When the Almond Tree Blooms

I fell in love with oak trees on a chilly day in January 2011. I was visiting friends in Davis and decided to explore. I decided to check out the arboretum and eventually happened upon the oak collection. UC Davis Oak Collection UC Davis Oak Collection At that moment in my life, I had no home, no job, and no plan. I was bouncing around Northern California, from San Francisco down to Santa Cruz and then up to Davis. I was feeling a lot of stress from being transient, trying to find some direction in my life. When I began wandering the path through the oaks, admiring the stately trees, with their various forms and leaf shapes, I felt at peace. It was not long after that I decided to stay in Yolo County, with the dream of studying something related to agriculture at UC Davis. Although my plan didn’t work out quite as I imagined, I remained enchanted by those oak trees. UC Davis Oak Collection UC Davis Oak Collection California has many endemic oak species, and d...

My long break from blogging began in March 2013. At the time, I thought I had figured it all out. Things were looking good in the world: Obama had just begun his second term, the U.S. was recovering from the Great Recession, and California had not yet entered the depths of multi-year drought. I was incredibly optimistic about my life. I was thriving in my Master of Accountancy program at UC Davis and had accepted my first real professional job at the California State Auditor. I began cultivating my community garden plot in Davis and was at the beginning stage of my dance addiction. What happened between now and March 2013? Among the usual things—work, life and failed romances—I danced, a lot. I’ve always liked to dance, but for most of my life I thought I was bad at it. Back in high school, I’d look forward to dances in the cafeteria, where I enthusiastically but awkwardly shuffled around to all that great 90s music. Many years later, after I’d finished college and was living in ...