Our Family Beginnings

Tagged by Bean:

You’re all tagged! Yes, you, reading this. You’re tagged. Now that you know more about me than you ever wanted to know, play the game, it’s fun! Let others know a little more about yourself, repost this as your name followed by “ology.”

FOODOLOGY:
What is your salad dressing of choice? Thousand Island
What is your favorite sit-down restuarant? Founding Farmers and their delicious Bacon Lollis
What is your favorite fast food restaurant? Noodles & Co.
What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of? Pasta
What are your pizza toppings of choice? Meatballs & mushrooms
How many televisions are in your house? Three, but we only watch one. There is one downstairs for when it turns into a playroom, and one in the guest room.
What color cell phone do you have? Black

BIOLOGY:
Are you right-handed or left-handed? Right
Have you ever had anything removed from your body? My wisdom teeth, a few moles, a tumor on my scalp, and my tonsils
What is the last heavy item you lifted? My son.
Have you ever been knocked unconscious? No
Have you ever fainted? No

BULLCRAPOLOGY:
If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? No.
If you could change your name, what would you change it to? When I was a kid I loved the idea of Jodi, but I do love my name.  Good work, mom & dad! Even if I was named after The Bionic Woman.
How many pairs of flip flops do you own? 1
Last person you talked to? Mr. Badger

FAVORITOLOGY:
Season? Spring
Holiday? Thanksgiving
Day of the week? Saturday
Month? If November could be part of spring, It’d be infinitely better. Because it isn’t, I have to go with June.
Color? Purple, but not in excess.
Drink? Hot Cocoa
Alcoholic? Yes. Oh wait, what kind of drink? I love a quality Margarita.

CURRENTOLOGY:
Missing someone? Yes, my folks & bro.  Luckily, my dad’s coming in this weekend.
What are you listening to? Quiet right now.
What are you watching? Nothing right now.
Worrying about? Not much, honestly.  Curious as to why V was up twice last night with no fever, but I think it’s congestion and teething, so not worried.
What’s the last movie you saw? Inglorious Basterds. Aside from the gory bits, I actually liked it!
Do you smile often? Yes, but too often lately it’s an effort.
If you could change your eye color what would it be? Blue, or maybe a more green green.  It is cool that mine are green on the outside and hazel/gold at the center.
What’s on your wish list for your birthday? Ooh, that’s far from now. New clothes? I’m so bad about shopping for myself, so a gift card to get some nice stuff is always good.
Can you do a chin-up? No, never could, but I can hang for a while.
Does the future make you more nervous or excited? Excited, I think, but for the first time I am really able to live in today.
Have you been in a car wreck? No
Have you caused a car wreck? No
Do you have an accent? I don’t think so.  I left Philly with most normal speaking intact. I did say “wudder” for water for a while after leaving though.
Last time you cried? Don’t remember, but certainly within the past week. I am a cryer. I cry when I’m sad, mad, frustrated, etc.
Plans tonight? Sleeeeeeeep.
Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom? Yes.
Name three things you bought yesterday? Rubbermaid tubs to store V’s clothes, gravy for Mr. Badger to go with dinner, and a twix bar.
Have you met someone who changed your life? Yes, lots of people.
For the better or worse? In general, for the best. I don’t think anyone’s done irreparable harm to me.
How did you bring in the New Year? Out with Mr. Badger, my bro & his wife (to celebrate their anniversary) and my cousin & her husband.  We were up in NYC and enjoyed it mightily…until the next morning.
Would you go back in time if you were given the chance? Probably not. The past is done, and I am enjoying where I am today.
What songs do you sing in the shower? I don’t. Showers are zen time — I want quiet and lots of hot water.
Have you held hands with someone today? Not yet.
Who was the last person you took a picture of? My son.
Are most of the friends in your life new or old? Mostly new (relatively speaking)
Do you like pulpy orange juice? I used to, but now I like the low acid kind.
Last time you ate peanut butter and jelly? A few months ago, but I did have pb on an English muffin for breakfast.
What were you doing at 12 a.m. last night? Sleeping.
What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? I didn’t get enough sleep and hope V isn’t sick.

For my birthday, Mr. Badger got me a gift certificate for our local photography school.  Last night, I went to my first class.  It’s an introduction to DSLR photography, and we shoot completely in manual mode – no flash. I’m hoping to teach Callie what I learn each week so that I can solidify what I’ve gotten out of class.  You know, it’s that whole “See one, Do one, Teach one” mentality.  I’m also going to try to go through what we learned in class on here, so any of you who want to play along at home can do so.  That being said, I loved the first class.  It’s one thing to read these things in a manual (or on the web), but I learn best by seeing and doing.  There are a lot of little things going on with a camera, and it’s hard to think about all of them at once.  Some people can read a manual, and boom, and I am like that sometimes. But with this? The manual just hasn’t been cutting it. I take some cool pictures, but only by accident.  This is the first step in me actually making sense out of this.

Yesterday we learned about the basics of exposure, shutter speed and aperture.

Aperture is the amount of light entering the iris of the camera.  Think of it like your eyes, how they get really small when it’s bright out, and get large in the dark – all to control the light.  The size of the opening on the camera is measured in an f-stop. The most open is 3.5 on my lens and 22 is the most closed.  So to let in the most light, I need the f-stop to be low. A bit Counter-intuitive at first, but I am going to practice this one.

Shutter Speed is controls the amount of time that light enters the camera. If you have a super fast one, you can capture a runner mid stride. If you have a slow speed, you could capture the stillness of the track with a blur of feet running by.  You could also imagine those night shots of a highway where you see the blur of lights and a perfectly focused road.

I also learned how to read the meter that shows up in the viewfinder in order to get the balance of light right. It’s all hard to explain without pointing to my camera, so just trust me on this.

We played around during class, and I had to continue when I got home. I’ll post the pix again when flickr stops messing with me.

It’s funny how Melissa is talking about fictional homes today, since I’m missing my hometown a bit this week.

Last week, my folks were thinking of coming down for a visit for the weekend, until my brother invited them and his wife’s folks over for dinner.  This is not unheard of for them.  From time to time they have the four parents over, or host a seder, or some other meal.  My brother jokingly said I was welcome to come up, but we both knew that I wouldn’t make a last minute trip up to NYC.  Pre-V, we did it all the time, but now, obviously not.

My dad then asked me if I thought that there was another reason for the dinner…perhaps any announcement?  Instead of letting it eat away at me, I straight up asked my brother, who assured me that there were no ulterior motives of the meal.  It got to me a bit though, the idea that one day they will have a dinner…with an announcement.

At first, the infertile PTSD kicked in and I thought I was jealous of the potential pregnancy down the line.  On further examination, however, it was that my whole family is up in New York, and I’m down here.  Weather this year aside, it is generally warmer here than there, and I hate winter, so that works for me.  If my folks and brother and my sister-in-law (his wife) moved down here, it’d be heaven to me.  I miss being able to see them for no reason at all, or to be with them for small things.

We make up for it by skyping almost daily. If I needed anyone here, I need only say the word and my family would be here in a few hours, thanks to the many options of rail, car, and air in the northeast corridor.  It isn’t the same as how my dad works mere blocks from where my brother lives.

I talked with Mr. Badger about it, and he says he gets why it gets to me, but noted that he didn’t grow up near his aunts, uncles or grandparents.  He didn’t even live in the same time zone for a lot of his childhood, so he doesn’t notice the absence like I do.  Within 25 minutes were my Uncle, Aunt & cousins and both sets of grandparents.  It drove me batty as a teen, and man were some of my grandmother’s dinners boring as hell.  But as an adult, I can look at them fondly, remembering how my brother and I would put on shows on her fireplace and play cards when the adults were still at the table.

E’s Mama and I also talked about it.  She and I don’t have family here, for the most part, and so we really are family to one another.  We watch each other’s kids so we can get errands done.  (It’s amazing how quickly getting your teeth cleaned becomes a luxury.) We bring one another meals when the other can’t get around to cooking.  A lot of my friends down here are like that.  Few of us have our families down here, so we are family – even if that family doesn’t know one another.

And we make special efforts to see our families when we can, like this weekend when we go up north to Mr. Badger’s family.  They too have been wonderful, both my and Mr. Badger’s parents.  V’s a pretty great kid, and they’ve all made great efforts to share this year with us.

There are times, though, when the distance seems farther than the 300 miles to New York.

*As an aside, this is not a constant worry of mine, I just was wistful and it felt good to write it down

To whomever wrote the Secret Ode about me, it was so nice to read it after a long two weeks.  You made my day, you anonymous yet gorgeous person.

Also thanks to Mel and E’s Mama who make it possible for me to be…well…me.  You two are two of the best friends a girl could ask for, aside from Mr. Badger, of course.  You prop me up when I’m blue and help me shine when I’m sunny.

Today sucks.  We got the news yesterda that we have to put our dear Furley to sleep.  She started losing weight and acting lethargic a week or so ago, and when I took her to the vet, we basically were told that it was the most humane thing to do.  So I will muster up my game face and remember that I have to be a mom today after I put her to rest.  Today I share some of my favorite pictures of her, including some taken this morning.

She was a mouthly girl who loved to be around people, and leaves behind her littermate of 10 years, Roper.