Tag: fun

I work in the office of an elementary school, so gifts find their way to me around Christmas and I’m very appreciative.  Most of them tend to be food.  That’s usually a quite delicious thing.  Today, though, one of the gifts I received was just perfect, in my opinion.  It was from a Kindergartner and she made it herself.  I love homemade, I love when tokens of appreciation cost less then a few dollars, I love that I can use this, and I love that the gift shows  the effort the child put into it.  Well done, parents!

Somehow the juxtaposition of “fraud” and “grand” were quite delightful.

One of the things that happened during the kickoff party for NaNoWriMo was that we all got a Plot Ninja.  We were all handed sheets of paper, and we wrote down an idea, folded up the paper and sealed it.  Then we exchanged the pieces of paper. The idea was that if you got stuck writing your novel, you would open up your plot ninja and incorporate it into your book.  I didn’t need my plot ninja and had forgotten about it until I came across it today, while cleaning.  Not a bad plot ninja, eh?

No really.  That’s actual money.

One of the classes at school made money for a project they are working on.  I became the ten-cent pieces.  Nice, eh?  I love how I’ve also become my own country.  The United States of Patricia.  I like the sound of that.

My Aunt has had the peeps for quite awhile, and I was momentarily alert when she came over for the Art Party.  But then I got distracted by party duties and forgot about the peeps, which would have given her ample time to hide them.  But no!  She did not!  Because today a package arrived in the mail from Hawaii, where my Aunts are currently vacationing.  I usually get a postcard, but not a package, so I was pretty excited.  “I hope it’s food.” I thought, forgetting, once again, to be more specific with my hopes.

And my hopes came true, because the peeps went to Hawaii.
 

Curses!
 

I hope Kamuela was fun for them.  They will be returning to their rightful home soon, as Thanksgiving is just around the corner and Aunt Pat always hosts.
 

When we bought collage material for the Art Party, Matt grabbed a bunch of photos.  I donated nearly all of them back to Scrap, but I held on to these two.

If you can’t tell what this is from the front, check the back.
 

I love that someone was so excited (or perhaps angry, though I think not) that they took a picture of something happening on TV.  Matt said they took several pictures, but he just brought home the one.  This was the first election I was able to vote in and the presidential candidate I voted for won!  I don’t think I watched the swearing in, but I remember waiting up on election night for the results.

And I love this photo, not only because it affirms that my awful clothing choices in the late 80s were not really my fault, but fashionable, but also because I love the interaction between the women.  And that woman’s wedding dress is gorgeous (though sadly not in fashion right now)

A jeans skirt at a wedding?  What were we collectively thinking?

So Kristen, she of the Good Wishes to Kristen Party, knows how much I love my birthday.  I think she also must know how much I love unexpected mail.  Because you will never guess what arrived today in the mail for me.

It’s a birthday scavenger hunt!  I get to find these twelve places around Portland, take a picture of myself with them and when I have sent her seven pictures I get gift #1.  When I send her ten pictures I get gift #2.  If I find all  twelve places I get unlimited bragging rights.  I know where six are right now.  You know I’m going for unlimited bragging rights, right?

White Bird, a local dance company, celebrated 15 years by staging a free performance in Pioneer Square.   Le Grand Continental is a dance by Sylvain Emard.  In it, 160 non-professional dancers of all types come together in a 30 minute performance.  There was no way I was going to miss this.

I stopped at Elephants for a sandwich and headed to Pioneer Square.  This couple caught my eye.  They were very exotic, her with her long flowing scarf, him with his baguette in his bag.  I suspect we were headed in the same direction.
 

Despite the press coverage, I didn’t really realize that so many people would also want to see free dance.  The square was packed.  An usher helpfully pointed me to a spot on the ground and I started the line of people who settled in beside me.  We had front row seats.  That open space behind the woman in the red top would eventually fill with people too.
 

Children play in the dance space before the show begins.
 

Searching for a vantage point involved climbing for some.
 

The dancers emerge.
 

And take their places.
 

Images from the dance.  Oh, how I longed for a more powerful camera.
 

 

 

The man in the green shirt wrote, “Hey ladies, I’m single”
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At one point, everyone fell down and the children emerged and attempted to wake everyone, with no success.
 

 

 

The congregated together…

…and began to dance.

 

The founders of White Bird came over, gave them a finger shaking.
 

The children danced in response, and the men followed.
 

Suddenly everyone began to wake.
 

 

 

I enjoyed this man’s shirt (Pluto. Never Forget) as well as the fact that he kept a towel handy to mop up the sweat.
 

 

 

 

It was great seeing so many people who did not look like dancers dancing.
 

The guy in the pink shirt was one of the assistants (or something) and he was fun to watch.
 

I could never get a good shot of the guy in the Hawaiian shirt.  He was delightful to watch too.  He was quite old, comparatively  quite out of shape, didn’t quite have all the steps and was so delighted to be there.
 

The dance ended with the dancers looking about.
 

And then there were the bows.
 

 

And then we were all invited to dance with them.
 

Thanks, White Bird, for a magical 30 minutes.
 

The job of Athletic Supporter requires standing around with a camera ready to capture whatever action is happening with the athlete you are there to support. Because I have so few opportunities to capture the athlete and so many opportunities to capture everyone else, I inevitably come home with a lot of pictures of the athlete and then even more pictures without the athlete that I just like.  Here’s a tour of the Muddy Buddy, without Matt.

So the “buddy” aspect of the race means there are a lot of “twins” outfits.  This is fun.
 

The race itself had people walking around taking photos.
 

The “buddy” aspect of the race means two people are often doing the same thing at the same time.
 

Two of the photo people.
 

One of the better male outfits.  Way to embrace the chest hair!
 

This man doesn’t know it, but he’s an Athletic Supporter, too!
 

The blue line registers the athletes start when their chips cross over.
 

This guy reminded me a bit of Julie McCoy from Love Boat.
 

There were two other guys with Julie McCoy hyping up the crowd at the start, though it looks like there’s about to be a fight.
 

I think this lady is not an Athletic Supporter, because she was standing on the side where normal spectators weren’t.  I think she might have been with the male announcer.
 

She kind of looked a bit bored.
 

This photographer’s efforts to get the kids to cheer resulted in the kid in the red running back to his mother.   Which resulted in me laughing.
 

Fans!  Much more so than the woman checking her phone.
 

Waiting to start.
 

This blue mat is not quite right.
 

South Salem High School’s ROTC were the volunteers.  There were two guys who had to stop people from walking across the course when athletes were coming through.  It was a tough job and I was interested in the contrast between their ROTC role, their job stopping clueless people, and the demeanor they projected.  I faced this guy, so got more photos of him than the other one.  I tried my best to capture all of the above, but I don’t think I did.
 

 

 

These guys had the fun job of pulling people over the wall, which was sprayed in fabric softener to make it even more slippery.
 

A younger competitor waiting for his partner.
 

Both of these women wore shirts that said, “I will step on you to win.”  They were a bit scary, though less so, post shower.
 

Done showering.  Just wait!  These guys will appear again.
 

We were at Kruger’s Farm.  There were chickens.
 

First place already!
 

I loved this interaction between Kate, the owner of our gym, and her race partner.
 

Heh.  This team placed in the coed category.
 

Hey!  It’s the guys from before!  Being weighted as part of the “Beast” category (Over a combined 450 pounds). I liked the interplay between all these people.  This is my favorite picture I took.
 

They turned out to be the winners!