2012 Perspective - My Phone's Camera

Well, kids, here's your forced look at some of my year-- this perspective piece is from that of my phone's camera. I kinda love having a camera with me everywhere!

I was lucky enough to design and create bracelets for my friend Janet's wedding!

We had another round of amazing muscadine stomping this year! The wine is phenomenal, and we're so lucky to have friends like Iggy and Wade!

Someone backed in to our mailbox... and destroyed it... no, we're not sure how that happened, either.

Emily and I went to the Decatur Book Festival! Here we are at the talk for Erin Morgenstern's Night Circus before...

KATHY REICHS! And Tess Gerritsen!  

My staff continued to be amazing. The Apples to Apples cards say "Fantastic" and "My Boss" -- the kids think the counselors are suck ups now.

Atlanta Botanical Garden!!

Halloween at Work-- I LOVE decorating!

I helped Katie and Alex make a card for John, Paige, and Wyatt!

Jeremy helped Rob test out the trikke that was left at his condo.

Downtown Atlanta. <3 p="p">

Jimmy dresses up for Halloween

AOII House at Rhodes for Homecoming

I get to go to North Georgia for Apple Picking

15th Reunion and 9th Reunion at DHS

Early Voting!

Airplane tableau on the way to Detroit

I went to Canada! And nobody shot me for taking a picture at customs.

This is what happens when you shoot a pool ball in to the windows at work.

The kids learned Capoiera

The kids dabble in vandalism

We taught the Dunbars how to make bacon wrapped dates!

Atlanta for an early anniversary night!

Same shot during the day

Goin' Coastal ranks high on my list of FAVORITE THINGS EVER.

We saw this little gem at the hotel at Callaway Gardens

The sky at Pine Mountain before Jeremy's first Ultra Marathon attempt

The hotel at Callaway Gardens had THE CHAIR I want. If you see this chair, buy it and I will pay you back.

I picked up my grandmother's stand alone sewing machine from 1952. With original paperwork.

Also, the world's oldest water pik.

I found my dad's sophomore yearbook-- he was a handsome devil!

More to come, surely, as I delve through the pictures from 2012. I love looking back over the year as 2013 approaches!

Monday: Trafalgar Square

CLEARLY, I finally figured out how to get my old pictures deleted, so now I can go back to just throwing a lot of pictures at you! You're welcome!

In a slight bit of under-thinking on my part (I know, rare) we ended up going back to the hotel for a short bit and then heading back over to Trafalgar Square for the show! Our travel package included two tickets for a choice of shows, and Jeremy wanted to see Phantom of the Opera (though I was a bit keen to see Wicked... ah, well, nothing wrong with Phantom!) The show was pretty good, though the Phantom didn't have the vocal range necessary, and I was really impressed with what they did given the space they had. Afterwards, we went and grabbed a bite from Marks & Spencer (very yummy!) and hit the hay-- had to be at the airport very early the next morning!

Follow Up

So, a friend just pointed out that my last post was really depressing and I never followed up on it... never fear, y'all, I'm alive and well!

Going to the house wasn't as hard as I thought. My aunt had cleared out just about everything, and most of what was left made me happy to see. There was a lot of really neat stuff from the decades my grandfather worked for Reynolds Aluminum, a fun old matchbook collection, guitars that my brother was really excited about, a very cool old radio/record player that was the size of a large coffee table, a solid chest of drawers, my grandmother's old stand alone sewing machine (with original paperwork), some Reichsbankmarks from Germany and a lot of other neat stuff.

There was also a letter that my grandmother had written to my grandfather that was disturbing (she was very ill for a very long time) but illuminating and I'm glad to have read it. He spent a lot of time the last years of his life wishing he could have done more for her, he told me several times he should have, but seeing what he dealt with I know that he did as much as he possibly could have. The kind of help she needed just wasn't available at the time, and even now isn't available in that area.

I met his neighbor Bradley, who is probably the only reason my uncle lived as long as he did, and finally met his "little buddy" Hunter who is 16 now. It was so fantastic to meet them, I can see how much Grandaddy meant to them and it's wonderful to know how much they meant to him. I feel like they're just another branch of our weird and wild not-blood-related family, and we're going to be selling the house to them for his oldest daughter and her child.

I'm at peace with that, it's helpful that the house will basically stay in the family, and Jeremy and I are hoping to go up there and help them clear it out since all the work will need to be done in a fairly quick manner.

I'm really glad that I was able to make the trip. I think my brother and I are going to have a good time living with what we have left and most of the smoke and nast has cleared from things since being taken out of the house. We are going to refurbish some of the stuff, then take the smaller items (like the Reynolds service pins) and make shadow boxes that can be hung on my walls or his. My brother and I may not be close like some siblings, but I like our relationship. There's no doubt that if one of us wants something the other will say take it-- I think these shadow boxes will pass back and forth between us for a long time.

Family

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Muscle Shoals, AL wondering about a lot of things.

The last week has been very stressful, more stressful than I ever imagined. I'm quite certain I have nothing left in me to give, which is saying something because I'm rarely at the end of my rope.

I'm here because I have to clean out my grandfather's house. When he died several years ago, he left my Uncle in the house. Uncle was very sick, had been for a while, and passed away over Thanksgiving. He died instantly, according to the coroner, and didn't suffer.

My aunt, being ever on top of things, came up and wrapped up the first portion of things the week of Thanksgiving through last weekend. Uncle was a heavy smoker and the house, along with many family sentimental items, was nearly ruined for it.She cleared out the majority of the junk and left a few things for my brother and I, so here I am to take back to Atlanta what we want and get the house set for sale.

I'm worried about going to the house tomorrow. This is the first time I'm back in the Shoals since grandaddy died and the thought of being there without him is overwhelming. We were in Indiana for the Moto GP race the weekend he died. We would have dropped everything to go down there, but my car had just been totaled in an accident.

He met Jeremy and liked him instantly, but he didn't know that we were going to get married. We didn't get engaged until over a year later. If at some point we have a boy, I plan on Roy for a middle name in his honor.

I'm thankful for so many things about my grandaddy-- he always loved me and made me feel special. Whether it was teaching me how to plant irises, or showing up to my class in elementary school to read us a story and meet everyone, or tearing up every time he said goodbye to me I wish so much that I could give him one more hug. I wish so much that I'd had more time to get more about his experiences in WWII in Germany. That he could have been there on my wedding day.

But, that's life. People come and go, and it's not until we're too late that we learn we needed to treasure that time to the fullest.

If you have someone in your family you love but you never see, someone you would miss if they were gone tomorrow, make a point to see them. Write them. Anything to get in touch. Family is so very important. Now, stop reading and go make some memories.

Blah-ger

I'm trying to figure out how to get this thing back on track, but since most of what I do is post pictures (since I'm one of those people) and apparently I met my picture quota so I have to figure out how to delete a bunch of them before I can get back to it! (right now the best way seems to be one-by-one...)

Monday: British Museum

Monday we didn't have as much time as we would have liked, but we wandered over to the British Museum-- the Tube experience to get to Trafalgar Square was a PAIN! We switched at Bank station and I swear we had to walk a mile in the transfer tunnels to get to the next train! I felt a little sad about the amount of time we had there, only a couple of hours, but when I realized I could spend an entire two DAYS in the BM I didn't feel as bad-- there wasn't any way we could have fit all that in!

Neptune near the Tower

Underground!

Freddy Mercury in Gold-- he would have been proud!

Really cool building. There was a Pizza Hut in the bottom-- I guess that happens when you're overrun with really awesome architecture! 

Representation of the Seven Planets from Thailand

Royal Seal

From the Asia Room-- love the eyebrows on this guy!

Buddha

Wrist detail on my favorite Bodhisattva in the Asia room 

Face detail on my favorite Bodhisattva in the Asia room

Dancing Shiva

MUMMIES!

The Greek and Roman rooms were extensive and really neat! I have "facial recognition" on my camera and it was SO excited to have faces to recognize! 

Iranian tablet depicting a war boat

Mummy bed

Horus has his eye on you!