Milwaukee Wind and Laser Pointers

Although Milwaukee is an hour and a half from the "Windy City," we have been enjoying our fair share of the blusters the past week. And while this sensation causes some inconvenience - it was very difficult to cram in a few, precious last minutes of studying on the way to my Politics quiz as the wind battled it out with the perforated line in my 3-subject notebook - it is generally a pleasant feeling and almost comforting to allow oneself to physically be pushed along by a force more powerful than one's own resistance. As I was walking to rehearsal a few evenings ago after an unusually good day, I was walking through the tunnel-like passage between Gesu and Marquette Hall as someone who had a walking disability came walking through as well, facing me. The wind whipped at my back, pushing me along, and I began giggling uncontrollably, my arms extended in a "King of the World!" position to get the full effect of the wind, as the stranger and I shared a grin of child-like glee and kept on traveling along our respective paths. I continued giggling.

Mother Nature, bringing people together.

Tonight, while failing to accomplish any homework and snuggling with my roommates on our futon clicking through StumbleUpon, we noticed a dot of green light flitting around our room. We pointed it out to each other and followed it with our eyes for a moment until we decided to look out the window for its source. Straight ahead and to the left, we saw the green glow from a white car stopped at a red light on Wisconsin Avenue. It clicked off, then on again, and we waved at the car until the light changed. Now, perhaps this person was just being a creeper, or perhaps he saw our giant poster of Snow White on the window and was pointing it out to the fellow passengers, but I like to think he or she was simply trying to play with random strangers and we indulged him by playing back.

These two experiences are connected in their ability to enkindle the simple, unanticipated joy a person can get just from random human interaction. I wonder what delightful new experiences I will undergo this week. :-)

Pascha 2010

My favorite holiday unquestionably is Easter, or in my church, Pascha. It is the culmination of months of self-disciplining. It is the the "Feast of Feasts," the most joyful of all religious services. And in my family, it is the eagerly anticipated annual gathering of all our friends and family to a lamb roast in our backyard to celebrate.

My dad carves the lamb with his father, who began this tradition when my dad was a boy.

My goddaughter Julia and her twin Elena "Greek dance" in the grass.

Everyone gathers together to give thanks and to sing the Resurrection hymn, "Christos Anesti."

Moment at Gesu

In class, we discussed that every photo must tell a story. With this in mind, I have begun searching for moments I might otherwise overlook and figure out the story they tell if I were to capture them in photographs. The first I noticed occurred last week. As I was passing Gesu Church on the way to my dorm, I looked over to see a very elderly couple holding hands and struggling to hold open the church doors to go through together. It was quietly, strikingly beautiful. I pondered about their story: how they met, how they fell in love, what struggles they have endured together. Then I thought about all of the marriages that take place in Gesu every week. How many of them reach this point, the point of having lasted, for better or worse?

While there was absolutely no glamour or sexiness surrounding this tired couple, they, to me, seem to be the picture without words of the ultimate goal on a wedding day: not the dress, not the guests, not the cake. This - unexciting, mundane, fatigued - and profoundly remarkable.

Beginning

Well, Internet, I have to admit that I am a blog snob. I've long been skeptical of the idea that everyone's diary entries need to take up space on the Web. However, seeing as I am required to create a blog for my Intro to Digital Storytelling course, and as more and more media conversion to the digital world compels me to become comfortable forming and voicing unique opinions via Internet, I've been working on reconstructing that particularly cynical view into one that recognizes blogging to be an expressive outlet as well as a way to spread information and ideas easily and aesthetically.

My own blog, I've decided, besides discussing elements of my class, will focus on various "snippets of life" I observe, and in this way, I will attempt to promote awareness in both myself and in anyone who happens to read my blog of the subtler, yet equally lovely moments in which I find joy every day. This will tie into my class as I will work to capture photograph-able moments in words or pictures to tell a brief story with each snippet. It will also be my personal compensation for the fact that I have entered the blogosphere as I will seek to articulate simple moments that are widely overlooked in this fast-paced, instant-gratification, technology-driven society. Finally, I hope my snippets will perhaps make someone smile.

Ahhh... I did it. I've written my first blog post.

And to quote King Theoden as he prepares for the madness at the Battle of Helm's Deep...

"So it begins."

:-)