A world of ice

In Dante's ninth and last stage of hell, the scene is surprisingly different from what our common concepts might be. We picture little red devils with pitchforks and roaring fires; Dante pictured a world of ice, "...to where the shades were covered wholly by ice, showing like straw in glass".

Today I decided to take some pictures of the ice clinging to the top of my car. The sunlight was just beautiful, reflecting off the roof of the car and the shards of ice. The first picture is at normal coloring, no editing involved.

The second, I turned up the saturation and I loved how the light was so much more visible within the ice!

(Enlarge if you can!) It actually looks like Dante's description (straw in glass) or even like flakes of delicate gold laced within the ice. I really like both pictures.

A stone of many names

I'm not a huge fan of jewelery because I've always been more of an active person and jewelery would always just get in the way. Once in a while though, I'll see something that will catch my eye. The name opal is thought to be derived from the Sanskrit upala, meaning “precious stone,” and later the Greek derivative “Opallios,” meaning “to see a change of color.” The Romans called the stone "a child as beautiful as love" and centuries later, a man called Shakespeare described opals as "a miracle".

I love the brilliance and fire of this stone. It certainly lives up to all of those definitions. Except for Shakespeares...really, how can a stone be a miracle? :)

Here's something wild...this is the same picture but with the "Twist" filter.

Cute little jade plant

Boy these things grow slowly...This has to be my favorite plant though. Easy to take care of and just plain cute!

Another anniversary

Without realizing it, my one year anniversary at Fonda has come and gone. I remember how hard it was for me to make the decision to start working at Fonda, how much it meant to me that people wanted me to work there and how it felt like I was coming home in a sense. Now, I feel as though I never truly left:) I'm so grateful to have this position and to work with the people I do each day...and for the students, not just for their good moments, but for their bad ones too. Each tiny facet of their personalities, each victory and each tribulation... it all makes me work that much harder to help them see that life is so much more than what is contained within the walls of the classroom. I look forward to 4 more years of teaching when I will celebrate another anniversary and get to see the very first class I taught graduate from high school. I want to see my students grow up and leave this place and do great things and change the world. I've already been changed by knowing them and teaching them. And they will change other people's lives with their presence, experiences, and souls.

The skull is creeping I know, but I'm a big Hamlet fan. At the start of the year, I ask my kids why I have the skull in my classroom. Usually, I get some creative answers about it being the bones of a trouble student. But really, it is to remind my students to act. To always always take life and live it passionately. To find something they care about and fight for it. To change their own lives and the lives of others for the better.

Happy 1st anniversary Fonda. And thank you many times over.

Tension

With the extra time from a snow delay this morning, I was thinking of ideas for a post. I know it sounds weird, but I was thinking about my hair and how I could use it for a post. I like close ups of fiberous things because of the detail they reveal. Well, I don't have anyone who could model for me, so I was trying to think of how I could get a close up of my hair strands and still have a photograph that made a statement. Somehow, I managed this one(better if viewed enlarged):

I call it "Tension" because the strands are straight like they are being blown back by a fierce wind and the position of my neck leaves shadows that, to me, look full of tension. I really like this shot even though I was more or less tilting my head and firing the camera into oblivion. I wonder...if this were a character in a novel, what would her face look like? Would she have an expression of surprise? terror? anguish? joy? It's hard to tell and that is why I like the picture. What do you think?

Another good call, mom!

What an awesome mom I have to give me all these great photo ideas...I'm not telling you any of them so don't even think about it, Steve! The bottle is my mom's and it's appropriate because last night we went out as a family and saw The Curious Life of Benjamin Button. A good movie, different, with a Forrest Gump like feel to it.

The first picture is the bottle placed behind the lacey curtains of my mom's window sill and the second is the bottle on her kitchen table. Thanks again, mom! You are the best :)

A borrowed iron and a nice moment

Here is my boyfriend's hand as he ironed his shirt this morning, borrowing my iron and mini ironing board for a brief moment of time together. Slightly blurring but beautiful to me anyway!