photo by Kaity Lynch of Photography by Kait
My son John married Bridget on Saturday. We celebrated a lovely, traditional wedding mass at St. Barnabas Church in Mazomanie, followed by a reception at the Baraboo Arts Banquet Hall. My family came from Tennessee and Montana to help celebrate! It’s the first time we’ve all been together since my sister’s wedding in 1986.
By our family’s standards, it was an intimate wedding with only about 150 in attendance. The size of the party made it seem very cozy and friendly. The fun was enhanced by great food, great wine, and a great DJ.
Also, great couple. I gave a toast that went something like this:
John and Bridget are both accomplished people in their work and school lives – they are both honors students at UW-Madison pursuing the honorable professions of education (John) and nursing (Bridget).
But they also both have a genius for relationship. I think that’s what makes them remarkable.
They are compassionate and kind, and good listeners. They draw people together. They understand how important it is to do that, and they make time for it. I think this genius will make them brilliant in their chosen professions. It has certainly made me feel lucky to being a part of their lives.
I’m so happy that they’re married today. It’s a privilege and a joy to be one of their parents.
My friend Enrique Ramirez, who by day owns a Puroclean franchise, is also in charge of a One Lap of America team. One Lap is an annual car race. People drive souped-up street cars through multiple states, stopping from time to time to race the cars even more around various racetracks along the way.
Enrique’s racing team is Racing for the Children. I recently finished developing a website for the team.
When Enrique approached me with the project, I thought “Hmmm…that car race sounds familiar.” And it is! In the early 1980s, when I was young and tasteless and not always sober, I went to see both of the awesome and horrible Burt Reynolds Cannonball Run movies. And loved them. One Lap of America is the actual descendant of the actual Cannonball Run. How cool is that?
These days the race is structured and publicized and safety-oriented, which allows Enrique to compete in it annually and use his racing team to raise money for Save the Children. Very cool project for him.
The website was a cool project for me, too. I got to illustrate a map, which I love to do.
My dad is a geologist. He often worked at home (and still does), drawing maps with tech pens and prismacolor pencils. I used to sit in his office, in a visitor chair, copying the maps he had pinned to his walls into a little spiral notebook with a ballpoint pen. I coveted his colored pencils.
Enrique starts the One Lap on Saturday in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. You can follow his progress on his blog, and you can also Like This on Facebook.
March means basketball, hours and hours of it, and hours and hours of commercials for manly things.
I caught one for Dove Men+Care Body wash and was amazed by the pitch line “for total skin comfort.”
Because you rarely (and by rarely, I mean never) see a product sold to women on the basis that it would make the user’s skin feel more comfortable from the inside. Products are sold to women on the basis that they make skin feel softer. To other people.
Check the ads for Dove body washes for women – you’ll see what I mean.
I’m back! On the interwebs!
Not that I spent much time away from them webs during the past month. I’ve been designing like my hair was on fire.
I’ve spent the month designing a couple of websites and one is finished, yay. That one is Racing for the Children, a One Lap of America racing team. What a fun project – I can’t believe what these guys do. You have to go to the web page and check it out.
I also produced the above little illustration – collageustration – mashup. It depicts the month of February, the universal mini-season of sweaty anxiety. During February, people try to celebrate romantic love and the first harbingers of spring, but — hello! — spring is not anywhere in evidence. Most people are just thinking, “What season is this? What is going on? What am I supposed to do? How do I last until spring?”
I have had countless waitressing dreams in the past two weeks, wherein I am the only waitress in a huge restaurant that fills up with old people wanting the 99ยข Eggs, Toast and Potatoes special.
That actually happened to me once.
tags:projects
