new eyes

I took my new Canon out exploring this weekend and have decided my musings will be illustrated today. I apologize to those of you without zippy quick internet connections; enjoy a cup of tea while you await the full post and mysteries are unveiled... (huh. & I didn't even mean the bridal reference. Do I have to wear a paper bag now?)

I think of how K (and his family) seem to be aware and interactive with new gadgets. How the summer we didn't have air conditioning and temperatures drove us to twenty four hour grocery stores when we couldn't sleep, drove us to movie theatres and endless wandering up and down aisles of superstores (shudder), we received a package from his mother, with a handheld motorized fan (which later took bits of foolish Kelly's hair as a casualty) and this neck cooler you fill with water and a fan chills your sweaty nape.

I am mostly resistant to changes in technology. I am sad the post office has to make adjustments because our communication is electronic (I recognize the mild irony here) and the idea of books going digital makes me frustrated. I do admit to being slightly addicted to things like wikipedia (how many myths and legends and quick answers to student questions I have found on this shaky resource!) and I am bereft without my jump drive. And recently I believe I've made the official transition to digital photography. I won't abandon my beloved Nikon, but after a while with point and shoot digital camera, I realized the benefits of this variation on a favorite medium. My picture a day blog is a great adventure that challenges me regularly. Now I am realizing how photographs can expand the storyline of so many things.

K was a bit surprised when I came home with the new camera; I had not given him any warning. The truth is, I had been considering upgrading since I really took off with the picture-a-day blog and looked toward Kelly's wedding and my own (and following honeymoon) and now our trip to Boston and thought--we need something that can pick up fine detail. See for yourself, patient Zephyr our dutiful model:

He's a handsome devil, no?

This new camera also allowed me to take a few pictures of Kelly's engagement ring, something she couldn't get a good focus on:


I especially like how there is a slight blur to her outer fingers, allowing that nice sparkle to really be central focus.

So here we are, the start of our night of bechelorette fun. I made sure to stock the swanky hotel room with plenty of pink and red wine:



Here is a shot of downtown Minneapolis from the hotel room window; I love the reflection on the building across the way, all wobbly:

Kelly, caught up in the curtains, imagines her wedding day:


Getting pretty, a clever look--a hint of the devilry to come?

Kelly didn't want the typical bachelorette fare--suck for a buck t-shirts, underwear collecting, body shots, spending the end to the evening not in our swanky beds but in the swanky bathroom--so we spent a bit of time researching alternatives and this one pleased her the most. We arranged to meet up the rest of the group at Comedy Sportz, where a teaching friend's husband cameos (now that they have a beautiful baby; he appears in many of the photos in the mural outside the club) and Kelly was a participant in a wooing game, where each player added a word to the sentence jump started with a noun from the audience. Particular favorites of Kelly were the reference to peg legged pirates and jaundice (her favorite disease, as she confessed to one startled player). This was a lovely moment for me--to see her up there, laughing the entire time, so happy in her tiara with her faithful friends waiting in the audience. (Handsome wooers too, eh?)



And the thing that pleased me most, as I snapped the twenty three photos of her while she was on stage was not only the fact that I did not feel I blew an entire roll of film, but I was able to take each of these pictures quickly and without a flash (which is so obnoxious and distracting to the audience members and players). I could be an innocuous nuisance.

After this, we went to a few of those downtown bars affectionately known as "meat markets." Even the walls were sticky, the palms of my hands leaving imprints on the wall. Bikini clad bunnies danced in designated corners in platform boots, their counterparts selling beer from icy tubs, steadfastly bored as they were pummeled with ogling boys' pick up lines. Not really my scene, but Kelly was now whirling about, a delightful center of attention, and the scavenger hunt (take a picture of someone named Richard, find a penny from your birth year and the groom's birth year, take a picture of a tattoo, collect six different bottle caps) kept her occupied and social (and those drinks are apparently very strong and quick) and content. She could be foolish, she had permission with her pom poms and good girl / bad girl wand, and she had a collection of oddities to babble about on our ride back to the hotel room.


We ended the night in our pajamas, too tired to releave our eyes from cakey make-up, soon too tired to do the "dares" in the game of truth or dare that revealed our commonalities and shared beliefs.

Though Kelly woke with the hangover she vowed she did not want, I think it was a good night for her. She is now at home, quietly still, trying to recover, drinking water and eating dry toast, maybe soaking in a bath with the salts I picked out that morning as part of her gift.

In two weeks, she will be a bride, she will become someone's wife, and though I've been there at the dress hunting, addressed her invitations, and bought very Kelly items off her registry, there are long stretches in time when I don't realize this is actually true--Kelly will be a missus, and I will be standing right next to her, sign as witness, and toast their lives together.