Category Archives: Derrick

Candid Portrait, Derrick, Event, Jay, Jen, Olympic Sports, Sara, Shannon

My Saturday (Volume 1)

September 28, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

My big plan for Saturday was to journey down to Des Moines to watch Jen compete in the Des Moines Regatta. I have never been to such an event, so it was going to be a new experience.

I started my day by going to Ames to drop off a roll of real black and white film at Walden Photo. It seems to be more and more difficult to find a place to get real black and white film developed. I think it is down to Walden Photo and Pyle in Ames. I took this roll of film to Walden Photo. We’ll see how that turns out.

While I was downtown I stopped at the Downtown Farmer’s Market briefly to talk to Shannon. She was making soap there. While I was there I picked up a jar of jalapeno jelly. I already have about 6 or 7 jars of jelly that I don’t eat because I don’t eat breakfast, but I have high hopes that I will use this jelly on crackers.

I met Jay back in Boone and we headed down to Des Moines to meet Sara and Derrick for lunch. We ate at the Hessen Haus. It was somewhat of a disappointment. Fortunately, due to the poorness of the Hessen Haus, a plan was hatched for a future FNSC. That is exciting!

After watching Iowa lose to Northwestern, we hopped into the Mustang convertible that was being used as our form of conveyance and went to Prospect Park to watch the Des Moines Regatta.

Once we got to the park, we had a brief wait on some rocks for Jen’s team to come up the river.

It didn’t take long for us to see Jen’s boat come around the bend.

I’m not going to try to using rowing lingo, but one of the members of the team missed the regatta because before they were supposed to get into the water, their knee was run over by a van. They had a member from the ISU rowing crew sit in with them.

Derrick, History, Writing

Unhappy in Its Own Way or Happy Alike?

September 9, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

As many of you know, there are many times that I like to fancy myself a wordsmith. However, it is a rare day when I actually practice this skill that I like to believe that I possess.

I often hear the advice that you should write what you know. I used to not believe in this advice because who can possibly know about unicorns and wizards and aliens. But as time has marched along I have realized that the reason that a person must write what they know is because the only way to be a great writer is to write truth. The only way to write truth is to write what you know. Perhaps this is why almost all fantasy and science fiction novels are terrible.

To know me is to know that my 2nd Favorite thing on the radio is the Writer’s Almanac. I’ve lifted a bit of Tuesday’s Writer’s Almanac on Tolstoy. Tolstoy is the email name of choice for my friend Derrick, but he also wrote the following great line:

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

I don’t know that I believe that this statement is true or not, but it is a great line. When I heard Garrison Keillor read this line it occurred to me that if I ever was to write anything great or true, I should start by writing about my family and our convoluted history.

Don’t panic. I’m not going to do that, but it is an idea.

The Tolstoy story is kind of a mixture of sadness and beauty as well. I think that is the way most family stories are in actuality. Most families are not necessarily happy or unhappy, but a mixture of both. Joy and tragedy.

It’s the birthday of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy born on his family’s estate in the province of Tula, near Moscow (1828). He led a wild life as a young man. Then in his mid-30s, he decided that it was time to get married.

He began spending a lot of time with a friend who had three available daughters, and everyone expected him to propose to the oldest. But he found himself falling in love with the less attractive but more intelligent middle daughter, Sophia. The closer he got to making a proposal, however, the more panicked he felt. He could hardly think about anything else, and he wasn’t at all sure he wanted to go through with it. He wrote his marriage proposal in a letter, but he couldn’t bring himself to send it. He kept it in his pocket for 24 hours. He finally got up the courage to go to Sophia’s house, but he couldn’t even speak. So he just handed her the letter and walked away.

That night Tolstoy suddenly realized that what he really wanted in a wife was someone with whom he could share his most private thoughts, and he decided that if he was going to marry this girl, he would have to let her read his diary. So they set the date for the wedding a week later, and during that week Tolstoy gave Sophia his diary to read. She was excited at first, but by the time she finished reading she was in tears, horrified by his descriptions of brothels and his affairs with peasant girls. Tolstoy asked if she forgave him for his past, and she said she did. He said that she could call off the wedding if she wanted to, but it was impossible to do so because so many people already knew about the proposal.

The marriage was not particularly happy for Sophia. She’d grown up in a cosmopolitan, aristocratic world, and after marrying Tolstoy, she had to live on a rural estate where her husband lived almost like a peasant. His house was extraordinarily simple, with no upholstered furniture and no carpets on the floor. He even wore peasant clothes, when he wasn’t entertaining guests.

But for Tolstoy, the early years of his marriage were some of the happiest of his life. The regularity of married life let him settle down to work more steadily than ever before. And in the midst of that happiness, he wrote his first masterpiece, War and Peace (1863). It was the longest and most ambitious novel he’d ever written, and he was only willing to attempt it because he now had his wife to work as his secretary. When he would scribble corrections all over a rough draft, she was the only person who could decipher what his corrections said. Even he couldn’t read his own handwriting. She ultimately copied by hand the 1400-page manuscript for War and Peace (1863) four times.

While he was working on War and Peace, free love was becoming fashionable among the Russian upper classes, and everyone started to think of marriage as old-fashioned and silly. Tolstoy was disgusted. In 1872, he heard about a woman who had thrown herself in front of a train after the end of an affair, and he went to view the body at the train station. He never forgot what he saw that day, and it gave him an idea for a novel about a woman whose life is destroyed by adultery.

That novel was Anna Karenina (1877), in which the story of the romance between Konstantin Levin and a young woman named Kitty was based almost entirely on Tolstoy’s own marriage. When it was published, most critics said Anna Karenina was inferior to War and Peace, but it is now considered one of the greatest novels ever written. It begins, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

The part about her copying War and Peace by hand four times just blows my mind. I hardly ever write by hand any longer and the last time I sat down to write somebody a letter, my hand starting cramping on the 2nd page. That was two years ago. I can’t imagine how bad it would be by now.

Art, Derrick, Jen

The Wedding of the Year (Prelude)

August 27, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

Not only did I get the honor of being a triple threat at The Wedding of the Year, I also received one of the greatest present I have ever received in my life. That means a lot coming from me. I’m not prone to superlatives.

Jen made a sweet stained glass flower. Rumor has it that Derrick even helped out.

They made 1 for each member of the wedding party. I don’t want to brag, but I came home with the orange flower or as I like to call it, “Derrick’s Favorite”.

Black & White, Brog Frog, Candid Portrait, Derrick, Jen, Jesse, Kelly, Monica, Sara, Weddings

The Wedding of the Year (Part 3)

August 25, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

As Shawn and I were called to perform our secondary duty of ushering, I handed my camera to Kelly. She took the following pictures before the battery on the camera gave out.

I was so completely drained from this wonderful day that I didn’t wake up until 1:30 on Sunday afternoon. It was probably a good thing that I limited my dancing at the reception. It is possible that I could still be sleeping.

Black & White, Candid Portrait, Derrick, Jay, Jen, Monica, Sara, Weddings

The Wedding of the Year (Part 2)

August 24, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

This is really a continuation of more pictures of the wedding principals taking it easy backstage before the big show.

Monica took the pictures of me, including my picture with Jay, the one where he reveals that he truly doesn’t like me all that much.

Black & White, Brog Frog, Candid Portrait, Derrick, Jen, Jesse, Jill, Kelly, Monica, Sara, Weddings

The Wedding of the Year (Part 1)

August 23, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

I didn’t take many pictures from The Wedding of the Year because I was quite busy being a triple threat: Groomsman, Usher and Reader Guy. However, I did manage to snap off a few photos here and there.

I take many a memory away from an absolutely incredible day, but I’m going to keep those memories, joys, and highs for myself.

Derrick, Music

Shhh…

July 29, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

I don’t know if I should be telling you about this, but there is going to be a bonus Half Shell this Friday. Now you won’t find it on the poster or the magnet, but you have to take my word on this one.

The band is going to be 35 South. They are a southern rock cover band. You might know this band because their lead singer is Dennis. You might remember Dennis as a guitarist in the band UnHingd or as one of the singers in Against the Grain.

Even if you don’t like Skynyrd or Marshall Tucker, you should come check them out because they have, bar none, the best sound guy in the history of sound guys. That is correct Derrick Gorshe. Seeing this man work a soundboard is worth the 3 dollar price of admission.

As usual, the show will be from 5-8 at Bandshell Park near downtown Ames.

Now, I can’t be there because I will be in Kentucky, so some of you are going to have to go and watch Derrick for me. It will definitely be worth it.

Alexis, Birthdays, Brandon, Candid Portrait, Derrick, Elainie, Ernie, Formal Portrait, Jen, Johnathan, Logan, Music

Happy Birthday! [Squared]

July 12, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

Saturday was this guy’s birthday:

It was also the birthday of this punk:

While going through some pictures I found this picture:

Becky, Candid Portrait, Commercial, Derrick, Event, Holidays, Jaycees, Jen, Music, Night, Shannon

Independence Day

July 6, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

It was a busy 4th of July.

I started the day at about 9 AM by moving mortars into place. Then at 10:30 I went over to Half Shell to help set up and serve beer until about 3 PM.

Check out some pictures from Half Shell.

Shannon and Matthew

Scott with the 1st Beer of Half Shell

Becky and Jenny

I switched from my “Beat Iowa” hat to a “Beer Nuts” hat for this Half Shell.*

Burnin’s Sensations

Sarah finishing off the pepperoni pizza that she didn’t want to be “too eager” for.

I don’t know what is going on in this picture.

At 3 I headed back to the fireworks area to set up sandbags. Fireworks was a very educational experience. For starters, fireworks don’t look anything like I thought they would look like. I thought they would look like giant bottle rockets or like the big red rockets that Wile E. Coyote shoots at the Road Runner. Instead, they look like this:

Fireworks.

The main thing I learned though was that being in the pit or ground zero of a fireworks display is about a million times more entertaining and fun than watching a fireworks display.

To let off fireworks there is a dress code. You are required to wear boots, long pants, a cotton long sleeve shirt (polyester will catch on fire), a hard hat, safety glasses and ear protection. Even with all of that clothing and protective gear it is hard to put into words how powerful and loud the fireworks are in the pit. It is an intense experience.

I was really down in the pit to take some pictures. However, I was ordered to set off a couple of fireworks. So I set off three.

After we finished some clean up I went over to Jen and Derrick’s traditional 4th of July barbecue. I was asked the same question a few different times while I was there:

“Which fireworks did you light off?”

Shannon would usually answer the question: “The good ones.”

Although I enjoy her vote of confidence, that answer has no basis in fact. The truth is that you never get to see the fireworks that you light off. In fact, you barely ever see any fireworks at all. You feel them. You hear them. You never see them.

The steps to setting off the fireworks prevent you from ever seeing them. When you go to light off the fireworks you are handed a 5 or 6 foot pole with a road flare taped to the end. You approach the mortars with the flare pointed away from the fireworks. When you get near the fireworks you remove the protective sleeve that covers the fuse. Then you take a few steps back and light the fuse with the flare. As soon as the fuse starts to light, you turn your back to the fireworks, get low and move away from the mortars.

While you are moving away from the fireworks, there is another person acting as a spotter. The spotter tells you when it is okay to go light another fuse or to get down. Trust me, you definitely know when the shell has shot into the sky. You feel it. However, there are a couple of things that could go wrong. The shell could blow up in the mortar or the shell can come a few feet out of the mortar and then blow up. If these things don’t happen, you get to go back and light off more fireworks. But you never really get to see the fireworks that you light.

Here are a few pictures from the pit:

Joe packing mortars.

Charby moving boxes of fireworks.

Shannon putting foil on the Grand Finale mortars.

The line moving away from the explosion is the flare.

Fireworks.

More fireworks.

Peggy setting off fireworks.

Shannon watching.

Grand finale aftermath.

Of course there are about 80 more pictures in the Snapshot Gallery in an album named “Jaycees – Independence Day – 2008”.

Jaycees – Independence Day – 2008

When I concluded my evening at Jen and Derrick’s barbecue I found out that something pretty major had happened in my absence. However, that is not my tale. All I can tell you is that congratulations are in order next time you see them.

One last story.

While I was walking around Half Shell taking pictures two girls came up to me.

“Do you want to take our picture?” they asked.

“Why would I want to take your picture?”

“Because we are so cute.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah!”

“I can take your picture.”

I’ll leave it to you to make your own assessments about the level of cuteness these girls possess.

I have a feeling this is how the Girls Gone Wild guy got started.

*I bought a new hat for this coming Half Shell on Saturday. I think it is perfect.

Derrick, Mark, Self-Portrait, Willy

Obfuscate

July 5, 2008 Christopher D. Bennett

Saturday was my annual lunch with Mark at The Machine Shed. It seems that it is also becoming a tradition that we get an out of focus picture of us taken together.

However, I think it is becoming a trend. Take a look at other pictures I’ve had taken with friends lately.

Perhaps this could be my new thing.