see as i saw

Usually taking the 'early riser' flight minimizes the risk of late flights and plane issues.  The planes are patiently sitting and waiting for you to board them.  The flight crew can only be late if they happened to oversleep.  All of the diagnostics, fueling and stocking tasks should be long done.

Of course, I hadn't previously considered that the gate-checked luggage could get stuck in an elevator shaft, thus delaying our flight for 40 minutes while we waited for a mechanic.  At least it worked out well for one lucky individual, the guy who was technically twenty minutes late for the flight.


So after a 3:30am wake up, I managed to spend a full work day at the NYC office; my focus was close to nil by 6:00pm.  I checked into my corporate apartment, which feels so much better than a hotel room.  Although it's a studio, I'm pretty sure it's larger than my own studio in Chicago.  And the view of Midtown Manhattan from my 20th floor windows is a little different than the alleys I look out at from home.

In a city with such an array of choices, you would think that I set out to find myself some sights and flavors that I can't get at home.  Here's a let down for you.  I grabbed a box of Whole Foods' version of shells and cheese, a couple of cookies, and made my way back to the apartment to wear pajamas and watch Big Ten/ACC basketball.

I'll try to be more interesting tomorrow.  Tonight I'm just out of fuel.

Yes, Chicago, despite your wintry gray skies and freezing temperatures, I love you.  Despite that, I'm leaving you tomorrow.  To cheat on you with a city that many consider more prestigious.  We'll only be together for three days, so I hope you'll accept me back with open arms.

So I'm off to New York City tomorrow, before dawn even cracks, to visit the mother ship and add a few more tricks to my professional arsenal.  I found myself wondering if the streets of New York still have a constant odor of trash in the winter (I've only been there in August or September).  And for some reason I found myself feeling like I should set aside some time to peruse some of the iconic festive sights.

It's funny, because in Chicago I steer clear of the festive areas, clogged with tourists.  Of course, I've seen them all before, too.  No reason to subject myself to pandemonium when there's nothing new within it.  And after musing about the possible wintry smell of NYC, I walked outside into the Chicago twilight and it smelled like chocolate chip cookies.  It's one of those little things about the city that makes me smile.

And it sort of makes me think, for just a nanosecond, that the streets are going to start flowing with chocolate and my life will transform into a Willy Wonka movie.  Of course, there's always the dirty wet dog smell to convince me otherwise.  After four years, I'm pretty convinced that it tends to waft around the city on days with a combined high humidity and pollution level.

Do you remember, as a kid, when you got a new toy so coveted that you couldn't even consider leaving home without it?  That's how I'm feeling about my camera.  I'm afraid that if I don't have it with me at all times, I'm going to miss a prime photo opportunity.  And my Android camera just isn't going to instill the same giddy feelings in me.

Since I don't currently have a bag for my camera, I'm tentative about bringing it out into the wild.  Not to mention that I don't have a strap attached to the body, and the cold air makes me afraid of fumbling through gloved hands.  I did go for a little test drive through the Lincoln Park Conservatory today, after an owners manual reading session.


Although the camera managed to catch some interesting shots, I'd attribute that more to the naturally amazing baseline of a dSLR and some luck.  When playing with manual adjustments, I was just fooling around with only a scant idea of why I'd nudge the setting up or down a level.  The good news is that I'm excited to learn; being the nerd that I am, learning and projects are exciting to me.

If anyone happens to know Chicagoland locations that would provide rich atmospheres for test driving my gear, I'm all ears.

I bought myself a little present today.  It just couldn't wait any longer.  When faced with the option of turning left, entering the expressway, and heading back to Chicago or continuing straight, directly toward the camera shop...my instincts took over.

I already felt good about buying my camera from this shop.  It's a locally-owned joint, so I was supporting the lesser known cousin to Black Friday and Cyber Monday - Shop Local Saturday.  Sales tax in Michigan is only 6% (by local, I meant my home state).  The guy who showed me the cameras yesterday talked to me like a knowledgeable and intelligent being, despite knowing I'm a novice.  Then to top it all off, today we bonded over a desire to own hectares (a.k.a. property) in Costa Rica.

And so I have become the proud parent of a very feature-rich piece of electronic equipment.  Part of me wishes that I could already have it mastered by tomorrow, so that fabulous photos are only a snap away.  The other part of me relishes the learning curve, something to throw myself into.  I've probably never been so eager to read an owner's manual; generally I don't even crack the cover open.

So today I bring you two shots: one of my new baby (yes, by the way, I did go Canon in the end) and the second being a casual test shot on auto mode from the lens of that new baby.  If that's what images look like in auto mode with low light, you cannot imagine my excitement for what else is on the horizon.

Against my best interests, and my own personal promise to the contrary, I ended up inside of a Best Buy on Black Friday.  I didn't camp outside or even wait.  My parking spot was midway down the row closest to the door.  Needless to say, I arrived far after the door busters ended.

My intention was to just wait for my mom as she returned a surround sound system.  Her line was so long that I started to wander.  I happened upon a portable hard drive with a terabyte of storage for $70, something I've been telling myself to buy since I invested in my MacBook Air.  Might as well pick one up.

Seeing that my mom was still only halfway through the line, I headed toward the digital cameras.  I thought maybe they'd have some dSLRs with charged batteries for me to play with.  It was a little too congested, apparently cameras are popular gift items.  I did strike gold in the accessories aisle, where 16GB memory cards for dSLRs were marked down from $40 to $9.99.

Despite my strongest loathing for Black Friday, I found two items that I wanted and were worthy enough sales to...wait in line.  The line was winding through the home appliances and an internal battle occurred as I took my place at the end.  It could have been much worse, and I'm sure it was earlier, but the ten minutes that I waited was enough to test my patience.

Now that I was committed to the memory card, I might as well head over to a local camera shop for a little hands on time.  Luckily that's not exactly a door buster type of retailer.  Although there were other customers in the store, I walked right in to a helpful sales associate.  And despite thinking that I knew what I wanted, he managed to plant a Canon seed in my mind.  Regardless, I don't think I'll be leaving this town without a camera.

You couldn't possibly have expected anything other than gratuitous photos of Thanksgiving food.  It was all delicious and I happily ate too much of it.  I made sure to be thankful that I was able to eat too much, while watching the Detroit Lions lose on Thanksgiving.  Again.

And per usual at my extended family gatherings, I found myself wondering if other people's families are as oddly raucous.  It's difficult to explain the dynamic; you sort of have to experience it.  All I know is that I would never want to be a stranger walking into it for the first time.  Every time someone introduces a new boyfriend or girlfriend into the mix, I always keep an eye on them, wondering if they'll try to sidle out the back door.

The first word that comes to mind is loud.  Everyone trying to talk at once.  Some people raising the volume of their voice to be heard, others increasing the shrillness in their tone.  And, unfortunately, as the day wears on, those two tactics tend to blend into one: loud and shrill.  There's also bound to be pounding, laughing, random bursts of off-key singing.

Conversations blend along a continuum from normal (sports, school, jobs) to long-standing family inside jokes to thinly-veiled inappropriate jibes.  As everyone in my generation gets older, the veil is pretty close to fully removed and we regularly hear our parents throw around sexually-tinged jokes.

Sometimes I hit a wall, the noise and activity becomes overwhelming.  My head starts to pound and I start to shut down, dreaming of walking quietly through an empty forest.  Yet, in the back of my head I know that I couldn't possibly imagine having a man in my life who couldn't handle these chaotic family gatherings.  It's sort of a deal-breaker.  So I guess I must kind of like my crazy family.

This morning began on an unexpected note.  I have a habit, probably a bad one, of looking at my phone, immediately after waking, while I'm lying in bed .  It seems to help me jump start my brain and convince it that pushing snooze a fifth time is a bad idea.  This morning one of the emails in my inbox was a shocking awakening, one that has stuck with me all day.

When I first moved to Chicago, I became acquainted with a group of girls and we generally hung out every couple of weeks.  We didn't all have much in common with one another, so many of us drifted apart within a year or so.  But I have always been appreciative of this crew, because they were my first feeling of foundation in the urban jungle.

This morning I learned that one of those girls has been battling cancer for nearly two years and she passed away yesterday.  Despite the fact that we haven't spoken in years, the news hit me with a surreal thud.  My mind reeled through so many disparate thoughts, having difficulty in finding understanding in how someone that young and energetic is simply gone.  My heart aches for her family, her husband, and her close friends.  I can't imagine, and I hope to never experience, that pain.

So as we head into a day whose meaning can be overshadowed by food and football, this certainly puts my mind on the gratitude track (no doubt, I'm also grateful for food and football).  Despite my travails of the past couple of weeks, I am grateful for this life I lead - even if it's only because I am present and able to live it.