Butternut squash and a couple sunsets

I didn't take many photos on Thanksgiving, but I did get one of food.  Stuffing, butternut squash, turkey.  Foreground to background.  This was at my mom's house.  She makes this great butternut squash dish with dried cranberries, baby spinach and sauteed onions.  I'm not sure what else is in there, but it's good and that's what you see in this image.





After Thanksgiving, we had a couple very similar sunsets two days in a row.  The first one was on Black Friday.  This was in a library parking lot.  That small black spot is an airplane....



The next sunset was the day after.  Friends Thanksgiving (otherwise known as Friendsgiving) was underway and someone pointed out the pink sky.  Obviously I grabbed the camera:

When I see a pink sunset, I always think of Tori Amos' album Under the Pink which happens to be my favorite.  I'll be seeing her live in one week so maybe Mother Nature is telling me to listen to that album in preparation for the show.   Now, if I can get the Nikon into that show, I would be ecstatic.  I guess in a week's time, I'll know.

It's Thanksgiving week already?

I don't know about you, but I feel like 5 minutes ago it was July and now Thanksgiving is only a few days away?  Time definitely flies as you get older, but I think sometimes the confusion as to the time of year has to do with how odd Maryland weather can be.

We generally have 4 very distinct seasons which is nice!  It doesn't normally start to really get cold until sometime in November.  However this year, on Halloween weekend we got snow.  It was Saturday October 29th and I woke up to cold, rainy weather which eventually turned into snow and sleet.  Yet today, November 20th, I wore flip flops and while I did have on a thin sweater, I didn't even need a jacket. 

Since Thanksgiving is here and the holidays are upon us (could the local radio stations at least wait until Black Friday to start the 24 hour Christmas music?), I decided to share a few images from Thanksgiving last year at my mom's house.  My mom does such a fabulous job with seasonal decor in the house.  She knows how to make a house feel like a home.  I took a few shots of her branches with strands of lights, and for good measure,  one of my mom and I (self taken per my usual) which happens to be one of my favorite pics of us.  The one thing I have gotten the most compliments over the years is my smile and I definitely get that from her.  Just one of many traits I could be blessed with from my mother. 

Not just at Thanksgiving, but all year there is always something to be thankful for. 

Library = Christmas

I go to the library on a regular basis.  Mainly because in a certain MD county, it is free to take out dvds and you get them for 3 days at a time.  Some items you get for 7 days, if it's a tv series rather than a film.  Between dvds, books AND cds, it's a good thing I carry around my Wilco tote bag for such needs.  It compacts into a ball and has a little pocket built into the bag itself so you can tuck the bag fabric in there.  

Anyway, yesterday I had items due so I quickly scanned all necessary sections for new items to check out.  In the way of music, I snagged the DCFC Codes and Keys album, Wye Oak (which I'm loving), and the newest Ryan Adams (which I'm not loving...it's a total snooze).  I also obtained a few books, one of which is The Help.  I have heard great things about the film but will not watch the film unless I've read the book.  Started reading it last night but apparently 11:30pm isn't a great time of day to begin a new book because I only got through the first paragraph and fell asleep. 

I haven't been shooting nearly enough images lately (shameful) and tonight I was determined to make an entry so you get to see what movies I checked out yesterday.  I put in The Other Guys last night and was excited since the back of it says, "The funniest Will Ferrell movie since Anchorman".  Yeah, that guy was incorrect.

Here is the dvd stack.  It's a pretty random assortment.  Tonight I think it's gonna be Trainspotting.  Seen it before but it's been awhile.  I remember it to be a bit disturbing, mainly the worst toilet in the world part and the baby in the crib scene.  I do recall never wanting to ever ever do heroin after seeing it the first time.  I will reassess after tonight.  (whether I enjoyed the movie that is, not whether I'd ever do heroin......obviously). 

Music is my medicine

I decided after all the years of keeping concert ticket stubs, that I would make it into art to hang in my apartment.  It felt like I had a lot more than what actually appears in the 3 frames they fit into.  Of course, I know some stubs are misplaced because I know every show I've been to and after sorting through them I know what stubs are missing.  The ones missing in action are probably in another purse or wallet along with miscellaneous bobby pins, ballpoint pens, and lip balms.  Inevitably those are the items I find when I change a purse (which isn't that often because it's kind of a hassle). 

Initially my plan was to just make one large frame of the stubs, but then I thought better of that because multiple frames would be more random.  Plus I am going to incorporate the tour posters that have been rolled up in tubes for years into this large collection of wall art.  I would take a 'before' shot of the wall but...really?  It's a white wall. 

Here are a couple shots of some framed stubs.  Plus one of me with Pete Yorn.

epic

That little blue ticket is what got me my spot 1st in line to get the Tori Amos tickets for the Aug 8, 1998 show.  Remember when people used to actually go to a Ticketmaster location and wait in line?  Well, the night before tickets went on sale people were able to go get their little blue ticket which would hold their place in line the next day.  You can see that being 1st in line paid off because I got 2nd row center.  Also notice how inexpensive that ticket was.  $29.50 plus $3.50 service charge.  In less than a month I'll be seeing Tori again but the ticket cost twice as much as it was in 98. 

311 Halloween show last year.  I wish I had gotten an actual ticket rather than the piece of paper.

Pete Yorn signed my ticket

Then we took a picture.  I don't recall him being as short as he looks there.  I believe he was halfway perched upon a barstool.

The only time I saw Pearl Jam.  If you don't include Tibetan Freedom.

Drive in drive out

I used to just drive around all the time and have fun getting lost seeing whatever came across my path.  This was before I was so into photography, but I have a lot of neat memories from some of those drives.  One time I was with an old friend, Adam.  I think it was 1997 or 1998.  We were just cruising around listening to probably either 311 or Pearl Jam.  We ended up somewhere in Pennsylvania.  It was in the summer time.  We'd been driving for awhile and out of nowhere on this country road, we had to stop because there was a river that had overflown up onto the road.  It was literally impassable.  We got out for a minute to just look it over and then thought....hmm, well I guess we aren't going that way anymore!

I could never understand how people don't like driving around on a nice day, windows open, music up.  Man, that's heaven.

So tonight I was on my way someplace and stopped to take a few shots of the sunset.  I'm glad I have my camera with me all the time now.  You never know what you might see and think, "damn I wish I had my camera".  Not that this is by any means an A+ sunset photo, but it struck me so..I stopped to take it. 

I'm reminded that I should just drive around with no purpose a little more often.  If anyone ever wants to join me, I have a stellar music collection to be played in the car.