Emotions in Motion

This time of year produces a rollercoaster of emotions for me. If I didn’t know better – if I didn’t know the root cause [CRAZY work schedule] – I would probably be a great candidate for therapy. [LOL ... please know that I'm not claiming sanity here. I might be a good candidate anyway!] So, when the You Capture challenge for the week – Emotion – popped up, I was a bit, er, uh, well, emotional about the whole thing.

I really wanted to do something that asked me to challenge myself. I wanted to think in ways that would either push my photography skills – lighting and subject and composition, oh my – or my photo editing skills.

What to do? What to do?

Of course, the first thing that came to mind was that it would be fairly easy to catch emotion on film for this little challenge – the kids offer up heaps and loads of emotional outbursts daily. So, I started there.

joy, zest, enthusiasm, zeal, excitement, thrill, exhilaration

Then, I had the idea of finding inanimate (or at least non-human) subjects that would serve to represent – or perhaps be a metaphor for – different emotions. So, I started with the definition of emotion and see where that might take me. [I really love Wikipedia, by the way. I know many educators don't ... but I think it's fantastic!] Then, I looked for other lists and found this one. Yep, got pretty cerebral about all of this. But, these little rabbit trails took me all over my community! And, I’m so glad that they did!!!

I live in a place where there is a lot of new. New homes, businesses, roads … everything. But all of that new encroached on a very old farm community. Driving around, I found that there’s not a lot of emotion to be found in the new … but the old? That’s a completely different story.

Here’s some of the emotion I found today while I was out on the dusty roads [OK, literally ... you should see my van.] with my eyes open!

loneliness

ambition

lost, resignation

despair, hopelessness

defiance ... caution ... pride

I have a greater respect for what was here before all of the subdivided neighborhoods that we call home. I love our community and I love the sense of the past that I found as I was driving around. It made me love my community even more than I did before!

I’ve plunked these into this post in order from least to most favorite – picture of BK all excited about playing in the water aside! [The burrowing owls win partly because they are so dang cute and I was shocked to see them just hanging out.] In looking at the actual photographs and comparing them to last week’s shots … these are not as vivid and “alive” to me. Yet, in so many ways, they are more … ahh, hard to explain. So, we’ll just let them marinate for a tad and see!

Oh, and before I sign off … Andrea over at Prairie Lady posted her capture for this week early and it’s stunning. Seriously. If you’ve not gone to take a look yet, you should!

Thoughts on Oktoberfest

Well, another Oktoberfest has come and gone. We had a great evening and I came away from it with some thoughts – you know, let’s face it, I ALWAYS have thoughts!

Weather

I am simply in love with the weather right now … I really mean right now. It’s dang near perfect. About 75 to 80 degrees, light breeze, partly/mostly cloudy, and a bit o’ rain (just a drip drop). Perfection! I can feel sweatshirt weather coming and I am unbelievably happy about that!!!

People You Meet

We met some pretty cool people tonight. BK causes that. Those big blue eyes and toes in the mouth just make people stop and talk to you! I’m reminded that there are still friendly people in the world.

I also ran into a friend of my from ages ago. You know … I hung out with some (I’m not finding the words to describe these) people long ago and, let’s face it, I wanted to be just like them (Ahhh, my 20s. A cautionary tale!). So glad that didn’t work out.

People You Watch

I witnessed a couple (who I’d bet money were not married and didn’t have children) swallowing each other’s tongues on the sidewalk in front of the bouncy houses in the children’s area of the park. I thought to myself … really? You need to do that right here? You’re in love (??), great, but you NEED to do that right here?

Later I told Craig. This led to …

The Funniest Thing I’ve Heard in Awhile!

Craig said,

Yeh, the sign says this is the “Children’s Area” not the “Making Children Area”.

Very smart comment. Make me laugh. Still laughing!

Bratwurst and Kraut

Is one of the best meals, ever! Include mashed potatoes and it’s got to be in my top 5!

The Other White Meat

The pork booth was insane. You would not believe how many people will crowd around a booth to get a t-shirt.  Me? I’ll stick with a brat – no t-shirt. Wait, no I mean I’ll wear a t-shirt – no naked brat eating. Oh, never mind!

Crocs

Very good footwear choice for today’s festivities! No sore feet after 6 hours of walking and standing!

Cake or Death

I wore my Cake or Death t-shirt and 5 poeple commented on it. My guess is that none of them knew that it wasn’t a statement about my love for cake! I’m totally OK with that!

The Sunset

The sunset tonight was stunning and lit the buildings beautifully. This, combined with the slight rain, gave us a full rainbow from behind A hill and the old Hayden Mill. Stunning!

Rainbow at Sunset

OH, did I mention the weather!?

Auwiedersehen, baby!