Enchanted Forest

Taken in Central Park, NYC, the weekend before Thanksgiving 2009.

Staircase to Somewhere

Stained Glass

Finding Art in Shapes and Shadows

An Antique Land

I'm a nerd. Not in that computer-genius, off-the-charts-IQ, Big-Bang-Theory-way because I'm not actually that smart, but in the boring, like-to-go-to-museums, addicted-to-Firefly-and-Doctor-Who-way.

When I travel to new places I like to visit museums, see the sights, take in culture and art as well as walk the streets to participate in daily life. As contrasted with most of my peers who go to bars, drink, have random drunken hookups, and wander around drunk.

So when I visited New York for the first time during one all too brief weekend last year, of course one of my priorities was to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

One of my good friends from high school (and middle school, and even college too -- we went to the same one) who now lives in DC came up and met me in New York. She had been there several times before but being less of a nerd than me, she had never been to the Met before. She sounded pretty doubtful when I said that I wanted to go but, being a good sport and a good friend, agreed without any argument.

We spent several hours on a Saturday morning wandering through the museum looking at any exhibit either of us was interested in, me with my ever-present camera constantly snapping away and her patiently waiting for me (she's a great friend).

I really enjoyed it and my friend did too, which rather surprised her. When we left the museum she told me that she had thought it would be boring but actually ended up having a good time. And trust me, she's not the type to say things just for politeness' sake. If she says it, she means it, which is yet another reason why we're friends.

I particularly liked the exhibit on ancient Egypt. Again with the nerdiness: I've always been fascinated by ancient civilizations, and Egypt was one of the largest and most influential, not to mention seeming particularly exotic and strange to a small town girl growing up in Iowa. So even as a kid I read a lot about ancient Egypt -- about their cultures and traditions, gods and goddesses, myths, architecture, art, etc. When I was younger thought it would be fun to learn to read hieroglyphs, but so far it hasn't happened yet.

My interest is actually strong enough that early last year after I had decided to return to school but was trying to decide which discipline to pursue, I was seriously considering archaeology, possibly with an emphasis on Egyptology.

I've always wanted to visit Egypt, and I still hold out hope that someday I will be able to go. But for now I'll have to content myself with visiting museums like this and dreaming.

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Lantern Waste

Sinister Staircase

Christmas Time is Here Again

A small selection of vaguely Christmas-themed images from my trip to New York City last year for your viewing pleasure. As you can probably tell, I love Christmas lights :)

Enjoy, and happy holidays to all!

Neon Lights

Merry Christmas To All, And To All a Good Night!

Happy holidays, everyone! Here are a few timeless and classic Christmas quotes for your holiday cheer. Enjoy!


"Were I a philosopher, I should write a philosophy of toys, showing that nothing else in life need to be taken seriously, and that Christmas Day in the company of children is one of the few occasions on which men become entirely alive."

-Robert Lynd


"Time was with most of us, when Christmas Day, encircling all our limited world like a magic ring, left nothing out for us to miss or seek; bound together all our home enjoyments, affections, and hopes; grouped everything and everyone round the Christmas fire, and make the little picture shining in our bright young eyes, complete."

-Charles Dickens


"Christmas is a time when you get homesick -- even when you're home."

-Carol Nelson


And of course, no compilation of Christmas-themed quotes is complete without the well-known and oft-quoted...


Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

By Francis P. Church, first published in The New York Sun in 1897. [See The People’s Almanac, pp. 1358–9.]

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor—

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Monochrome Monday

Here is my weekly monochromatic offering. It's (big surprise) another image from St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.

See more posts by fellow monochrome maniacs here.

The Light In the Dark

More St. Patrick's from NYC.

I'm not at all a religious person--if anything I'm either agnostic or atheist, I haven't quite decided yet. But I love cathedrals. I love the beauty, the peace, and feeling of calm they evoke in me.

Arches and Lights

St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, NY.

Rowing Through the Very Heart of It

Amazingly enough, I took this photo in the heart of New York City -- Central Park. It's probably one of my favorite images from the trip, mostly due to the incongruity that lies at the heart of the image as well as the city itself. New York is unlike anywhere I've ever been before.

As my friend who visited with me told me on arrival,

"This is New York. Anything goes."

That is very true, and as a result, contradictions flourish everywhere. And I love contradictions.

Probably because I am one.

The Center of the Universe

Otherwise known as Times Square, NYC.

Sunset in NYC

New York, New York!

Here is my first image of the trip. It must be said: I think I'm in love! New York City is definitely the best city in the world. RENT said it best --

New York City: center of the universe!

I took more than 800 shots during less than four days; so it's going to take me a while to get them all sorted through and put in order.

Stay tuned!

Hamlet and the Big Apple

On Friday I'm leaving for New York City!

I've never been there before, so I'm really excited. Unfortunately, I'm coming back on Monday, so it's going to be a really short trip. One of my friends is going to meet me there, though, so we'll have a lot of fun.

The reason it is such a short trip is because the main reason I'm going is to see a play. Just in case you've missed all the Shakespeare-themed entries in the past, I'll let you in on a little not-s0-secret fact about me: I'm a HUGE Shakespeare nut. I love Shakespeare in all forms. LOVE it. Especially Hamlet. Hamlet is my all-time favorite. It's my favorite book, my favorite play, my favorite, period. Have I gotten it across that I love Hamlet?

Well, early this fall I started to hear/read about this new production of Hamlet that started out in London and then moved to New York in September or October, I can't remember exactly when. It has Jude Law playing the titular lead, and all the reviews have been really good (see here and here). Now, that's a little unusual because, as the fabulous Canadian TV show Slings and Arrows satirizes so well, movie stars doing serious theater often get bad reviews simply because they're movie stars doing serious theater. And all of these reviews have been raving over Jude. Plus, I've seen a few clips and they were phenomenal, which explains the positive reviews. So I really really really wanted to see it, but knew that I didn't have a snowball's chance in hell. However, I did post the reviews on facebook, and as I had just recently become facebook friends with my mother (it's something I had sworn I would never do and then did; long story), she saw my posts, then apparently saw a review on The Today Show, decided it must be good if The Today Show likes it, and asked if I would like it if she and I went to New York for a weekend to see it.

Anyway, long story short, my parents decided to send me to see this amazing play for my Christmas present, so they're paying for my flight, hotel room, and the Hamlet tickets. Everything else is on me, though, so it's also going to be a cheap vacation, because I work a minimum wage job and am therefore perpetually broke.

And any of you intrepid readers might have noticed a contradiction in my story, as I mentioned above that I was meeting a friend there but also mentioned that my mom had planned for the two of us to go. Well, that had been the plan (which I wasn't too thrilled about because my mother and I aren't that close, but it would have been more than worth it to see that play), until my mom called and said that since she's got all these health problems and hasn't been feeling that well lately, maybe it would be better if I called my good friend who lives in DC to see if she would want to meet me in NYC instead.

I'll admit, I liked this plan better, so I called my friend and she got really excited so I'm meeting her in New York. Needless to say, I can't wait! We've been planning everything we want to see and do, which means we're going to try to cram a lot into two days. Luckily, she's been there before so she somewhat knows her way around--which is really good because with my abysmal sense of direction I'd never be able to get us anywhere we were trying to go. Usually when I go somewhere new it falls on whomever I'm with to get us around, because I get completely, hopelessly lost.

On a slightly different note, I just blew $200 (that I maybe don't have) on a zoom lens for my camera, because that is something I've lusted after for years and am absolutely tickled pink to finally have. I'm definitely taking it and my DSLR to NYC, so if all goes well I'll have tons of new, hopefully fantastic pictures to post up here upon my return.

See you on the other side!