betty's 90th

january 27th 2007 pic of the day. it was hard for me to pick a pic of the day, because i wanted it to be of gramma at her party, but none of the ones i took of her satisfied me. i finally settled on this one. it was taken during one of the songs with all the great grans playing their instruments all around her. sometimes she sang along, especially to the activist songs, i thought, but other times she seemed a little lost even at the centre of all the attention.

a screw flew out of my tripod leg first thing, and my battery was fast losing juice, so i was feeling grumpy about the picture taking. plus it seemed like every time i would take a click i would just capture a weird mouth movement, or an odd expression. it was frustrating. katie says digitals don't do well with movement. maybe she's right.







the great grans with their marraccas--eat your heart out fattie may-HA-bub.












other percussionists at their trade. you can see uncle les and jenny (i guess technically it's aunt jenny, but it seems weird to say that for some reason, but from what i see of her she seems so nice)









joshua had some sort of magnet in his stomach that attracted violent pokes from katie and i. he said that magnets only attract metal, but he was at a loss to explain the forcefull pull towards his stomach that our fingers experienced. in his first picture he was trying to look dead but kindly also gave me a nice smiling one.










a weird angled, longer exposure with a flash shot of gramma b blowing out her candles. at this point i did not care to move from my stationary location. the torso involved in this shot is none other than 'little gordan' aka, uncle duncan.










the eye series captured the imaginations of the clarkes in attendance at gramma's party. since i was running out of battery evan took over the shooting of the close up eyes. and he took it very seriously. everyone who was not a clarke thought we were pretty much odd ducks and geese, but i think that was more of a reminder than a revelation to them. amy asked for a downcast eye picture from me. i actually really like this picture. i find it graceful and beautiful. i love the detail of the upper lashes layering with the lower lashes. i think black and white worked in this case.


i really enjoy this picture of the two evans. it was a candid shot while evan was talking to someone else. the thing i like about it mostly, is the look on little evan's face. he looks so ticked off, but big daddy evan is not in the least concerned.















we wrote some of our memories of gramma b. in a book. here's bethany being all artistic about her entry with sarah looking on.













betty and her two pretty daughters.













so i had a pretty good time at gramma's party. it was good to spend some time with mom's side of the family, because we almost never do, unless it's auntie heather and uncle dennis. terri was there with jodi (now joseph, but he'll always be jodi to me) and her other kids. she introduced me to her daughter who is 13 and also called laura. uncle les was there and told some old stories about when he first met gramma before her and grampa were married. i think gramma really liked that part. and kevin was there and mom's cousins and two of gramma's friends who were also celebrating their 90th birthdays. you have old friends i told gramma. i don't think she heard me though because she didn't say anything. i also like spending time with my own family, which is what i mostly did, if truth be told. our family sang love at home because that is gramma's favourite song that we sing. strangely gram liked that one too. even though katie and i weren't cool enough to sing with sarah and bethany and amy on their verse, it was nice to raise my voice in the chorus in the midst of my family's voices.

there was so much food! every time i thought i'd gone up to the buffet for the last time, something new appeared that i really wanted to try. i know that i was not alone in this phenomenon.

people were leaving and bethany was pestering plus i was hot and so full i could barely waddle to and fro, so bethany and i left. i forgot my dip which apparently made katie very happy. on the way home bethany and i talked about what we would do. she kept talking about a cute cafe. first she wanted one in the vicinity of dirt roads but i told her she was in the wrong city for that. but dirt roads or no, 'cute cafe' kept coming up. but then we came up with the idea of painting something for my bare walls. and on the spur of the moment i decided to paint something too. so we crossed the bridge to michael's and bought two canvasses a small oil paint set, some brushes, and some brush cleaner. on the way home cafe popped up again because if bethany is one thing she is persistant. then i remembered the cafe by ruth and rob's so we drove there and bethany treated me to a steamed milk with pumpkin spice and she got a almond rocca hot chocolate. we sat at the window and played the gilmore girl game. this is when one person picks a person going by and asks the other if they would marry him. if you say no to the first and second options, the next person to walk by is your automatic fate. it was surprising who bethany would agree to marry.

then we came home and i got out an old sheet set and we each leaned our canvas against an upside down box. we locked curiosity-killed-the-cat-archie-orange-cat in the bedroom to prevent his probable evolution to living, breathing, walking art. izzy was sleeping somewhere and so not a threat. bethany knew what she was going to do. i didn't. i was afraid. why did i think i could just go and paint something?? i'm not an artist! i don't even know how to paint! i kept getting spazzie attacks of the doubts. bethany sighed "have you watched the secret?" she asked. "no." i told her. she seemed to think the secret was the answer to all my fears and doubts.

eventually i decided to start with a blue sky and i got so into the blue sky, let me tell you. it was so fun! and then the rest of it kind of came to me, although i have to admit that what it turned out to be, was not exactly what i envisioned. but i love it because i did it, and i never thought about the possibilty of painting before. i know i'm no great talent. it's actually kind of kindergartenish, but i like kindergartenish. that's me.

after painting it i was full of the glow of the accomplishment. i told everybody i met "guess what i did yesterday!" i went into my room where it was drying just to look at it and marvel at it and smile at it. but a funny thing happened. as days went on the glow if it died somewhat. my inner crtic told me that it wasn't that great. my inner critic was trying to kill the joy. i know i'm not a bethany or an amy, i don't need my inner crtitc to tell me i'm no artist and that the scene isn't realistic or that it's flat or to pick it apart. i need my inner critic to shut it's trap and let me have the joy of my experience. you know? anyway, it's still not dry. i'm waiting anxiously for it to dry. and then i'll hang it up.