I was able to kick off the week shooting the second phase of this really cool installation at the roof garden of the Met, for Curatedmag. It was really cool to A. be in the Met when it is not open, and B. have that exclusive view from 40 above the deck of the roof garden. More, over here.

Now, we turn to overcomma-fication. A while back (over a year ago), I decided that I was going to start using less commas. Yes, I feel like legal writing has pretty much tainted my writing style forever. I know that I destroy all of my sentences with the way that I punctuate the crap out of them. But the funny part is that I was apparently anonymously called out on it, yesterday. Reagan had this bright idea of putting an anonymous submission form on her blob. She had it posted for like 20 seconds, and one of the first questions she received included this: “can you please teach jake how to use commas? his blog would be so good, but he is comma happy.”

Hahahahah. Sorry, anon. If it is any consolation, I haven’t been able to stop saying “awesome” either (which was another item of things to correct, in the list that I linked to above). Here is an (redacted) example of the insanely long run-on sentences that I have to deal with on a daily basis:

MEZZANINE C CASH MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT (this “Agreement”), dated as of June XXXXXXXX, among XXXXXXX, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (“Borrower”), having an address at XXXXX Street, XXXXX, Maui, Hawaii XXXXX; XXXXXXX BANK, N.A., a national banking association, having an address at XXXXXXX Road, Suite XXXX, XXXXXXX, California [zip] (“Agent”); and XXXXXXXXXX INC., a Delaware corporation, having an address at XXXXXXXXXXX, New York, New York [zip] (“Lender”).

You get the idea. After seeing that many commas in every sentence that I read at work, I must subconsciously feel like I’m not using enough of them, or something. I have pretty much been ruined. I think that part of it is the way that I haphazardly string my sentences together. It’s not that I don’t know what normal punctuation looks like, either. I read massive amounts of newspapers and magazines. What’s worse, is that when I’m proofreading a post, I will go through removing commas and it still ends up with way too many. I’m am so obsessed about it, that at one point I actually dug up some of my old articles from college, to see if I had the same issue back then. I didn’t. It really is something that has only started to plague me since law school.

So, anon, there, you, have, it. I don’t blame you if you can’t get past the commas, the “hahaha”s and the “awesome”s. But, at least you know I’m working on it, right? Hehe

Tuesday, I dropped back by the piece that Os Gemeos are working on. This time, I was able to chat with Gustavo (above) for a while in Portuguese. I can’t tel you how great it was to chat with a Brazilian that has a proper Paulista accent (not to mention that it was cool to chat with him regardless dialect). He said that they are going to try to wrap this piece up by the end of the week. So, I’ll be back by there, probably tomorrow to shoot the finished product. The image below shows the progress, as of Tuesday afternoon (Moody Blues, anyone?).

I’m still not feeling 100%, but I can’t really take much more of a break from running, and expect to stay sane. If it isn’t raining tonight, I plan to resume with the training sched.. I’m a bit nervous, after taking a full week off. Thankfully my long run, slated for Saturday is only 14 miles. I will have a week to get back into the groove (Madonna, anyone?), before my 20 mile run next weekend.

The part that I’m really looking forward to, about the next two long runs, is that Summer Streets is currently in full effect. So, instead of doing my usual out-and-back down the Hudson River path, I can do Park Avenue, instead. Should be a blast, and a much welcomed change of scenery.

But, the biggest thing on my mind/load off of my mind, is that all of the nerd-stuff that I have been chipping away at for the last week and a half is finally resolved. Everything is now back in a relatively maintenance free stasis (fingers-crossed). I feel like I can finally get back to real life, and it isn’t a day too soon, because I am super behind on EVERYTHING.

Reagan and I were doing it up Bklyn-style, last night and a Converse promo featuring Kid Cudi et al. It is kind of fun when I can bring Reagan along to gigs like those, because we always spend some time just goofing off. There are just a few more items that I have to knock out, today– then I can start packing for vacation! Woo Hoo. We worked it out, so that we can go visit PJ together tonight, before we fly out. I’m pretty amped about that (a’course). I’m so ready to finally be able to take advantage of the beach weather. Something tells me that my running regimen is going to suffer a bit over the next few days. Hehe.

A few more shots from last night:

Reagan and Kid Cudi (above); Kid Cudi and fandom (below)

Below–>  Reagan maxin’ and relaxin’ before the music started.

Also, I didn’t realize until I saw the flier in this shot that MIA is playing with Die Antwoord at Guv’s Island. Whaaaaa??????????????? And it’s going down the weekend that we are fuera, of course. Speaking of Die Antwoord, I hear a rumor that Yo Landi Visser might be cast in the Hollywood version of “Girl with the Dragon Tatoo.”

One more thing..  Reagan authored a guest post, that ran today on one of her favorite blogs. Apparently, she was asked to articulate what it is like, having to leave after visits with PJ. I think that Reagan did a pretty swell job. So, if you get a chance and are interested, feel free to pop over.

I hate to just bomb the bejeebus out of a post with endless photos, like this. But sometimes, you kinda have to. Here are a few more of my faves from Monday and Tues.

See if you can spot those who own Olympic medals, below (they all own winter-x titles). Extra points if you name them all.

I hate to say this, but I was kind of hoping that fedoras would die out by the fall. I thought we were headed that direction too, since I have seen them stacked 20 deep on the street vendor’s tables on Broadway in Soho– with tourists buying them up at 2 for $10. I liked them so much better when they were only rocked by really old dudes, rude boy/ska kids, and jazz musicians. I wonder if we could bring back the straw pork pie. Oh well. They make for a fun photo, when all lined up like this on a rack. Hehe

I have had a blast, this week shooting three separate trade shows. Monday, I was able to hang out with a bunch of Olympic caliber snowboarders and swap some stories about riding Utah back country. I was also able to reconnect with all of my friends over at Cargo. It was a blast. I’m including a few of my favorite images from the Capsule show, in this post.

Tonight, Reagan and I are going to be hitting a Converse promo in Brooklyn, where some of the guys from Vampire weekend will be performing. It should be a good time. I’ll try to put up a few more shots from yesterday and today/tonight, before we run off to Charleston.

Separately: Reagan and I have had so much positive feedback in the form of kind comments about the recent shots that we posted (here is Reagan’s post), of Piper’s progress with walking, etc.. I know that we have a fairly limited overlap in readership, but I just wanted to say thanks for all of the positive vibes that we have received. We really do have a lot of gratitude for the amount of support that we feel. Sometimes it almost makes me feel like we are doing something right

Ok, do you best not to get clouded out, in this post. It was one of those things where the images don’t really do it justice. In real life, it looked like the whole island of Manhattan could have been on fire. Anyway, these shots are a bit repetitious, but here they all are anyway.

I picked Reagan up from work Wednesday. I had my camera with me, and we shot these just for fun. I love this girl

Normally, by this time of the week, a little bit of detente creeps into my mood, and I start to anticipate the weekend. Today, however, I’m totally stressed out. I had a 9 mile run marked for this morning. I woke up at 5:30– monsoon. So, I figured I would give it an hour, and set my alarm for 6:30. Again, I woke up to a monsoon. Since It takes me about an hour to do that kind of distance, I had to abandon running this morning. The crappy part is that I’m going to be working tonight, so I won’t be able to do it then, either. I know I need to just get over it.

On the positive side– 1. we are FINALLY getting some rain. Hopefully it will cool things down for a minute. 2. It is Wednesday. Only two more days until a weekend, in which neither Reagan or myself have any commitments marked. This means that we can do whatever we want! 3. I shot a pretty cool thing for Oakley last night. I included a few of my faves above and below. I used to have a pair of Frogskins in high school. I loved them. 4. If you love Piper, be sure to check out some super adorable video of her practicing walking, over on Reagan’s Blob.

For the 4th of July, we visited PJ in the morning, then walked across the GW Bridge to NJ, for a picnic at a Revolutionary War site. Above is a shot of Reagan on the GW Bridge, standing beneath the “largest free-flying American flag in the world; 90 feet (27 m) long and 60 feet (18 m) wide, the flag weighs 450 pounds (200 kg),” according to Wikipedia. The shot above doesn’t really allow for proper reference.

The shot below is looking back at NYC from the historic Ft. Lee battery.

Here is a shot of the flag after dark, from the Manhattan side. The shot below gives a better idea of how large the flag actually is.

And finally,  another one of these shots. This time, with the towers lit up for the holiday.

I apologize in advance for including so many photos in a single post.

After our Saturday morning run, we trekked out to Coney Island. This was our third (and hopefully final) visit to Coney Island this summer.

We rode the Wonder Wheel (we do, every time we go to CI). We also did the Cyclone, which is the old rickety roller coaster, that they are always threatening to shut down. I actually filmed the whole thing, maybe I’ll post it later.

The sky was extremely clear and blue, all day long. It was hot, and it really felt like summer.

The beach was totally packed, despite a shark warning. Hahahah. No one was bitten this weekend, except a guy on a boat who caught an 8 foot blue shark that bit him when he was trying to release it.

Even though we have a thousand shots of Reagan and the parachute drop. I liked this angle from the pier, instead of the usual boardwalk shot.

After lunch, we went to visit Piper, who was sleeping exactly like this, when we arrived. At cute as it was, it turns out that she wasn’t feeling very well. She has had a bit of a fever for the past couple of days. Her lungs are clear though. So, hopefully it isn’t anything serious.

There are a few more Coney Shots over here.