Yes, Virginia, beauty does exist in Houston

I encountered some very beautiful things on my journey to Houston and back. Painted naked ladies, real almost-naked ladies, a young Richard Gere.

The most beautiful thing, however, was sharing a few minutes with my mentor from college. I was at this AASFE conference to speak on multimedia and food panel, and she was there to be inducted into the organization's hall of fame (although she admitted in her acceptance speech that she'd never been a features writer just that she always tried to write news stories with elements of features-like storytelling). I didn't know until Thursday night that she was going to be there. It had been about 3 years since I'd seen her. Before Julian. Before Ian. Before Austin. Before Troy died. (She was Troy's favorite sensei first.)

I caught up with her right before the luncheon. We caught up on life in general and the journalism industry, but for a wordsmith master and a wordsmith-in-training, it didn't take many words to communicate our thoughts and emotions.

I've always thought of Jacqui as so much more than a teacher, and for the first time, I realized she probably feels the same way about me.

We parted; she had a gravely ill mother waiting on the other side of yet another long plane ride, and I had my job, my baby, my family awaiting me in Austin. Such different lives, but always connected by a bright, hopeful, encouraging thread.

That, young grasshoppers, is far more beautiful than a 28-year-old Richard Gere.

Snapshots of love (and a wedding)

If we hadn't done about nine loads of laundry out at Uncle Tom's National Park today, I'd probably feel a little more like sharing what's going on in this crazy life of ours. Let's just say that at the end of the day, we're all pretty pooped. The great news is that it's a good kind of busy.

Guilt tapping me on the shoulder to edit these wedding pictures finally won, so I was able to at least get this small gallery of the wedding ceremony itself. Our incredible photographer Brian Diggs took thousands of beautiful photos, now it's just a matter of sharing them in an easily digestible manner. (Speaking of, does anyone have any ideas to make a stop motion movie with these photos? I've been trying iMovie, without success, and I just don't think Jump Cut could handle it.)

Anyway, looking at these photos takes me back to this beautiful moment in time, standing under my sister's yucca and lavender altar, Alberto's voice and soothing words of wisdom, Julian tugging on my dress to be with us while we shared our thoughts on loving each other. My promise. Ian's promise. To do our best.

Because that's the only thing we can really promise.

I am excitable

No life-changing news so far this week. I'm actually kinda glad. I'm still getting used to the "Hey, I saw you on TV" that I've been getting at H-E-B and around town, and I'm having a hard time sleeping for all the ideas spinning in my head for this new job. Oh, and Julian's a little blossoming Einstein, too.

He's got all these genius babies to look up to, and now he's adding his own adorable contributions. He rubs his hands together when you turn on the faucet or say "Wash your hands" or "Clean." He points to the sky when he hears the birds, and I've even seen him sign "plane" when one soars overhead. He's got "more" down and, like Jenny posted recently, I can't help but agree that all I want is more of him lately. (And when moms talk about this concept of unending joy their babies bring, don't think we don't get frustrated and burnt out like everybody else. Just those feelings fade pretty quickly when they pull some charming stunt as simple as a smile and a hug.) Julian's just irresistible to me these days.

OK, enough with the kid-gushing. Here are some cool things I've come across lately. I wrote some captions for a photo package about an interactive photography installation in downtown Austin. It's called "I AM _____" and the artists ask you to fill in the blank. You'd be surprised at the responses.



See more photos here.

And only time for one more cool thing. Bon Iver played SXSW and the kids all flipped.

Here's why:



Julian's March photo gallery to come tomorrow...

Uncle Tom's National Park

From recent ventures out into the Hill County to what we like to call Uncle Tom's National Park, where our little Luckenbach can get some fresh air and see some deer and mommy and daddy can relax on the farm. Even if we have 5 loads of laundry going and I have to report to work later. Ahhh, Uncle Tommy's ranchito...

Babbling

I can't believe it's taken me this long to discover babble.com. The site's very cool, very hip creators have self-proclaimed it the "The magazine and community of a new generation of parents," and though I admit how interesting and relevant I find the content, it does scream hipster. (And in the work/social circles I find myself in, this is as pejorative a term as any.) Skinny jeans notwithstanding, you have to marvel at the intriguing collection of columns/blogs/essays they present.

Exhibit A: "Breast friends"
#Pondering the idea of breast-feeding your soulmate's offspring.

Exhibit B: "The Over-Parenting Crisis" by the woman who wrote the book "Attachment Parenting" way back in 1999.
#About the over-ambitious attachment parenting movement that is having major unintended effects on kids whose lives are disinfected, micromanaged and fretted over from Day 1.

Exhibit C: "This is the part where I name drop"
#Hanging out with Dave Grohl-the-daddy not Dave Grohl-the-badass-lead-singer-of-the-Foo Fighters.

I'm very intrigued by the idea of pitching stuff to them. But what stuff? This blog? That essay I wrote back in the spring? Maybe this is the swift kick in the rear I needed to start writing more seriously again. We shall see what comes of it.

Anyway. Babble.com. Check it out if you're interested in parenting methods.

If you are interested in modern, melancholy photography, I have two recommendations.

Bluejake.com
#One of the founders of Gothamist.com keeps a photoblog of the architecture and intrinsic beauty of a forgotten side of New York City.


3191
#A year of mornings, captured by two friends who live 3191 miles apart.


And don't forget. PostSecret is updated on Sundays. Ya know, if you're a PostSecret kind of gal.