Genius!

Happy birthday, sweetie!

The gymnast?

In the kitchen at work today:

Eclecta: So this friend of mine was in Toronto over Easter weekend ...
Kevin: The gymnast?
Eclecta: Long pause as she tries to figure out how the hell he ever thought she had a friend who is a gymnast ... then laughs. Kevin, you are so gay. Only a gay man would think of a gymnast. [He really IS gay.]
Kevin: What? A straight guy would say a gymnast, right?
Eclecta: Gives that "give your head a shake" look.

Kevin is a dear and wonderful friend of mine who is accustomed to my blogging about him. I love you, bunny!!! :)

My summer is officially full

I just made arrangements to go to New York for a couple of days with a friend next week. Eeek!!! I have never been to New York before, but this time-limited opportunity (with free lodging in Newark, which isn't so bad a commute, or so I'm told) was too good to miss. Plus, I get to see my whip-smart, well-read friend Melissa, which is awesome.

(I have to take a break here and tell you a story about Melissa, because this is a good one. Melissa and I met in Korea, but the first Memorial Day Weekend after 9/11, I visited her and her husband and infant son in Washington, D.C. They showed me as much of this GORGEOUS city as they could in a long weekend, and then on the way back to the airport, Melissa and I started talking about Bush and American politics. This was before Iraq. And folks, she KNEW that Bush would fuck it up. [Sorry, I can't even ---- it out.] She fretted that he would fuck it up, said she was inconsolable the first time Bush was "elected", and I told her that no, it wouldn't be so bad after all, not because Bush is basically an okay guy [because, DUDE, the writing was on the wall], but I sincerely believed that there would be other politicians and bureaucrats and world leaders who'd be able to keep things from going into the pisser. Well, y'all [Melissa's from Virginia], we all know how THAT'S turned out, right?)

Anyway, after New York, there is a stag and doe that I will attend as the official photographer (please, gods, just a few photographs that I can be proud of), then a family reunion the next weekend, then zoom! I'm off to Seattle for a visit with my brother, sister-in-law, and my niece and nephew. Friends and Internet vagabonds, I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to this! This may involve some middle-of-the-night helping because there are only so many months you can go with a few hours of sleep a night, y'all (okay, I'm getting carried away, I know), and so I will don my SuperAuntie! cape (DA TA DA DA!!!) and insist on helping. Needless to say, the first weekend back in Toronto will have NOTHING SCHEDULED.

And then, the last weekend of August, I have my very first stint as a wedding photographer. So the weekend before THAT will be spent nervously trying to anticipate every possible thing that could go wrong. Folks, please keep your fingers crossed for me, or at least for the poor fools who thought I could photograph their wedding. (I tried to dissuade them, I really did!) Just thinking about this makes my stomach lodge in my throat.

And then Labour Day weekend - which I may need to recuperate from my boss being on vacation the last two weeks of August + the wedding. (This past week was the first time my boss was on vacation that I didn't get sick from the stress of doing my job + whatever I could of his, but I think that's because I slept so much the weekend before and after.)

And sometime in mid-August, songbird migration begins again ...

HOLY CRAP I'M GOING TO BE BUSY!

Holy Cuteness Batman!

Folks, it is entirely unlikely (unlessyouhavekidsofyourown) that you will ever see anything more adorable than twin babies toothlessly, radiantly laughing and interacting with each other. You can see that here, just click on the fourth (also the last) link to see the video. (I was just going to steal the video and post it here, but what kind of example would I set for the children??? lol)

It honestly amazes me - my niece and nephew only have about 25% of my genetic material, and yet share all my charm! Is that a medical miracle or what??? ;->

Another portrait

DSC_0008
Originally uploaded by Noisypond.

... just to be generous :)

Love You Forever

After reading every single archive on Beth’s blog (which I thoroughly enjoyed, Beth, thank you), particularly her posts about lost friendships from bygone days, I finally caved in and signed up for Facebook.

Frankly, I have mixed feelings about this.

Mostly because I feel I am a very different person from the one my university pals or high school classmates may have known. For example, when I was in university, I was a very religious person. I actually considered myself to be a born-again Christian. But a couple of years after university, that was no longer the case. How or why doesn’t matter at this point, and is something I will usually refuse to discuss (hear that shot across the bow?). However, during my crisis of faith, which was one of the most painful excruciating times of my life, one of the worst things about it all (second only to struggling with whether I was actually going to hell or not) was the knowledge that our faith had been the foundation of the relationships I’d had with most of my university/church friends. I knew that things could never be the same. I truly grieved about this because they are amazing, wonderful people whom I still love to this day, and with whom I share numerous fond memories. And because the whole religion thing was so incredibly painful to me for several years, it all had to go. It was an amputation. Boy, was that hard.

It’s been almost ten years since then. Over time, as I’ve become more comfortable and confident with my choices, the mention of religion doesn’t freak me out as it used to.

But I can’t pretend that I haven’t changed, or that my dear friends and I have much in common any more.

So, if you happen upon this site via Facebook or some other means and count yourself as a Christian friend from our school days, know that I adore you. If we are somehow able to cobble together a friendship in the now that is based on what we have in common as human beings rather than religion, no one could be more thrilled than I would be. And if today we are too different (and/or you are too freaked out about my current belief system), know that I will always be thankful for the love, acceptance, and sense of belonging that you gave me when I desperately needed it. And I will always love you.

It's almost midnight and you haven't posted yet today????

DSC_0071
Originally uploaded by Noisypond.

Whoops, sorry!

On god and glassware

Lately, I've been reading archived posts of Beth's blog, which have been quite entertaining. This is vintage!

Dear God

No, I'm not getting religious on you ... but today someone found my blog after using the following search criteria:

Costco KY jelly

Here's why. Totally unembarrassing, and yet - so icky.

This sucks

By far the funniest thing that's happened in a long while took place at work today, and yet I can't tell you the story because I've stupidly given the address to my blog to several people at work (and they gave it to some other people at work) and it might get back to the person involved, and he would be embarrassed. Which is really a shame because as far as anecdotes go, this one is damn comical. Just one thing to say, unnamed co-worker: I told you, but did you listen? BAH HAHAHAHA! Seriously, it was totally harmless and more than a little cute, but the guy is already feeling sheepish.

Blogging about work or events at work is not a good idea. (I know this from experience. This also sucks.) However, I can't restrain myself from writing tonight - and I'm not kissing anyone's ass here, people - there are days when I am overwhelmed by how amazing the guys on my team are. My co-workers as a whole are really good, talented people. Almost anyone with a job has bad days at work from time to time, and we might have pointless dumbass conflicts occasionally, but today is one of those days when something happens (totally unrelated to the anecdote related above) where I am in awe of my co-workers. Not because they can solve a nasty technical problem (although that is really cool too), but because they are such lovely human beings. As extraordinary as they are, it makes me wonder: Are most people this amazing, or have I just truly lucked out in the co-worker department?

So if you happen to be my co-worker and you read this, yes, I'm glad you are here reading my humble blog (even though I'm sure you must have better things to do with your time, like flossing); no, I will NOT tell you the funny story; and yes, you may pat yourself on the back. :)

Control freak

21
Originally uploaded by Noisypond.

Yes, my father played the accordion. How Old World is that?

And guess who's personality is just a little Type A?

Yes, it would just be better if *I* could do it, obviously!
______________________________________________________

Okay, despite my sleep festival over the long weekend, I am back to being utterly sleep-deprived and hollow-eyed. So, dear friends and Internet vagabonds, this is all I have for you today. Come back tomorrow. :)

Real quick, like

DSC_0018
Originally uploaded by Noisypond.

All work and no play makes Eclecta a boring girl tonight (yes, I'm still at work), so here's a portrait I took last week for you to look at.

The result of a dare

Friends and innocent bystanders, what you are about to read is both the result of a dare and an exercise in telling my own vicious inner critic to shove the hell off.

My friend Jamie and I were IM'ing and she was sharing that she hasn't been writing much lately because life frankly has dumped a steaming pile of crap on her recently and she doesn't have the same creative impulses that she normally does. So I was encouraging her to write something different, like poetry, to see if that might make a difference. Her response was, and I quote:

haha! i write the worst poetry in the world, the worst.

So I challenged her: half an hour, one poem each, we both post the results on our own blogs, regardless how pathetic they are. So here's mine:

There’s a crease in your forehead
There used to be laugh lines
There’s a hesitance in your expression
That used to be confidence
Life’s dealt you some nasty ones
And goodness you’re reeling

Where did “goodness” come from anyway,
When it used to be bold, angry words,
Conversationally tossed?

Nothing is stable, everything is wrong
Your foundation eroded from under you
While you shook your head in disbelief.

And that’s still part of the problem,
That you can’t believe it, can’t accept it
Ifonlyeverythingcouldgobackthewayitusedtobe.

I have no platitudes, no answers
Just faith in you.

Yes, this poem sucks donkey balls, it's so bad, but when I tried to dip my ladle into the river of the cosmic unconscious, this is what came up. So who am I to question the cosmic unconscious? :) It's not like I'll be sending it to a publisher anyway. :)

Sometimes we are just too hard on ourselves.

So, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to write your own poem in 30 minutes or less, no matter how lame or insipid, and either post it in the comments here or on your own blog with a link to it in the comments.

Truly, your effort can't possibly be worse than mine, can it? And it feels great to tell the inner critic to feck off!!!! :)

Update: Jamie's poem can be found here. It is really far better than mine.

Eclecta baby photo retrospective III

16
Originally uploaded by Noisypond.

Since it’s been a long weekend and I sanely (surprisingly) decided to keep my calendar open so I could address some things around here that have been driving me crazy, I’ve finally had a chance to scan the rest of the photos from my childhood. I won’t blog all of them at once, as that would be a total bore, but I will do a couple at a time.

This particular photo is likely the first one taken of me with my brother. Really, the title of this blog posting should read something like, “Boy, THAT sure was awkward!” Maybe it’s fitting; throughout our 36-year relationship, there have been glorious moments of friendship (which you will see in other photos), bitter rivalry, intense mutual embarrassment, and then periods when we have felt like strangers with one another.

I was 17 months old when my brother Joe was born (ironic since my parents tried for about 8 YEARS before I showed up). Not really twins like Lorelai and Reece, but fairly close (and with far more physical resemblance than that particular brother-sister duo!). I hope that Lorelai and Reece will enjoy countless hours together being silly and building forts and biking and playing games and eating cherries like Joe and I did, but I think they’ll also show each other more respect than Joe and I did. Fortunately, it’s never too late to learn. :)

Techie note: Picasa rocks! Picasa is a FREE photo-editing tool from Google that is incredibly easy to use (far easier than Photoshop!) and really helps with image quality. I’ve run all these scans of old childhood photos through Picasa to sharpen them and sometimes to crop them. While the quality of these old photos is generally quite bad, Picasa does make most of them a little less blurry. Definitely worth the minute or two per photograph. I process all my photographs in Picasa first, using Photoshop only if I need the additional tools that Photoshop provides. Picasa will also convert RAW files (the format used in digital cameras that captures all the information possible for every pixel) into JPEG very easily.

Eclecta baby photo retrospective II

12
Originally uploaded by Noisypond.

Here again is behaviour that modern-day parents would probably be too afraid to do – and certainly would not allow photographic evidence to be taken!

Dad and I are “riding” Dixie. Based on her ears alone, Dixie isn’t too thrilled about the whole situation. However, as far as I know, no mishap ensued. :)

You heard it here first

It’s been a great Canada Day. I slept in for the second day in a row (GOD I LOVE LONG WEEKENDS) and felt truly reborn when I got up this morning (20 hours of sleep in 48 hours can have that effect. Sorry, Joe – I don’t mean to make you jealous. You’ll be able to sleep in like that once the twins are teenagers – maybe. LOL).

I just came back from a barbeque at my friend Ada’s. She has some of the most interesting friends – I love going to her parties.

One of her friends (whose name I never caught because I am a dork) is an assistant director in Toronto’s film industry. He has also drafted a screenplay of his own life, first as a small child in Nicaragua during the civil war, then for a time in Mexico, and then as a Spanish-speaking teenager thrown into an affluent English-speaking school in Toronto. Friends, when (not if) this movie is made, you will want to see it. It will have some humour, some dark moments too, I think, but overall I think it will have a lot of heart. I’ll try to keep tabs on this project and let you know more as it develops. And when it’s a huge hit I will feel very superior and remind you that I told you all about it tonight. :)

≈ orange...

≈ orange...
Originally uploaded by Jennifer Esperanza.

Amazing photograph!

I surf the Internet so you don't have to

The context would take too long to explain (just read this blog post), but here is a cute little story by DoneMamma (found in the comments of aforementioned blog post):

Well, my 3 year old already thinks I'm an idiot. Yesterday I gave her four pieces of fruit. She said, "Mommy, after I eat this one, I will have three left." and I said, "Good job, that is called subtraction." In THE most condescending voice she replies, "No MOM, that is called EATING."

Re-worked portrait

DSC_0140
Originally uploaded by Noisypond.

Changed to black and white, sharpened a bit, and contrast adjusted. I think it's a lot better, and I'm pleased that I've been able to salvage this portrait. If you're interested, you can see the original here.

A portrait I took a few weeks ago

DSC_0055
Originally uploaded by Noisypond.