a few random things about me.

so, there are handfuls of things i never think to touch on when sitting down to blog.. i thought i would try to go through a few of them tonight - quickly realizing the weekend is over and the workweek is fast approaching.. a little quiet time on the couch with the kitties is much needed.

there are a lot of things you know about me by reading my blog weekly: i love fabric, decor, my cats, my boyfriend.. i work in a hospital.. i'm fascinated by trying to simplify my life. but there are so many things you don't know about me yet!...

i was my parents' worst nightmare as their firstborn. i was a preemie born two months early, weighing in at a whopping 2 lbs, 6 oz. i stayed in the NICU for two months before i was able to go home. i was very lucky to not have any longstanding medical conditions, and grew fairly normally throughout my childhood.

you can see below, on the left, i turned out okay :) (i think i was two or three in that photo). i was a day or two old in the photo above, and not much older in the other photo below. the little hat i'm wearing wouldn't even fit an apple inside, it was so tiny. my dad said he could fit me in the palm of his hand...

i see a lot of NICU babies these days while working in the OR, so tiny and fragile; and every time i see one of them, i realize how lucky i am. and what a scare i gave my parents (who were 25 & 27 when i was born)!

i'm obsessed with iceland. this is not a new thing - i have always been very interested in it - but moreso recently than ever. i want to put a trip to iceland on my 2012 to-do list! it is a photographer's dream spot...

1. East Iceland!, 2. Iceland - Þingvellir 2, 3. Iceland Road 1, 4. Iceland horses, 5. Iceland, 6. Iceland - Jökulsárlón: Ice Bridge, 7. Iceland, 8. Jökulsárlón, Iceland, 9. Iceland, 10. Ring Road, Iceland, 11. iceland_28, 12. Iceland house

i've researched trips there quite a bit.. its roughly $1500-2000 per person to go for five days if you stay in nice hotels. honestly i'd love to stay in a tiny B&B/cabin. the blue lagoon spa is a definite someday spot of mine (though, at $200 a night we'd definitely only be making a quick visit)! now, if only i could convince the boyfriend that we should go there instead of aruba ;)

i once modeled for my friend meg inside of my refrigerator. yes, you read that correctly...

her write-up:

With this body of work I am killing the victim inside every woman. In order to rid her of this role, I must kill, end, and delete those ideas from her mind and body.

Visually women are supposed to be eye pleasing: attractive, skinny, and happy. By photographing women dieing barely clad, I am using societies notions from advertising of what a woman should wear to be sexy as a device to reinforce and break the stereotype. I attempt this by first showing how society views women, and then placing those ideas into images of death.

When I ask each woman that I photograph how she would like to die, she usually responds “in the bathtub”, “by overdose”, or “by hanging.” This is an indication that movies and television teach women that they need to die in a way that will preserve their beauty. Even these choices of committing suicide women are still the submissive role.

At first glance some of the pieces in the series may seem like traditional nudes, but once the viewer comes closer, he or she sees that the women appear to be dead. My intention is to provoke this interaction between the viewer and the photograph because it may cause him or her to question established stereotypes by using an established photographic convention. The viewer may then also come to understand the use of death in my photographs.

this is still one of my favorites by her:

i used to have a large framed copy of it in our first apartment, but sadly it got water damage and i had to let go of it. it was always one of my most prized pieces of artwork.

my bachelor's degree is in sociology, although when i went away to college my goal was to major in french and translate for the UN. obviously, my plans changed. the day that i had to declare my major and started my journey into sociology, i spent the morning weighing the pros and cons - and trying to decide between a 50/50 desire to major in sociology VS anthropology. to this day, i wish i had chosen anthropology. very much so. i think i have read every forensic anthropology book written in the past eight years - and i own over a dozen of them. the most recent is this one, which i just got last week. my other love is forensic entomology, with my favorite book being this one! if i ever have the chance to go back to school (one that has these fields of study - good luck!), you'll know where to find me.

i've only been to NYC once (and it was for work, way back in the day - five years ago! - i was asst. manager and head merchandiser for an independent toystore for a long time...), even though technically speaking its really not that far from me. i'd like to fix that problem soon (*cough* ruth *cough*!!). i know the boyfriend would like to go for a short trip, too, sometime. sigh. sometime.

i also had very short hair back then, five years ago...

even though i live in a coastal town, i rarely go to the beach. this is something that i'll be rectifying easily once i get my license this coming spring. the boyfriend isn't as keen on the beach as i am, and with him working every weekend it can be a bit hard to get there and stay there for any length of time.

years ago, before the boyfriend, my friend zach and i used to go to the beach at night, one summer we went for a few weeks straight. took the half hour drive, parked illegally, and walked the six mile stretch. in the dark, most times. no noise except the crashing of the waves, and maybe a few gulls. we used to talk about life, and where we'd hoped to go. (he is now living in australia with his fiance, and i haven't talked with him in a couple of years at least. he is just one of a handful of people i have completely lost touch with over the years as life has gone on. he doesn't update his facebook, either.)

i have so many resolutions for '11, that didn't feel quite right listing. those things that i know just need to happen.. and so many of them had their roots planted so long ago..

such a dear friend sent me an email a short while ago, and included this wonderful and very fitting quote:

"have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the question themselves, as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. and the point is to live everything. live the questions now. perhaps then, some day far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer"
~ rilke

...& its that i'll be taking with me this week. XO