KITCHEN.

 

 



 

i had a hard week.  hard, meaning i had high expectations of how it should go, and when it didn't go my way it was frustrating, disappointing, and devastating.  (not to mention all the work i had to get done.)  trying to laugh things off or just smile through didn't help.  in fact, it probably made it worse.  but i'm glad i have friends that slap me into reality and then leave me hunched over...in laughter.  i'm also glad i have a car where i can roll down the windows and SING HORRIBLY TO SOME PHEONIX in a screechy, moaning, reminiscent tone.  so, thank you pheonix (go listen, go listen now!).  i wrote about my week in my journal during creative writing, starting with "i had fun..." but the monologue soon turned into a depressing, bitter rant and ended with "it was stupid, really."

it was stupid.  REALLY.   it was mostly selfish.  and jealous.  and bottled up in me.  which led me to savoring the simple things.  kind of an odd way around things, but God knows how to work on us.  so i savored...the ice cream at 8 at night (after art insights), the marshmallow ice cream that made me horribly sick in 4th period, the way the light hit our kitchen at 5:00pm, the cute donut position my kitty curls up in, the tea i drink every morning, the letter i received in the mail from my sponsor child....:)

sigh.

JOANIE JULIE.

 




















joannie julie.  ohhh the name just flows off the tongue.  :)))  i'm so thankful that i got the opportunity to photograph miss joanie!  charming, lovable, & witty.  she's so lovely.  i adore the way her nose scrunches when she laughs and her perfect dimples.  she's a gorgeous little french girl.  joanie does drama, tennis, and dance company.  we met in dance I when she was a sophomore and now she's going to graduate.  crazy!

i thought i took us to the most rural part of town for our session, but there were so many people driving by!  one guy even asked us if we needed help.  i guess two girls pulled over on the side of the road looks that way.  ;)  you'll see joanie a few more times on the blog this year as joanie is my senior rep.  :)  yay!  this session we incorporated SUMMER and all its loveliness.  :)

cedar city, utah

HANNAH & ABIGAIL

it was the last period of the day.  i had *almost* survived my first high school experience  -- first day of freshman year.  looking down to see "German I" as my next class, i took the stairs up to the classroom.  a foreign new school + a foreign language.  i had no idea what to expect.  and then all of a sudden i was there.  in a classroom with twenty other people (none i knew) and a tall guy rattling off in german (which, to my untrained ear, sounded like he was making up a gibberish language off the top of his head).  well that's pleasant.

not eager to make friends, i stayed back.  said few german words.  let my eyes wander in boredom.  it probably wasn't until halfway through first term i had full conversations with another freshman girl, hannah.  we talked.  talked, as in babbled about anything and everything that would get our minds off of the boredom of german.  as we made friends with other people, german started to get tolerable and by the end of the year, while cramming for our final, we had fun.  we made a game that's a total hit -- SCHNATZEE!  i think i butchered the spelling.  sahrrryyyy.  ;)

sophomore year i took german II.  BEST DECISION.  this is where abigail comes into the picture.  i knew abby since...psh no idea.  we were middle school buds and then didn't reunite till sophomore year:)  which is good because without abby my life wouldn't be as marvelous as it is.  :)  all three of us have so many good memories to take away from german.  hahahaha.  so, thank you, you two.  :)))

P.S. Ich liebe Dich:)
and for hannah -- die brust!
and for my dad -- der ellenbogen.  he loves that word.






















oh, that's my fat cat, tippy.  i found this picture of her on this roll of film and had to include it.  AND THAT HORRIBLE SCAN?!  not my fault.  :)  enjoy her anyways.




cedar city, utah
shot on fujifilm superia x-tra iso 400 and ilford professional 100 black&white.

take off.

we're reading the things they carried in school.  after reading the first chapter we were asked what we knew about the vietnam war.  we said a few things.  others things we kept to ourselves.  i thought of my seventh grade teacher whose husband served in vietnam.  upon his arrival back in the U.S. he was spit on while in uniform.  this was his "welcome back" at the airport.  it was there he disposed of his uniform, in the airport bathroom, to never see it again.  then the very few of us (as in, two) who'd been to the vietnam memorial were asked what we thought about it (myself being one of them).  what we thought about it... okay.  let's see.  i was in D.C. around memorial day so there were many decorations scattered around the wall.  we strolled through and scanned all the names (58,195 to be exact) and left.  and that was that.  i guess because i was 13 i didn't "get it."

this leads me to today.  patriot day.  september eleventh.  nine eleven.  whatever you want to call it.  although vietnam wasn't during my generation, september eleventh was and is.  it's a lot closer to my heart and it felt that way visitng ground zero.  but tim o'brien is really making me feel like i'm living through vietnam. 

so today i remember them both.