Earth Day 2009

I took this picture in Millenium Park, you know the one with the giant silver bean. So instead of taking one of a billion photographs of my warped self in front of a warped skyline I decided to focus on the smaller details, which usually means I end up photographing flowers. Or architecture. I figure the real work has already been done for me the only thing I have to worry about is focus. These trees were everywhere, covered with these large fragrant blooms. I have no idea what they are called but if anyone can ever replicate this scent I will be first in line bathing myself in it.

Drift

My Moment

While Denver was getting slammed with a wicked Spring storm I was here. Standing on the edge of Lake Michigan, sun shining, breeze blowing, surrounded by family and loving every sweet minute of it.

UPDATE

Our short but sweet journey back East has come to an end and instead of posting all the pictures at once and overwhelming the devoted and numerous (HA!) readers of this blessed blog I am going to give them to you in small tasteful increments because that is how I roll. And I'm too jet lagged at the moment to be that ambitious.

See Figure 2A

During a serious conversation about the dynamics of a certain play element and its installation I inadvertently transposed the first letter of "Nuts and Bolts" which resulted in me saying, "Nolts and Butts".
Being cursed with the sense of humor of a four-year-old I found this undeniably hilarious and was unable to continue.

Celebrity Encounter

Last night I had the opportunity of seeing, meeting, and listening to Heather B. Armstrong author extraordinaire of dooce.com and let me just say it went infinitely better than my encounter with Bill Cosby. For one she didn't try and have me shake her hand somewhere in the region of her crotch. She was just as funny and glowing but also gracious and charmingly humble about her overwhelming success in the blogosphere and of course I was anything but eloquent when it was my turn to have my copy of "It Sucked and Then I Cried" signed. Instead I just slid the book across the table and said, "Hi. I'm Ruth" immediately followed by the intense desire to crawl into a hole somewhere because I was such a sad, unimaginative git. Things only got worse as I mentioned that I was named after my Grandmother as if this is the most riveting personal fact about myself. It's just that I never know what to say to a celebrity that they haven't heard a thousand times before and while I'm positive she appreciates every bit of support and praise I just felt if I said, "Gosh, I totally love your website" it would just get lost in sea of a voices saying the EXACT same thing. So, instead I tell her about my Grandma! Someone please punch me in the face.

I was so caught up in the excitement of it all that I only managed to take a picture of my book and several blurred and jittery images of Heather. My camera probably decided to underperform in protest to being in the same room with Jon's AMAZING and UTTERLY PROFESSIONAL photography equipment. It's enough to make you want to estimate. $10,000? $18,500?

I only slightly redeemed myself when I had Jon sign my book and was able to hold a civilized conversation with him about Denver and his obvious love and admiration for his spouse. I had no idea he had the World's longest and thinnest legs, like stilts. Overall the evening was wonderful and I met an amazing group of local bloggers whose experience far exceeds my own and best of all we had plenty to talk about. Thanks to dooce.

p.s. dooce, I totally love your website!

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