January | 2018 | here i am

What will you explore this week?

I want to explore new things and places and experiences.

Last week, Juliana and I went to explore the new Apple Park Visitor Center in Cupertino.

We literally live less than 2 miles from it and have watched the development grow over the last couple of years. We’ve also watched the traffic expand and have experienced longer wait times at lights and longer lines trying to move across town, but that’s another story.

Visiting the visitor center is an experience. There is underground parking with a parking attendant available to guide and direct you as you enter. There are three main parts to the center. As you walk in, you notice the all glass walls and gigantic doors. The first part has an aluminum model of Apple Park, where there are live hosts holding iPads for your use to experience an augmented reality version of visiting Apple Park, which is actually closer to visitors. The hosts were very friendly and shared stories about the building and how to navigate the iPad experience moving from building to building, and changing the lighting one might experience as day turns to night.

The middle part of the center (that sounds funny) housed the retail section, where you could touch, play, read, and view books, electronics, cases, bags, and clothes. There were friendly Apple employees ready to answer questions and to sell you products. I especially liked flipping through the product development history books, touching the high quality paper and appreciating the design aesthetics. The watch band display caught my eye, as well as the mega screen showing advertisements.

I also loved the natural sunlight streaming in through the glass walls.

The third part of the center was the restaurant. I found it odd that 6 employees were standing away from the service counter, with a couple employees working behind the counter. The line of friendly employees were ready to assist you with your order once you placed it on an iPad, I think. We didn’t order anything, however that would have been an interesting experience too, just to see how things work. I think I prefer the personal connection and conversation with the wait staff versus interacting with an iPad. I guess I’ll have to try it next time to experience the difference.

Everything was aesthetically pleasing and flowed together. Overall, I enjoyed the visit and will bring guests who would like to see it too and maybe grab a coffee.

xo Adriana

Hello BeLoveRs…how have you been?I’ve been feeling a strong desire to write again and I hope the feeling lasts.It’s been two and a half years since I changed my path and began working from home in a paid position and chose to slow down sharing my written story. This morning there was a quote shared by Gretchen Rubin that connected to my afternoon yesterday that inspired me to write today.“Who will free me from hurry, flurry, the feeling of a crowd pushing behind me, of being hustled and crushed? How can I regain even for a minute the feeling of ample leisure I had during my early, my creative years? Then I seldom felt fussed, or hurried. There was time for work, for play, for love, the confidence that if a task was not done at the appointed time, I easily could fit it into another hour. I used to take leisure for granted, as I did time itself.”

– Bernard Berenson, Sunset and Twilight, from the Diaries of 1947-1958Yesterday I lived. I worked. I helped. I danced. I served. I played. I felt content and uncomfortable and smiled and wanted to capture the moment and to remember to do it again. The feeling of being unrushed. The feeling of creating space to let in the unknown and unplanned was liberating. We followed his agenda to go to the new grocery and he lead the way. There was wine tasting when we walked in and samples of drizzled popcorn and mandarin orange slices. We played with the chilling station to see how it worked. We picked out steaks for dinner that he chose and potatoes for baking that he also thought were a good idea. We bought a crab because we didn’t know what to do with a crab and I want to learn something new related to cooking every week. The butcher cracked it open for us and wrapped it up and found us in the store to give it to us when it was ready. We looked at all the different types of teas and marveled at the salt and pepper grinders. It was a joyful experience. We rarely go shopping together anymore and I loved experiencing the simple shopping outing with him.When we got home, Charlie and I danced in the kitchen as he kept repeating a song verse all afternoon that was driving me a bit crazy. The verse went with a song and dance he learned at school. It all makes sense.So as you go through living your day today, I wish you the freedom to be and to enjoy the moments as they are and to see and feel them whatever they may be.Namaste.