Jellies at Shedd

Incredible exhibit. We are now big fans of jellies.
I added no color to these. It's how they lit the tanks. Love love love the color! Makes my spirit happy.

Sweet Home, Chicago

I have been remiss in posting here. Too much travel (if there is such a thing). Home now, for at least a few weeks. I want nothing more than to vacuum my house tomorrow.
Going to try to get this space up to date, too. No promises, though. Cleaning the house comes first!

Waiting for breakfast

Zoe's first time hanging out in the Observation Car.

Waiting for our train

It's delayed about 1.5 hours. I'm amusing myself by making photographs.
One of the many reasons I love photography. I'm never bored as there is always something to look at/shoot.

Summer 2011 Trip #1: Queen Wilhelmina State Park, AR

Some images from our trip.  M gave me some blessed (much-needed!) alone time by taking Zozer to play miniature golf Saturday afternoon.  I sat downstairs at the lodge and edited images.  Heaven.

And I'm off...

We're off to Arkansas tomorrow.  What's in Arkansas, you ask?  Well, if you're uptight and snobby and sophisticated, you'll think nothing but sticks and hicks and ticks.  If you're open to it, though, open to the uniqueness that every new place offers, well, then there's a whole new world.

I am reading a new book right now on contemplative photography.  It's not so much about photography as it is about viewing the world with an open mind and fresh eyes.  And recognizing the beauty in darn near everything.  And there's a lot out there to recognize.  It's how I tend to view the world anyway, when not weighted down by the tasks of daily life.  It's just nice to have a label for it.

It's kind of like being a kid again where anything new is exciting and you don't have the adult filters of expectations (self-imposed and otherwise).

We are going to The Castle in the Clouds.  Or that's what it's called by the promoters.  It sounds lovely and rather romantic.  Arkansas, romanticized.  Well, now there's a notion.

Really, what is is, though, is not so much about the destination but the journey.  It's about spending time together, just the three of us, experiencing new things.  It's about seeing someplace new.  It's about breaking up the routine of work/school/housework/bills.

There are three things I would like to accomplish for myself this weekend.  Three things beyond the family stuff.  I want to read, write, and photograph.  Not necessarily in that order.

I haven't been writing much for myself lately, and I miss it.  I need to get back to it, if only to document my child's childhood.  (She has learned to swim.  Doggy paddle, granted, but it's enough to get her out of the pool should she fall in.  Swim lessons where we concentrate on freestyle and breast stroke be damned...it's about basic survival.  Now that's she's mastered that, we're stopping the lessons and giving all of us a break for awhile.)  I need to express myself in ways beyond my iPhone Instagram snaps, although that has been great fun.

I have been thinking a lot lately about my favorite writers.  There are the Greats, the ones everyone lists. Shakespeare, Hemingway, Salinger.  Then there are the guilty pleasures (I've been known to snap up the latest Tom Clancy the day it hits the shelves) and the popular (hello, JK Rowling).  But there are also my personal favorites, the writers that hit me in the solar plexus almost on a daily basis.  These include, in no particular order, Kate Inglis, Jen Lemen, Marty Winkler, and the national sales manager of my company whose e-mails manage to draw the line while being intensely motivational (and grammatically correct - yay!  And sad that proper grammar alone is something worthy of cheering.)

I love good writing.  Love it.  I don't just enjoy it.  I lap it up like it's the last ice cream in hell and I roll around in it and revel in it and celebrate it.  I was going to say that I wish I could make a living as a writer, but in essence, I do.  My job is centered mostly on writing and editing.  Does it matter that it's for a corporation?  Does it matter that my for-pay writing is determined by someone else?  By a whole industry?  Are corporate writers any less than those artistic souls who slug away to bang out fiction that sucks you in and makes you weep or laugh out loud or, best of all, actually think?

I struggle with all these notions of who I am and who I want to be and who I think I should be.

Well, now, that's a good thing to think about on an 8-hour ride to Arkansas.

Home

Unpacked. Presents for Zoe given. Mail sorted. Litter box cleaned. Trash to the curb.
In other words, back to reality.
Time for bed!

Night ride

I asked M to take me for a drive outside the Dells tonight, our last night in Wisconsin. He obliged.
I really enjoy hitting the road with no map or itinerary. Mostly because I so rarely get to do it in everyday life. It feels decadent. And it's always enjoyable.
He enjoyed the straightaway where he took the car up to 120 before backing off the throttle.
Okay, I enjoyed that part, too.
It's been fun, but we are ready to come home. I miss my sweet girl.

Clouds & Coaster

The House on the Rock

Holy insanity, Batman.
M said Alex Jordan, The House on the Rock's creator, was a kook like Frank Lloyd Wright. No way. Mr. Jordan was a bipolar schizophrenic nutjob with way too much money. FLLW was just an egomaniac. I went on sensory overload less than halfway through.
Still glad we went though. It's a once in a lifetime must see.

Wine run

A wine tasting and tour of Wollersheim winery. Let's just say the views and photo opps are better than the wine. But I did purchase some wine mustard. And stole lots of pictures and good memories.
Cell phone coverage up here has been horrendous at best, so my uploads are spotty and at odd times. Got tired of battling one bar of reception on the Edge network and gave up for awhile.

O, Taliesin!

Wisconsin is seriously beautiful. Taliesin is amazing. FLLW is a kook, but back to being adorably so in my mind. I can't be in his work and not like the man. I just can't.
An incredible experience today. A bucket list check-off. Am so, so lucky to be able to do these things. And to share them with my best friend. Even when he's too tall to fit comfortably inside the walls of Taliesin.
It means "shining brow," by the way. Taliesin is Welsh for shining brow. Which I knew already but didn't understand until today when I saw how he situated the house on the hill. Genius.
These are just iPhone snaps. Lots more (exterior only, unfortunately) with the Nikon, for processing after we return home.