As I type, my family is preparing to leave for a 15-18 hour drive, because we're crossing the border and heading over to Canada! Our passport cards came just in time for us to be able to attend my Grandpa Wood's 80th birthday. We haven't been up north in about six years, so this is exciting.
Not so exciting is the prospect of the drive. All I want to do right now is fall asleep in my big, lovely bed, but instead of retiring to my room tonight, I will be getting into a car and driving far away from home. This puts a pit in my stomach. Driving through the night creeps me out, but soon enough, I'll be with the family I love so much and unfortunately see so little of.
Wish the Woods luck! I am experiencing anticipatory car sickness, but hopefully it wears off once we get going. Hopefully.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
my dad
My dad is a good man. When I think of him, I think of the good things he shares with me.
:: Good music
Dad has great taste in music. He loves good musicians like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Mark Knopfler, and Van Morrison. He listens to music because of the good technique and skill behind it. He loves talking about musicians and their styles and stories. His discerning taste is an example to me of selecting the best entertainment.
:: Good books
Dad's bookshelves are filled with works by talented, powerful writers. He enjoys most books that are well written. He has read many novels by Ayn Rand, Chaim Potok, Leo Tolstoy, and Cormac McCarthy, and has nice copies of many of those works. Last Christmas, he gave each of his children one of his books, which was such a beautiful gift. I received his first edition copy of Potok's The Promise, and I love it. He also puts great value on reading the scriptures and learning from them. He teaches our family to love reading and learning from the best writers and resources.
:: Good sports
I love my Dad's love of baseball. Through watching him and watching games with him, I am also developing a love for this sport. It really is a good game. Dad loves the skill and strategy that goes into making a good play. He loves watching really good players. He loves rewinding plays for me and showing me what went into them. I love learning from him. I love seeing how happy a good game makes him. I love his Rockies shirt and baseball hat.
:: Good scenery
Dad is a mountain man at heart. The summer he was 16, he lived in the mountains, working for the forest service. He loves hiking and camping. He always volunteers to accompany church youth camping trips. I love the days I get to spend with him in the mountains. He has taught me to love nature and to value how beautiful forests and rivers and mountains are.
My dad is such a good man. We used to call him "The Knowledge Man," because he loves learning and sharing what he learns. I love learning from him. I love seeing him watching a baseball game while folding laundry. I love seeing him iron white shirts on Saturday night for he and John to wear to church the next day. I love driving in the car with him and listening to his music and learning about the musician. I love being his daughter.
:: Good music
Dad has great taste in music. He loves good musicians like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Mark Knopfler, and Van Morrison. He listens to music because of the good technique and skill behind it. He loves talking about musicians and their styles and stories. His discerning taste is an example to me of selecting the best entertainment.
:: Good booksDad's bookshelves are filled with works by talented, powerful writers. He enjoys most books that are well written. He has read many novels by Ayn Rand, Chaim Potok, Leo Tolstoy, and Cormac McCarthy, and has nice copies of many of those works. Last Christmas, he gave each of his children one of his books, which was such a beautiful gift. I received his first edition copy of Potok's The Promise, and I love it. He also puts great value on reading the scriptures and learning from them. He teaches our family to love reading and learning from the best writers and resources.
:: Good sports
I love my Dad's love of baseball. Through watching him and watching games with him, I am also developing a love for this sport. It really is a good game. Dad loves the skill and strategy that goes into making a good play. He loves watching really good players. He loves rewinding plays for me and showing me what went into them. I love learning from him. I love seeing how happy a good game makes him. I love his Rockies shirt and baseball hat.
:: Good sceneryDad is a mountain man at heart. The summer he was 16, he lived in the mountains, working for the forest service. He loves hiking and camping. He always volunteers to accompany church youth camping trips. I love the days I get to spend with him in the mountains. He has taught me to love nature and to value how beautiful forests and rivers and mountains are.
My dad is such a good man. We used to call him "The Knowledge Man," because he loves learning and sharing what he learns. I love learning from him. I love seeing him watching a baseball game while folding laundry. I love seeing him iron white shirts on Saturday night for he and John to wear to church the next day. I love driving in the car with him and listening to his music and learning about the musician. I love being his daughter.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
below the belt
I've been pointing my camera lens downward for many self portraits lately. I like them, so here are a few.
lunch break sp
softball spectator sp
blending with the garden sp
lunch break sp
softball spectator sp
blending with the garden spfilmography
**Before diving into my post, I would like to make it known that I would indeed wear a lanyard for Cash n' Carry. (The C n' C is the multi-story magical land within trade shows full of anything and everything trendy in the world of accessories. It is my dream to someday attend.)**
When I'm at school, I forget certain aspects about myself, but being back home brings many fun memories back. In honor of such a forgotten element of my past, I introduce to you an Emily you may not know.
Emily Anne, Filmmaker
When my friends would come over in elementary and middle school, a favored activity was using our bulky Sony camcorder, circa 1991, to make short, choppily edited movies. Most days, we established a plot, then came up with lines on the spot, often roping John and Sarah into playing various roles. We did a news show once, and interviewed Sarah, who played a pop star. I acted the part of a rage-prone chef and gave an exciting cooking segment. Julie (my best friend from preschool all through elementary school) was the news anchor. I think that day I also played an inmate, who Julie interviewed on the family weight machine, also known as the prison workout room.
One movie I specifically remember making was called "Journey to Health," which had to be pronounced exactly, to eliminate confusion over the film content. In this compelling tale, two young orphan girls (Julie and Sarah) undergo a long and tiring journey to take their baby sister (Sarah's baby doll) to a doctor. They spend days subsisting on Ritz crackers and walking until their feet are sore, all while trying to keep their sister alive long enough to reach help. They finally reach the neighboring town (the neighborhood park) and the doctor (me) performs CPR (?!) on the infant in her office (picnic table). I don't think the baby makes it. The camera battery may have died before we were able to resolve the compelling plot satisfactorily.
After many impromptu films, I took my career to the next level by writing out screen plays. Two of these came to fruition thanks to the cooperation of friends and family.
"Bad Attitude"
Agatha Attitude (Tricia) was raised by dentists, who never let her eat candy. For such a child, Halloween was torture. Now an old woman, Agatha is still bitter over the sweets deprivation of her childhood. She takes out her revenge on innocent children by stealing their own Halloween candy.
I think this ends with two brave girls (Julie and Katie) tracking down Agatha A. and putting her in prison. The final shot of the film is of Agatha, crazed by love of candy and resentment toward children, leering from behind prison bars.
Bet you wish you could that on Netflix, eh?
And now for the crowning jewel in my flimography. I wrote this the summer I turned 12 with my cousins and siblings as actors. When we all got together in Steamboat Springs that summer, I spent two days directing them and bringing my vision to life. I even made props ahead of time and hilighted everyone's script with their lines. (Because who doesn't want to spend their vacation memorizing lines and being bossed around by their cousin?)
"Cold Feet"
Evil genius Mwa Ha (cousin Jack) and his hunch-backed assistant Hee Hee (cousin Ross) hatch a plan to steal the socks of everyone in the whole world by sucking them out of homes and stores with the Sock Sucker 2000. Shortly into this scheme, teenage detective Jamie Jameson (Charlotte) reads about the sock shortage over the morning paper. Never one to pass up a mystery (I was a big Nancy Drew fan) Jamie and her friend, (whose name I can't remember, except that it was cheesy and alliterated) played by Claire (do you remember your character's name?) get down to the bottom of things.
The case starts off with the questioning of three suspects (all played by John, wearing various outfits and at one point a homemade white beard).
Suspect 1: Calvin Crew, owner of a sock store. This sock shortage would certainly boost sales, but he comes off clear.
Suspect 2: Peter the Puppeteer, local sock puppet craftsmen and performer. Though a man in his trade would certainly benefit from stealing the socks from the world's population, he is found innocent.
Suspect 3: Lonesome Lou, homeless man who sits outside a Walmart and never has socks. Shortly after socks begin to go missing, Jamie and her friend pass him and see that for the first time ever, his feet are warm inside a pair of nice socks. Very suspicious. After some questioning, it turns out that Lou did not steal them, but was given them by an even more suspicious (though sympathetic toward cold homeless men) man who had a hunched back and a big sack bulging with socks.
Lou's tip leads the detectives to Mwa Ha and Hee Hee's secret lair (the furnace room of the condo where we stayed) where the girls corner the villains, hear a detailed description of their evil plot, complete with evil cackles, and hand them over to the authorities, but not before Hee Hee manages to escape with a sack full of the goods. The movie ends with a shot of my 11-year-old cousin Ross running down the street carrying a trash bag filled with wadded up newspaper.
So there you have it. Who knows where my talent would have taken me if the camcorder hadn't stopped working when I was 13?
When I'm at school, I forget certain aspects about myself, but being back home brings many fun memories back. In honor of such a forgotten element of my past, I introduce to you an Emily you may not know.
Emily Anne, FilmmakerWhen my friends would come over in elementary and middle school, a favored activity was using our bulky Sony camcorder, circa 1991, to make short, choppily edited movies. Most days, we established a plot, then came up with lines on the spot, often roping John and Sarah into playing various roles. We did a news show once, and interviewed Sarah, who played a pop star. I acted the part of a rage-prone chef and gave an exciting cooking segment. Julie (my best friend from preschool all through elementary school) was the news anchor. I think that day I also played an inmate, who Julie interviewed on the family weight machine, also known as the prison workout room.
One movie I specifically remember making was called "Journey to Health," which had to be pronounced exactly, to eliminate confusion over the film content. In this compelling tale, two young orphan girls (Julie and Sarah) undergo a long and tiring journey to take their baby sister (Sarah's baby doll) to a doctor. They spend days subsisting on Ritz crackers and walking until their feet are sore, all while trying to keep their sister alive long enough to reach help. They finally reach the neighboring town (the neighborhood park) and the doctor (me) performs CPR (?!) on the infant in her office (picnic table). I don't think the baby makes it. The camera battery may have died before we were able to resolve the compelling plot satisfactorily.
After many impromptu films, I took my career to the next level by writing out screen plays. Two of these came to fruition thanks to the cooperation of friends and family.
"Bad Attitude"
Agatha Attitude (Tricia) was raised by dentists, who never let her eat candy. For such a child, Halloween was torture. Now an old woman, Agatha is still bitter over the sweets deprivation of her childhood. She takes out her revenge on innocent children by stealing their own Halloween candy.
I think this ends with two brave girls (Julie and Katie) tracking down Agatha A. and putting her in prison. The final shot of the film is of Agatha, crazed by love of candy and resentment toward children, leering from behind prison bars.
Bet you wish you could that on Netflix, eh?
And now for the crowning jewel in my flimography. I wrote this the summer I turned 12 with my cousins and siblings as actors. When we all got together in Steamboat Springs that summer, I spent two days directing them and bringing my vision to life. I even made props ahead of time and hilighted everyone's script with their lines. (Because who doesn't want to spend their vacation memorizing lines and being bossed around by their cousin?)
"Cold Feet"
Evil genius Mwa Ha (cousin Jack) and his hunch-backed assistant Hee Hee (cousin Ross) hatch a plan to steal the socks of everyone in the whole world by sucking them out of homes and stores with the Sock Sucker 2000. Shortly into this scheme, teenage detective Jamie Jameson (Charlotte) reads about the sock shortage over the morning paper. Never one to pass up a mystery (I was a big Nancy Drew fan) Jamie and her friend, (whose name I can't remember, except that it was cheesy and alliterated) played by Claire (do you remember your character's name?) get down to the bottom of things.
The case starts off with the questioning of three suspects (all played by John, wearing various outfits and at one point a homemade white beard).
Suspect 1: Calvin Crew, owner of a sock store. This sock shortage would certainly boost sales, but he comes off clear.
Suspect 2: Peter the Puppeteer, local sock puppet craftsmen and performer. Though a man in his trade would certainly benefit from stealing the socks from the world's population, he is found innocent.
Suspect 3: Lonesome Lou, homeless man who sits outside a Walmart and never has socks. Shortly after socks begin to go missing, Jamie and her friend pass him and see that for the first time ever, his feet are warm inside a pair of nice socks. Very suspicious. After some questioning, it turns out that Lou did not steal them, but was given them by an even more suspicious (though sympathetic toward cold homeless men) man who had a hunched back and a big sack bulging with socks.
Lou's tip leads the detectives to Mwa Ha and Hee Hee's secret lair (the furnace room of the condo where we stayed) where the girls corner the villains, hear a detailed description of their evil plot, complete with evil cackles, and hand them over to the authorities, but not before Hee Hee manages to escape with a sack full of the goods. The movie ends with a shot of my 11-year-old cousin Ross running down the street carrying a trash bag filled with wadded up newspaper.
So there you have it. Who knows where my talent would have taken me if the camcorder hadn't stopped working when I was 13?
**What's something that you did in your childhood but sometimes forget about now?**
Thursday, June 10, 2010
working girl
Full-time employment is wearing on my time. My evening hours are limited and fill up much too fast. For example, I came home Tuesday night, had dinner, and practiced piano for a while, and all of a sudden it was time to pack a lunch and go to bed.
Though short on free time, I have no shortage of post ideas, so I'm going to get the ball rolling with a quick glimpse into my work day. Elaboration is forthcoming, but this will have to do for now. My days go as follows:
I curse this and ignore it repeatedly. (Yes, those are frog stickers on my alarm clock, reminders of my frog phase of 2003.)
I stand here
waiting for this.
I love feeling the wave of reassurance that comes from seeing my bus crest the hill. It means that I'm not late, and that in no time, I'll get to see Wanda, with her pink lipstick and pollyanna hairdo, the man with the Vitamin Cottage bag, pony tail, and baseball cap, and the boy who spends the whole ride absorbed in a book. (I keep trying to catch of glimpse of what he's reading, but he doesn't keep the book jackets on his reading material. I think they might be dragon books. I'm not sure.)
After a parade of neighborhoods and neighbors, I exit here,
where I use the special card clipped to my clothes (I refuse to wear a lanyard) to unlock doors and where I spend the day with Nichole, Tim, Geoff, and Mo, using up mass quantities of this:
Though short on free time, I have no shortage of post ideas, so I'm going to get the ball rolling with a quick glimpse into my work day. Elaboration is forthcoming, but this will have to do for now. My days go as follows:
I curse this and ignore it repeatedly. (Yes, those are frog stickers on my alarm clock, reminders of my frog phase of 2003.)
I stand here
waiting for this.
I love feeling the wave of reassurance that comes from seeing my bus crest the hill. It means that I'm not late, and that in no time, I'll get to see Wanda, with her pink lipstick and pollyanna hairdo, the man with the Vitamin Cottage bag, pony tail, and baseball cap, and the boy who spends the whole ride absorbed in a book. (I keep trying to catch of glimpse of what he's reading, but he doesn't keep the book jackets on his reading material. I think they might be dragon books. I'm not sure.)After a parade of neighborhoods and neighbors, I exit here,
where I use the special card clipped to my clothes (I refuse to wear a lanyard) to unlock doors and where I spend the day with Nichole, Tim, Geoff, and Mo, using up mass quantities of this:
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