GroundZero

This past weekend I got to meet a lot of interesting people including the Sierra Leonian ambassadors to the United States and Germany. The conference itself was also very interesting, not only because of the people, but because of the thrust behind it. Truly a conglomeration of people who care deeply deeply about the success of this small west African country--wether it be the education, clean water, or clean living, all were together brainstorming about the future.

It was quite encouraging.

There is something inherently smart about being able to introduce yourself as Smart. Because it's your first name.

Smart.Jack and our host, Steve.My good friend Denise who travled with me. She actually posed for a picture, but I thought this was a little too quintessential to pass up.

Tomorrow: NYC part 1

...to Pennsylvania.  Which means nothing more than I'm a day away from arriving in New York.  Denise, my coworker and good friend, is from Brooklyn, so whenever she's in the area (the top, right part of the country, that is), she tags a trip home.

This time I'm going with her. And for the last month she's been on serious count-down every time she's walked past my desk. We'll be there for exactly 31 hours, but I've been secretly adding up her list of must-dos, and it's clocking in somewhere around eight days.

It'll be good.

There will be pictures.

Speaking of pictures. I took some of those.

This is along the lake a couple blocks from my house. I used to always drive this way until they started doing this...

[sad face]

"This is it. Let's do it."

I can remember, that's what I was thinking at this moment as I watched the boat being made ready for the water. My own silent peptalk.

That was the start of a three-day live-in-a-cabin fishing trip I took last year. I can totally handle the cabin (I don't even mind regular camping), but it's the fishing that did me in.

I don't particularly like the taste of fish to begin with, so the extra toil of pulling them out of the water and making them tasty appeals to me about this much less. That, and I'm not really the "be patient and wait" type. As a side note, I'll have you know I spent my entire childhood believing the be-patient-and-wait trait was a grown-up gene.

Then I became a grown-up.

But the trip turned out okay. I survived. And my initial looming fears of boredom and extreme anxiety almost completely resided in my head.

As I write this, it strikes me, I'm not really into the nostalgic, throw-back posts (although my good friend Katie is doing it flawlessly on her blog right now). But I came across these pictures when I was looking for pictures of my Dad for last Friday's post.

It was a funny and unusual situation for me to be in, and I wanted you to know.

There.

I write this sitting in an airplane seat I can't recline because of the emergency exit behind me. I'll be cordially reminded of this the entire flight by the small sticky note on my left.

I'm flying to Kansas City from New Orleans.

Via Chicago.

It kind of reminds me of that person who asks you for a ride home from somewhere. You know who I'm talking about. You say yes, then ask something like, by the way, where exactly do you live?

"Oh, it's kinda far out of the way." Following up with a "you don't mind, do you?" as you've just steered onto the onramp.

Sigh. Via Chicago.

Anyway, FocusFocusFocus. Kansas City is a place I've been to more than once. More than twice. Actually, if we're being honest with each other, more than… well, it's not necessary to go there.

The purpose of this trip and each before it is to attend, learn, and network at the annual International Food Aid Conference put on by USDA & USAID. There is some good stuff here, but most of it is just business. Suits walking around talking to other suits while they spear little fruit wedges with tiny, colored toothpicks.

All in all, despite my cynicism it's a worthwhile trip. I'm just tired.

The name of this post is doubled in it's allusion. It's the title of one of my favorite songs by Wilco. Naturally, I've forgotten what it's about.

Anyway, I'm writing tomorrow's post now. It won't be quite so stupid.

Joe

This is my very good friend, Sal. He's not wearing a shirt, or a tie. His life is a mess.

This is my good friend, Sal. With Raina. See the difference. Lovely.

These pictures were taken in Dallas at Sal and Raina's engagement party. In Jordan, and much of the Middle East, a wedding begins with the celebration of the engagement.

It was a breathtaking trip as I spent most of the time on the road driving, but I wouldn't have traded it for anything. It was a blast, and I'm so happy to have been able to take pictures of Sal's effervescing excitement. He was truly in an envious place!

Here is the beginning of a night that was alive well into the morning.

This is really one of my favorite pictures. Much of it had nothing to do with me except the chance moment I happened to push the button on my camera.

His stance, posture, the tilted cigarette, the truckerhat-sideburns combo.

You can't fake this stuff.

I would almost be happy leaving it at this.

But there's more.

More:

went to the beach.

took pictures of

flags.

...

and of Sal and Katie

and Carole.

click to see it bigger.

we met miniature mariachis. they played us a song that became a rap.

Many of these pictures represent my normal outtakes when shooting around Sam.  He's actually helped me to grow as a photographer.  Where most people will hold a pose, or just generally understand the philosophy behind a camera, Sam gives me about 0.7 seconds to set my exposure, frame it up, and click the button.  No matter how good the scene is, that's the way it is.  Or there's always the lovable way he patiently waits for me to push the shutter and cleverly jumps into the frame at the last second.

So, in effect, this has made me think much quicker and natural about taking pictures.  With all that 'practice', I still get a bunch of typical, crazy shots, and hiking last weekend was no exception.

Ooo, Sam, pretend like you're licking that fuzzy, green stuff. Click.  Great!  Wait, did you actually lick it?? Yes.