Tuesday, September 20, 2011

my camera's back from italy...and so is rich!

rich took some time before a meeting to cycle the lake como region for about a week, and he brought back these images of the gorgeous scenery there. while my camera got to go with him, i did not--he was biking northern italy while i was trying to rid our offspring (and myself) of hand, foot and mouth disease. the stars have not been in my favor this month. anyway, rich is back, is surprisingly unjetlagged, and is already planning his return trip to cernobbio. i'm not sure exactly where every picture was shot, so my captions may be sparse, but the beauty of the region is perfectly clear.

the trip was almost doomed from the beginning, as rich discovered his bike had been dropped on the way there and his derailleur hanger was broken...but necessity being the mother of invention led to a clever repair using a wire hanger







you know how some people shoot pictures of their kids while traveling on a train on vacation? yeah.

il duomo (milan cathedral)

interior, il duomo

near lugano

near lugano

menaggio (i think!), on lake como











near cernobbio, this is the church of the madonna del ghisallo, which is dedicated to cyclists

interior, church of the madonna del ghisallo

interior, church of the madonna del ghisallo

pizza con funghi e proscuitto (rich's nightly meal) from tom e jerry's pizzeria...yum!

Friday, September 16, 2011

folk art in texas: the orange show

texas is bright for an iowa bunny

since my camera has been on a fantastic voyage without me for over a week, i'm forced to look to the past for photographic inspiration. these are images i shot this summer in houston while visiting the orange show, one of the happiest, brightest, most positive places on earth. the orange show was former postman jeff mckissack's residence, which he dedicated to his favorite thing--the orange. he started building it in the 50s and finished in the 70s; today it accessible to all for a whopping admissions fee of one dollar. i've even got a copy of his manifesto, "how to live to be 100 and still be spry". highly recommended viewing in the bayou city!

the orange show center for visionary art

excellent advice, but i think sophie is just picking out all the "s"-es.

sadly, no amount of reminding will render her cautious

view from the roof, looking down

a wise old owl

so happy! so bright! so cheerful!

this is pretty much the exact philosophy i use to approach life

beautiful, matisse-like tile work

view from the roof, looking out

i love you, too.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

tharr be pirates in iowa...

pirate sophie warns ye ta be on yer guard...

...and she holds no allegiances...

...ye scurvy swines were warned!

Monday, September 12, 2011

who(m) the hell am i?

so...yeah. i've got a problem. at this age, and even for a bit before, i am grateful to find myself comfortable in the person that i am, the beliefs i hold, the skin that i am in...all that good stuff. existentially, i'm in a good place and seem to have purpose and can figure out who i am in an abstract sense. i'm cool with me.

legally, however, i may or may not exist. allow me to elaborate:

1. i was born in the 60s to separated parents and my birth certificate was issued as MSD (this is a name i haven't used for decades and doesn't even show up on a google search--i'm going to hang on to this little bit of privacy). parents were divorced and i was raised by my mom and my maternal grandparents.

2. mom remarries in the 70s; decides to "simplify" (this is the operative word here) things by legally changing my name to her husband's family name, making me MSG. mom gets a court order to change my name and has my original birth certificate invalidated. mom files name change with county court (different from birth county) but fails to get new birth certificate issued, thus state bureau of vital statistics has no record of me.

3. at same time of name change, mom registers me for a SS# in the new name, MSG.

4. in 1980, i get my first passport--a little trouble with proving who i am but ultimately passport is issued as MSG (this is 21 years before 9/11/01--it was easier back then).

5. driver's license issued, with passport and SS# as identity proof, as MSG.

6. high school diploma listed as MSDG (some of my school records were MSD, some were MSG--it made sense at the time).

7. undergraduate degree listed as MSG.

8. MSG marries RCA and i had some trouble proving who i was for the marriage license, but i did get it. i ultimately become MSA.

9. graduate degrees listed as MSGA (again, some records as MSG and some as MSA).

thus today, i have five potential legal identities (MSD, MSG, MSDG, MSA, MSGA) and one casual professional identity (MGA--that isn't even included in this ridiculous accounting), however the lynchpin of them all, MSG, never seems to have legally existed. to prove who i am has always been a challenge for me when i was younger; today it is a full-blown nightmare. as one friend recently pointed out, the president of the united states had all the proof of who he was that i do except the birth certificate, and that still led people to believe he wasn't who he claimed to be.

i've spent hours on the phone with county and state recording agencies in texas just trying to figure out what i need to do to remedy this. the vast majority of these people have absolutely no idea where to begin to help me, but all agree--i don't exist in the vital statistics records. one woman i spoke with had a brother with a similar problem, but her direction hasn't gotten me anywhere (yet). and none of this ever really bothered me terribly until another friend raised the possibility that i may not be legally married--MSG married RCA, and MSG was never fully established as my legal name. texas has rather generous common-law marriage statutes, so i feel secure i have at least met those, but it bugs the shit out of me that a few missing sheets of paper may determine that i am not who i thought i was.

at this time in history, particularly in the US, it seems to be more important than ever to firmly and unequivocally prove one's identity, and the birth certificate seems to be the one unassailable document for doing just that. even if i can get a new birth certificate issued (three and a half decades after the name change), does it automatically and retroactively solve the problems of my legal identity? would anyone even bother to challenge who i claim to be? i don't know what will happen in the future, but i do know that as of now the issue of who the hell i am is murky at best and unlikely to ever be clarified by the filter of time. my kids are going to have a hell of a time settling my estate.

i think i will, at least, remarry rich when i get a proper birth certificate. it'll be a big party--you're all invited--and i'll be billing my mom for it. :)

Friday, September 9, 2011

in the reptile house

sophie loves all animals, especially dangerous ones

sophie and i took a trip to the san antonio zoo this past summer, where it was well over 100 degrees outside but a crisp 70 degrees inside the reptile house. they have a beautiful collection of snakes--if i recall right, i think they have a live specimen of every poisonous snake on the planet. i have to go back there and shoot more (maybe next year?), but for now please enjoy these.

















Tuesday, September 6, 2011

still here...

...but taking a bit of a break. between school starting back up, a massive landscaping project, gus' recovery, paco's recovery, rich working too much, me trying to figure out what the hell my name actually is (more on that later), and now sophie possibly battling hand, foot and mouth disease (we're off to the pediatrician tomorrow), things are more than hectic. much news to tell once i can stop for two seconds in a row and tell it. in the meantime, here is a picture of sophie on her first day of school...what a lovely, happy, chipper, enthusiastic kindergartener!