A Moment In Time

Driving home from a beautiful wedding last weekend, I called my Dad. Any time I have a long drive ahead of me it's just something I like to do since he lives in Florida now. It gives us a good 40 minute conversation and keeps me company on the road. During the course of this last conversation, he mentioned to me that he had recently scanned some old family photos onto a disk and had a "showing" with the rest of the family that lives down there in the sand and surf.

There were photos dating back to the early 1900's there and possibly some even earlier. I remember seeing the originals some time ago, and think I remember seeing some tin-types...so we'll just say some of the photos were OLD! When I've looked at those old family photos before, I've found myself talking to an aunt or grandparent saying, "...and who is this?", and it struck me on that drive home last weekend that someday, some great-great grandchild of mine may be asking the same question when they see photos of my husband, me, my parents... Sometimes I'll find one of a relative and think, "so that's where I get my eyes (or nose, or ears)".

Photographs are such amazing things. They freeze time for us. Portraits commemorate the most important moments in our lives and then we sprinkle in some snapshots just for fun (birthday parties, vacations, etc.). This is why it's always an honor when someone chooses me to photograph them. Whether it's for their last year of high school, their wedding or their family and children the photographs are what will outlast them and let another generation see. And maybe some great granddaughter of a bride I shot last week will see just where she gets her eyes...

Music...Makes the People...Come Together...(Yeah)!

In trying to keep up with my New Year’s resolution to see the inside of the gym more often, I’ve realized two things. 1) Even after being out of high school (and thus not twirling a flag with the marching band) for many years now, I still feel the need to be “in step” while on the treadmill or elliptical. For those of you that were way cooler than me back in the day, that means having your left foot hitting the ground on the down beat...and 2) I’m in dire need of some new music to help the workouts along.

You see, several years ago, my mother hit the big 5-0. And to celebrate, we had a big party complete with music from throughout the past 5 decades. It was so much fun to dig up everything from Rosemary Clooney to the Beatles to Isaac Hayes and the Bee Gees! There was stuff from the 80’s and 90’s too (natch), The songs had been stored on an old computer (which had long since been relegated to the “man cave” in the basement) and were never heard again until last year when my dear husband connected all of our computers on a home network.

After checking out some long lost files, I stumbled upon the music library. Being blinded by such artisits as artists such as Duran Duran, Madness and yes, even Right Said Fred I quickly connected my iPod without remembering the music from the 50’s 60’s and 70’s were in the same folder. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the Rolling Stones as much as the next person. But when you’ve got 30 minutes to go on the treadmill, Frank Sinatra doing “Fly Me to the Moon” is the last thing you want to hear!

It’s not all bad though…I did manage to get a couple good songs on there…A few faves:

Get a Move on – Mr. Scruff (you may recognize from a Lincoln Navigator commercial)
Ocean Beach – Black Mighty Orchestra
La Belle et La Bad Boy – MC Solaar (French Hip Hop…totally cool)

They will wear out quickly though, I fear. So now it’s time to play a little game I like to call “What’s on Your iPod”? What music inspires you? Not only to walk an extra mile, or throw an extra 10 pounds on the leg press…What do you listen to that helps you move through your day? What helps you endure rush hour or edit photos till 3 am? If you’d like to share…I’m all ears!

What Writer's Strike?

Some may find this hard to believe, but I'm not a big t.v. watcher. Sure, if it's on I can get sucked in to something, but there are really only two shows I turn the t.v. on to actually watch...on purpose. Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives, which happen to be two of the temporary casualties of the recent writer's strike. Now I'm all for giving the writer's their due...they deserve what they are holding out for. However, I've been finding that their strike is having an unintended consequence in my home, maybe it's happening in yours too...our family is communicating. It's not just family either...Gotta give a shout out to my "Grey's Girls", my friends who I meet with weekly to watch the show and guess who's going to get a visit from their family or develop a relationship with a patient. We were all wondering what we were going to do when the shows ended until one of us found a Grey's board game! So instead of sitting around the t.v. glassy-eyed, we sat around the kitchen table laughing and talking. The same thing happened at my father's house this Christmas...it was Sunday, and time for Desperate Housewives, until I remembered "the strike". One of us reached under the coffee table for the "Trivial Pursuit" game and there we were once again!


It's been so refreshing that I was a little perturbed when I realized last night that I had a choice to make. Desperate Housewives was new (it had been the week before, so naturally I thought it was back on for good), but I had just heard about The Complete Jane Austen on PBS...horror of horrors, they were airing at the same time! As luck would have it, there was a "special" two hour Extreme Makeover Home Edition and no Desperate Housewives. The choice was made for me, although I would like to think I would have chosen Jane Austen anyway!

For those who may comment that I need to get DVR or TiVo, I say I don't want the t.v. to have that much control over my life. For me, life's about choices, and the decision to watch one program over another is just one of the minor ones. I'm perfectly content to spend an evening in front of the fire reading another good book with the kids (or by myself). And bedsides, as long as there will be television, there will be reruns.

Go Bucks?

I realize I may get some hate mail for this, but I may or may not be entirely Buckeye. Oh, it's not that I don't support them. On the contrary, I'm all scarlet and gray on game days. I even have a framed print of the Dispatch front page from the morning after the Fiesta Bowl against Miami displayed in my home. During the time I lived near Miami, a firefighter once offered to take an axe to it too...But I said "No Way"!

But I confess to sometimes planning shopping excursions around games (if you're interested, the stores are empty during the Michigan game), and not considering kickoff times when planning family get togethers. Part of it may be that I just don't "get" football. I don't get the rules, the downs, the flags or the penalties. Although I do get a little excited when the quarterback hauls it from one end of the field to the other, don't expect to see me get out of my seat screaming at the set!

All internal struggles aside, I am totally pulling for them in tonight's game. I'll watch it with some interest because after all, they are a part of this great city that I love and a victory for them is kind of like a victory for us all. And even if I am the only person in the history of the game to nap during third quarter at the horseshoe, I still get choked up at script Ohio.

Guess I'm a Buckeye after all...

Santa Claus is Coming to Town...

For years I swore that I would never feed my children a line about Santa Claus. "After All", I told my family and friends, "Why start your children off with a lie that they'll never forgive you for"? Then I actually had children. I saw the mysterious mixture of joy, excitement and magic that sprang into their eyes when someone mentioned the jolly old elf.

"Well", I thought to myself, "It'll be fine if I just don't actually say 'Yes, there's a Santa'. If some one else brings it up, fine...but I'll never confirm or deny because well...it's cute. I'll just stick to referring to St. Nick in the historical sense and that's that." So would someone please tell me why on earth I find myself stashing gifts in closets, telling the kids they had better shape up because you-know-who will be here soon and even helping them sprinkle reindeer food on the lawn (so Rudolph can find our house, of course)?

When did this happen? How did it happen? And when the day comes...how will it end? The truth is I want my kids to be able to give thanks appropriately for the gifts they receive. But I selfishly want to see those little faces light up when we read "The Night Before Christmas" imagining themselves sound asleep while reindeer hooves shuffle about on the roof. So I'll keep it going as long as I can because the grown up world will come around soon enough for them. If this is one other way they can hold on to childhood a little longer (and by default, I get to hold on too), then so be it. Now, if someone could help me out with the zip code for the North Pole...