The Rainbow Connection

No.  Sorry.  This isn’t going to be a post about Kermit the Frog, but after typing that title, I just couldn’t resist slipping the song in.  So, anyway….


Remember that stop-motion/claymation video Wednesday made about bullying and self-esteem which won her the top prize and $2000 in the Expressions Contest?  (If not, click HERE.)  Well, we attended the award ceremony a couple of weeks ago; Wednesday was presented with her prize money (cha-ching!); and then we went home and it was over and done with.


Or so we thought.


Then we got a phone call from Expressions last week that the Rainbow PUSH Coalition was all excited about the contest and the kids involved in it, and that they wanted to honor Wednesday and the other winners at their headquarters in Chicago.  (Rumor even had it that Rev. Jesse Jackson might be there!  *mind spinning*)  So, of course, we agreed to go.


Saturday morning, we got up early and dolled ourselves up and headed out to the car.  We were given the address of their headquarters in two different emails the Expressions people had sent us, so we plugged that address into our GPS and off we went.  But….  Unfortunately, the address was wrong!  We ended up outside someone’s home, not the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.  D’oh!  Thankfully though, we had given ourselves plenty of extra time just in case and Scope had noticed a building we had passed a few streets back had the word PUSH on it, so we backtracked to that location, hoping that it was either the correct place or that they would at least be able to tell us where we should go if it wasn’t.


*fingers crossed*


When we got there, they buzzed us into the building and, after a little confusion at the receptionist’s desk, it was determined that, yep, we were in the right building, but we were too early, so we were asked to wait a few minutes before heading back.  As we sat in the waiting area, watching people quickly filling up the lobby, I was suddenly struck by two sharp revelations: 


1.  Everybody was SUPER dressed up.  Like, Sunday best kind of dressed up, with snazzy hats, jewelry, dress shoes, the works.


2.  Scope, Wednesday, and I were the only white people there.


I was suddenly EXTREMELY thankful that I had chosen to throw on my little black dress that morning!  I mean, I almost didn’t.  I almost went casual, thinking that only Wednesday needed to look spiffy since she was the one being honored and all.  But then Scope had put on a tie and, well, frankly, I’d rather eat spiders than be out-classed like that.  So, on a whim, I grabbed the LBD just to balance out the fanciness.


(Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, thank you, thank you, thank you, vanity!!!!  You day-saving, sexy beast, you!!!!)


As I sat there, boiling over in thankfulness that my chosen outfit was a nice dress and not a Harry Potter t-shirt—(hey, if I’m going to be the one representing my heritage, I wanna do it right!….  Or at least not disgrace myself)—it started to dawn on me that this event we had been invited to was a much bigger deal than we had realized.  There were a lot of people there; a lot of really excited people who had gone to much trouble to look their very best.  This couldn’t all be for the four Expressions contest winners, right?….


Just as worry started to whisper in my ear (seriously, what the hell was going on and where were all the other Expressions winners?!), the three of us were called back into a maze of corridors and offices, where, standing near a doorway, beckoning us into a conference room, was none other than the Reverend Jesse Jackson himself! 


Yes.


Really.


THE Jesse Jackson.


I could hardly believe it.  He shook our hands and greeted us warmly, and I told him it was wonderful to meet him, while a very star-struck Wednesday’s eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.  Yeah, we had been told that Jesse Jackson MIGHT be there, but as poor Hadiya Pendelton’s funeral was taking place that same day, I had assumed he would not be, because he, very clearly, had more pressing matters to attend to.


We entered the conference room and were directed to sit down at a big, oblong table, where another Reverend of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, who was practically pulsating with purpose and activity (let’s call her Busy Reverend), came in to meet us and kept talking to us about “the program”. 


Umm….  Program?….  What program?….


She looked at us in disbelief and then told us that Wednesday was supposed to be giving a speech ON LIVE WORLD-WIDE TV in just a few minutes from now.


Huh?!?!


A speech?  On TV?  WHAT?!  When Expressions had told us we were invited, no-one said anything about any of that.  In fact, I had specifically asked them on the phone if Wednesday needed to bring or prepare anything, and they told me no, that they would supply a poster for Wednesday to hold on a stage while she was congratulated, and that would be that.  But now they wanted a speech?….  ON LIVE TV???? 


Holy crap.


Busy Reverend didn’t seem at all amused by our confusion, our unpreparedness, and our ignorance of the weekly TV show Wednesday was about to be a part of.  She wanted to know where all the other Expressions winners and coordinators were and why Wednesday was the only Expressions representative there.  I stammered something to her about how the address they’d given out was incorrect, so, perhaps, everyone was lost and would be delayed because of it.  That didn’t sit well and I was, again, reminded that this was a LIVE WORLD-WIDE TELEVISION BROADCAST that would wait for no-one. 


Poor Wednesday must have felt like bolting for the door!  I know I would have.  But she held it all together and quietly whispered to me out of the side of her mouth, “Mom!  What should I do?”  And the two of us put our heads together at that table to quickly cook up a two-second thank-you speech for her to give, should no-one else show up before the broadcast began. 


A few other people were ushered into the room with us for a quick briefing before the show started, but they weren’t the Expressions people; they were with other organizations who were also slated to be part of the show as well, and they all seemed to know exactly why they were there and what they were supposed to be doing and they were practically doing cartwheels of excitement over the whole thing.  I felt a pang of annoyance that we hadn’t been adequately informed about what we were walking into like everyone else seemed to be, and a double pang of annoyance that my baby would be on Live TV but I hadn’t set up the DVR to record it or been able to tell anyone about it because this was the first we had heard of it!


Jesse Jackson came in and out of the room a couple of times while Wednesday and I were quietly hatching an impromptu speech plan on the sly.  Then he told us he wouldn’t be staying for the television broadcast because he would be attending Hadiya’s funeral, as I’d expected.  He asked us if we would like a picture with him before he left, so we ran out to the lobby with him for a quick photo session. 





(You can’t tell in the picture because she’s behind me, but Jesse Jackson had his arm wrapped around Wednesday’s shoulder in a really sweet half-bear hug!  She was all star-struck after he had left.  “Mom!  Did you see it?  He had his arm around me!  Squeeeeeeeee!”)


But anyway….


The Expressions coordinators and other winners (including the real girl who was picked to give the speech) ended up making it to the right building just in time for the broadcast after all, saving Wednesday a heaping helping of humiliation and stress!  (She practically melted into a puddle of relief when the speech girl showed up, I swear!) and then we were all led into the auditorium for the televised ceremony.


Oh.


My.


Goodness.


I don’t really know what I had expected.  I’d had so little time to concoct any sort of well-formed expectation of what a live TV show stage at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition Headquarters might look like, I guess.  I just know I wasn’t expecting what we stepped into.  It was like a church and a telethon had had a baby!  There was a gospel choir, blinding lights, a stage, massive TV cameras swiveling in all directions, and a very (VERY) excited audience.


We were ushered into the front row, right in front of the stage.  They made us switch seats up and down our row a few times in an attempt to make the audience look just right—and only then did I realize that Wednesday wouldn’t be the only one of the three of us on TV that day, and that the cameras would be on Scope and me too.  *gulp*  An energetic fellow got on the microphone at the front of the stage and told us all to put our “best TV faces” on, and then the show started and we were on live TV.


What happened over the next hour is a complete blur to me.  I don’t know, maybe my brain had just reached its limit of surprise-tolerance for the day and shut down or something, I’m not sure.  All I have left are fragments of it, including bright lights in my face; a preacher making me burst into tears (On!  Live!  T!  V!) when he started talking about Hadiya Pendleton’s murder; and that every now and then the gospel choir would erupt in song and everyone would leap out of their chairs and dance and clap along in that awesome, enthusiastic way that African American’s possess…. and which made me horrifically aware that I have all the rhythm of freaking Fozzie Bear.




(Yeah.  Muppets again.  I don’t know where this keeps coming from.  Sorry.  Oy.)


And, of course, I remember my baby being honored on stage.  She stood there, smiling and looking so brave, so composed, so alarmingly grown up.  *sniffle*





Despite all the confusion beforehand, the show went off without a single hitch.  And, looky, you can even see Scope and me armed with our cameras in the TV monitor over the kids’ heads as they left the stage.





And then suddenly it was finished and we were released back out into the world, dazed, blinking, and bewildered.





If I didn’t have pictures of it in my camera, I swear I would think it had all been just a very strange dream. 


Really.





© Coracabana

Wait! What? Is…. Is that…. Is that the finish line?

Okay, so I’m still trying to burn through 2012’s Project 365 picture updates so that the dang thing will finally be out of my hair.  I think there will just be one post to go after this one.  Ready?  Me too.  Let’s do it….


Day 336 (2012-12-01) ~  Scope’s mom had a Florida-themed tree set up for Christmas.  This is a shot of one of the sand dollars she has hanging on it.  I love, love, LOVE how to looks in black and white.





Day 337 (2012-12-02) ~  Just a partial shot of a beautiful light-up house Scope’s mom had set up in the guest room we stayed in when we visited for the weekend.   (Sorry, this pic was really taken on the 1st, not the 2nd.)





Day 338 (2012-12-03) ~  A shot of Christmas lights on a fence that I snapped while running to the train station in the dark.  (Eh.  I know, I really felt like I started to lose my motivation on the whole project right about here.)  I wasn't happy with the quality of light in the shot, so I tinted the whole shot green, which I definitely prefer.





Day 339 (2012-12-04) ~  This is a similar shot to the one the night before—lights on a fence, which I dyed green.  However, I was playing around with effects on Picmonkey and kind of liked how this one came out with the red bow immune to the green tint.  It's kind of striking in a way, I think.  (Pic really taken on the 3rd, not the 4th.  Another boo-boo, I know.)





Day 340 (2012-12-05) ~  So, the neighbors started decorating for the holidays and this was the first guy to go all out.  *snicker*





Day 341 (2012-12-06) ~  Oops.  A ball buster.  While decorating my tree, I accidentally dropped a ball which smashed into a million tiny red splinters of glass all over the hardwood floor.  *sigh*  What a pain!  But at least it made good picture-of-the-day material.





Day 342 (2012-12-07) ~  Ummm….  yeah. So, it was, clearly, a very, VERY hot day at one of the local high schools!  *snicker*





Day 343 (2012-12-08) ~  Wednesday had a weekend school assignment which took us to the Art Institute of Chicago.  This was the first wall of paintings she studied.





Day 344 (2012-12-09) ~  Another shot from inside the Art Institute of Chicago.  (Actually taken on the 8th, not the 9th).  I liked the lines and festivity of the staircases there.





Day 345 (2012-12-10) ~  Okay, so this was a shot Wednesday needed for a computer class she’s taking at school.  She needed me to take her picture, then she would use Photoshop in class to transform herself into a superhero.  I haven't seen her Photoshop transformation yet, but I really, REALLY love this photo of her.  My goodness!  When did she grow up????





Day 346 (2012-12-11) ~  Another one of my 80's Strawberry Shortcake dolls.  This is Lime Chiffon. 





Day 347 (2012-12-12) ~  When I went for my morning walk around the park on 12/12/12, there were police cars everywhere and the buses were being re-routed off their usual street.  Very strange.  As I rounded the corner, I found out why.... a motorcyclist had crashed into the back of a parked car so hard that he caved the back of the car in, shattered the car's back window, and actually moved the car off to the side!  It was an unbelievable sight.  No, the motorcyclist did not survive.  And, no, I didn't see the body; I arrived on the scene after he had been taken away.  What I saw though was a demolished car, a fallen bike, a broken helmet and gloves on the ground in all different directions near the front of the car (as if the motorcyclist's helmet and clothes had come flying off at impact and kept moving forward without the body), and a street that sparkled with tiny vehicle fragments as if it were covered in glitter.  I can't fathom how fast the motorcyclist was travelling to make an impact as catastrophic as that, but it must have been an astonishing speed.  Ugh.  Slow down out there, people.  The hurry just isn’t worth it.





Day 348 (2012-12-13) ~  Another 80's Strawberry Shortcake doll that sits in the glass cabinet in our den.  Crepe Suzette.





Day 349 (2012-12-14) ~  Cute, isn't he?  This is one of this year's new ornaments on my Christmas tree.  It's Mickey Mouse dressed up like the cast members in the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland!  I love him!!!!  (Oh, if only they made a Tower of Terror one like this.... Maybe next year.)  (My days were still off a bit, so this pic was actually taken on the 17th, not the 14th.)





Day 350 (2012-12-15) ~  My kiddo told me (for the millionth time) how much she hates mushrooms and will never, never, NEVER eat one.  Then she opened her advent calendar.... and it was a chocolate mushroom.  (Ha ha!)  And, yes, she ate it.  Never say never.





Day 351 (2012-12-16) ~  Another filler picture of an ornament on my tree.  It's a limited edition Harry Potter Golden Snitch from Hallmark.  When they came out, Chicago sold out of them instantly and I couldn't find one anywhere. Scope and I went from store to store, but they were all gone.  *sniffle*  Luckily, I whined about it enough to my mom that she found one back in Seattle and gave it to me for my birthday that year.  Yay! : -)  My favorite part of it is on the front where it says "I open at the close" just like in Deathly Hallows.





Day 352 (2012-12-17) ~  The flag at the local high school was at half staff due to the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  At first I was standing there wishing the wind would whip up into a frenzy so I could get a picture of the flag billowing, but then I realized I actually like it better this way some how.  The air was still in the Windy City.  Completely still.  Somehow that just seemed fitting in a way.





Day 353 (2012-12-18) ~  Sometimes Christmas feels JUST.  LIKE.  THIS.





Okidoki, just one more Project 365 post to go and then we’ll be done with them. 






© Coracabana

Don’t stop believing

Yep.  Here’s ANOTHER update on 2012’s Project 365….


Day 323 (2012-11-18) ~   This particular day (Nov 18th) was the 8th anniversary of my beating death and beginning the process of re-learning how to walk again.  (Y’all remember that whole blood clot in the spinal cord mess.)  Somehow this shot seemed fitting for the anniversary of the start of that journey, I think.  :-)





Day 324 (2012-11-19) ~  Another picture I took in the local community garden. I liked how these puff-ball plants looked in black and white.  (Oppsie.  This pic was really taken on the 18th, not the 19th.)





Day 325 (2012-11-20) ~  Ready…. set…. go!  Scope, Wednesday, and I were all packed and ready for our Thanksgiving trip to Disneyland.  This was the night of November 20th and our suitcases were all lined up against the kitchen wall because at 2:30 the next morning we had to get up and bolt out the door to get to the airport in time.





Day 326 (2012-11-21) ~  This was taken our first night in Disneyland.  We had never seen Sleeping Beauty's Castle all decked out for the holidays before.  It was so gorgeous!   This shot also seems fitting because by the point this was taken, we had been awake and on the run almost 24 hours!  *yawn*  Sleeping Beauty, indeed.





Day 327 (2012-11-22) ~  This was taken our second day in Disneyland.  While walking down Main Street USA, Mickey (literally!) ran right by us.  I was SO loving his Christmas sweater!  (Hee hee.)





Day 328 (2012-11-23) ~  This was taken our third day in Disneyland.  It is Jack Skellington laughing down at us from the ceiling inside the Stretching Room in the Haunted Mansion Holiday ride.  This was, by far, Wednesday’s favorite ride!





Day 329 (2012-11-24) ~  This was taken our—*sniffle*—last day in Disneyland.  It’s the outside of the Haunted Mansion Holiday.





Day 330 (2012-11-25) ~  The morning we flew back to Chicago from LAX, it was very, very foggy in LA.  But a minute or so after take off, we burst up through the fog below to find sunny blue skies all around us.  I kind of like this shot because of the shadow of our plane on the carpet of clouds just below us.  That's not something you see every day.





Day 331 (2012-11-26) ~  Okay, so I messed up my days a bit after our DL trip.  In my defense, I took over 3000 pics in DL (yes, really) and I had a LOT of editing to do in a hurry (because Snapfish had a promo where all 4x6 prints were only a penny each!  Ohhhhhh, what simultaneously fortuitous and cruel timing!)  I was so busy editing and deciding which pics were print-worthy, I really wasn't motivated to take my 365 Project seriously (nor to add more pictures onto the pile!) for awhile there.  So, this was taken on the 30th, not the 26th.  It's a Christmas-y park I often walk through near our house.





Day 332 (2012-11-27) ~  Uh-uh.  I know.  I couldn't believe it either.  Sitting in a tree outside a local high school the morning of the 27th, there was an owl, just watching all the arriving students walking by.  (It must have been looking for Harry Potter.)  Only two of the kids (my daughter and her friend) seemed to notice.  All the other kids (Muggles!) there were oblivious to the watchful owl.  It was hard to get a decent shot of the owl because it was high up in the tree, branches were in the way, and I only had my point and shoot camera with me—plus, I was afraid to get too close and risk scaring the owl away.  But, all in all, I don't think the shot ended up too shabby, considering.





Day 333 (2012-11-28) ~  On an early morning walk through a local park, I was struck by how pretty the blue sky was with all the trees in silhouette.  And then I noticed all the squirrel nests perched in the trees.  It's quite a bustling squirrel city we've got going on there!  (Pic really taken on the 30th, not the 28th.  Sorry, I was still recovering from the Disneyland trip!)





Day 334 (2012-11-29) ~  Absolutely no thought nor effort went into this shot.  Clearly.  I just realized I had messed up several days on my Project 365 and just snapped random shots on the run on my way to the train station one night.  Blah.  This was really taken on the 30th, not the 29th.





Day 335 (2012-11-30) ~  Yeah.  It's a fake spider lurking in the corner, mid-way up the wall.  Poor Scope wasn't feeling very well for a few days after we got back from our trip....  But once he pulled this stunt to try to freak out Wednesday and me, well, that's when we knew he was on the mend!





The rest of Project 365 is coming soon!






© Coracabana

Too much of a good thing

Hey there.  Remember that photo cult I got kidnapped by last year?  Y’know, the one where they brandished red hot pokers at my nipples and swore to shove Cheetos up my nose if I didn’t take a picture.  Every.  Single.  Day.  Of.  The.  Year.  Remember that? 


(Ahhhh, good times.) 


Well, I did it.  I survived.  I completed the whole project and then frantically made a hasty, scream-filled escape, and hid, sobbing, in my closet with my sweater pulled over my head as soon the cult looked the other way. 


(Okay, not really.  But it kind of feels like that.)


Now that I’ve been plopped out the back end of the project, I realize what a freaking ridiculous undertaking it was.  Sure, maybe it sounds simple enough to take a measly little picture once a day for a whole year—pffft!—how painless, right?  But it isn’t.  No.  You see, the cult headquarters (aka the official site where you upload your daily 365 pictures) is…. well…. a wee bit more complicated than that. 


Let me explain….


When I first joined their cult, things were all hunky-dory, kumbaya, hakuna matata, and shit like that.  I was learning a lot—I mean, A LOT—about my cameras, Photoshop, Picmonkey, and digital photography in general, and I was enjoying the journey.  I was having fun.  But it didn’t take me long to notice the nasty undercurrent lurking beneath it all. 


Man, people are competitive there.  It’s like Thunderdome!  I mean, if someone posts a picture of…. ohh…. I dunno…. say, a bowl of Skittles, for example, the others on the site would all ohh and ahh at first, but then run off like thieves and post their own pictures of bowls of Skittles too with captions saying ‘Look!  Look at ME!  Look how much awesomer MY Skittles picture is!’ and soon there would be hundreds of near-identical pictures of Skittles floating around, each topped with a heaping helping of attitude. 


And then the bickering and bitch-slapping would erupt.  Over pictures.  Of Skittles. Oy.


I never realized how much fighting a handful of non-Paparazzi produced pictures could whip up.  It really started to get to me.  I stopped interacting with the other cult members months ago and just kind of kept on posting my pictures there late at night once every few weeks, hoping not to be noticed.  In all honesty, I’m glad it’s finished. 


Frankly, there are days you just don’t feel like taking a picture, okay?  There are days you are just too busy to take a picture of anything more than a half-assed snapshot of whatever crap you bump into.  And there are days you just want to take pictures without being judged.  That’s what it all boiled down to for me.  I realized about half-way through it that producing a photograph worthy of judging every (!) single (!) day (!) for (!) a (!) whole (!) year (!) is just unnecessarily stressful.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, there were times I loved the project and enjoyed the heck out of it…. but, all in all, I think I bit off a bit more than I could chew.


But anyway….


The project is now complete—yes, I finished it; I didn’t quit—but I’m waaaayyyyyyyyyyy behind on posting the pictures here.  In fact, it appears the last time I updated you on the project was October. 


(October?)


(Really?)


Well, crap.  I suppose I should really get on that.  Like, now.  Here we go….



Day 288 (2012-10-14) ~  I got this spooky Halloween banner in the mail from my awesome friend, Callista. I hung it up on the wide window above our backdoor for Halloween and I loved it.





Day 289 (2012-10-15) ~  This was one of the local high schools back on October 15th. The walkway was soooooooo gorgeous with the trees all covered in orange and yellow Autumn leaves.





Day 290 (2012-10-16) ~  I saw some Halloween skulls on sticks in the ground while I was out walking on some errands and I thought they might look exceptionally creepy with Picmonkey's Ghostly filter.  Oh, yeah.  Definitely creepy.





Day 291 (2012-10-17) ~  Yeah.  It rained this night.  IN.  THE.  HOUSE.  It even warped the wood trim above our backdoor.  It’s times like these when I wish I was still a renter.  Grrrr.





Day 292 (2012-10-18) ~  And this is how the cacti grow in Chicago.





Day 293 (2012-10-19) ~  I saw this wee, little dude guarding a car in a dark parking garage and he made me giggle.





Day 294 (2012-10-20) ~  Wednesday was busy, busy, busy making clay puppets for another stop-motion movie she had in the works.  This was one of her latest clay buddies.  In fact, this puppet right here earned her $2,000 in a film contest—but you’ll have to wait a couple of posts for the rest of that particular story.  (Sorry!)





Day 295 (2012-10-21) ~  Another retro Strawberry Shortcake doll that I have in our den.  This is Apricot.  I have no idea why she's just named after a fruit when all the others are named after desserts though. (????)  Kind of odd, huh?





Day 296 (2012-10-22) ~  And this is what it looks like from the third floor balcony when some construction crews show up at 8am and dig big holes in the sidewalk and block off the only two exits out of the building (besides the back alley).  No warning.  No notice.  Just—BOOM!—you’ve got no front doors until further notice, suckers.  Grrr.





Day 297 (2012-10-23) ~  Wednesday saw this Jack Skellington fondant cake sculpture in the front window of a local bakery and she about fainted from joy right there on the sidewalk.  Her 16th birthday party was a couple of days after Halloween, so we ordered her a Jack sculpture for her cake.





Day 298 (2012-10-24) ~  Our pumpkins were waiting on the deck, ready to be carved for Halloween night.  (ACK!!  A slight cheat on this picture.  It was taken on the 25th, not the 24th. Whoopsie!)





Day 299 (2012-10-25) ~  Ooooooooooooh!  I love this one!  This is what it looked like on my walk to meet Scope after work on October 25th.  Halloween was definitely in the air!





Day 300 (2012-10-26) ~   Okay, there was a lot of stuff going on this particular week, so I missed a couple of days by accident.  Fortunately, Scope, Wednesday, and I went to an incredible blown glass gallery, so I have lots of pics to make up for it.  Like this one.  (Taken on the 27th, not the 26th.)





Day 301 (2012-10-27) ~  Another shot from the blown glass gallery. This one is called "Scene of Japan #59" by Hiroshi Yamano.  The fish was soooooooooo realistic!  Just amazing.





Day 302 (2012-10-28) ~  Another shot from the blown glass gallery. There was no artist's name on this one, as it was an unlabeled bowl on a desk in the back office.  I love the colors all back-lit in the sunshine like that, all bright and rainbow-y!  (Taken on the 27th, not the 28th. Sorry!)





Day 303 (2012-10-29) ~  Another shot from the back office at the blown glass gallery I visited on the 27th.  This one wasn't labeled either, so I have no idea who the artist is.  I loved the three white apples propped in front of the book like that.  If you look closely, you can see the images of white apple blossoms on the apples.  Wow.  (Taken the 27th, not the 29th.  Whoopsie!)





Day 304 (2012-10-30) ~  We carved our pumpkins on the night of the 29th, but this one of Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas really dried out and shriveled up overnight, so we had to light it a day early before it caved in on itself.





(If you want to see all the previous Project 365 posts, click HERE.)  The rest of the project is coming soon!






© Coracabana