The Next Suzanne Vega

Posted by egarcia on Jan 26, 2012 in Life | 0 comments

Just a quick post today.  We recently signed Lina up for guitar lessons.  She’s had fantasies of being a singer/song writer for years now.  A fantasy that has been fed by stars like Taylor Swift.  So of course, guitar lessons were bound to take place at some time.  Here she is practicing.  Take a good look folks, a future star is born.

Snow Day!

Posted by egarcia on Jan 24, 2012 in Life | 0 comments

This weekend we had the first significant snow fall of the season.  Fortunately it was on a Saturday, so we had the weekend to clean up, play, and recuperate in time for Monday morning commute and return to school.  I spent the day indoors.  My daughter on the other hand could not wait to get out doors.  Most kids wait for the storm to be over, but this one doesn’t have the patience.  Out she went wearing Moms boots since her wonderful UGGs have not been water proofed yet.  Fine with me, it gave me a legitimate excuse to not go out, ha!

Unfortunately all of her snow toys were locked up in the shed, and Dad was not about to go out in the storm to open it up for her.  So she grabbed her boogie board in hopes that it would suffice.  All it was useful for was to protect her from the horizontal snowfall  that was coming her way.  Still, leave it to a kid to find a way to have fun in a snow storm with a boogie board on a flat yard.

Photo a Day Review

Posted by egarcia on Jan 20, 2012 in Life | 0 comments

One of my projects for this year was to take a photo a day as a way to both practice my photography skills but also encourage myself to take a moment each day to slow down and notice my surroundings.  To hold myself accountable I signed onto the website 365 Project and created a page for myself there where each day I post my photo.  It’s a great community of photographers from professionals to amateurs like myself who have all committed themselves to take a photo a day and share it.  I thought from time to time I’d share with my Latinawise audience some of those photos and how the whole experience is going.

So far I have to say it’s not as much of an existential experience as I thought it would be, although it has made me take notice a bit more.  There have certainly been days when I don’t remember to take my picture until late in the day when all I have available as subjects are either family members, the dog, or the objects in my house, where there is poor lighting and therefore creates a challenge for producing a good photo.  Nonetheless, even on some of these days I’ve come up with some of my favorite photos.

This photo is one of those last minute favorites.  I like the crisp clear colors of the Ben & Jerry’s container and the blurriness of the background.  As I said in the description I included when I posted this photo, I feel a strange affinity to this particular Ben & Jerry’s flavor.  Is it the chocolate, the cherries, or perhaps it’s the Garcia? .  I also have to include descriptions with my photos on the 365 Project page and I’m enjoying how it pushes me to come up with something interesting or at least whimsical to say.

I bought this Monchichi at the Japanese section of Epcot Center in Orlando, Fl. a few years ago.  I had one just like it when I was a kid and can’t remember how I lost it, but I loved it.  So of course when I saw it in the gift store I just had to buy it.  She sits in my craft room up on a shelf where most of the times I don’t pay much attention to her.  This night I needed another photo of the day and was running out of options when I saw her furry little head peeking out from the shelf.  I knew that my fellow children of the 80′s would appreciate a photo of the adorable Monchichi.

We rarely have flowers in our home, although I’m not sure why since I love them.  I guess perhaps because I didn’t grow up seeing flowers in our home.  Not the kind of thing to spend money on when you have other necessities to worry about.  But especially this time of year when most of what I see outside of my window is brown, bringing beautiful bright colors into our home with flowers is an easy way to beat some of those winter time blues.  These flowers were brought into our home by my husband, not for me, but for our daughter.  One of those ways we try to remind her how proud of her we are and how special she is to us.

These were all photos taken right before heading off to bed, after having that “Oh shoot, I forgot my picture of the day,” moment.  Yet however hurried they might’ve been, they were still moments that forced me to take notice, and to reflect on the particular item I had chosen and why it’s significant to me in whatever small ways.