There are always things in places where they don’t really belong. Take this pear for example, left half eaten on a Lake Superior shore of an old copper smelting factory. No person for miles that could have left it there, yet it looked fresh. Not even a few hours old. Just sitting perched on the edge of a sandstone wall. How did it get there, who left it and why. It doesn’t belong but it still is. This is an ode to the things that seem out-of-place, the lone person you see standing in a moving crowd, a child’s shoe in the middle of a market place, all of the things that stand out like something colored in a world of greys, notice them before they all disappear into the ordinary.

As the doctor was briefing me on the procedure we tells me the only side effect to inserting the contrast that has been seen is nausea and vomiting. He said it only happened in about 4 out of 300 people who had contrast injected along with the MRI procedure so I had nothing to worry about. He also told me that if I got nauseated that I would throw up, no question about it. I would definitely throw up if I didn’t feel good. As soon as he said this I knew I would be one of those people who got sick. He injected the contrast and lo and behold I just looked at him and said, I am going throw up. So he ran over and took of all the head-gear and gave me a basket. I almost threw up but actually didn’t which was suprising. He just laughed and said, you proved me wrong, you are the only one who didn’t throw up after feeling sick.

Lucky me.

Many people have told me they wanted to see my brain and the way I think. Also many people have questioned if I had a brain. Here is the answer. Here is about every view of my brain, enjoy

The first day after we arrived we walked around downtown Chicago after a few interesting incidents…. like Gabe humping the entering Wisconsin sign. Yes my little brother is strange.

The first thing we did in Chicago was an architectural design river tour on the Chicago River. It was very interesting to travel through Chicago by river and then go out into Lake Michigan to see the Chicago skyline. We also went along the navy pier.

It was nice hanging out with our Philadelphia cousins and seeing all of our family in such a cool setting. The heat was not very enjoyable though, especially walking blocks after blocks in the boiling heat and humidity. We met my grandmother’s brother and sister-in-law at a nice restaurant right on the river. They gave us about four free desserts because they thought they took a long time to get our food out but I thought it was really normal. The desserts were amazing, like one which was a mint ice cream cake coated in a marshmallow cream that had chocolate drizzled on it. So good!

After that we walked around some more and headed over to Millennium Park. By that time we are running from one shady spot to another trying desperately to escape the sun. So we were hiding in the shade while I was trying to get pictures. Meanwhile Aunt Eileen was having fun with a cow sculpture…

We had a brief visit to the Art Institute of Chicago after a long day but we were so tired that we bailed out quickly to go back to the hotel room for resting time.

The next day my family went to Gino’s East a famous pizza place in downtown Chicago. It was featured on Man v.s. Food, my family are big fans of that show and try to go to the places on the show any time we can. Like when we visited the Crab Pot in Seattle. We got to Gino’s and the decorations were amazing. The entire building was graffiti up and covered in writing and pictures. Not to mention the food. I never had deep dish pizza before so Chicago’s Gino’s was the best place to start I figured. I was totally right. I was worried I wouldn’t like it but it was so good. It had an amazing cornmeal crust that just blew us away.

We also went to Al’s Italian Beef restaurant which was also featured on Man v.s Food. We had it catered to my uncle’s home for my grandma’s birthday dinner. We got to make it ourselves which was quite the experience. It was so good and you got to dip your sandwich in the sauce and it was one of the best sandwiches I have ever had.

Over all we had a lot of fun and it was really nice to hang out with my whole family. There were a lot of laughs and very strange things but it was so great to see all of my family that I normally don’t see.

Grandma’s birthday party was a lot of fun and I can’t wait for another little re-union like this one to get to see everyone together again. Happy Birthday Grandma!!

My mom and I took a hike up to Hungarian falls in Hubbell Michigan this morning. It was really nice. There are two sets of falls and we visited both. The first was a this big pool covered in greenery and ferns.

Then we headed around the top of the falls seeing many others on our way. It was a really nice hike and the water was beautiful. I really enjoyed the greenery and the beautiful Michigan woods.

Right near our homes in Bootjack is White City, a park on the Lake Superior with an amazing pier stretching out between the Portage Channel and the vast depths of Lake Superior. There is an interesting lighthouse at the end of the pier that some of my cousins like to jump off of; It is really high up, and the water is really cold.

My cousin brought up KT and I got some good pictures of her leaping off the lighthouse. She definitely had the best form and was the most graceful.

Others took a less graceful leap, like Doug with his flying squirrel style.

In the end the jumping style didn’t matter but the fact that they jumped. Soon I am going to get over my fear and jump it too. Till then I will have to vicariously live through my cousins.

Say hello to my new best friend. I found him on a hike down to Horseshoe Bend in Arizona. We had to walk on a long desert sand path to get to the spectacular view. On our way there, right on the side of the path was this little guy. I freaked out when I saw this and scrambled for my telephoto lens thinking he was about to bolt off and I couldn’t miss this shot.

He was just standing there and no one noticed him at all. Tons of people walked by me as I was taking pictures but no one else stopped to look or take notice. I don’t understand that. This creature is beautiful and amazing but so many people wouldn’t take the two seconds of their time to appreciate this little marvel of nature. It made me a little sad but at the same time, more shots of a cool lizard just for me.

He was just posing away for me. Watching me as he cocked his head back and forth. He didn’t move at all. I thought he would run away as soon as I pulled the camera out (that would be my usual luck) but he stayed for a good five minutes as I crept closer and closer. He didn’t really seem to mind. After a while he started doing little push ups and picking up his feet and shaking them because of the hot sand. I was so excited when I got these shots, it made me realize something else. I love doing action shots of animals. It makes me so much happier if I get a good shot of an animal rather than a good shot of landscape. Anyways, it was a lot of fun and I hope that next time you see a girl (or boy) frantically taking pictures of something, stop and take a look; you may never know what you are missing if you just stay locked into your own world. There is a big beautiful world out there, take notice before it is too late.

Today I went to the Woodies on the Wharf for the first time. Sad I know, I have lived in Santa Cruz almost all of my life and I have never actually been to the Woodies on the Wharf. Let me tell you, it was mobbed. There were so many cars there. I know it is all about cars but it there were rows after rows of these awesome oldie cars, ranging from the shiniest things you will ever see to cars made out of wood  and cars of every color.

My mom, brother and I rode our bikes down to the wharf and it was sheer insanity. Having so many people packed onto that dock made it seem like it would almost collapse at any moment. Anyways, the show was very interesting but frustrating to take pictures at because it is nearly impossible to get a photo without five random people standing right in your way. Here are a couple of my favorites.

This futuristic yellow car almost didn’t appear to be a Woodie but all the same it was a really cool car. Normally yellow screams taxi cab but this car pulled off the blinding sun colored yellow. It was just so sleek and the front was very interestingly shaped. On the opposite end of the spectrum was this car, the Monster Woodie as it’s license plate implies. This car was gigantic. I think you could drive clear over other cars with this thing. It really was a monster.

Another part of the show that I really enjoyed was all the hood ornaments.

It was an interesting show. I have one question though, how the heck do they get these cars so shiny? It is ridiculous, you have to wear sunglasses to even get near them because the reflection coming off these bad boys can kill.I look forward to it next year and I am happy I finally got to see the Woodies on the Wharf.

A girl watched from a short distance away, the bird’s futile attempt to be freed. She knew the forest was a place forbidden and had been told by her elders it was a cursed and evil place. But still she picked herself up from her little stone perch and walked towards the old gnarled tree. She looked up at the bird and the bird looked down on her.

“You are going to fall baby bird and probably die. I want to save you but I don’t know how. If you could lend me your wings, maybe I could use them to save you from that tree.”

“Little girl little girl,” the poor baby bird cried, “please help me, I am too young to die. I will give you my wings, but you will have to learn to fly. I cannot teach you because I too am just a child. If I give you my wings, you could fly up and save me. You have hands that are gentle and could easily remove me from the tangled fingers that embrace me.”

So the little bird lent the girl its wings so the girl could fly and save the birds life. “You have to find my mother to teach you to fly, she said I was not ready yet. But it can’t hurt for you to try. She lives in the very top of the tree, alone in a nest made of black leaves. Look for the black leaves and her dark blue eyes, and then you will know it is my mother. She will teach you how to survive with my wings. Be careful girl, now you have my wings and my life. The trees are a dangerous place for a little girl to be. The birds can be jealous because they cannot leave the trees. You are of the children of the ground and many will try to be like you. Be wary of those with strange colored eyes for they will try to deceive you like they deceived me. They said I could fly but they tricked me, it is how I ended up stuck in this tree. Go fast now because I grow tired and weak. My little fragile heart is dying slowly.”

The little girl climbed up into the great old tree. Winding her way through branches of that twisted oak tree. The farther she went, the darker it got and soon she knew she would never be able to see the black leaves because everything was dark, not just the leaves. She found herself lost with no help in sight. With twigs in her hair and scratches on her hands she curled herself up and began to cry. It shuttered the leaves and brought about the cold wind. The little girl sobbed and didn’t know how to stop.

“What is a little girl like you doing up here where only the birds and leaves belong?”

The girl picked up her head and found a dark bird. It stood there before her with feathers black as coal and eyes that had a gold shine. “What brings you here child from the ground into the world of the children from the sky.”

“I am looking for a mother who has lost her child. A bird who lives in a nest of black leaves. I found the baby bird and she asked me for help. So she gave me her wings to go get some help. Are you a mommy who lives in a black nest?”

“Why yes dear child, and I have lost my baby bird. I guess that you need me to teach you how to use your wings, so you can save my baby child.”

“Yes, that is exactly why I am here. Teach me mother black bird to fly amidst the trees, to navigate the gnarled ways of the old oak tree so I can save the baby bird and bring it back to you safely. I just have one question to ask, why don’t you go save your baby yourself?”

“I can’t you see for I hurt my own wing. For now I am like you. All I can do is sing. I am bound to the ground and cannot fly to save my child’s life.”

So the little girls training began. The black bird taught her to fly so she could save the baby bird. One thing remained that bothered the little girl still. Something the baby bird had said but she couldn’t remember it now.

Now the little girl with twigs in hr hair had learned the techniques and the skill but had not flown, not quite yet. The bird with the golden eyes sat on the branch next to her and said. “It is time now for you to fly. I have given you my knowledge now it is up to you to fly. “

Something didn’t feel right though to the little girl, maybe it was the gleam in the black birds golden eyes. “ Are you sure I am ready, I feel I have just begun to learn.”

“Oh yes dear child, and I am sure your time is short to save the baby bird. Every minute you wait, is one heart beat less of its fluttering heart.”

So the little girl knew she would have to move fast to save the baby’s life. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes. She opened her wings and leaned off the branch. But then she was falling, falling way too fast. The limbs reaching out to claw her as she fell down amongst the trees. Tearing at her and hurting her as she tried to fly. She beat her wings but they were just too weak. Then she remembered the warning from the baby bird, the birds were jealous and would try to trick her. The mother had blue eyes, not gold. She knew she was deceived and like the little bird before her was doomed to fall and die. The little girl tried to let out a scream but it was too late.

The black bird with golden eyes lazily drifted down in spirals from the top of the trees. Singing a quiet song of sweet victory. The bird landed on the little girls back as she lay motionless on the ground. It picked out a few twigs and walked along her back.

“Now I have a body to use so I can become a child of the ground, no more bound by the twisted branches of the cursed oak tree. Free I will be, free at last.”

So the deceitful bird with golden eyes took the little girls body and made it her own. To live, breath, and die as a human would. The only remnants of the birds old past, was a tattoo of a pair of black wings that no one could see.

The baby bird was left to die, also tricked by the evil black bird, without wings or a chance to fight. It’s poor little heart just stopped beating one day. Two birds with one stone fell by the black birds hand. Leaving the old oak tree a few people emptier. With nothing left but the twisted branches of that gnarled old tree reaching out, beckoning to newcomers to enter into the forest where no child of the ground ever leaves.

I went on a small adventure with my mom and my camera and ended up in an interesting place. I found this cemetery with one of my friends near the Santa Cruz Animal Shelter and finally returned to get a better look. This cemetery is a somewhat creepy place mainly because many of the tombs are cracked, old, and written all over. It has an extreme air of a melancholy, and forgotten place that once used to be beautiful but was left to wither in time by vandalism and time itself.

Some of the headstone still intact were extremely beautiful like this one that just have such a haunting air about them. Some of the tombs still had flowers near them, but very few are still intact. Just a few people, it seems, keep coming back to visit and honor their dead while most others simple destroy a place once so beautiful. Even the graffiti on the wall seems haunting.

I look forward to finding more hidden places like this around Santa Cruz or anywhere, if you know of any cool haunts are Santa Cruz county please share i would like some new places to explore.

My aunt Valri Peyser is an amazing artist and she is going to be a part of this next up in-coming Open Studios in October. I got to photograph some of her most recent projects she is working on that will be a part of the open studios show like these amazing decorated wine bottles.

The bottles are really amazing, each with its own personality and flare that is unique in itself. The front portrays a person ranging from a head shot to a half body portrait and the back is a beautiful pattern like flowers, stripes, dots, swirls, or any other design you can think of.

Her beautiful wine bottles won’t be the only art on display, her paintings will also be there for Open Studios.

Bright, colorful, fun, and artfully crafted, I can’t wait to see what else she will have come the date of the Open Studios in October.

To contact my aunt about her work, see her website: http://www.valpeyser.com/ So come check out her open studio this year, you may even see me