Archive Page 2
The spirited ones …
I don’t care how bad of a day I may be having, seeing these guys’ enthusiasm and what they do to bring so much joy to the student body at UNO really makes me happy. I wish I could just “plug in” to people like that and get a charge of their positive energy! They carried out the Saints pep rally again today, complete with a float and kingcakes.
Saints mania rules!
Today, the groundhog saw his shadow, but even the threat of six more weeks of winter cannot dampen the spirits of the UNO faculty and staff. Saints mania has reached a feverish pitch as the Saints pep rally continues at 10:50 daily!
Together we can find a cure …
This is a shot I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I think this one is going to become a new greeting card - with proceeds to go to the CJD Foundation.
To
day is my 49th Birthday … I am one trip around the sun from having lived half a century. That seems so old in some contexts, yet so young in so many others. Regardless, I really don’t mind getting older, as long as I continue to get wiser, and better, as I amble through the journey.
Today is also the day my dad died, one year ago. I would like to believe he had done everything he had ever wanted to do before he went … but I’m not so sure about that. Birthdays, “death days” … both make you examine your very existence and mentally recount those items that are on your “bucket list”. I want to make sure that when my time comes to slip into the “Great Beyond” I have no doubt that I’ve done everything I ever wanted and achieved those things important to me. I have a good start … I have really great kids, and I finally earned about as many degrees as I think I can stand. Those were my goals for the longest time. I have new ones now.
I’m getting married this year! That’s something I’ve really wanted for a long time, and it will finally happen before I’m 50. I’ve also wanted to improve as a photographer for a very long time, too. So my 49th year is going to become the year of the commitments: not only will I make a major one to my fiance this year, but right here and now I’m also going to make a commitment to myself to become a better photographer this year. I plan to post a photo a day this 49th year in an attempt at growth and improvement. I’m quite anxious to see where this journey will take me. Happy birthday, to me! I’ve made my wish … now blow!
January 31, 2010
The Saints Fan
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“You get back what you give” leaped from the computer screen and grabbed my attention as I glanced across what seemed like the one millionth eHarmony profile I had read. I was growing weary of the process, becoming dissatisfied with the results and was just about ready to throw in the towel and sign off for good, when this little glimmer of hope flashed itself before my eyes. “What a deal,” I thought … “a guy with a passion for life, a penchant for art, and a predisposition for giving, to boot!” Hence, my interest was piqued and shortly thereafter, I actually met this wonderful, giving soul who will become my husband in July of this year. My initial impression has been confirmed over and over again as I observe my fiancé generously give of himself to assist anyone in need. But this week he quite literally gave a piece of himself as he fulfilled a nearly year long endeavor to give his hair to those who have none.
“I want to give my hair to the children” he would insist every time I complained about his hair. He was referring to Locks of Love, an organization that provides human hair wigs for children who have lost their hair for various reasons. However, Locks of Love requires that a ponytail be 10”, a rather ambitious goal to achieve with an upcoming wedding and an ever impatient fiancée. “Then let me donate it to the women!”, he pleaded, referring to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program which makes wigs for women who have lost their hair to cancer. Pantene’s program requires hair to be at least 8 inches long. At last, I was elated to learn about the Pink Heart Funds, a program brought to light by Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts when she bravely underwent a very public fight against breast cancer in 2007. Pink Heart Funds provides free wigs for children and adults who have lost their hair due to illness or cancer treatment. And the best part is, they accept ponytails from 6″ on up.
So Pink Heart Funds it is! It’s a win/win situation for all … the women and children get the hair, he gets to give of himself, and I get my handsome sweetie back!
Dear Pink Heart Funds,
Please accept these ponytails to make wigs for the women and children who need them, and ask them to wear them with love. They were donated from one of the most giving, loving hearts I have ever known!
Shutterbug Diva
There are some things in life far too precious to let slip away - simple, but powerfully important things - like the memory of the day my children were born, the friendship of my best friend and my mother’s gumbo recipe to name just a few. “Can I have the recipe?,” I always implored; “I don’t have a recipe, you just have to watch me make it”, she always replied. She wasn’t being flip, she was just stating a fact. She learned to make her gumbo at the side of her mother, as most Cajun cooks do, and it was just something she knew from watching and doing. I always held in the back of my mind that I would slow down and pay attention one day. You know, really pay attention. I had a vague idea of how it all went together, but was I really doing it right? Every attempt I made always seemed to fall just a little short of her fare. Kind of like a xerox copy - close, but never quite as good as the original. As time went by, I got busy, I got caught up in the hustle and bustle of raising kids and making a living, and, frankly I always assumed the recipe would be be there. After all, any time I really wanted good gumbo she would make it for me, right? After losing my father and my mother’s oldest sister this year, it has recently occurred to me that there are things in life that I always considered a constant, a given, that aren’t necessarily so. I finally decided that the time had come for me to make the time to watch my mother make a pot of gumbo, to become a student of the Mi-maw, and to not only reduce the recipe to paper, but to try and capture the art of making gumbo. So on a rainy Saturday afternoon, the lesson commenced.
It started with a trip to the grocery where we bought:
3 medium sized onions
1 bunch celery
1 head of garlic
1 bell pepper
3 lbs. shrimp (peeled)
1 stick of smoked sausage
12 boiled crabs (The sausage and the crabs were already boiled in Zatarain’s crab boil at Rouse’s)
2 bags of frozen okra (Mi maw said the fresh okra didn’t look so good so we opted for frozen; still not sure what makes it “not so good” but I trust her)
chicken bouillon cubes
After we got home, we started by cooking down the okra. We put olive oil in a heavy stockpot, put in the okra, covered it and let it cook over a medium fire.
Continue stirring the okra and eventually it will brown and will “dry out and will no longer be slimy”, she directed. Cooking down the okra was the longest part. It probably took up to 45 minutes to finally brown. We kept scraping the bottom. I was afraid it would burn, but she assured me it wasn’t burning; just turning brown.
While the okra was cooking down, we chopped the onions, bell pepper, 4 stalks of the celery (the holy trinity of cooking) and five 5 toes of the garlic.
We sliced the sausage into small slivers and cooked all of this in a separate pan with a bit of olive oil.
.
At this point the okra was ready. We put 5 bouillon cubes in hot water and made about 2 cups of chicken stock. We poured the chicken stock into the okra. Then we transferred the cooked seasoning and sausage into the okra pan. We didn’t really drain off the fat. She stated that it would make the gumbo taste better! (She never claimed this would be low fat!)
Next we added a bit of Tony Chachere Cajun seasoning, black pepper, salt and a little more water. I can’t tell you how much, we just tasted it, like any good Cajun cook would do! We added the boiled crabs which had been cleaned. (While we were chopping seasoning we cleaned the crabs by removing the fat and gills, and broke them in half.) The stock started taking on the delightful flavor of the pre-boiled crabs.
Finally, we deveined the shrimp and got them ready to go in last.
We placed the shrimp in the pot, covered it and let it all cook for about 15 more minutes. At this point, I must confess, we cheated a little, and added a few tablespoons of Kitchen Bouquet! The color just was wasn’t brown enough. We think it may have been because of my non-stick Calphalon pot. “Nothing like a good old fashioned cast-iron pot!”, she said.
Voila! The finished product!
We ended up with an artfully crafted huge pot of gumbo, every bit as good as any she had ever made. No siree, not a weak imitation, gumbo wanna be, but the real deal! We served it with steamed rice, accompanied by a lovely salad, crusty french bread, a glass of white wine and the company of my Aunts Marilyn and Betty, and of course, Steve.
I can’t think of a more rewarding and special way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Not only have I captured the art of making gumbo, which I can now share with my children and friends, but I also have a new precious memory etched in my brain. I love you, Mi-maw!
Shutt
erbug Diva sold at the Freret Street Art Market this weekend. It was quite an exciting experience, being the very first time we’ve ventured out of cyberspace and into the tangible world. Needless to say, it is quite different from marketing in my fuzzy slippers, parked comfortably at my iMac, operating at my leisure. To the contrary, we were up and scrambling by 9:00 a.m., packing up the car, driving to the market, unloading the car, setting up the tent and arranging the inventory, all in order to be ready when the market opened at noon. Yes, it was as much work as that sounds like, but what a rewarding experience! To be out there in the middle of the hustle and bustle, to actually interact with the customers as they perused and to be able to gauge their response as they saw and touched the merchandise, was quite awesome. I loved it when they asked questions about where certain photographs were taken. Mr. Bingle garnered much attention, as native New Orleanians caught a glimpse of his image and tried to restrain themselves from bursting into “Jingle, Jangle, Jingle …” And if you’re from New Orleans, you know the rest. I am tickled to tell you that not everyone was successful in their restraint. Only one thing tickled me even more than that, and that was the fact that our best seller of the day was the Coffee & Beignets photo notecard. Why should I be so thrilled that people are so interested in my photograph of Coffee & Beignets? Well, it stems from the fact that several weeks ago I was just aghast when I found a blog entry from someone named Cheeseinthecrust, who absolutely tore up Shutterbug Diva’s Deal of the Day with nasty commentary on a day when Coffee & Beignets was featured! (See comment #3)
” …. hello people a NOTE CARD! It has a picture of a cup of coffee and 3 Beignets (square donuts without a hole covered with powdered sugar) on it…oooh how enticing!”
Yes, indeed! Have you ever seen so much contempt for a beignet in your life? A beignet … that beloved New Orleans icon, being chastised for being a donut without a hole! I loved my friend Susan’s take on the the whole incident:
“‘[C]heeseinthecrust’ says processed cheese-mass market pizza-national chain restaurant lovin’ and not appreciating the finer things in life, unlike you! His profile had only been viewed 19 times (I didn’t see a counter on his page). Does not say influencer to me.”
I believe she was correct. Obviously, Cheeseinthecrust was not successful in influencing the many, many wonderful people that visited Shutterbug Diva at the market this weekend, several of whom liked the Coffee & Beignets photo notecard so much that they purchased it! Thanks to those folks, and to all who visited and shopped local! Its the people like them that make New Orleans the unique and wonderful place that it is … and that’s why I stay here!
…. to miss New Orleans? Oh yes, we found out again last week exactly what it means. New Orleans was under a mandatory evacuation for Hurricane Gustav.
After many days of fretting and much angst, a slight Katrina flash-back meltdown and finally coming to grips with the fact that, yes, New Orleans really was smack dab in the middle of the cone of “terror”, we packed all that was important and headed to Atlanta. So what was important, you ask? Well, the obvious things like a few days of clothes and the insurance papers. I also grabbed the irreplaceable things, like the kids baby photos. We had the dog and her kennel and a supply of Dramamine to keep her quiet for the 14 hour ride. And, of course, I grabbed the Shutterbug Diva inventory, because one never knows when orders may have to be filled …. and sure enough, the beauty of the Internet shone through, and the business continued to function even though we were no where to be found!
Anyhow, we are all back home and safe now, keeping one eye on life as usual, and another watchful eye on Hurricane Ike out there brewing in the Gulf … and being really thankful that all went well for New Orleans, this time, and being reminded of how much we love her and how incredibly much we miss her when we are away! Be sure to check out our New Orleans collection, and check out the New Orleans specials on the Deal of the Day!
There are certainly more pleasant topics that I could write about, as no one likes to deal with the issue of death, but dying is a natural part of living. It has occurred to me recently that it is the very fact that we can die at any moment that makes the act of living so much sweeter - a sort of mid-life epiphany on my part (however, I have this sinking feeling I’m not the first to have figured this out.) Nonetheless, armed with that enlightened perspective, I have resolved to live consciously and fully, squeezing as much absolute joy out of every moment as possible, because there are no guarantees that this is going to last forever. As a matter of fact, I’m not sure of much, but I am sure that none of us do last forever. When a loved one dies, finding the right words to comfort the ones left behind can be so difficult that some of us would rather avoid it. But a loving touch and/or a caring note can speak volumes, even when we can’t.
I received an e-mail from RealSimple.com within the last week and it captured my attention because I am personally remiss in writing a sympathy note to one of my aunts whose husband passed away while I was away on business. The question was:
“Q. How late is too late to send a sympathy card?”
“A. It’s never too late. Writing a sympathy card within a week after hearing of a death is always ideal. But if you miss that time frame or find out about a death months later, there’s no actual deadline, so go ahead and send a note, says Cindy Post Senning, director of the Emily Post Institute. As with so many other things in life, late is definitely better than never.”
Still not sure what to say? Visit “Writing Resources” on the front page of www.shutterbugdiva.com for a link to a great article on How to Write the Perfect Note, also featured on RealSimple.com. I’ve included the highlights with regard to sympathy notes below:
Five Strategies for Condolence Notes
- Don’t be afraid to send a sympathy note. People shy away from writing because they don’t want to remind the grieving of their loss or they don’t know what to say. But holding back sends the wrong message.
- If you’re at a loss, be honest. Write “I don’t know what to say, but I want you to know I’m thinking of you.”
- Use the deceased’s name. This helps both you and the recipient feel connected to him or her.
- Never tell people to look on the bright side. “He’s better off” is more hurtful than helpful.
- Avoid using the words died and dead. A better phrase is “your loss,” because that’s what the recipient is struggling with.
We spend so much time on our computers these days, electronically tap, tap, tapping away, then hitting send, expecting an instant answer to our query, an immediate response to our e-mail. My 22 year old son and I allegedly live in the same house, yet we communicate via short text messages …. “Where r u?” I text him each night before I go to sleep, and I fully expect an immediate response from him, as though I’ve given him his cell phone to be worn as some sort of electronic leash.
I woke up one day and found myself in the the business of selling notecards, via the Internet, no less, which gives me pause some days to check my own sanity. I mean, given the pace at which we live, and the way we exchange ideas, is letter writing a dying art? I want to believe that it still exists, but I have been accused of being a Pollyanna. I can’t help but think about how absolutely delighted I am when I open my mailbox at the end of a long workday and find, tucked in between the drudgery of bills and advertisements, a brightly colored, handwritten envelope, addressed to me, personally, by someone I know and love! Its usually a birthday card, sometimes an invitation or an announcement … I love getting personal notes of good news … we’ve had a new baby … we’ve moved to a new home, etc. I wish I got more of them … our dog learned a new trick … we tried a new wine and loved it and we’d like to tell you about it … we traveled to a fabulous new place and would like to tell you about it … all are acceptable fodder for a handwritten note in my world!
I want to believe that at some point, the constant pace at which we keep living will get to folks who will put their foot down and say, “enough”. My hope is that those folks will find little ways to slow down and revisit some of the old ways in an effort to enjoy the journey … a handwritten note, of course, being one of them!
For those of you so inclined, I found a great article on letter writing that I’ve posted in a new section on the website called “Writing Resources“. Check it out when you get a chance!