• On Life and Love

    Happy Birthday, Homeboy

    Greg’s birfday was yesterday, and at this point I think he’s had a solid five days of celebrating. His parents flew in from Scottsdale, Arizona on Thursday, as his father’s birfday was Saturday. Party time! We ate ridiculous amounts of local food, enjoyed local truffles, and generally had a local-resident-as-tour-guide time, aside from the fact that outdoor activities were off-limits due to the cold. It was an emotionally complicated visit, but I’m glad for it. Greg and I both came away with a tangled mixture of mourning and resolve. Can resolve be tangled? Anyway, Deana and I decided to keep his birfday on Monday simple, since it’d be in the…

  • On Life and Love

    A Beautiful Birthday Weekend

    What could be better than a trip to Crowders Mountain on a perfect Saturday afternoon? Both the weather and our camera this time was good enough–and we’d just finished our second photography class that morning–to get some vague shots of Charlotte. Out zoom lens (55-200 mm) isn’t quite zoomy enough to really compress the distance, but it was fun trying, especially when we needed to manually focus or do a focus lock. Instead of just doing the 0.75 mile trek to the top and back (which includes 300+ damn stairs), we decided to hike some of the back trails. All in all, I think we covered 5-ish miles, but my…