Katie: the biker chick.
Noah: the funny guy.
Sarah: the drama QUEEN.
Sunday I went to THE BIG APPLE! Bob, Katie, Noah and I drove to New Haven, CT and got a train into Grand Central Station.
To say that the city was everything I expected and more is an injustice to my sense of. . .not really sure what. There were things that were exactly as I had figured, and other things I had never even considered. (Like the 5-story American Eagle, Forever 21, etc.) We were in the city for about 7 hours and barely saw anything. New York is so busy with so much to see that a few hours covers nothing.
Grand Central Station is immense and beautiful. I found myself fascinated by the restaurants and people and the signs. It's a people-watcher's paradise. Even the small signs displaying the cost of a months fare or the lavish armchairs around the buffets interested me. (I realize that for "big city" people this seems strange, but I loved the details)
One particular highlight for the kids and, I admit, for me was the M&M factory in Times Square. It was so busy and they had every color M&M you could imagine. (Like Central Park grass-colored)
Haha. I got a kick out of this t-shirt.
We also took the subway to Chinatown. I think I probably took more pictures in the subway than I did anywhere else. I loved snapping candid photos of people waiting. fascinating.
Loved the sign:
Yesterday I was assigned to take Metro Wild Art pictures. Basically, the Rep-Am needs pictures to fill up space in the paper so they send a photographer out to roam the assigned area (in this case the city of Waterbury and the very near surrounding cities) to find. . . something picture worthy. This was not my first time being assigned to Wild Art and I had previously found it very hard to generate pictures. Its especially hot this summer for CT (not by TN standards) and people just don't come outside as much. Not to mention that kids would rather be inside playing Xbox 360 and watching TV than entertaining themselves outside. Anyways, I got in my car and using my trusty Droid located the nearest large park. (I'm also at a disadvantage because I don't know the area well) I headed to Fulton Park, which was as I could tell by the map, an inner city park located in the poorer area of town.
I found Fulton and began to drive through the park. I saw a few people here and there but nothing exciting and nothing I really could take pictures of. Then my luck changed as I rounded a corner and saw a street FULL of kids. I mean FULL. I pulled my car over, gathered my gear, briefly contemplated the wisdom of walking around a ghetto park with my expensive camera by myself, and then got out and approached the nearest group.
I began to introduce myself and tell them I was going to be hanging out taking pictures. They were all in bathing suits because they were waiting for the pool to reopen so they all could continue swimming. The first girls I talked to were quiet enough but excited to have their pictures taken. So I began to snap a few frames. Then I began to talk with the girls and loosen up around them.
The boys were over a ways performing flips (some of them rather impressively I should add) so after I took pictures of the girls laying in the sun I headed over to the guys. A short story even shorter, they all were very willing to have their pictures taken and even did special flips for me. I got their names which most of them had to spell for me, and ages, most of them looked 16 or 17 but turned out to be 13-16, and they were all instant friends. They talked freely, enjoyed the attention I was giving them and kept asking what paper they would need to get so they could see themselves.
When the pool reopened I followed them in and took pictures there as well. They did as many cannonballs as they could for me and then I would have a group of ten crowding around me trying to look on my little camera screen to see their stunts. Needless to say I became rather wet from them pushing around me. It was a lot of fun and they were all so wonderful. I was glad I didn't let me initial trepidation stop me from approaching them and considered that these were the kids that rarely got this sort of attention and that they needed it that much more. Besides the excitement I felt from them, I also felt their gratitude. Most of them were very polite and several of them thanked me MULTIPLE times for taking their picture.
During one instance of way too many dripping wet kids crowding around me and my camera one of the boys looked up and pointed at another boy and started laughing, "Dude, you have spit on your face." The unfortunate victim of the loogie looked up shocked and tried wiping it off, succeeding only in smearing it across his brow. The heckler laughed and continued pointing. The spit-boy just looked confused standing next to me. So I just reached over and wiped the spit off with my hand and then wiped it on my skirt. No big deal. . . for me anyways. The laughing stopped and we continued viewing pictures. The boy whose forehead I had wiped however thought it was a big deal and thanked me at least four times. It was a sweet reminder for me that the smallest kindness can carry so much weight to people and that things I take for granted mean a great deal to others. I vowed to try and continue showing small kindnesses to people because it's one of the basics Christ has asked of us, but one that gets overlooked more often than not.
I was glad that the picture I had taken of one of the boys, Khyle Droughn, doing flips made the front of the Metro local section. When I picked up the paper this morning and saw it I smiled and thought about Khyle and his friends' reactions when they saw that they had made front and center: an 8" x 8" colored photo.
On a side note, I was driving to north Connecticut for wild art up there even earlier this week and was following the GPS on my phone. I learned that the GPS doesn't distinguish between roads and non-navigable roads. I ended up on a country gravel road, which is not unusual for CT but as I traveled further up the mountain on this road it got more and more uneven. I really needed a four wheel drive to be driving on it. I stopped at one point and took a picture but this by no means is the worst section. I didn't dare stop on the bad parts because I was afraid that if I halted there would be no gathering momentum to start again.
Interestingly enough there were homes off of this road in several spots: beautiful quaint homes that I thought existed only in movies. Several were colonial style homes with shutters and vines crawling up the side. Their windows looked out over lush mountains and wildflowers grew right up to the house and spilled over paths leading to gardens, sheds, and rustic barns. It was a glorious drive. I would have stopped more but by this point in my journey I was on my way to an interview in Winsted, CT.That's the condensed version of this week's events. Many of these photos are extremely rough edits as well. I will go through and fine tune many of them and post them on facebook.
Tomorrow I am going to take pictures of a man who installed solar panels on his barn to provide electricity. Should be fun. Pictures will follow. . .eventually.
These are two pictures from last week when I was at a farm. I didn't get a chance to post any of those pictures and I have lots more, but these are two of my favorites. So I'll leave you with them.
