Daily Photo: Livin' in the Heartlands

Taken on my way to see my friend Sarah, in Allen County, Indiana.

They call us "Michiana" (I know, it's weird.)

Coming home is always bittersweet. I'm so happy to see everyone who is here and retrace familiar steps, but the evidence for leaving rears its ugly head soon enough. Like the conservative junk that I see on the TV and read in the paper.

I spent Wednesday driving around southern Michigan, seeing my grandparents in Kalamazoo (best city name ever, if you ask me), my friend Mars and her new family in Jackson, down into South Bend to see some of my SMC family at Fiddler's Hearth, and finally back to Elkhart. I took the back ways for most of the trip - not the Toll Road or 94 - and it was well worth it. "Were I not on a schedule…" I kept thinking as I meandered through some of my favorite landscapes.

For those of you that don't know, southern Michigan is not quite like northern Indiana. It's like the magical state line somehow changes something. There are more trees and the hills start to swell here and there. As you go through the farmlands, there is a certain joy and serenity that I don't feel when driving though my section of northern Indiana.

The scenery was perfect. The corn fields are drying out, almost leeched of their green volume. The overcast sky hasn't allowed the sun to burn the mist off yet, and gray pockets hide things. Some of the trees have started to turn, peeks of yellow and red through the misty fields. The soybean crops have all turned their happy yellow gold, which is muted by the foggy mist. I am reminded me of a dancer with a translucent, teasing scarf. I am not able to see everything, which is tantalizing and comforting all at once. I want it to go on forever. Barns and farmhouses - old and new - dot the landscape near the roads just frequently enough to be picturesque. Knowing that at the end of each segment there awaits family and friends makes the drive sweeter, and less tedious.

Sadly, I was on a tight time schedule, so I didn't have the opportunity to stop and take pictures. But I promise, it was lovely.

Shutterbug: me

I want to try something new. (I think might I say this a lot?)

I've been processing/tagging going through my photos lately, and I've come across some interesting facts and conclusions.

• I took 2,259 photos this summer, from Memorial Day to Labor Day
• It's possible that I've forgotten some.
• I've been experimenting more than I realized with macro images.
• I really just need to cough up the money and buy my own DSLR.
• I want to make the shoulder/body strap that one of the guys at ResNet had on his camera.
• I suck at processing my albums.
• There's a good chance that no one will ever enjoy the majority of the pictures I take other than me (I'm not sure how I feel about that)
  

The last one could be largely influenced by the fact that I have no formal training in photography, and have really just approached it in my normal haphazard "let's try this" method. And also by the fact that I went on a work-cation this summer for about 10 days and took about half of the said 2k+ photos during that time. 10 days, 1000ish photos? That's a lot of picture taking. No wonder my aunt thought I was crazy.

I've also developed a deeper appreciation for what my friend and previous roommate Michelle does. Michelle's a photographer, and works in a photo lab. And I have no idea how she has the patience to process everything she does, much less choose what she thinks will sell the best and try to make a profit from the whole thing. And she shoots in film, so processing isn't sitting down with Lightroom or Aperture; there's actual chemicals involved. I mean, DAMN GIRL. (PS she's way better than me and has some awesome stuff and I wish she had a website so that I could point y'all to it and you could OOH and AHH over the amazingness).

(Michelle is also an incredibly nice person who's donated things to my choir's silent auction. And people loved that photo, too. "Oh wow, look how it GLOWS..." was pretty much the general statement of the evening.)

I thought, that since I'm all shutterbuggy, I would take a photo class this fall at the Creative Arts Workshop. 'Cause that would be nice. But ALAS! All of the photo classes I'm interested are either at weird times or are during choir. I somehow don't see my boss signing off on me taking a 10am-1pm class and I have ONE recurring event a week, and everyone wants to schedule something during the 8-10pm block. So, instead, I'm taking a ceramics class on Tuesday nights, which will be great, 'cause I haven't seriously touched clay for something like 6 years ("seriously touched" meaning I've done so with intent and purpose, as opposed to a valley girl's vacuous inflections).

BUT ANYWAYS - my spastic post-lunch endorphins and sugar levels make for interested blog posting, I'm sure...

Here is what I want to start doing: one photo a day. I'll post, you'll critique, comment, generally tell me that you love it/hate it/think I'm weird for taking pictures of it, etc. Some of them might be repeats from Facebook stuff.

This is Travis and Marilynn Uphaus. I knew her first as Mars Anater, though. We met through our jobs at SMC, and had many adventures. Including one in a canoe... Mars and Travis got married Memorial Day Weekend, and we all had a fantastic time.

That's one of my favorites. They're so happy! Just a little dodging and burning, to pop them out of the background, and some basic skin smoothing on Mars so that she didn't look so mottled.

OK, now it's time to go review the students' work schedule for next week, because I'm positive that there are a few people who are working too many hours and not playing nice...

Beginnings aren't so bad

Ladies and Germs, I am having a hard time believing that it was only three days ago that I posted last. Probably because I've done about a million things since then, and have a million more to accomplish.

In the past two days at work I have:

• Interviewed 4 students for a new position (we're only hiring 3)
• Attended two very good "moving forward" meetings
• Set up a recurring meeting to make sure that things keep moving forward
• Printed out and started rehearsing this November's concert music (Handel, I love you more every time I sing something by you)
• Made some important connections at work
• Made some people happy
• Got pwned by Final Cut Pro and a Panasonic camcorder
• Written some job descriptions
• Set up more interviews
• Called like a million people
• Emailed about 2 million people
  

In the next two days I will:

• Learn how to successfully import video from a Panasonic HDC-TM300 into a Final Cut Pro
• Interview at least 3 more job candidates
• Hopefully learn how to make magical things happen in Shifts
• Watch more HIMYM, Buffy and at some point, BBT
• Sing. A lot. OMG I have missed choir.
• Find my art supplies
• Pick out something to wear at a wedding
• Pick out a gift for the wedding (I'm leaning towards cash, because cash is always well-received)
• Remind myself that I am not hopeless because I am neither married nor popping out kids like everyone else at home

And then it's the weekend and I have a block party and Peabody on the Road to do. And some painting. And some shelf installing.

Speaking on shelf installing, I think that The Wall in my kitchen may actually be a structural support (it doesn't sound hollow anywhere, at all, when I knock on it). Anyone know anything about installing a shelf into what I think may be solid...something?

Anniversaries: Friend or Foe?

Apparently, le boyfriend and I have been dating for a year now. Truth be told, neither of us can remember when the first "date" was; there were a couple of general meet ups in very public places to test the waters before we decided that the other person was relatively normal, well-adjusted, etc. So John picked Sept. 5th out of the air about 6 months ago, and we rolled with it. When he mentioned "Hey, our anniversary is coming up" last weekend, it was kind of a "EH?" moment for me. Which we ended up laughing about, a lot, because that's what we do.

We're celebrating by John cooking his first solo meal sans help besides baked scallops. (Boy can't be a one-dish wonder for the rest of time, after all.) And with Sam Adams Octoberfest. And by hanging shelves and painting a wall or two.

Now, some may question a few things about all this. Such as: "Why aren't you going out to celebrate? Wouldn't you rather do something romantic? I don't think that stir-fry is very...sensual...." Yeah, well, we have have our reasons.

First and foremost, I happen to think that anniversaries (especially those of dating couples) aren't really that important. This isn't to say that I think you're wasting your time celebrating your marriage vows (it's your relationship, do with it as you please!); it's just not something I'm interested in. To me, the date doesn't mean much. It's just a symbol. A fairly meaningless one. One where you're expected to spend lavish amounts of money/time/thought/glitter/whatever on the other person (and vice versa), and where you'll eventually build your hopes too high and then the entire day comes crashing down into a pile of blah. And tears. Don't forget those.

Secondly, after 4 years of watching my friends go through several "He didn't remember it was our 1 week/3 month/6 month/some weird amount of time anniversary" episodes, it became pretty clear to me that a) if you're so obsessed with a stupid date, obviously your relationship is not solid and b) lower expectations = more chances for surprises. The solution to A is to not fixate on a date, and to devote that time instead to your relationship; the result of B is that something, you'll get awesome surprises!

Thirdly, John is between jobs due to the shit-tastic economy. And I'd rather spend money on things like, oh, the new giant shiny 37" LED-lit flatscreen in my living room (and John agrees).

There are so many other symbols and facts in my relationship that I'd rather celebrate and remember than the "first date." Like the fact that we drove home to Indiana together, with my crazed dog, and didn't kill each other. Or the time that we celebrated John being done with his classes by going out to eat at the fancy Italian place. Or when he was graduating with his Masters in teaching in 50 degree weather while a wind storm raged. Or the fact that John forgives me time and again for having the patience of a gnat. That he loves my dog. That we enjoy stupid shit together, like curling up together, each reading something on our Kindles. That I can come home every day to a goofy, wonderful smile. That we have private jokes about coffee filters and how we're both obsessed with Neil Patrick Harris.

Those are the things that make my relationship special and meaningful. Not some arbitrary date on a calendar. I'd rather spend time on US and not worrying about proving to the world that there's an US.

As far as I can tell, le boy is pretty content with this line of thinking. He's pretty forward-thinking and feminist-y himself. We talk about what we think and feel, and why we think and feel that way. Which is what relationships are about. Understanding. Comprehension. Sometimes, compromise. But not shallow crap like "It's our anniversary, you'd better get me some trinket."

And if you think that my attitude towards anniversaries is unconventional and sort of in the left field of feminism, ask me why "My Dream Wedding" doesn't actually have a wedding in it. (It does, however, include an open bar.)