Under the Arch

Since you heard from me last, I’ve moved in to the new apartment, bought a new computer…now if I could just find my lightroom software. ;)

This is what I’ve been doing mostly, experimenting with my camera…this lovely lady popped up in my backyard. I love extreme close-ups. ;)

This is Will, my best friend/housemate. He would KILL me if he knew I posted this, so it of course gives me great pleasure to know that he doesn’t read my blog.

This little guy flirted shamelessly with me for most of a baseball game I went to with my friend, Johnna.

I don’t know what this is, a plant of some sort that caught my eye at the zoo.

The fence around Missouri Botanical Gardens… which reminds me.

List of all the places around St. Louis that I HAVE to visit this summer

1. Botanical Gardens
2. City Museum
3. Meramec Caverns
4. some sort of floating, canoeing campground
5. Sculpture park that I can’t remember the name of
6. Six Flags
7. Art Museum
8. History Museum

I've had a couple of BlogHer posts in my draft file for days now but I can't seem to get anywhere with them, so I'm going to a share a little self-contained story with you from that weekend. The Shutter Sisters sponsored a photo walk after the Photography session and I went, hoping to see a little more of this city that I was visiting. I spotted a few people I knew in the crowd, Bossy and Y among them, but most of the women were strangers to me. We split into groups and descended on the city like a flock of very strange looking birds, cameras attached to our faces. My group voted to head for Chinatown and we wandered, shooting as we walked, though it wasn't long before I lost most of the group. I found myself wandering  with two lovely women that I'd never met before, Megan and Jennifer, and we decided to head downhill to the financial district and then back up to Union Square. We were having a great time snapping away when we came upon a homeless man sitting on the sidewalk. He asked us to take his photo and though we weren't supposed to take pictures of people for the photo walk, it seemed easier to take a quick photo to make him happy than to argue and explain what we were doing. (The purpose of the photo walk was to compile a collection of photos to be used later in a book. Without a photo release from the man, we couldn't submit his photo for the book.) The three of us took his photo and started to walk on when another man passed us by on the sidewalk and almost immediately started yelling at us for taking advantage of a homeless man, taking his photo without paying him, then proceeded to very loudly call us any number of foul names, including worthless whores and tramps. I don't know about you, but I'm not exactly used to hostility from complete strangers, but after the initial shock I got really angry and informed the loud-mouthed moron that the man had asked us to take his picture and I was hardly going to worry about what some idiot carrying a boom box (!) thought of me. (Ok, I said the first part, not the second, but I did say it after he stomped off.) We kept walking and after about half a block I turned to Megan and Jennifer and said, "Hey guys. You know what just happened? We just got trolled! In person!" So, now, every time a troll bothers you on the internet, just picture a badly dressed, psychotic homeless man carrying a boom box on his shoulder ala 1984, and remember, his opinion doesn't matter. ;)

He made us wait for him to put on the hat and sunglasses, then posed before he asked us to go ahead and shoot.

As I mentioned, I spent this past weekend at my parents' house in Southern Illinois. What I didn't tell you is that I decided to out myself to my parents. Out my blog, I mean. Until a few days ago, my family had no idea that I wrote on the internet or that I had met a bunch of you a month ago. My dad was blown away that Saturn would sponsor someone to travel around the country and my mom was blown away that someone is willing to advertise on a site written by her daughter. When I told her that I don't really have enough readers to actually make any money out of it, she offered to go to my site as often as possible to help. My parents are a hoot.

The portrait session went well and my mom barely complained at all. ;) Before we got started, I looked over to see my nephew hanging from a bar on the wall. "Look, mom! I'm a monkey!" Ah, four year olds! When the session was over, I left my mom and sister to pick the poses they wanted and I took Hayden, the monkey boy, into the mall to find a dress for myself. (My mom told me as we were ironing that morning that I was going to the wedding that Hayden and my brother Jared were in, apparently no one thought to tell me this BEFORE I arrived, away from my closet with all its clothes, including TWO brand new dresses.) Hayden is an excellent shopper and gets the biggest kick out of everything, including picking out dresses for his Aunt Bri. The dress he found was one I ended up buying (I bought 2, they were on clearance.) And of the 2 I bought, I let him pick the one for the wedding. Yes, he went in the dressing room with me, no way was I letting him out of my sight for a second. (Not because I'm afraid someone will snatch him, but because he's sneaky.) He was mortified to see me in my underwear and kept pulling my shirt over his head...let's just say that we were definitely entertaining for the other shoppers. For his help, I let him ride one of those quarter fed cars that vrooms and rocks back and forth. Then the little shit tried to con me into the train too. sigh. I'm CONVINCED that I was never this difficult as a child. Anyway, the photo session with him was nixed because we just ran out of time with all the stuff going on and my sister figured it would be too much picture time for him and he'd just lose his shit, and trying to get him to be still for half a second sunday evening, I agreed with her. Ok, I'm done talking, I'll tell you about the wedding and Hayden shouting, "Look! I have a pillow!" tomorrow.

Irises

My parents' house

Side view with the bare butt of the gargoyle


The tree that I planted when I was little and where the barbies were held hostage by the evil queen

North

East

West


South

And, this is where the title came from. This, my friends, is what the middle of no where looks like. It's quiet and spacious and a nice place to grow up. More tomorrow, when we see my dad's idea of art...or laziness, you decide!

I took a walk today in Forest Park, slogging through the mud and muck from all the rain we've had. I got muddy and wet and had a great time. I also took some pictures. Wanna see? I know you do. ;) Here's my favorites, the rest are on my flickr page here.

Loved this bridge....

just for these...

What is this? A mollusk? Something ate it. They were all over the ground.

Waterproof rain boots are awesome.......

One of the geese that I kept a respectful distance from....

Every time the wind picked up, mist from the fountain covered the area

Laying on my belly with the daffodils

Damn bird would NOT be still

Love the color of this water fountain

Papa duck

Mama Duck
I think she was gathering stuff for a nest, but then who knows what goes on in the mind of a duck.

Another tree close up

This guy was making his way to the water when I walked up. He hid in his shell so......

I got down on the ground so we were nose to nose. I think he was annoyed.

These roots make me think of stalactites (or is it stalagmites?)

I love the colors in this one...

On our third set of rapids, I think I got a little cocky. The raft hit a boulder and I saw my little brother start to lose his balance. I reached forward to save him and all I managed to do was land us both in the drink. My first thought? Dammit, Jared! This wasn't the first time that attempting to help him landed me in over my head.

My little brother, Jared is 10 years my junior and 6 feet tall to my 5 foot 7, so every time I call him my "little" brother, part of me wants to clarify the statement. Every. single. time. Even though he outweighs me by a good 50 pounds, I can't help thinking of him as the tiny, timid 9 year old that he was when I moved out of our parents' home.

One of my favorite bloggers, Ree, often talks about the things she does because she's a middle child and I can relate in that I often find myself doing things because I'm the oldest child. I spent most of Jared's first years playing mediator between him and our sister, the middle child. I think my lifelong desire to be a teacher can be attributed to being the oldest child and my ability to let Jared literally put me in over my head is just another symptom of "oldest child syndrome"....... if there is such a thing.

The last summer vacation we took as a family before I left included a float trip down the Current River in Missouri. We had been canoeing many times, but this time we thought it would be fun to take it easy and simply float down the river in innertubes. Jared would have been 8 or 9 at the time, and even though he got all the athletic ability in the family, he wasn't terribly coordinated at this point. There was a point in the river where it split for a while, one side slow and easy, the other fast and scary looking. Me and Dad took the fast side; the others went the slower way. During the pass of the cooler bearing innertube, Jared decided he wanted to go the faster way too. I'm not sure what happened then, but Jared was standing in shallow water and he was yelling about something and scared about how fast the water was rushing past his little feet, when he lost the grip on his tube and I, like an idiot, stepped deeper into the rushing water to grab it as it went past me. Whoosh! Feet out from under me, I was skimming along at a fast pace, completely out of control with no tube and no way to stop myself from slamming into a tree partially submerged in the river. The river spun me around and around until I was close enough to the shore for my Mom to grab my hand and pull me out. I stood there on the bank, shaking, watching the blood run down my leg, and wondering how I manage to get myself into these situations. Nothing broken, I NEVER break bones, but sometimes it hurts so bad you can't help thinking that it SHOULD be broken. Stupid shin turned practically black, let me tell ya, I make some pretty bruises. My leg was still bruised that winter when I was standing outside my dorm in sleep shorts after some joker pulled a fire alarm. (Bastard.) So....back to the rafting story.

Once again I was at the mercy of a river, this time in New York, though at least this time I was wearing a helmet and life jacket. The big difference is that I actually knew what to do. The river guides lectured us on what to do in the event that we fall out of the raft, of course the idea is to NOT fall out of the raft. What can I say? I'm a rebel and a thrill seeker. Heh.
They told us to point our toes down river and float on our backs, steering with our arms. WHATEVER YOU DO, they said, DON"T TRY TO STAND UP!!! DON'T DO IT! How silly, I thought, I'm wearing a life jacket, of course I'll float, why would I try to stand up? They were so right. My first instinct in my momentary panic until I remembered what to do was to stand up. I resisted the urge and was quite proud of my floating ability, only yelling when my back made contact with a particularly large rock. Ouch. That one left a mark. My brother and I were picked up by rafts further down the river and then transferred back to our own. The best part? I had the presence of mind to not only save my paddle, but my brother's as well. I. am. AWESOME. My dad later told me that he was glad my Mom had changed her mind about going with us because his heart stopped when we tumbled into the river. My Mom? She can't swim. No rapids for her, thanks.

So, that's it. Two instances of rushing water over my head; both involving my brother. The moral of the story? I blame Jared.

*I have some pictures of me in the helmet and life jacket somewhere, but I can't seem to find the disc, but if I find them later, I will definitely post them, even though I look sort of ridiculous.