Superbly Situated

you politely ask me not to die and i promise not to
right from the beginning—a relationship based on
good sense and thoughtfulness in little things

i would like to be loved for such simple attainments
as breathing regularly and not falling down too often
or because my eyes are brown or my father left-handed

and to be on the safe side i wouldn’t mind if somehow
i became entangled in your perception of admirable objects
so you might say to yourself: i have recently noticed

how superbly situated the empire state building is
how it looms up suddenly behind cemeteries and rivers
so far away you could touch it—therefore i love you

part of me fears that some moron is already plotting
to tear down the empire state building and replace it
with a block of staten island mother/daughter houses

just as part of me fears that if you love me for my cleanliness
i will grow filthy if you admire my elegant clothes
i’ll start wearing shirts with sailboats on them

but i have decided to become a public beach an opera house
a regularly scheduled flight—something that can’t help being
in the right place at the right time—come take your seat

we’ll raise the curtain fill the house start the engines
fly off into the sunrise, the spire of the empire state
the last sight on the horizon as the earth begins to curve

-- by Robert Hershon




(picture by Ashley Larsen, June 2010)

studio time

After my friend Natalie finished her new studio, she very generously invited me over to play with it:
(she also took this picture of me from behind. I suspect she picked up my camera and thought, "I wonder if this thing actually works?" before taking a test click.)





she even let me shoot with her camera, since mine is a wreck and really ought to be retired.



I have a serious case of camera envy now.
also, a serious bias towards black and whites with a lot of gray. I don't know if you've noticed.
let's talk about how handsome Michael is for a second.

and now, for all the people who tell me I never put pictures of Ivy on my blog:

take that.
much more from this shoot later.

Thank you, Natalie!

in case you missed it

one day chums

yesterday I went to lunch with my friend Caro, who is in town briefly:


we have been friends for 12 years.

12 YEARS.

that might be my longest relationship ever.

(excepting family, of course.)

Caro is an art-historian nursing student, who sometimes moonlights writing video game copy. She once wrote me an email where she was like, "There's a romance writers convention in town, so I decided to go. (You wouldn't believe how many saucy grandma's there are out there.)" And by the end of her email, I had basically concluded that my life would never be complete if I didn't attend at least one romance writers convention.

such is her power. and now I bet you wish you knew her, too.

a few more

behold my entire family:



you would not believe how difficult it was to take that picture.

the girl cousins (and please take special note of the little blond girl on the left. she posed in every single picture. in the one above also. I love it so much, I've decided to start posing like that for pictures, too):



the boy cousins:
































my mom and Ivy:
































Mags and Michael:

































our family:

(photos by Rob Higginson Photography)

sisters

(photos by Rob Higginson Photography)

zip

last night as a family farewell to summer (and also to Maggie and Nate who are going back to Michigan, losers) we went up the canyon for some fun.




























because the family that zips together, stays together. that's my mom, by the way.

Chris is such a show-off.

why am I doing the robot in this picture? I don't know.

My dad and Ivy stayed firmly in the audience.

maggie went, of course. I just don't think she'd appreciate any of the pictures I took.

When I asked Michael if he wanted to do it, Chris was all, "Are you crazy?" But I ignored him.

I do that, somtimes.

it was exhilarating.

Here's a picture of abby (posted just to exhibit my one perfect pan of the night):

after everyone went, we found a campsite and made s'mores.

And now I want to go do this every weekend. who's in?

(pictures of me taken by Chris.)

reunion

We made the journey to Iowa this year for Christofer's annual family reunion, poetically referred to as the Coonfeed. This is Grandpa Dale, founding father:




the first thing you should know about the coonfeed is that I was lying when I said the name was poetic. there's nothing poetic about it, the name is completely literal: something like 60 coons were killed, skinned and served up as sloppy joes.



and then people ate them. on purpose.


I know.

































no, I didn't eat any coon.






Yes, I fed both the boys a coon burger.


































no, I don't feel bad about the double standard.



Where was I? Right. The coonfeed is presently held at Aunt Amy's house in Iowa, and, let me just say, Michael and William think Aunt Amy's house is positively magical.




(for that matter, I think Aunt Amy's house is postively magical. )



































The boys played on swings and teeter-totters, drove kiddie cars and chased fireflies. By the time we left they were sweaty and filthy, exhausted and exhilarated.




I'm pretty sure they would have been happy to stay forever.



































we had a marvelous time.




coon notwithstanding.

pictures uploaded exactly one year ago

(taken by Chris)