with a better on-the-job-training/transition program?

anyhoo, enough of that. i've been in new york for the past few days having a glorious time. i'm working in my new york office today - and here's the lovely view from my guest office:

i have another 30 hours or so in town before i'm back to the D.C. time has flown by while here, and i think i might have a little trouble pulling myself away this apple.

Obama, and Morocco.

i was in morocco about a year ago and while in Fez, i had a tour guide who was very interested in U.S. politics. that's him pictured above, taking a break in front of the royal palace in Fez.

much to my surprise, he asked me about Obama at one point during the day. he knew i lived in DC an wanted to talk a bit about American politics. in particular, he wanted to know if i thought Obama had a chance. think about that. over 3900 miles from my home, in Fez, Morocco, i was being asked about Obama - before he had defeated Hillary, and certainly way before he defeated McCain. Obama was on the radar of this young man a year ago, as he commented how exciting it would be for him to see America with a black president. i was in awe of how far Obama's reach was then - and i can only imagine how far his reach will be going forward.

i thought about our tour guide last night... and i wondered what he'd wake up thinking this morning after he learned that Obama had won the election. i know he'd be excited, and hopeful, as am i... but i also have many mixed emotions about this all. i'm disappointed with the disrespect towards McCain i saw last night. and i'm worried that people will be disallusioned and think that Obama being elected means that race relations are "cured." sadly, i believe that Obama doesn't mean that the race problem in the U.S. has been fixed. and it doesn't mean that we've "arrived" as a nation. there's still a lot of work that needs to be done and this is a starting point. more on this topic later.

i do want to say thanks to all who worked so hard on both campaigns. the get out the vote efforts, the tireless campaigning... regardless of who you worked for, i appreciate your diligence, and zeal.

Oh, How They Grow Up So Quickly...

in the midst of this election madness, i had a special little visitor today for dinner - my nephew. he was sitting on my couch when i snapped this picture of him. he's grown so much when i compare it against one of my favorite pictures of him sitting in the same spot a little less than two years ago.