Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Yosemite - Vol. 1
So much for getting to bed early tonight..and that is after I accidentally poured bubbly water in the cats bowl. {sigh} Keeps life interesting. I did manage to get through some of my Yosemite photos. There are so many!! Without further adieu here are a few… more on the actual trip later..
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
My Grandma.
This is my Grandma..
I took this photo while we were at the Grand Canyon two weeks ago. My Grandma is 82-years old. She is the middle child of first-generation immigrants and their only daughter. Her mother's parents came to the United States from Ireland and Germany respectively though he was Polish not German. Her father's parens came from southern Italy. None of my great-great-grandparents had to endure going through Ellis Island thankfully as they all arrived prior to it's opening.
My great-grandparents were both born and raised in Camden, NJ. Her in the Polish neighborhood and him in the Italian neighborhood. They had to get married in another state because neither of their churches would perform the marriage. They were marrying "outside" their ethnicity after all.
My Grandma was born in Camden but raised in Brooklyn, NY. They moved their shortly after her birth. My great-grandfather had severe allergies. The pollens in the ground water in New Jersey were making him terribly ill. Subsequently my Grandma is a city girl through and through.
She went to an all girls high school focusing on secretarial skills which was what she wanted to do for a profession. She married my grandfather not long after graduating high school. He was fourteen years her senior and her boss. They moved to Indiana where my aunt was born.
After a year they moved back to New Jersey were my mother was born. Not long after my Granda left him, taking her daughters, and moving back home with her parents in Brooklyn. She went back to work in the city taking the train and walking up and down 5th Ave. in her 2-inch heels. It was the 1950s and I think that is the time of her life she enjoyed the most. The city. The clothes. Life with her parents and large extended family.
In 1963 she moved to California. He older brother lived in Stockton and her mother's half-brother lived here in the Valley working for Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica. My Grandma came for a visit and stayed - it had always been her plan but she didn't tell her daughters before hand. See, the reason she was coming to California was for a divorce. At that time in New Jersey a woman could not get a divorce if her husband didn't agree. Despite the fact that they had not lived together in nearly a decade my grandfather refused a divorce. So she moved to "the land of fruits and nuts" as she called it where she could be free without any further aggravation. She raised two children on her own without any financial support from my grandfather. She re-married and divorced. Moved from Venice to Orange County when Douglas Aircraft became McDonnell Douglas Aircraft and expanded into Huntington Beach. My great-grandparents eventually followed her out. When her mother developed Alzheimer's disease she moved them in wit her to help her dad take care of her.
My Grandma raised me. When I was a baby my mother and I would spend the weekends with her. After my sister was born my Grandma started picking me up every Friday night and keeping me for the weekend. Every Friday night we'd go to Weinerschnitzel (my choice) and have a corn dog or a chili cheese dog until I couldn't look at a hot dog for more than a decade without being sick. The weekend would be spent playing games, watching some TV, eating ice cream, going to the library or the park, and then having Sunday dinner at my great-grandparents. Dinner alternated each week between spaghetti or a roast with potatoes and vegetables. As I got older I spent more and more time with my Grandma and great-grandparents. My home life Monday through Friday with my mother was unstable to say the least.
I wouldn't be who I am today or have been able to do any of the things I have without my Grandma's unceasing encouragement and support. Over the years she has been my primary parent and my best friend. We shopped. We ate. We traveled. It wasn't always easy. We see the world in very different ways. While she hasn't always liked my choices she has always supported them.
My great-grandma passed away at 85-years of age. By that point she no longer knew who my great-grandfather was despite having spent more than sixty-five years together as husband and wife. She didn't always know who my grandma was. The things I remember most about my great-grandma from that time is that 1) I could watch Disney's Little Mermaid (on VHS) over and over and she was oblivious to the fact that she'd just seen it three times in a row. 2) Every night she'd go searching for her box of hair rollers to set her hair. After a few years my great-grandpa had gotten rid of them because she would get so exhausted setting her hair each night and she didn't need it set anymore. She never stopped wanting to set her hair as she'd done every night for more years than not. Once they were gone she'd still search for them and get frustrated when she couldn't find them. He'd tell her that they were gone and she didn't need to set her hair and she'd say, fine fine. Then ten minutes later she'd be looking for the box again.
In all likelihood my great-grandma had dementia not Alzheimer's disease. She never got angry. She wasn't paranoid. She didn't have sundowns. She did have dementia. It was like she was a five-year-old child again. It was very hard on my great-grandfather in particular. Watching the woman he'd spent his life with slowly slip away not knowing who he was or remembering anything of their life together. He was the complete opposite when he passed. He was nearly 92-years old. He was lucid and sharp as a tack until several days before he slipped into a coma. His body had started to shut down due to nothing more than age but his brain remained as it always had until the very last minute.
Over the years as my Grandma aged she worried about becoming like her mother and forgetting everything. My Grandma worked for the same company for 35-years retiring from Boeing after another merger to take care of my great-grandpa his last year of life. She kept herself busy and active by joining the local senior center. She went to exercise classes and dances and day trips to Palm Springs.
The last two years I've been crazy busy. While teaching community college part-time I went back to school for a second Master's degree in film. I was teaching nine-units a term while taking eighteen to twenty-one units of classes at Art Center. Instead of going home once a week I was going one once a month or every other month. Then a year ago in the fall I took her up to San Francisco for a long weekend to spend time together and celebrate her birthday. I noticed she would get confused easily and had trouble remembering things. She had been really stressed about things she was doing around the house so I thought perhaps that was what was causing her issues but I was also concerned. Over the last year despite my busy schedule I've made more of an effort to go down and spend time with her. The more time I've spent the clearer it is that she is in the early onset stages of dementia. Some days she does great. Other days she doesn't remember how to write a check to pay her bills. It is disconcerting. I cannot remember how quickly things progressed with my great-grandma. I was five when she first started with the dementia and my Grandma moved her parents in with her. I was fourteen when she passed away. My Grandma is still able to live on her own but I go down at least once a week to make sure everything is sorted and take her out to run errands and do things around the house. I call every day to every other day. At some point other arrangements will need to be made but having grown-up with my great-grandparents and already having gone through this once I know what to expect and I prefer to take things one day at a time.
Right now my Grandma is still able to get out and about so I'm taking her on a number of road trips, taking lots of photos, and ensuring she enjoys herself as much as possible. Our first trip was the Grand Canyon. Next we'll head to San Francisco for a week in early summer. Late summer I'm planning an extended nine state road trip through the Pacific Northwest. She can't do a lot of walking. Her hips and knees bother her. So we drive. Eat. Stop for short treks around shops or seeing sights. If she's able, I'm planning a trip back to NYC next summer to take her back to Brooklyn for a week or so to see all the changes to her old neighborhood. My Grandma always made me a priority in her life so it is imperative that I do the same for her. She taught me that and I am grateful for it.
I took this photo while we were at the Grand Canyon two weeks ago. My Grandma is 82-years old. She is the middle child of first-generation immigrants and their only daughter. Her mother's parents came to the United States from Ireland and Germany respectively though he was Polish not German. Her father's parens came from southern Italy. None of my great-great-grandparents had to endure going through Ellis Island thankfully as they all arrived prior to it's opening.
My great-grandparents were both born and raised in Camden, NJ. Her in the Polish neighborhood and him in the Italian neighborhood. They had to get married in another state because neither of their churches would perform the marriage. They were marrying "outside" their ethnicity after all.
My Grandma was born in Camden but raised in Brooklyn, NY. They moved their shortly after her birth. My great-grandfather had severe allergies. The pollens in the ground water in New Jersey were making him terribly ill. Subsequently my Grandma is a city girl through and through.
She went to an all girls high school focusing on secretarial skills which was what she wanted to do for a profession. She married my grandfather not long after graduating high school. He was fourteen years her senior and her boss. They moved to Indiana where my aunt was born.
After a year they moved back to New Jersey were my mother was born. Not long after my Granda left him, taking her daughters, and moving back home with her parents in Brooklyn. She went back to work in the city taking the train and walking up and down 5th Ave. in her 2-inch heels. It was the 1950s and I think that is the time of her life she enjoyed the most. The city. The clothes. Life with her parents and large extended family.
In 1963 she moved to California. He older brother lived in Stockton and her mother's half-brother lived here in the Valley working for Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica. My Grandma came for a visit and stayed - it had always been her plan but she didn't tell her daughters before hand. See, the reason she was coming to California was for a divorce. At that time in New Jersey a woman could not get a divorce if her husband didn't agree. Despite the fact that they had not lived together in nearly a decade my grandfather refused a divorce. So she moved to "the land of fruits and nuts" as she called it where she could be free without any further aggravation. She raised two children on her own without any financial support from my grandfather. She re-married and divorced. Moved from Venice to Orange County when Douglas Aircraft became McDonnell Douglas Aircraft and expanded into Huntington Beach. My great-grandparents eventually followed her out. When her mother developed Alzheimer's disease she moved them in wit her to help her dad take care of her.
My Grandma raised me. When I was a baby my mother and I would spend the weekends with her. After my sister was born my Grandma started picking me up every Friday night and keeping me for the weekend. Every Friday night we'd go to Weinerschnitzel (my choice) and have a corn dog or a chili cheese dog until I couldn't look at a hot dog for more than a decade without being sick. The weekend would be spent playing games, watching some TV, eating ice cream, going to the library or the park, and then having Sunday dinner at my great-grandparents. Dinner alternated each week between spaghetti or a roast with potatoes and vegetables. As I got older I spent more and more time with my Grandma and great-grandparents. My home life Monday through Friday with my mother was unstable to say the least.
I wouldn't be who I am today or have been able to do any of the things I have without my Grandma's unceasing encouragement and support. Over the years she has been my primary parent and my best friend. We shopped. We ate. We traveled. It wasn't always easy. We see the world in very different ways. While she hasn't always liked my choices she has always supported them.
My great-grandma passed away at 85-years of age. By that point she no longer knew who my great-grandfather was despite having spent more than sixty-five years together as husband and wife. She didn't always know who my grandma was. The things I remember most about my great-grandma from that time is that 1) I could watch Disney's Little Mermaid (on VHS) over and over and she was oblivious to the fact that she'd just seen it three times in a row. 2) Every night she'd go searching for her box of hair rollers to set her hair. After a few years my great-grandpa had gotten rid of them because she would get so exhausted setting her hair each night and she didn't need it set anymore. She never stopped wanting to set her hair as she'd done every night for more years than not. Once they were gone she'd still search for them and get frustrated when she couldn't find them. He'd tell her that they were gone and she didn't need to set her hair and she'd say, fine fine. Then ten minutes later she'd be looking for the box again.
In all likelihood my great-grandma had dementia not Alzheimer's disease. She never got angry. She wasn't paranoid. She didn't have sundowns. She did have dementia. It was like she was a five-year-old child again. It was very hard on my great-grandfather in particular. Watching the woman he'd spent his life with slowly slip away not knowing who he was or remembering anything of their life together. He was the complete opposite when he passed. He was nearly 92-years old. He was lucid and sharp as a tack until several days before he slipped into a coma. His body had started to shut down due to nothing more than age but his brain remained as it always had until the very last minute.
Over the years as my Grandma aged she worried about becoming like her mother and forgetting everything. My Grandma worked for the same company for 35-years retiring from Boeing after another merger to take care of my great-grandpa his last year of life. She kept herself busy and active by joining the local senior center. She went to exercise classes and dances and day trips to Palm Springs.
The last two years I've been crazy busy. While teaching community college part-time I went back to school for a second Master's degree in film. I was teaching nine-units a term while taking eighteen to twenty-one units of classes at Art Center. Instead of going home once a week I was going one once a month or every other month. Then a year ago in the fall I took her up to San Francisco for a long weekend to spend time together and celebrate her birthday. I noticed she would get confused easily and had trouble remembering things. She had been really stressed about things she was doing around the house so I thought perhaps that was what was causing her issues but I was also concerned. Over the last year despite my busy schedule I've made more of an effort to go down and spend time with her. The more time I've spent the clearer it is that she is in the early onset stages of dementia. Some days she does great. Other days she doesn't remember how to write a check to pay her bills. It is disconcerting. I cannot remember how quickly things progressed with my great-grandma. I was five when she first started with the dementia and my Grandma moved her parents in with her. I was fourteen when she passed away. My Grandma is still able to live on her own but I go down at least once a week to make sure everything is sorted and take her out to run errands and do things around the house. I call every day to every other day. At some point other arrangements will need to be made but having grown-up with my great-grandparents and already having gone through this once I know what to expect and I prefer to take things one day at a time.
Right now my Grandma is still able to get out and about so I'm taking her on a number of road trips, taking lots of photos, and ensuring she enjoys herself as much as possible. Our first trip was the Grand Canyon. Next we'll head to San Francisco for a week in early summer. Late summer I'm planning an extended nine state road trip through the Pacific Northwest. She can't do a lot of walking. Her hips and knees bother her. So we drive. Eat. Stop for short treks around shops or seeing sights. If she's able, I'm planning a trip back to NYC next summer to take her back to Brooklyn for a week or so to see all the changes to her old neighborhood. My Grandma always made me a priority in her life so it is imperative that I do the same for her. She taught me that and I am grateful for it.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Milk in a Bowl..
I've been burning both ends of the candle so to speak lately. Somehow I got onto this awful schedule of getting up at 10am and working straight through on things til 6 to 7pm when I crash. I think I'll have a quick rest and three hours later I wake up at 9 or 10pm and I'm up working some more until anywhere from 3 to 5am. It's crap. I've got to get off it. Tonight I was making myself a salad and took the milk out of the fridge to pour into my glass and instead picked up my salad bowl and poured the milk into it. Sigh. I think my brain is saying enough is enough. I've loads to do tonight and apart from a few necessary items (doesn't everything feel necessary sometimes) I'm giving myself a break and sitting down with a book for a bit of reading before going to bed at a respectable midnight-ish.
And this was after I went to the dry cleaners this afternoon to pick up my clothes that it turns out I'd already picked up last week. There are many many days in which I feel that my life resembles an episode of I Love Lucy but luckily without all the crying :)
And this was after I went to the dry cleaners this afternoon to pick up my clothes that it turns out I'd already picked up last week. There are many many days in which I feel that my life resembles an episode of I Love Lucy but luckily without all the crying :)
Painting..
Two years ago I decided to paint my whole apartment. Me being me, I went out, bought the paint, painted, and then asked the manager if it was cool. Fortunately it worked out. When I move I'll have to re-paint. I made some bold choices when I painted. I like color and I have a tendency to put myself out there and see what happens. By the time I finished the bedroom, bathroom, living room, and dining room I could not bring myself to do the kitchen. It is painted in hi-gloss. The bathroom was hi-gloss. It wasn't fun.
Two years later, I was tired of that awful dingy looking swiss coffee color. At night with the fluorescent light on the room is reminiscent of an interrogation cell in a bad TV police drama. So I decided to freshen it up with a brighter white. It was off to Home Depot for me. Somewhere along the way I had the brilliant idea that a lovely minty green accent color would be swell. I'm not a pastel kind of girl at all. In fact, I kind of hate those colors in general. But I had a clear idea in mind and after debating for a few moments between two swatches I made my color selection and bought my paint.
(Side note - re-grouting that awful yellow in the kitchen tiles will be the next home improvement project).
(The color was Stan approved.)
I'm terribly impatient. I wanted to go home and start right away. That was Wednesday. I didn't get home until 9pm. Thursday I had a mini-head shot photo shoot with a friend (more to come on that soon). Friday I had work all day. So Saturday was painting day. It took a few hours to clear everything out and tape it all off. It took hours to paint. Hi-gloss is miserable. It takes so many coats to cover evenly - I did sand most of it slightly before hand and that helped. The un-sanded bits, oh my.
I can never paint without ordering pizza. It was oh so good.
I finally finished at 3am. Collapsed into bed at 5am (can't leave a mess with cats). Final conclusion - I LOVE it!! There were a few moments when I wasn't certain the color would be all that brighter but it is! It no longer feels like a cell in there. The green turned out better than I could have hoped for. It goes great with the rest of the color and gives such a clean fresh feel to the room. It reminds me of those soft melt in your mouth candies I used to get as a child at my Italian relatives weddings. I don't know what they are called but they were so lovely to eat and the color brings that to mind.
It's a good thing I love it because I'd be stuck with it either way. My hands and arms and legs are sorer than I can ever remember them being. After a soak in a hot bath this morning I collapsed into bed with paint in my hair and what felt like just about everywhere. My plans for the day were completely waylaid by exhaustion and aches and pains but it was all worth it. My kitchen is 100 times lovelier than it was before. When I finally get around to moving I will be paying someone to re-paint the whole place back to white because frankly, I just don't have it in me to do it all again…but I love it!!
Two years later, I was tired of that awful dingy looking swiss coffee color. At night with the fluorescent light on the room is reminiscent of an interrogation cell in a bad TV police drama. So I decided to freshen it up with a brighter white. It was off to Home Depot for me. Somewhere along the way I had the brilliant idea that a lovely minty green accent color would be swell. I'm not a pastel kind of girl at all. In fact, I kind of hate those colors in general. But I had a clear idea in mind and after debating for a few moments between two swatches I made my color selection and bought my paint.
(Side note - re-grouting that awful yellow in the kitchen tiles will be the next home improvement project).
(The color was Stan approved.)
I'm terribly impatient. I wanted to go home and start right away. That was Wednesday. I didn't get home until 9pm. Thursday I had a mini-head shot photo shoot with a friend (more to come on that soon). Friday I had work all day. So Saturday was painting day. It took a few hours to clear everything out and tape it all off. It took hours to paint. Hi-gloss is miserable. It takes so many coats to cover evenly - I did sand most of it slightly before hand and that helped. The un-sanded bits, oh my.
I can never paint without ordering pizza. It was oh so good.
I finally finished at 3am. Collapsed into bed at 5am (can't leave a mess with cats). Final conclusion - I LOVE it!! There were a few moments when I wasn't certain the color would be all that brighter but it is! It no longer feels like a cell in there. The green turned out better than I could have hoped for. It goes great with the rest of the color and gives such a clean fresh feel to the room. It reminds me of those soft melt in your mouth candies I used to get as a child at my Italian relatives weddings. I don't know what they are called but they were so lovely to eat and the color brings that to mind.
It's a good thing I love it because I'd be stuck with it either way. My hands and arms and legs are sorer than I can ever remember them being. After a soak in a hot bath this morning I collapsed into bed with paint in my hair and what felt like just about everywhere. My plans for the day were completely waylaid by exhaustion and aches and pains but it was all worth it. My kitchen is 100 times lovelier than it was before. When I finally get around to moving I will be paying someone to re-paint the whole place back to white because frankly, I just don't have it in me to do it all again…but I love it!!
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
The Grand Canyon - Vol. 2
I finally finished culling and editing the rest of my photos from the second day of our trip. Because I'd been having difficulties determining exposure while shooting on manual I had a ton of pictures to go through and toss aside before editing the ones that made the final cut. Overall, I think the photos from the first day are my favorite but there were a few good ones from day two.
The plan for the day was to drive through the park and exit the eastern entrance and head for Flagstaff. Our first stop was made because there was an elk on the side of the road and I was determined to get a good shot of one. Of course as soon as I parked it crossed the road where it blended in with the brush.
The views along the southern rim away from the touristy area are pretty spectacular.
The last stop before you exit the park is an old stone building that has been turned into a shop (I didn't pay attention to the name of the place which is totally typical for me, lol). The views are unbelievable. You can see all the way past the canyon to the plateau beyond and the view of the river below was much clearer than at the touristy section.
After we exited the park we drove for a long while in the Kaibab National Forest. I thought we may have gotten lost there for a moment because the road just went on and on without a sign and no cell service anywhere. Then we rounded a corner and the plateau opened up before us. It was the most spectacular sight I saw on the whole trip and the one I have no photos of. The only places to stop where on the opposite side of the road and I didn't want to go out of the way when we had a long drive ahead of us. Forget about being at the southern rim at sunset. The place to be would be on the plateau in the Navajo reservation just before you enter the forest to head to the park. It is on my list of places to go back to in the future. I did stop once along the way when the road opened up and a shoulder was available. The route we took to Flagstaff was exceptionally long but so worth the picturesque views.
Sedona.. bright and hot (50 degrees in the Canyon to 85 degrees in Sedona).
It was a whorl wind weekend. As much as my legs ached from hiking along the southern rim on Sunday with 15-lbs of camera gear, by Monday my bum was numb from sitting in the car all day.. and then again on Tuesday driving home.
The plan for the day was to drive through the park and exit the eastern entrance and head for Flagstaff. Our first stop was made because there was an elk on the side of the road and I was determined to get a good shot of one. Of course as soon as I parked it crossed the road where it blended in with the brush.
The views along the southern rim away from the touristy area are pretty spectacular.
The last stop before you exit the park is an old stone building that has been turned into a shop (I didn't pay attention to the name of the place which is totally typical for me, lol). The views are unbelievable. You can see all the way past the canyon to the plateau beyond and the view of the river below was much clearer than at the touristy section.
After we exited the park we drove for a long while in the Kaibab National Forest. I thought we may have gotten lost there for a moment because the road just went on and on without a sign and no cell service anywhere. Then we rounded a corner and the plateau opened up before us. It was the most spectacular sight I saw on the whole trip and the one I have no photos of. The only places to stop where on the opposite side of the road and I didn't want to go out of the way when we had a long drive ahead of us. Forget about being at the southern rim at sunset. The place to be would be on the plateau in the Navajo reservation just before you enter the forest to head to the park. It is on my list of places to go back to in the future. I did stop once along the way when the road opened up and a shoulder was available. The route we took to Flagstaff was exceptionally long but so worth the picturesque views.
Sedona.. bright and hot (50 degrees in the Canyon to 85 degrees in Sedona).
It was a whorl wind weekend. As much as my legs ached from hiking along the southern rim on Sunday with 15-lbs of camera gear, by Monday my bum was numb from sitting in the car all day.. and then again on Tuesday driving home.
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