For each day in 2010 (give or take) I’ll be showing a picture from somewhere in my life with a little explanation as to what it is. Enjoy the trip down memory lane. (CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ARCHIVES!)
Bland
Date: November, 2002
Location: Bland, VA
Description: It was only meant to be a road trip with my buddy Jaymar down to visit my mother in Florida. What it became was epic. On the first leg of our journey, we broke out our atlas early because of some construction, only to realize we weren’t very far from a place called Boring, MD. Naturally, Jaymar and I determined, we would HAVE to stop there and snap photos. That lead us to wonder – what other silly places aren’t too far out of our way? As it turns out, “out of our way” became a very loose term, as we added an extra 1000 miles onto our trip when all was said and done. It took us to places we’d never imagined: Boring, MD; Coward, SC; Retreat GA; Coats, NC. And indeed, our crowning jewel, Bland, VA. What surprised us most about bland was actually two-fold. First off, wedged high up in the beautiful Appalachian mountains, the scenery in Bland is anything but. Although quite far off the beaten path, we were glad we tacked on nearly 4 hours on our trip to see it. But the second thing that surprised us most had to be the Bland Ministry Center and Dental Clinic. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This one might be worth a million.
For each day in 2010 (give or take) I’ll be showing a picture from somewhere in my life with a little explanation as to what it is. Enjoy the trip down memory lane. (CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ARCHIVES!)
Blizzard of ‘96
Date: January, 1996
Location: Wyckoff, NJ
Description: In honor of the massive amounts of snowfall received on both coasts this year, I thought it only appropriate to harken back to the big one: the Blizzard of ’96. Not since the 1800’s had this much snow fallen in a single burst in the New York suburbs. Dropping about 2 ½ feet overnight, combined with pretty heavy winds, it was a snowstorm to remember – the kind that, when I google “Blizzard of ‘96”, it has its own Wikepedia page. For the most part, no major catastrophe befell us, but I do recall days afterward, and even weeks after, driving was super precarious because of the massive snow-plowed drifts that were on every street corner (as you can see, the pile here stood well over 6’ tall, and that was common.) Compounding the danger in driving was the fact that, in our first full winter having a driver’s license, we had to accomplish all shuttling in the Funkwatt, a car that had a tenuous grip on the road even in perfect conditions.
I’ve been pretty crap at this blog thing lately – I was in NY for 10 days and now I’ve been trying to get back into the swing of it (which has entailed going to bed before 10:30 the last two nights.) I will hopefully be back with some adorable Landen photos and videos from my sister’s trip, as well as continuing the DPOD series.
But first, a story. Landen has a favorite stuffed animal, after over a year of not really caring a whole lot about stuffed animals. It’s a monkey that some family friends got for him on his 1st birthday. He has tons of monkeys (well, okay, *I* have tons of monkeys that he plays with), but this one is definitely his favorite. Ash just calls it ‘Monkey’, and I call it “Mr. Monkey.” Well, yesterday I gave Landen his monkey to play with, and I swore he said “Nigel!” So I think we’re naming his monkey Nigel.
Yeah, being a parent reduces my anecdotes to this. Pics very soon.
Despite my insistence that I only like New York City in very small doses, I can’t argue that things can be found here that just aren’t found elsewhere. Stacey has made frequent mention of this, as she managed to photograph many very odd sights in and around the city (Boba Fett Accordionist, anyone?) Yesterday, I experienced one, although it was very ‘slice of life’, having missed what happened before and after the event.
Walking to the subway in Penn Station, I was approaching a little courtyard where there is almost always some band or musician playing for money. It’s often a pipe flute band in the mornings. Today, it was an old black blues guitarist. Kinda stereotypical in his attire and his warm vibe. As he got into view, I saw a flash bulb and a small girl in a pink jacket run back from him all excited. Her father (ostensibly) had just taken a picture of her with this musician. She was beaming ear to ear with a huge smile as she trotted back to her dad.
That in itself was a touching moment. But it was the second part that kinda got me. I had already passed out of direct view, approaching the red line, when I heard the musician chuckle over the microphone he had set up. Then he breaks out his harmonica and plays a little riff into it. It sounds pretty familiar, but until he said “E I E I O”, I was unsure what he was doing. Then I realized: just for that girl, he was playing an improptu little rendition of Old McDonald. Before he even got a little into it, I was out of hearing range and missed how long it went or the girl’s reaction.
But that part of the story made my day.
For each day in 2010 (give or take) I’ll be showing a picture from somewhere in my life with a little explanation as to what it is. Enjoy the trip down memory lane. (CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ARCHIVES!)
Helmethead
Date: ~2004
Location: Wayne, NJ
Description: As already illustrated, 1342 (my apartment for a year, and an apartment that stayed in our group of friends for the better part of a decade) was home to many shenanigans. Often times, our roommate Jeff (pictured above, laughing) would leave items on our front stoop, available for free for anyone who wanted them. It was sorta like old-school Freecycle. Despite a few complaints, it was a convenient way to get rid of our crap and help people find free stuff. One problem was that it would leave certain items available for our friends to don during parties, such as this one. Paul, never one to simply make a statement with a silly outfit, had to outdo himself with an attempt to imbibe something. As seen above, this was very funny. This one is honor of Paul, who gets married in a few months, and also Jeff, who just proposed to his longtime girlfriend. Good luck, guys.
For the hundreds dozens couple of people who have asked, we seem to have lost our digital camera and haven’t been able to take any photos in a while, at least none of Landen. Ash has a very adorable video which I anticipate her putting up any day now.
In the meantime, I do have a milestone that I managed to take a photo while driving. Errm, while totally safely on the side of the road. Yeah, that second one.
For each day in 2010 (give or take) I’ll be showing a picture from somewhere in my life with a little explanation as to what it is. Enjoy the trip down memory lane. (CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ARCHIVES!)
End of the Rainbow
Date: November, 2008
Location: Reno, NV
Description: I’ve seen a number of rainbows in my day (and very few in my night.) I’ve seen brilliant ones and dull ones. I’ve seen ones that were large enough where the section I saw appeared nearly straight. I’ve even seen a double rainbow. But you tend to hear the fable that you never see the ends of the rainbow (or perhaps that, at the end, there will be a pot of gold.) These are old wives’ tales, and this is photographic evidence to prove my claim. Of course, if you google it, you’ll find plenty of pictures of ends of rainbows, many more stellar than mine. But screw off, I took this one myself.
For each day in 2010 (give or take) I’ll be showing a picture from somewhere in my life with a little explanation as to what it is. Enjoy the trip down memory lane. (CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ARCHIVES!)
Kinderformal
Date: Fall, 1983
Location: Wyckoff, NJ
Description: Ever ignoring the convention of proper chronology, here we see a very accurate picture of what I looked like at age 5. You will notice a few things about me which would later become trademarks of my physical appearance: 1) thoroughly untamable hair, 2) an adorable smile, and 3) muted, earth tones. Yup, anyone in college would have looked at me and said “Well there’s a boy who must have always wore very drab garb!” It also goes to show that, the more realistic a backdrop tries to be, the more it looks like a piece of fabric with paint on it.
