This is a tradition that I have gotten away from for awhile, but I do wish to start it up again.

This photo tribute is my way of saying Happy birthday to Shannon.

I believe Jen Gorshe is up next for the birthday photo tribute.

It is the end of Year 1 for the Random Weekly Photo Experiment. The final theme was EYE. Here are the submissions:

Becky Perkovich B


Christopher D. Bennett


Shannon Bardole


Mike Vest


Becky Perkovich A


Dawn Krause


Scott Krause

The themes for this year have been slightly modified, but it remains mostly the same list. Here are a list of this year’s themes:

GO
Adventure
Calm
Colorful
Communication
Depth of Field
Diagonal Rule
Black & White
Dry
Explore
Eye
Face
Fast
Feet
Food
Framing
Hands
Harmony
Hope
Leading Lines
Light Placement
Long Exposure
Love
Macro
Market
Motion
Odd Camera Angle
Painting with Light
Panning & Camera Blur
Paths
Animal
People
Noise
Reflections
Night
Rule of Thirds
Self Portrait
Shadows
Signs
Silence
Silhouettes
Smoke
Soothing
Spiritual
Still Life
Strength
Symmetry and Patterns
Unfocused
Use of Space
Viewpoint
Wet
Games

The Random Generator has spoken for this week’s theme:

There is still only one rule. The picture has to be taken the week of the theme. The deadline for submissions remains Monday at Noon.

Good luck this year!

Becky Perkovich correctly gave 1 of the 4 possible correct answers to the Christopher D. Bennett Trivia Question:

Q: What is Christopher D. Bennett’s favorite movie?

A: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

Proust Quote

“Happiness serves hardly any other purpose than to make unhappiness possible.”

Confessions Question

Your idea of happiness:

2009 Answer

Proust Questionnaire Number Ten

When Becky chose her question she said that she hoped to get a “real answer”. It is the kind of disrespect that would normally cause me to cancel her email subscription to this journal.  However, since it is the Christmas season, I will allow it to slide.  All of my answers are real and real is a stupid word.

Actually, it has nothing to do with the Christmas season.  I just sat through an Advent Study where there was frequent discussion about how we become “better people” and have more “peace” during the Christmas season.  I couldn’t really relate to the conversations and hardly ever contributed because I don’t feel that I have more peace or become a better person during Christmas.

I can’t figure out if that makes me an absolutely terrible person or a person of unsurpassed greatness. These are the only two options.

As this question relates to 2010, this question will need to be thought of as “what made you happiest in 2010?”

That is an easy question to answer: Evie.

To extend the answer to this question just a little bit, let me tell you a few tales.

I’ve known for quite some time that Jen and Derrick were trying to have a baby, but the thoughts of me seeing them as parents didn’t really start to materialize until early January.

I was at Derrick and Jill’s parent’s house for Marla’s birthday party.  Sort of.  I was kind of a late addition to the invite list.

Nothing earth-shattering happened while I was there. I would find out later that before my arrival Derrick and Jen had told his parents and Jill that they were pregnant on that night, but my arrival had extinguished all the conversation about the baby. They must have hated me for showing up, but this story is about me and my happiness.  It was the first time that I noticed that Jen was not smoking. I noted it, but didn’t jump to a conclusion.

Later in January Derrick, Jen, Sara, and I attended a Brandi Carlile concert. It was the time of year where we were starting to make plans for the big Iowa State-Kansas State game in Kansas City. We had attended the game the previous year.  Despite some awkwardness to the previous year’s trip (staying at the Bates Hotel, my cousin offering us drugs), I was looking forward to making the trip this year. Possibly with the addition of a couple of new people.

I was talking about how we would make this year’s trip better while we were parked in Sara’s driveway when Derrick utter the following cryptic line:

“I’m not sure if we will be able to make the trip to Kansas City this year.”

He would offer no explanation.

Before the Brandi Carlile concert we dined at the Gateway Market. I noted that Jen drank water.  Jen still was not smoking. In fact, Derrick had yet to have a cigarette.

During the Brandi Carlile concert, Jen went to the bathroom about 14 times.

I was certain now that Jen was pregnant. I waited for the rest of the night for the announcement. I was certain that this was the perfect night to make the announcement. I was certain that they wanted to tell Sara and I together.

The night ended without an announcement. I went to bed confused.

That week I met noted filmmaker H. Richard Stauffer.  He is Frank’s friend. He was working on a musical number in the area.  He invited Jesse and I to come watch him in action on his set. We agreed.

The next day, Sara announced that she would be in Ames for clinicals on the exact same day that Jesse and I were going to be watching the great H. Richard Stauffer in action.  I have had a goal of photographing him since I first met him, but that is a story for another day.

We set up a lunch meeting with Jen and Derrick. I resolved to shaft H. Richard Stauffer because I was pretty sure that at this meeting Jen and Derrick would announce a pregnancy.

I was right, as I sat down at the table, Derrick said: “Hey Chris, we won’t be able to go to the Kansas State game this year. Jen is pregnant.”

There was merriment.

We made an appointment to photograph the happy couple before they became a couple “plus one”.

The next happy moment came a few months later. I’m not sure of the exact month, but I know that it happened before Jen, Derrick, Sara, Cousin Amy and I ate at The Open Flame.

I plopped down on the chair in the Gorshe living room and for the first time I saw a blob on the television that would turn out to be Evie.

While we waited for Sara and Cousin Amy to arrive, we watched the video 3 times. Then we watched it twice with Sara in the room and Cousin Amy waiting for us in the car due to her cat allergies.

I would watch the video a few more times a few weeks later when Jill was back in town. It never really got old. Nor did the gnawing feeling that the video could use background music ever go away.

The next joyous moment came in late August. I have never been to a baby shower, but I got talked into co-hosting a shower with Sara.

My part of the shower was to make sure it was cool enough for guys to attend plus make whatever Sara wanted to happen magically happen. I believe I came through on both fronts.

We found time to cram in one last photo shoot of the Gorshes before the blessed day occurred.

Then there was nothing but waiting.

The Iowa State-Kansas State football game came. This was very close to the due date. I was worried that the baby would come while I went down to Kansas City to watch the game. Not really sure why I was worried. It is not like I had a job in this process, but I was antsy nonetheless.

Then my fears seemed to be coming true.

Derrick texted me: “Are you in Kansas City?”

I texted Jill that I was in Kansas City and never heard back.

These two incidents are seemingly innocuous, but in the mind of a…. well in my mind, they spelled “baby on the way”. Let me explain.

Derrick never texts. Derrick is the Chris Bennett of 2007. He hates texting. He can’t stand it when other people text him. It costs him money because he doesn’t have a text messaging plan.

Only once before this day had he text messaged me. That text consisted of scatological humor. In fairness, it was a parody of scatological humor. I believe Jen had to help him send this text.

It seemed very strange to me that out of the blue he would send me a text message. I responded back in the affirmative. He never wrote me back.

Why had he texted me?

I also make a habit of sending text updates about Iowa State games to Jill. She always texts back with appropriate responses: “Yay!!!” or “That’s terrible.”

Why had she not texted me back?

The answer seemed obvious to me. Somewhere in the Mary Greeley birthing center, Jen was bringing the newest Gorshe into the world. Somewhere on I-35, Jill was speeding down to Ames to see her niece or nephew for the first time.

I watched the entire game with this feeling in the back of my head that as soon as the game was over I needed to get back to Ames.

After the conclusion of the game I called Derrick. To my great surprise he answered his phone. He didn’t have any news. He was just genuinely interested in whether or not I had went to Kansas City.

The great rush back to Ames was called off. Jason and I went to Oklahoma Joe’s for supper and the best barbecue I’ve had in my entire life.

I had made plans with Jen and Derrick and Sara for the following Tuesday night. We were going to give them the baby advice book that Sara and I had put together with pictures from the Baby Shower.

Then Tuesday came along. I spent the morning at work texting Jill about the new Maroon 5 album.

Then Derrick called.

“We aren’t going to be able to do dinner tonight.”

“Why is that?”

“We’re at the hospital. Jen’s having the baby.”

I spent the rest of the day texting Jill, all the while dancing around the only topic that could possibly be on either of our minds.

A little after 4 Derrick called with the joyous news. Evie was born healthy (like a lot babies) and adorable (like very few babies).

I just kind of stared at the clock at work for the next couple of hours waiting for Sara to arrive.

Finally 6 o’clock came. Sara showed up. I sent 1 last text to Jill that I was leaving work and going to the hospital. I figured that was safe ground.

She texted back how excited she was to be an aunt and it was a relief to finally be able to talk about it.

Sara and I got to the hospital and got to see and hold Evie. This was my happiest moment of 2010.

Of course we also got to take this picture too:

This concludes the wordy portion of the Proust Questionnaire for 2010. Congratulations to Jen. She just became the 5th person to reach the 100 journal entries about her plateau.

The rest of the I Recommend Pleasant pictures.

I think if you look closely at these pictures, you can see the exact moment where Foster is no long amused.

Something else I am reminded of when I look at these pictures is that I need to invest in another backdrop. I’ve also been considering painting the “studio” area of my basement silver. Mostly because of its light reflective properties and it will look awesome in black and white. I do worry that people will think that I stole the idea from Andy Warhol and I can’t stand Andy Warhol. I can live with it though.

There have been a couple of developments in the world of Foster Q. Bunny.

1. Thanks to Angie, Foster now has an actual cage. Foster was living in a giant rubbermaid container with a screen window on top to prevent escape attempts.
2. My rabbit expert Becky came over and sexed up Foster. Foster is officially a chick rabbit. Good thing Foster is an androgynous name.

I think that at the aggregate level, this is the best batch of submissions to date. Here are the submissions for SHADOWS:

Shannon Bardole


Christopher D. Bennett


Becky Perkovich


Carla Stensland A


Carla Stensland B


Dawn Krause


Michael Vest


Julie Johnson

Dawn’s Poetry Submission

Shadows

Something lurks beneath the bright
It shies away from the light
Peripheral image that can’t be seen
What can that phantom visual mean?

Sense the dark as it closes in
Suffocates like a hidden sin
Run to a meadow open and free
Take a moment to breathe and see

The sun was shining just last week
Now the sky seems cold and bleak
Oh won’t the sun come out and play
Chase the shadows and gloom awa

I’ve walked the rocky trail that leads to the cottage that houses the Random Theme Generator. I gave it a cookie and it spit out the theme for this week:

A compelling and interesting theme. I look forward to seeing the submissions and seeing what creative ways people waft with this theme.

There were many more contributors this week. Looks like RWPE is back on track. Here are this week’s submissions for LIGHT PLACEMENT:

Dawn Krause B of Impassioned Versifier


Julie Johnson of The Joy is in the Journey


Mike Vest of Waxen Media


Christopher D. Bennett


Becky Perkovich


Dawn Krause A of The Randomness in My Mind

We’ve been down to the basement that holds the Random Generator. After a few jerks on its ripcord it sputtered and then fired up and then settled down to a nice hum. After thinking for a small bit of time, it spit out the following theme for this week:

HOPE

That is a good broad theme and one that all Cyclone fans will need this week. Oh no! I’ve given up too much information on my idea. I would think that anybody with a camera or camera phone would be able to contribute something to a theme this broad and open to interpretation. Anybody that doesn’t contribute… I’m just going to have to assume that their life is devoid of hope.

I had a submission for last week’s theme from Becky Perkovich, but during some computer swapping it has been temporarily lost, but I’ll post it as soon as I am able to locate it. Here are the other submissions for FOOD:

Dawn Krause


Christopher D. Bennett


Mike Vest


Julie Johnson

Dawn’s Poem of the Week

Food For Thought

Rich and creamy French silk pie
Makes me glisten with devilish eye
Perhaps an apple for my health
Wise choice yes, but not for wealth
Maybe celery to trim me down
Without peanut butter makes me frown
Popcorn then my snack shall be
But alas, none on the shelf I see
Crackers then will be my way
Hope they last me through the day…

The Random Generator has spoken and the theme for this week is:

So get off of your feet or get up high. Look at something from a different perspective than you normally see things. I’ll be excited to see the submissions.

The submissions for last week’s theme SILENCE:

Dawn Krause


Christopher D. Bennett


Carla Stensland A


Carla Stensland B


Carla Stensland C


Carla Stensland D


Becky Perkovich


Mike Vest

Dawn’s Poetry Submission:

A Thought on Silence

Not every moment needs to be filled
Solid connection we quietly build

No words need expressed
Nothing needs addressed

Content calm fills the air
In it I hear you care

The Random Generator has been kicked on and it has kicked out a tasty theme for this week:

It is a shame that this theme didn’t get generated during the State Fair, but I still think there should be plenty of submissions. After all, everybody eats and almost everybody owns a camera. Or even a camera phone.

SILHOUETTE must not have tripped the trigger of many people. Only two submissions:

Mike Vest


Christopher D. Bennett


Becky Perkovich

Hopefully more people will find inspiration from what the Random Generator spit out this week:

As always I look forward to seeing the submissions.

The submissions for last week’s theme PATHS:

Dawn Krause


Becky Perkovich


Christopher D. Bennett


Mike Vest


Julie Johnson

Dawn has taken quill in hand again and this is the result:

Paths

Two paths we could go love
Two roads we could follow
One leads us to warmth love
Where hearts don’t feel hallow

Lead me gently my love
Down the road we travel
Strengthen ties that bind love
Never to unravel

We could part the road love
For one taken before
Nursing broken hearts love
Forever close that door

That’s not what I want love
That distance from your heart
Hold me in your arms love
Even when we’re apart

The Random Generator has been fired up and spit out a high quality theme for this week:

I don’t think this theme needs a definition, so I’ll just leave you to it!