Darek + Stacie

My dad had the piano open and the kitten was trying to get the pieces that moved when he played the keys. I could have gotten a much better picture if I wasn’t too lazy to put the flash on…

I thought Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, by Anne Rice, would be really interesting. For a few chapters it was, but then it just dragged. Nothing really happened, and then when it did happen I wasn’t always sure what was going on. And the big mystery of the book is: Who is this kid really? Which, if you already know, isn’t much of an intriguing mystery.

I’ve never read another Anne Rice book, so I’m not sure if this is her regular writing style or if she was just trying really hard to capture the narrative of an 8-year old boy, but it didn’t really work for me. It felt kind of cheesy. The premise was interesting (8-year old Jesus slowly learns who he really is while accidentally performing miracles and traveling with his family from Egypt back to Nazareth) and for a while it made me think about how much happened in his life that we have no clue about, but that was about it. For me.

So I finally read The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I thought it was pretty entertaining — its strongest aspect is probably the short chapters because I’d think, “ok just one more chapter” — but when I got to the part with the Teabag guy at the end, I felt like I had wasted my time. Too many twists, too many little tiny complicated bits that wrapped up too well, and just too generic somehow. Sure, the whole “conspiracy theory” is interesting, and the book moves well, but…

I just thought it was dumb.

I can see how other people would like it, but it just wasn’t for me. Maybe if it had ended differently. Or had better dialogue. Or didn’t wrap up quite so perfectly. Or was just a bit more believable.

But apparently that’s just me.

This is what I was doing four years ago from today.

It’s still working out pretty well.

*photo by Shel Secunda 2002

Another picture taken during the same Thanksgiving break for the
same class assignment. Our Connecticut house. Birthday balloons
in the background. My uncle, grandpa, a family friend, and my dad
singing one of the old hymns from the songbook. I had no idea it
would turn out to be one of my favorite pictures.

I took this picture during my sophomore year of college for a photography class. I decided to document “My Family.” This photo was always a little bit extra special because it was one of the last pictures taken of my grandpa before his first stroke.