Monday Subway Art

Saw this as a banner on the downtown N train today and loved it. This is just half of the banner. Artists' name is Sophie Blackall and she hit it dead on. Have absolutely seen every one of these people on the subway-and probably all in the same car. From the musician with the giant upright bass and the kid looking out the window to the blue haired, knitting Willamsburg-er, the teenage couple making out and the woman with the ginormous plant.

New York: Life happens on the subway. Love it.

Well, love it in art form at least.

- Posted from my iPhone

Location:Broadway,,United States

2012 So Far -

It's been busy. Shocking, I know. And I'm so bored of writing that sentence that I almost can't stand it.

What you've missed in January -

Geoff had a birthday. Couldn't quite top last year, but I surprised him with tickets to War Horse, and we had dinner at Bar Baloud, which was pretty great. And this Chocolate-Mocha-Crazy-Awesome-Did-They-Put-Crack-In This-Thing? cake was pretty amazing too.


We took photos of a BRAND NEW BABY for some friends and he was pretty killer. Somehow I left without actually holding him once, which seems epically wrong, but he was working suuuuuuper hard at his photo shoot and I didn't want to interfere.



I made Tomatillo Salsa on a whim for the first time. I previously had not really been able to understand a Tomatillo (like how I don't understand Twitter, or health care deductibles). But it was super easy and pretty dang good, even if I did smell like garlic for days.


We made plans with friends for a long weekend away in February and I CANNOT WAIT.

I got offered two new casting jobs, which I'm trying to figure out if I can take on.

Geoff is booking weddings like it's going out of style and it's shaping up to be a busy summer. And it's only January. Yipes.

We keep saying that one day soon we'll get to a pause in all the madness and actually be able to take a bit of our lives back. I'm hoping that's true. I've made it through a big push at work and there might be a minor pause in the next couple weeks where we can take stock of things and start to prioritize a bit. It was supposed to start today but Geoff got sidelined by food poisoning last night and is in no position at the moment to Discuss The Future.

I hate politics. All the Republican Primaries and debates have been reminding me just how much. It's not just the Republicans either - I'd hate it just as much if we were sitting through the Democrats do the same thing. And I'm sorry but the political commentators are the worst of the bunch. JUST STOP TALKING ABOUT IT AND ANALYZING IT AND LET PEOPLE LISTEN TO THE CANDIDATES FOR THEMSELVES, FIGURE OUT WHO IS LYING LESS AND MAKE THEIR CHOICE AND BE DONE WITH IT! JUST.PLEASE.STOP.TALKING-YOU'RE ONLY MAKING IT WORSE.

Whew. Interesting. Didn't really know all that was in there.

I wonder if I'm kind of over the whole blogging thing. I honestly can't think of anything to say these days and I'm barely taking any photos and there's definitely no time. I guess we'll see, but my apathy seems to be ever-increasing.

And most brutally, for the last 6 weeks I've been following the journey of a college friend who just last night lost his battle with Central Nervous System Lymphoma, leaving behind his wife and 2 year old daughter. I haven't seen or spoken to him since college and have never met his wife and daughter but I've been a bit haunted by it, I must confess. It's sobering. And it puts a lot of things into perspective.

So for now, I'm grateful to be in a cozy apartment with a glass of wine and finally a little spare moment to think through some things about life. I guess I'd like to say I'm ready to Take Charge and Make Changes and Kick Some Ass and Take Some Names. But at the moment, I'm just pondering many things. I've not had too many spare moments to do that in the last few months/years. So it's pondering for now. Maybe the ass-kicking part will come later.

2011

This has certainly been a year that was light in the blogging department. As I was glancing back through my posts from this year (and it didn't take me long to do so), every other one started with me marveling at how absent I'd been. Hopefully next year will be different. January may be dicey on that front, but I will do my best.

2011 was a big year for us. We went to London & Paris, we shot a ton of weddings, I quit my job and started working for myself and was surprised to find that my freelance casting work consumed nearly all my time this fall. We went far too long without seeing my family (10 months!) and I vow that will never happen again. My parents rescued a dog from the side of the highway and even before I met him, I knew we wouldn't be able to imagine our family without him. I only wish he could come live at my house. Friends got pregnant, got engaged, moved across the country, adopted kids, bought their first house, started their own business and we've been blessed to feel a part of it all - either directly, or through photo shoots or via love & support over email and phone calls.

2012 is upon us and I hope to actually spend more time doing all the things I wanted to do this fall when we began Phase 1 of the next stage in our lives. Phase 1 was quitting my job. At the moment there seem to be a minimum of 2 other Phases TBA with unknown timelines. The picture above is of my grandparent's house in Georgia, where my dad and his brothers grew up. I love this house. And if it could be relocated to the NYC Metro Area, that would certainly speed up the timeline on at least one of those other Phases. And I really should tell you about the USC string bikini top given to me by my mother at Christmas in hopes of "inspiring" us to inch closer to the Phase that will include grandchildren for her. You were right, Mom. Geoff says Extra Small IS the perfect size for me. :-)

But in the meantime, we're enjoying Phase 1. And soon it will hopefully include more blogging, cooking, photography, time with friends and family and just generally getting my creative mojo back.

Happy New Year to All!

PS - I forgot the most momentus occurrence of all of this month! We got our first actual Christmas Tree. Not a wreath, not a bush, but a full on (ok, half sized) Christmas Tree. I cannot tell you how happy it made me on a daily basis. I am practically a grown up, despite the horrendous iPhone picture.

Old Friends

On Friday I had the chance to briefly see one of my oldest college friends. Mary and I met very early on freshman year and I remember thinking then how sweet and how pretty she was. And on Friday, (as with every time we get together) it was confirmed that both those things haven't changed a bit. She was in town for a quick trip without her two kids to see her siblings, who live in NYC and we were able to meet for coffee. I'd last seen her almost a year and half ago at the last Barn House reunion. In those pictures she was still pregnant with Issac, her second son, who is now - (obviously) nearly a year and a half. Crazy. Man, there is just something about people who have known you for a long time. And even though our lives are so different and she lives far away, it literally felt like we'd seen each other last week. How does that happen?? It's a mystery I'll never quite understand. Those special people who you can pick right up with like no time has passed. I love it.

Here we are on my roof, pretending to be models.


Mary, it was so great seeing you! I'm so grateful for you! Barn girls, who's jealous??!

Fall from My Window

Benefit #13 of Retirement:


I love the fall.

I particularly love fall when you can watch it from your window while you work.

What Retirement?

As you may have noticed - I haven't been blogging. Because despite my "retirement", I have been working like a crazy person. I thought I'd have a moment to take it easy, get adjusted, blog, make dinner every night, see friends and just... re-calibrate a bit. But instead, I added a fourth freelance casting job to the three I already had lined up and had to turn down 3 more. So I've been working. All.the.time. How is it that you can leave a job to work for yourself and claim back some of your own life, and be even busier than before? I was on the phone with an agent friend last week who started his own business two years ago about this very conundrum. He said, "If you're anything like me, once you work for yourself, you work all the time and drink a lot more." Not too far off.

But on the other hand, its a good thing. Who knows what it'll be like in 6 months, but for the moment, having to turn work down is better than not having any at all. So I will take it.

But I would like to be here more. And the good news is, you haven't missed much in my life, cause I've just been working. And so has Geoff. Luckily wedding season is starting to slow down a bit and not having a wedding every weekend has made this past month liveable. Now if I could just find time to de-clutter and reorganize my apartment, I know life would be even more liveable. *sigh*. Baby steps.

Bear with me. I'll be back soon (I hope).

Retirement - Day One

Today marks the beginning of the rest of my life. In the last 10 days I have had my last day of work at my old job, shot 2 weddings, weathered a hurricane, driven 7 hours round trip to a baby shower in one day, assisted in a baby possum rescue operation, visited with our nieces and nephew, had a few days on Cape Cod for some R&R and purchased a juicer. And today is my first day working from home. With 6 wedding shoots, a trip to Detroit and 3 freelance casting jobs on the books for September, "retirement" (as my mom likes to call it) isn't looking too different from my old life - at least on paper. But it FEELS a lot different so far. And that makes all the difference.

And last night I painted my nails purple in celebration. And despite the fact that they would admittedly look better if I'd had a third grader do them, retirement is officially WAY fun so far.



Oh - interested in that animal rescue story I mentioned? Quite the adventure at Cape Cod this week when my brother arrived for the weekend, went to use the restroom in the small cottage that doesn't always get used and discovered a wet baby possum staring up at him from the toilet. Partial footage of the rescue mission below. Also, there are starting to be an excess of weird animals stories on this blog. I'm wondering if I should just bite the bullet and re-title this site - "Unexpected Nature!"

24 Hours in Beantown

I went up to Boston in June for a very spur of the moment visit - to see my brother briefly and to attend my friend Stephen's photography exhibit. It was a whirlwind trip for sure. Alison and I drove up late Friday night - got in after midnight and crashed. Saturday morning was coffee with my brother on his front stoop while we watched all the Bruins fan pass by on their way to the Stanley Cup Parade. Oh, didn't I mention that I happened to be in Boston on that particular day? The Bruin fans were out in FULL force and it made for some great photography and people watching. We walked down to see the parade too.

It.Was.Awesome.











After the parade and a much needed lunch, Clay and I walked through Charlestown for a mini-photo shoot. I wont confess to you how long ago I gave Clay the "present" of some of my photography to frame and hang in his apartment. He requested shots of Boston and I finally made it up here to take some shots.








Bunker Hill



An old bootscraper on someone's front step. Pretty cool.


One of the most historic bars in the country. It's been around since 1780 and George Washington and Paul Revere have had beers here. I dig it.


Part of the Freedom Trail runs through Charlestown




Then it was off to the South End for Stephen's photography and art exhibit. Stephen started a non-profit for medical relief to the Congo and this was a fundraiser, selling photographs he took while he was over there and paintings that were donated by local artists.

Alison put together quite the spread.





Artisinal beer was donated - super fun!


Clay got very into the art discussion.


Alison's Gingerbread Mustache Cookies were the hit of the party




'Twas quite the well-attended event...




The artist himself...


With his handmade pocket square, naturally


My brother and I


All in all, I had a wonderful (if whirlwind) trip to Boston. I was on an 8am bus back to NYC the next morning to teach a class, but I was SO glad I went. Hopefully my new life will allow for many more fun trips like this....