Paris information...

If you want to go on a trip to Paris and I wet your appetite with the earlier posts, go to the link to the EF Tours website

https://www.eftours.com/forstudents/login/studentaccess.aspx

and type in our tour # which is 596644.

You pay a $95 fee to enroll and if we are not allowed to go after all, you can get that money back.

This is a really great deal and there is going to be so much there that can inspire your art!

Yes and no...

What I liked about Portland:

• lots of bike riders
• riders and drivers follow the rules of the road - they actually know what a directional is and know how to yield!
• lots of coffee!!!!
• beautiful nature with TAAAALLLLLL trees
• cool small neighbourhoods instead of just one huge city
• great healthy, yummy, local food
• the food carts! Not at all like the grease trucks in NJ
• great music and seeing a SUPER band reunite
• lots of indie stores
• going to Reading Frenzy and stocking up on Brainscan and other zines
• getting two - count 'em, TWO! - Love and Rockets anthology books. 37 years old and reading comics!
• the amazingly high quality of the tattoos on everyone - b/c everyone has them! - puts the Northeast to shame
• bumping into an old friend working at Powell's Books
• fancy pants hotel for not-fancy pants price
• the great public transportation

What we did not like about Portland:

• the overnight takeover of the downtown by drunk frat and sorority types on the weekend for the annual Oregon Brewer's Festival.
• getting spit on by one of the above mentioned goons - though I have been spit on before, you never get used to it

So, basically, we loved the place. It was so cool flying in and seeing nothing but mountains and tall pine trees. No flatness. Blue lakes. Rivers. It is such a walkable city and there were so many Arts and Crafts style houses, we were overwhelmed. And everyone had bounds of lavender, rosemary, roses, etc. in their front yards! And multiple types of lavender. So of course I touched it all! It was just a real different place and we actually felt like we fit in - like our little freak town at home, but bigger.

But I will say, the Brewer's Fest made me realize one thing - I DESPISE drunks. You can try to tell me to respect people's decision to get inebriated, but I can't. They are loud, obnoxious, disgusting to look at and contribute nothing to enhance one's experience. It was just horrible watching these people and having to dodge them on the sidewalks. Hubby said it must be like his parents living in New Hope - the locals avoid the touristy areas on the weekends. Oof, I forgot how much I can't stand sloppy drunks. It all came rushing back to me in a jiffy.

So I took 248 pictures and two rolls of film. The city isn't that old and the buildings have that frontier town feel - all late 1800s and such. But the trees and the flowers! Oh to live in a zone 9 or 10! The Rose Test gardens were amazing and apparently their peak is June! I thought what we were seeing was amazing! And just so many things to do... We must go back...

Lovely places....

over in Oregon. Then back here to NJ and the screaming, drunk, toothless neighbour.

Sigh...

Portland report coming when the computer speeds up. But, saw a lost friend in Powell's Books - heaven on earth! - and he moved there 4 years ago and said he will never return to NJ. Hmmm... I hear that a lot from people who move...

And Millie is officially on a diet. Love how my directions to mother say to not leave the food in the dish because if she is overfed, the protein content will cause her to gain weight. Written in all caps. I come back to a full bowl of food and a half-empty large bag of food. I give my mother an F for Millie sitting this vacation... grrr.....

Workin' for nothing...

Have I mentioned how much I like volunteering? I already volunteer with our local Main Street organization. I have helped rewrite codes and we just gently nudged the town politicos to rethink their refusal to adopt the litter codes we redid. tee hee...

I also am a member of my town's Historic Preservation Commission and I tend to do mock-ups of improvements to signs for people opening businesses and such.

And I now do weeding at this property the town recently bought. It was a fight to get it from the icky developer that bought it and wanted to subdivide. So we went to the open house there in June and I thought the grounds were in poor shape. I know the ladies who are taking care of the grounds are busy with other things too and I know there is a ton of poison ivy there. I don't get a reaction from the ivy. Sooo.... hubby asked someone if I could do the weeding there and.... they said OK!!!! I spent two hours this morning and it was so much fun. I did this one flower spot in the front of the house. I unearthed some nice ferns. And the cool thing was I was so close to the house that I could smell the old house, old wood smell you get in very old homes!

We are having a garage sale at the parents' tomorrow and Saturday. When I get sick of the nasty hagglers, I can saunter on over to the house - plastic bags and garden tool bag in hand - and just work, work, work. Then I can walk back to the parents' house and jump in the pool. Perfect!

The president is right - everyone should volunteer. It feels great and is so much fun! Of course everyone else thinks I am crazy for taking on a project like this. But then, I never said I was all that sane... tee hee....

Why not!

Ok, people. If these pictures do not entice you, I don't know what will. I received the package of information last evening. Considering the price of airfare - the trip will be after graduation, which is high travel time - and the fact that hotel, transportation, tours, and two meals a day - 2!!! - are included, this is a bargain. The hubby and I could not find better rates for our trips and you know what a penny pincher I am!

So, I am going to e-mail our new principal about liability and all that. This will not be a PV "field trip" per se because it is not during the school year, but it could help you immensely regarding shooting to add to your portfolio, writing - Paris has inspired countless generations of writers - and there is even a flambee making class for us to do!

As usual, if boys want to come, I will make sure there is a male chaperone. If no boys are present, I will not allow a male chaperone on the trip. Check out the link I listed in a prior post and feel free to e-mail me with questions. You know me, checking e-mail daily, even during vacations! Also, check out their payment options.

Au revoir!

Popping the balloon...

In a week we will be on a plane for Portland. Cannot wait. Seems like a very different city - like the freak town I live in, but on a large scale - and sounds like it will suit us just fine. And I get to see a band I love while there! Canon, here we go!

But...

...sister is sick of the uncomfortableness and has said she will do what she can to pop the balloon sooner. Jeez! She is impatient... but I am the one supposed to be taking pictures of the the whole thing, so I told her to wait until we land on the 26th. Oh, and this might be a c-section. Interesting pictures, for sure...

Made her some lavender sachets for the baby room and decided I will make more to try to sell on Etsy. I also have to finish some collage work with my pictures, but Millie is currently sleeping on the supplies. Her idea of helping I guess...

Parents are doing the hard sell with Italy now. But I feel the pull to Hungary is stronger. I could try a class trip to Rome, but that means I have to make time for family, and that would be near impossible....

But the package from EF Tours is due soon... I hope my mailman decides to deliver.

Oh, and mother is officially a criminal. She smuggled a lot of sausage into the country. I just knew it when I looked at her passport photo. It had "mug shot" written all over it. She even had a relative teach her how to hide it best! Proof that my belief that the young are not the problem, it's the middle aged ones you need to watch out for is ABSOLUTELY correct...

The return...

I pick up the parents at the airport today. Their flight took off two hours late. Mother will not be happy. She wants to get to Shop Rite to get the special sale price of Hellmann's Mayonnaise b/c her coupon expires today. But she also wants to go out to dinner with sister, me and the Daves. Well, that does not leave time to get the mayo does it? Mom and her priorities! Only she could be worried about a mayo coupon while in Rome! Jeez....

Looked on MLS at houses in Portland. It seemed like almost every house I looked at was inhabited by a musician, artist or crafter! I think I will really like this vacation. Sister has said she wants to squeeze the alien out sooner than she's due. I told her to wait until I get back. I also compared the alien to an undercooked chocolate chip cookie, but that's a whole other story...

What a summer...

Paris Anyone?

Any photo students out there interested in going to Paris after graduation next year? We are trying to see if anyone is interested in going as a group. Parents are allowed too...

Link

http://www.eftours.com/Student-travel/MyTeachersTours/teachers-tour.aspx?salestour=596644

Let me know... Dems and I think this will be more enticing than Boston, so let's see!

So Millie, the hubby and I made it through without melting... and I go to my Historical Preservation meeting expecting no one to come out in this heat... and we have three applications and one of them just doesn't get the regulations and wants to obviously make his storefront look like a cheap disaster and he's not getting the gist of the help we are trying to give him and I keep looking at the time knowing hubby is waiting for the Coolatta and I am dying to go in the pool.........

Longest meeting in a long time and I constantly think, "If the people who work for this town did the jobs they are paid to do, we would not be dealing with this." But, according to dear Carroll, Morris County works very efficiently and there is very little waste in the town halls, blah, blah, blah.... According to him, the problems are places "we" pay for, such as Newark. Grrrr..... translation - those wretched poor people and those immigrants who suck the state dry. Oh, dear.... The design committee has invited the alderman who junked my litter code revisions to discuss the so called lack of a litter problem when we have our meeting next week. Oh, I am so ready to talk to a politician....

On another note, Mother calls from Rome complaining that she likes the small towns better - duh, that's where you grew up - and the city is so hot - duh, Italy in July - and everyone smokes - duh, it's Europe - and so crowded - duh, schools are closed and families on holiday. I should have told her to spend some time in the Catacombs to cool off, but she may have taken that the wrong way.

Buuut... I realized I really like being in the pool at night with a Coolatta in my hand. Not quite swimming in a luxury pool at a resort with champagne in my hand, but my kind of fun none-the-less...

And, a breakthrough with the art. I decided to go in the basement to cool off and there are the photos, paint brushes and paint. So I tried something I have been thinking of and really liked it. So now the creative juices are flowing and I feel better....

Ugh, politicians...

I send lots of e-mails to politicians. I mean, they are elected by us - some of the time - to represent us so they should be willing to listen to us, correct? So I received an e-mail back from only one of them regarding the proposed lower tax cap. Dear Mr. Carroll is not a nice man to say the least. Towing the party line and from what I gleaned from his responses to me - because, being the kinda gal I am, I responded back to him, but I am now giving up the back and forth because a. he is ignorant and b. I don't believe he is interested in any opinion other than his own - against public school teachers - obviously waaay different than private school ones - against immigrants - did not know he was a Native American - pro keeping your special needs person at home - you figure out how to work and take care of that person! - and so on. I couldn't even sleep last night this whole thing bothers me so much. I have about had enough of paying high taxes, being told I am a greedy bastard for wanting a fair wage for such an important job and battling my town leaders to just do the ones they are paid to do.

I never wanted to live in NJ my whole life, yet here I am, three weeks from my 37th birthday and here I live, in NJ. I don't want to stop teaching - I love what I teach and being in the classroom with the kids I get - but a part of me wishes I could hit the rewind button and just get the hell out before I met all those great people and made a place for myself that I liked. Damn, I have also put so much into my house and garden! We go to Portland, Oregon in two weeks. In a way, I hope we love it so much that when either one or both of us loses a job because of Christie, we can say "Portland, here we come!"

But then that means it is that much further from flying to Europe - my new addiction - and then far from the alien/parasite that is growing (aka niece to be).

Of course, in one moment of desperation recently I found a nice cottage in Hungary listed for the equivalent of less than $30,000. Decisions decisions...

End of rant.

I think I am sticking to everything, I may melt and there were sweat droplets on my nose this morning when all I did was pick the squash flowers! I love summer!

Summer to do...

... so the two major projects - the arbor and the porch painting were done by July 1. So now I have to come up with other ones. I will be doing the three other interior door replacements when dad gets back from Italy - I need his power tools. I also have to patch up holes in the stone foundation. Definitely fun projects. I have been plowing through the reading too. I was slugging through Bleak House, but I am now on a roll. Past page 550! And, there was a case of spontaneous combustion! Now, if you know me, unexplained phenomena like that really appeals to me, so needless to say, that excited me as well as shocked me. I mean, this is Dickens! Bleak stuff, downers, sure. But SHC? Whoa!

I also read through most of the pile of photo magazines from sister. One had interviews with pros. One thing mentioned was to enter as many shows as possible. That made me feel real good. Sometimes I feel like I am chasing some unattainable goal and spending much money on those entries. But I do get in some shows and this artist pointed out that the best way to get your work out there for others to see is by getting into shows. I felt like my efforts were validated. Sure, it is a part time job in itself just looking for and applying for the shows - not even including making the art! But, it made me feel better.

The other thing that was not so nice was the fact that many of these publications were from the late 90s to early 2000s - prior to the digital takeover. Some were steadfastly sticking to a "no digital" rule. Some were proclaiming the death of film, and some were proclaiming the future existence of both. I took solace in the point many made that the aesthetics of a darkroom produced black and white print can never be duplicated digitally. I find that for all the technological advances at this point, that still holds true. But the speed with which other advances have been made is shocking. I think this is why I see so much crap out there on the photo sites I troll. Honestly, I don't know how you students find the cool photographers you find because it is like finding a needle in a haystack. Just because you can afford the $1,000 toy, does not mean you are making art with it. My students create better pictures - and they are just at the beginning of their art-making lives - than most of the dopes I see out there.

The other thing that made me sad was the amount of companies no longer making stuff. Agfa, for one. I remember passing the Agfa building on Route 80 in Bergen County when I was younger. I don't even know what it is now. There were many other ones too. I did like the one letter I read regarding Kodak's abandonment of the photographer. Nice attitude. Since film is not dying, they really missed the boat on two points - digital (their camera stink) and film as a specialty. But one thing I did not know was that Foma was not available in some markets because of patent issues. Now they are. So, you lose a lot and gain a bit of something else.

Sigh...

ps...loving the heat...:)

Thank you...

from the bottom of my heart to the jerk who lit off a loud firework and many firecrackers at 3.50 am. I thought Momma Sweeney was finally blowing up (my white trash neighbour smokes and uses gas-powered lawn equipment at the same time!), but no, it was just the local dips. Sounded like a bomb going off...

I have been on major Gimpy duty with the parents in Italy. A friend of theirs can do some morning before he goes to work but I am the only one who can give the honey the attention she needs - no, demands. So I spend much time cleaning up my parents' dismal gardens. Dad cannot do any weeding because of the broken collarbone and mom's poison ivy issue keeps popping up - I think it is psychosomatic. So, yet again, depend on me. Perhaps that is why my mother was speechless when I mentioned selling the house to Mandy when ever hubby and I decide to move. She won't miss me as much as the work I do around their house!

I may never get teacher of the year - don't kiss the right butts and some voters do not like me - but I think I get house- and garden-keeper of the decade!

The agenda for the fourth? Gimpy check (morning and evening), swim, bbq in town at Matt & Brian's, and make sure Millie is ok when the local dopes shoot off fireworks tonight. I will call the cops this time. Hopefully the idiots can find the house this time. Dunno, but I think the fireworks debris in the yard was the giveaway, but that's just me.

Oh, and did some photo work. I like to do things to old pictures from undergrad days. Tried a few experiments. They were so disgustingly bad... need a few days to recover from the disappointment. Really, some students think their stuff stinks? This was an experiment gone from bad to worse. Ugh... I should just stick to what is me, not try anything that doesn't feel natural. So next thing will be felting organic shapes and attaching them to bones. More me...so more satisfaction. Also entered a boatload of shows last week. I haven't been in one for a couple months so I need to get cracking on that.

Sister gave me old photo magazines Friday. The reading deserves a post of its own...

I forgot this one...

... because of the leaky windows, 026 is an icebox in the winter. Another really nice memory comes from fifth period. Phil, Jeff, Jesse and sometimes Veal had hot drinks - tea, hot cocoa - after we heated the water up. Watching Phil and Jeff with their mugs of cocoa talking like two old men in a cafe was just so cute...

...And yesterday a guidance counselor asked me for names for Photo 3. Yay!!!

The parents are presently in Italy. Mom's first time back to the motherland since 1964 (?). Strange... after dropping them off at the airport, I felt like a kid whose parents left for the weekend. I am 36 years old! And I am the least likely person on this earth to throw a party - just in case that's what you thought. I just felt free...

Better late than never...