The Adventures of Brae

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January 25, 2007

hot diggity

There are alot of people out there creating wonderful things with the ideas that are coming from their wonderful minds.

For example, the folks at Ex Libris Anonymous bind old books into blank page journals, and they charge just $13 a book. You can even send them an old funky book you found yourself and they'll make it into a journal for just $9 and mail it back to you postage free! They are cool!

I bought this journal for my sexy boyfriend, Matt, who likes riding his bike.

Also, check out the folks at 31 Corn Lane who sell some cute junk. But even more appealing than their sweet products is their website. It has personality. If I ever get my photography business website up, I want it to have personality too. I wouldn't want it to be quite as spunky as this one, but I'd like it to have a similar freshness. So many websites are classy, technical, sharp, and boring. I like it when life and creativity burst out of things. They don't ussually burst out of websites. That's quite a generalization I'm making there.

Posted by Brae at 10:32 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 23, 2007

money

Today I finished reading a short little book called 'Journal of a Solitude' by May Sarton. I relate with her attitude towards money. Here are her words:

"I beleive it must flow through me as food does, be spent as it is earned, be given away, be turned into flowers and books and beautiful things, be given to people who are creators or in need, never be counted except as what it is-- a counter against more life of one kind or another. It must remain convertible, not allowed to lie fallow. Probably I talk too much about it like someone who has been brought up represssed about sex tells risque jokes as a sign of freedom."

I like what she says about Christian responsibility too:

"It is no doubt romantic of me, an unbeleiver, to wish the religious to be ascetic. But I do not call myself a Christian because I believe that to do so would require giving up all material things and literally going among the most destitute, the sick, the old, or the deprived children."

She makes me wonder why I'm not living in an oprhanage, hugging the children and feeding them and loving them. But perhaps this is just me idealizing a distant idea.
I'm already surrounded by people who need love. I know I can give it.

Posted by Brae at 11:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 22, 2007

Nomenclature and other Chinese ways

Today I opened a folder full of self-introductory letters written by my sweet Chinese students last year. On the first day of class I'd asked all of them to write me one page telling me anything they'd like to about themselves.

Zero's words resonated with me today. Here is what she wrote:

"Zero, is my English name. I love the number without any reasons. Many people ask me about that. I could not say clearly. It is just a feeling. Such as I choose a phone number, I'd like to pick out the number which contains the most zeros. If you want me to say some words about the Zero, i think zero means------- Everything can start a new beginning at anytime, so never give up hope!"

I love how Zero explained her name in order to tell me about herself. Names have deeper meanings in China and they are more thoughtfully considered than here in America. Hence, my Chinese students would often want to know what my name meant. It's not such a common question in our country.

I remember one of my favorite students, Sea, chose his English name by translating his Chinese name. But he told me he could not translate it completely, because his Chinese name was a word that simultaneously meant sea, vapor, and rain. Often my students' names made some reference to nature. This makes sense because the Chinese people are more connected to nature than we are. The food my students would cook at my house so often was always fresh vegetables from the earth and meat from farmers. Many of their parents were farmers. My students had a greater sense of their dependence on the earth for food and on their role as a part of a community. I miss my Chinese students' less autonomous ways, and I miss the spunky creativity of students like Zero.

Posted by Brae at 10:32 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 17, 2007

xie-xie

I like thank you trash cans.

And I like my friends who are willing to pose next to them for me.

Posted by Brae at 05:36 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

January 13, 2007

Ashley Wingo's eye

Ashley Wingo, a blogging friend of mine, took this incredible shot of her child's friend during their colorful bathtime. Check out her photography at http://thejwingos.blogspot.com/

She has a pretty precious little family and quite an eye. Together, these make for a rather addicting blog.

enjOy.

Posted by Brae at 05:25 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 10, 2007

Barry, the copy shop boy

Oh, the sweetness of spontaneously running into a familiar person. It happens too often in small towns I suppose, but tonight I ran into a uniquely familiar person; the copy shop boy, Barry. I saw him while wandering the oppressively lit sprawl of Wal-Mart. I really wish I had a seeing-eye dog on the rare occasians that I have to walk through the doors of that wasteland. Anyway, running into Barry tonight brought some kind of light into my moment; a light different from the fluorescence I was swimming in.

My sisters and I have this unique relationship with Barry. The four of us girls have been frequenting the local copy shop that he manages for years. We don't have a scanner, but we're always copying photos, envelopes we design, photo booth strips, and all manner of funky colorful things. We are members of the old school. Copy machines are our tool of choice for our creative design endeavors.

This privately owned copy shop is nothing special. It's as bland as you'd expect a small town copy shop to be. Barry's personality is rather bland too. But he's cute, young- about 25- and has some typical, yet charming sort of street/ preppy style going on. He'll sport a baggy tshirt with loose jeans and adidas shoes as fast as he'll wear a striped oxford from the Gap. Nothing special, I know. He's pretty shy and unexpressive too.

But a friendly dynamic was born out of the process of my sisters and I constantly presenting him with our new colorful photos or designs and requesting 1 copy or 5 copies. I'm sure that we are his most unique customers. He's not sure what do with us. A natural friendship has not occured. When we walk into that copy shop and hand Barry our new creations to be copied, a small smile might appear on his face, but even if it doesn't, Barry's demeanor is shyly benevolent. We are his unexpected creative clients, and he is our unexpected young and cute copy shop manager.

In several years, I've never seen him outside of the copy shop until tonight. I was standing at the photo counter waiting for my prints to be made and he walked over and poked me on the shoulder. I looked up, startled to be looking at a familiar young person. There doesn't seem to be many people my age in this town and I guess the ones that are aren't my friends.

Barry and I talked for a few minutes. He told me to come back to the copy shop soon. We said nothing exciting and he even sort of posed himself in that awkward leaning stance that guys do sometimes against the photo counter. After he left, in my thoughts, I was confronted with the sweetness of sudden familiarity and the charm of this dynamic that exists between the copy shop boy and the Howard girls.

That's all.

Posted by Brae at 10:16 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

January 06, 2007

willow

This is Willow, my boss Linda's niece, and my friend.

I took this picture on my Holga camera last summer.
I babysat Willow alot the summer before I went to China. She is one of the feistiest, most self-possessed, unique little girls I have ever met. She's like a main character from an 80's Steven Speilberg movie.
I'm going to hang out with her next week. I'll take a video and post it on my blog so that you can see her feistiness too.

Posted by Brae at 11:09 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 02, 2007

newness

Today, the year is new.
Some of my thoughts on the newness of the year:

It excites me.
It makes me nervous.
As it makes me nervous, it makes me think of my senior quotation:
"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." -Helen Keller
It makes me want to cling to old friendships.
It makes me feel clean.
It makes me ambitious.

I am reminded that optomism comes at beginnings and reality sets in later. I wonder how I can live outside of the average-ness that always tends to set in.

So I make lots of lists in my journal.

Posted by Brae at 05:23 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack