AlyGatr's Everywhere

I Heart Faces: By The Book

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:37:00 +0000

For reasons I still haven't figured out, Lil Buddy is obsessed with my book of Houston street maps. On this day, not only did he beg to see it, but he wanted to know exactly which map showed where we live. Hmm, well...it's not that simple. Our sub-division is less than five years old and that map book was written before our streets were even official enough to be on a map. So I flipped through to the page where I thought our street should be and pointed to the closest street that was actually on the page and said, "we live right there." Not really, but I figured it was less confusing than pointing to the big, empty place next to it with no roads on it. He seemed happy with the answer and, hey, that's all that mattered!

At the End of the Day, We're All Just Moms

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:24:00 +0000

As usual, I'm ~~really~~ late to the debate, but it seems there is still a lot of lingering conversation buzzing around about Anderson Cooper's recent show about so called Mommy Wars between working and stay-at-home Moms. Some say he did it just to stir things up for ratings sake. Maybe. Not that I've even seen the show because *gasp* I was too busy working. But here's the thing...I'm not sure that his premise that "a divide exists between moms who work inside the home and moms who work out of the home" is completely off base.

I'm a Mom who's lived on both sides of the fence. I went from a working, first time Mom, to stay-at-home Mom of two small kids, right back to a working Mom...and either way, I got crap from other Moms for either working or not working.

While I was pregnant with SweetPea, I heard a certain female member of our extended family say that "a mother's place is at home with the kids" and a felt a lot of negative vibe come my way from some of the older Moms I worked with because I had to put SweetPea straight into day care once my maternity leave was up. "I waited until my kids were grown up" and "You want strangers raising your baby?" were just some of the gems I heard.

A year and a half later, I was pregnant again with Lil Buddy, we moved to Houston and for three years I had a chance to be at home with both kids. When I told people that I was going to take a break from working for a while, things were turned around on me and I was asked, "Why waste all of that education? What about your career? Won't it be hard to get a job the longer you are out of work?" I'll admit, those were (somewhat) legitimate questions, because, let's be honest, transitioning back to the working world after taking time off to be a stay-at home isn't easy. I learned that the hard way. What I resented, though, was how often I felt dismissed by working Moms I met who had no idea I hadn't always been a stay-at-home Mom. Some of them assumed I was uneducated and had "no other option" but to stay at home. I can honestly say, no one ever accused me of being lazy or a "do nothing" but it drove me crazy that very few people who didn't already know me thought I was staying home out of choice.

As for the out and out "us versus them" thing, yeah, I do think it's exaggerated. At least to a certain extent. I don't believe that most Moms have it out for one side or another. I do think there are a lot of preconceived notions on both sides. I hear offhanded comments (usually behind someone's back) about how working Moms care more about their careers than their kids or how stay-at-home Moms have no ambition or life outside of their kids. It might be hinted at or just an undercurrent of sentiment...but it's there.

So here's the thing...at the end of the day, we're all just Moms. We want what's best for our kids and we do what's we feel is best for our family. What's good for my family might not be good for yours and vice versa. Sure, if you are locking your kids in the car so you can earn a few extra ones at a strip club to support your crack habit, yeah, maybe I have a problem with you. If you are too busy playing Farmville all day to change your kid's overflowing diaper, I've got a problem with you too. Other than that...work, don't work...if it makes you happy, then hooray for you.

We're all in this together Moms. Make it a non-issue and folks like Anderson Cooper won't have anything to talk about. And that's all I have to say about that.

Ducks and Bikes

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:57:00 +0000

After a long and somewhat frustrating week at work, nothing sounded better than a morning at the park. The ducks were more than happy to see us.

Those ducks know how to make short order of a big bag of bread crumbs. But feeding the ducks was only the prelude. The main reason we were at the park...a pretty big and special reason, was so that SweetPea could have her first try at riding her bike without...

her training wheels. Well, that and so Lil Buddy could practice riding her old bike (with training wheels, of course).

She was excited. At first anyway.

She caught on to balancing on two wheels pretty quickly, but would freak out a little as soon she realized no one was holding on...

There were some spills, but no real damage. There were tears of frustration, but Dad kept convincing her to keep trying. And Lil Buddy? Once he got the rhythm of peddling down, he was off. He even lapped his sister a few times.

He didn't even care that his sister's old bike is pink and has Princesses on it. Then again, he knows if he keeps practicing and getting better that he will probably get that Spiderman bike he's been begging for since before Christmas. And of course, there's always that super cool alien helmet he gets to wear.

Later that same day, we went out for a second round of bike rides. That time, there were a few more crashes and some bleeding scrapes, but no one was too damaged. At this rate, we're going to have a house full of bikers!

When It Pours It Really Pours

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:49:00 +0000

For whatever reason, Mother Nature doesn't know how to do things small in Texas. When we had drought this summer, we had a drought. Rain levels were feet below normal and wildfires burned out of control. And when it rains...

The building I work at down in the Texas Medical Center is right next to Bray's Bayou. On a normal day, there might be maybe a foot of water flowing in it. During the summer, it was so dry it was nothing but pavement. As you can see, yesterday, the water almost flowed over the bridges. As the torrential rain came down, all I could think was "and how will I get home?" I have to cross the Bayou to get to my train stop and if the bridge flooded it meant the train couldn't get through (it has to cross the bridge too) and I had no where to walk to get to the train. Yup. Thankfully, what you see is the highest it got. Other areas weren't so lucky. Underpasses and off ramps all over town were flooded.

Less than 24 hours later, the Bayou looks like this...

The water has gone back to normal in most places and whatever rain we are supposed to get today shouldn't be anything like yesterday's.

Dear Mother Nature, we wanted rain, but maybe next time, could you spread it out over a few days instead of dumping it on us all at once?

Australian, European and What Santa Said

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:24:00 +0000

I know you're scratching your noggin right now. When you have an almost four year old in your house, that's how random conversations end up being. Random, but never boring. Take this bedtime convo from last week...

Lil Buddy: "Mommy, where dis baby dragon come from?" (he knows exactly where it came from but I played along)

Me: "It's from Santa."

Lil Buddy: "Oh, Santa, you right! And I told Santa, 'Thank you, Santa!' and he say (talks in a deeper voice) 'You're welcome, Lil Buddy' and I say 'Merry Christmas, Santa' and he say (talks in the Santa voice again) 'MERRY Christmas, Lil Buddy'"

Weird, how ever did I miss that whole Santa interaction? Maybe I was asleep?

And then, of course, there are the high brow discussions we have at the dinner table, like this one from tonight...

Lil Buddy: "Mommy, are you Australian?"

Me: "...am I...Australian?"

Lil Buddy: "giggle, giggle...YES!"

The Man: "No, but EuroPEAN"

Lil Buddy: "giggle, giggle, giggle, giggle...no YOU'RE a peein' (points to his sister) and you're a peein' (points to me) and you're a peein' and I a peein'."

(The entire table breaks down in a laughing fit)

Seriously, how can you not love this kid?

Lil Buddy Kinda Likes Spiderman

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:14:00 +0000

OK, so maybe he likes him a lot. Maybe, every morning, after he wakes up, he asks to put on his Spiderman costume. Maybe, just maybe, when we asked him what he was thankful for at Thanksgiving, he might have said, "My friend Spiderman". Perhaps he likes to watch the same three episodes of The Amazing Spiderman that are On Demand on Disney XD just so he can hear the theme music and run around the living room acting it out. Yep.

Christmas Past

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:52:00 +0000

Alyssa here. Yeah, me, the one who's been conspicuously missing for weeks. Yep, that one. Still here. Still breathing.

So, anyway, the other night, The Man was rifling through our storage space under our printer for...something...not sure what...when a couple of photos fell out. He handed them to me and there, in my hand, was two year old SweetPea in a fancy, velvet Christmas dress. It hit me that, while 5 years doesn't really seem that long, a lot changes with little ones in that short amount of time.

Take a trip down memory lane with me and you'll see...

2006: Go ahead. Say it. AWWWWW. Here's 10 month old SweetPea during her very first Christmas. She was on the cusp of being able to walk, but only had two tiny teeth in her mouth. Her first impression of Santa?

She sat in his lap long enough to snap this. About 30 seconds later, she started to cry. Not that we cared. We had our shot and that was all that mattered. Santa is a little sad looking, but hey, you get what you pay for.

2007: A year later, Lil Buddy was still cooking in the oven and SweetPea was enjoying the last few months of being an only child...

I know she's mine and I wouldn't think any differently, but seriously...how cute is she? This was the year (between 1 1/2 and 2 years old) ...the year that I would lay down money in Vegas and bet that just about every kid decides Santa is just a little too scary. Bottom line: no Santa picture this year.

2008: Ta da! We have Lil Buddy. This time, he's the 10 month old. Not quite as close to walking. Still no teeth to speak of. And, yeah, he was pretty darn cute too.

SweetPea was knee deep in her "never go anywhere without a crown and/or a tutu" phase.

See what I mean? The Santa picture wasn't complete without at least the crown. Lil Buddy didn't quite know what to make of Santa, but when he looked over at his sister and saw she was hip to the dude in red, he was OK. For about a second, he looked as though he might cry, but decided it wasn't worth the effort. She still looks as though she's not all that sure about Santa, but as soon as we walked away, she stood just outside the "toy shop" and waved back to Santa, who waved to her and said "Merry Christmas" and she made up her mind that he wasn't so bad.

2009: Ah yes, the year we learned what it was like to get a toddler and preschooler to sit still for a Christmas picture. Can we tell who wasn't having any of it?

And of course, we have the Santa picture that seems to be missing...someone...

Remember what I said about staking bets? That's right, at the exact same age, Lil Buddy wanted nothing to do with Santa. I got within 6 feet of Santa when Lil Buddy clamped on to my neck and yelled, "no, no, no, no, no, NO, NO, NO". I got the hint. SweetPea was more than happy to have Santa's lap to herself.

2010: And here they are...just a year ago. This time, everyone was a lot more cooperative.

And all was back to being right in the world of Santa...

We finally have proof again that we have two kids instead of one. SweetPea had moved on from tutus and crowns to hair bows, velour and shiny shoes. And pink. A lot of pink. Lil Buddy was all about Buzz and Woody.

2011: This year...well this year we have a very active 5 and 3 year old, neither of whom are all that stoked about dressing up and sitting still for a Christmas picture. There was begging...and a lot of it. I learned that I had to shoot fast, but I'm pretty happy to have gotten at least one good shot of each of them...

(I'm linking up this year's pic with The Paper Mama's 2011 Holiday Photo Challenge...WOOT!)

And Santa, well Santa is a pretty cool dude. Both kids were willing to stand in line for an hour just to have the chance to say hello and tell him what they wanted for Christmas...

I'm sure a year from now, I'll be looking back at this year's picture and thinking about how little they look. Where has the time gone?

I Heart Faces: On Your Feet!

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:59:00 +0000

I'll admit it...I had a perfectly awesome "foot shot" that I snapped the other day...which is sitting at home on my camera. D'oh! The next best thing was a new edit on a shot I snapped last month. I still think it's pretty sweet.

Grammy's Leavin' On a Jet Plane

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Yep, my Mom is on her way to the airport and will soon be back in Boston. If the kids had it their way, she would fly home long enough to rescue her kitty from the boarding kennel and then come back (with kitty) and live in our guest room...but alas, that's not happening.

This past Sunday we headed out for a walk, camera in tow, to get a few pictures of everyone to remember the visit by. I was lucky to get in a decent shot before Lil Buddy decided it was too much effort to sit still and smile.

Safe trip, Grammy. Hopefully we'll get to fly up to Boston next time to visit.

Sweet Shot Tuesday: Back from the Vacay

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:02:00 +0000

Oh hey look, I'm back! We're still winding down from my Mom visiting and from me being on vacation (in theory, at least). There was so much we did...shopping, playing cards (SweetPea busted out the Fish, Crazy 8's, Old Maid and War card decks she got on her last birthday that she never touched...until now), walks to the park, and on and on. Being home gave me a chance to drag my camera out and capture some moments. I have my pink flash drive full of pictures to edit still, but these were two of my favorites. On Thanksgiving Day, SweetPea decided it was a good time to pull out the Christmas dress that was handed down to her from her cousin. And, no, she didn't care that it wasn't Christmas yet...

Lil Buddy's outfit of choice on that day was his newest Spiderman t-shirt. If he had it his way, he would wear it everyday, dirty or not. He didn't even care that it was cold out...

He also insisted on playing on the playground with his little Spiderman in hand.

There are more shots to share...if I can ever get around to editing all of them!

Shoot and Edit: Family

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:31:00 +0000

It's been a while since I did a Shoot and Edit and I thought it was high time I played along. The "stars aligned" as it were, because I coincidentally had a family shot that I wanted to share that badly needed fixing. If I had to put a label on my shooting style, I'd have to say I tend to "just capture the shot". I like to catch my subjects (usually the kiddos) caught up in whatever they are doing and with that comes the reality that moments, often very special moments, happen even when the perfect photography elements aren't there. For the most part, it usually has to do with lighting. Here's what I mean...

Last Saturday, while The Man was watching college football on TV and I was putzing around the house, we noticed the house seemed a little too quiet. It didn't take long to discover SweetPea and Lil Buddy in the playroom...she reading the board book version of Peter Rabbit to him. It was a moment and odds were, it wasn't going to last. In a perfect world, they would have been facing all of that wonderful light pouring through the big windows behind them, but, yeaah, that's not how these things happen. My only choice...work with the hand I was dealt and move quickly. My biggest challenge with editing what I captured was bringing both kids' faces out of the shadows.

My first pass at fixing the shot was using The CoffeeShop Blog's Vivid Action, which comes with four different "flavors" to choose from once the Action is run. Since I needed a brighter shot, I chose "bright" (duh) and got this. I liked how it brought out the kids' faces but wasn't thrilled at how it blew out the lighting in the background. I fiddled with putting a layer mask over the background areas...

Even with 100% masking in the background, I wasn't loving the end result, so I scrapped the whole thing and started over with a different approach. This time, I worked with my SOOC and Dodged the shadows and mid-tones around their faces. I brushed the effect on at very low exposure because Dodge can tend to brighten tones a little too much, too quickly in a way, that even blended (at least in my experience) tends to look a little too unnatural. I'll admit I had to do a lot of brushing, "undo"ing and re-brushing before I ended up with something I liked.

I also did a contrast reduction on SweetPea's face (again, the side effect of all of those shadows) to further bring out her facial features. Now I was in a position to run an overall Action to give the shot the effect I wanted...

I used Paint the Moon's Cotton Fields to put the finishing touch. As with a lot of these Actions, this one comes with more than one "Pop" layer and the one thing I've finally figured out is that Actions make images pop by...increasing the contrast, which of course meant all the work I did to reduce the contrast over SweetPea's face was effectively cancelled out. Solution: layer mask the effect over her face. Woo hoo!

The end result still has the moody lighting that seems to be part and parcel of my shots, only now the kids' faces are better revealed and a sweet family moment is captured.

The Rules

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:34:00 +0000

So, we've established that SweetPea is into making signs. To be more specific, she's into making signs for her brother. After a lot of contemplation (or so I have to assume, because she never discussed it with me), she decided her signs weren't enough. Nope, she needed full on rules...

In case you're having a hard time reading the horrible shot I took (hey, it was 10:00 pm in a dark hallway and I was using my cellphone camera), it reads:

1. Do what you're supposed to do
2. Do not touch anything
3. Do not go into my room without me
4. Do not make a mess
5. No yelling in my room

You've got to give it to her, it doesn't get more specific than that. Then again, Lil Buddy is three and can only read a small handful of words, so 99% of the list is completely lost on him. Or should I say, would have been lost on him had she not gone over the list with him, point by point. Of course, at the time he was breaking rule number 1, since what he was "supposed to be doing" was listening and...I'm pretty sure he wasn't. As a matter of fact, he was likely too busy breaking rule number 2 to care what she was saying. Actually, she picked a pretty great list of rules when you consider, he's guilty of all of those things...just about every day.

Time will tell if her rules will work (yeah, right).

Over the Moon

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:52:00 +0000

Last night I got ambitious. Ever since I got my telephoto lens, I'd been dying to get a shot of a full moon, if only to prove to myself just how "zoomy" the lens is. I'd missed more than one opportunity to bad weather conditions or missed opportunities, but last night my stars aligned and I was able to get in this shot...

I was floored. It took a number of shots before I realized that the moon gives off so much light when it's full that I actually needed a pretty quick shutter speed to get the detail I wanted. And what I got...was amazing. When I posted it to my Facebook page, most of my friends couldn't believe I was the one who took the shot. It take some cropping and zooming in with PSE and a little bit of contrast tweaking to get the best detail, but the rest was all the camera (OK and me a little too...or so I like to think).

By far this is the sweetest shot I've taken since I got my DLSR.

On the Mend

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:12:00 +0000

After a rough week of flus and croup and trips to the doctor, I think we're finally on the mend...

Or mostly. Both kids have nasty, hacking coughs, but the fevers are gone. SweetPea is finally back to school after 4 days at home. I know she was excited to be back running around with her friends, but I also think she missed lounging on the couch and watching TV. Lil Buddy wasn't held back too much by the croup, though he couldn't get it through his head that he needed to tone things down a little. He didn't buy the whole "you need to stay inside because you are sick" idea...that is until we got the iTouch my sister-in-law sent in the mail. She had one that was going unused (she's got both an iPhone and an iPad now...lucky booger) and was so incredibly awesome enough to give it to me to replace my stolen one. As soon as I had it loaded up with my iStuff, he took possession of it and was at least a little happier about not getting to play in the backyard.

Once SweetPea got over the worst part of whatever nasty bug she had, it finally sunk in that she didn't really get the full bang for her buck on Halloween. I mean, really, what poor kid gets sick on Halloween and spends until 4 a.m. in the Emergency Room? She decided her costume needed a little more wearing than it got that night...

Truth is, Halloween costumes, in our house, get used all year long, for years on end. Pretty much until they are worn to tatters or outgrown. We pretty much have our own wardrobe department. She suited up and then went about her normal Saturday.

With Halloween officially over, it meant all of our decorations went back into the cupboard or into the trash (awwwww). Yeaaah, the pumpkins were getting pretty funky. Of course, that meant the Thanksgiving decorations could come out (yay!)

We spent the weekend cleaning out our guest room, which, I'll admit, had started to look more like a storage unit than a bedroom. Why, you ask? Grammy (a/k/a my Mom) is coming to town next week, so we couldn't exactly have her tripping over boxes and other random junk that was lying around. The kids are very excited to see her, since she hasn't been to visit since last year.

So, life is pretty much back to normal (phew).

The Spidey Dance and How Halloween Can Go Downhill Quickly

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:07:00 +0000

When we started out the night, we looked like this. Everyone loved their costumes. Everyone loved my hair. I loved my hair...and wistfully wished it could like that all the time (without my employer promptly firing me for breaking institutional dress code policy). Right out the door, Lil Buddy met up with a boy dressed as Luke Skywalker and his dad, dressed as Darth Vader. If he's had it his way, Lil Buddy would have followed the Dark Lord all over the neighborhood. The neighbors adored our little Trick or Treaters, none more than Spidey, himself. Most of all, they loved the Spidey Dance. That's right, the Spidey Dance.

Let me back up, within 5 minutes of trying on the Spiderman costume the day we bought it, Lil Buddy was striking the Spiderman pose. It looks something like this...

It got a laugh every time. The Man and I began calling it the "Spidey Stance". As we walked from door to door on Halloween night, we tried to encourage Lil Buddy to do the Spidey Stance for the fine people handing out candy. The first couple times we got the stance, but eventually he started doing a dance. This dance to be exact...

What can I say, he loves Benny. So imagine our little Spidey doing the Benny Dance after getting a treat. At one point I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. We kept saying, "No, Buddy, Spidey Stance", but later it hit me, he probably thought we were saying "Spidey's Dance", so he was giving us the Spidey Dance. It was priceless.

The nice thing about small kids is they tire quickly and one sweep up and down our rather long street and they were ready to go home. And then things went downhill...

Not long after I put the kids to bed, SweetPea, who had run a slight fever that morning was in tears complaining she didn't feel well. Her fever spiked and eventually The Man had to take her to the Emergency Room, where they stayed until 4:00 am. While she was there, she got even worse and they did several tests only to hear she had "some kind of infection but we're not sure what". She went home with antibiotics and has been home sick ever since. Poor thing is so hoarse she can barely talk...but she seems to be on the mend. And then yesterday, Lil Buddy started this awful barking cough. The vedict this morning? He has croup. Greeeeeat.

Ah, it has been a roller coaster ride week!

Happy Halloween 2011

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 12:57:00 +0000

No one can say we aren't ready...

Our pumpkins have been decorated...

We learned the hard way that Jack-O-Lanterns don't last long in Texas. I had carved my first pumpkin just to have it rot within a week. Ick. Luckily, our painted ones have held up nicely. You'll notice a special little Miss amongst the mix. SweetPea's school library did a Storybook Pumpkin Patch last week and anyone who wanted to join in had to decorate a pumpkin to look like their favorite storybook character. Pinkalicious was our contribution...

Our costumes are laid out and ready. Of course, you'll have to wait to see everyone in their get ups, but here's a little hint if you wondered what the kids will be dressed up as...

Happy Halloween, everyone! BOOOOOOOOOO!!!

40 Years of Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:56:00 +0000

So I turn 40 tomorrow. Hooray. As it happens, I'm also on the brink of starting a story for NaNoWriMo that has a main character who's a teenager. It's sort of a weird confluence...having to wrap my mind around being a teenager (again) at the same time I'm about to launch head first into being middle aged. That got me thinking...what would my 40 year old self have to tell my teenaged self if given the chance...

Dear Teenaged Aly,

First of all, listen up. I know you're hard headed and stubborn, especially when it comes to grown ups telling you stuff. Sad to say, when you hit 40, not a lot has changed on that point. Still, if you can stop writing angst-filled poetry long enough, you might actually learn something...and it might actually help you feel a little better about how things are going in your life right now. Here's a few things you should know...

1) No one ever gets passed up for a job just because they didn't go to Senior Prom. Five minutes after graduation is over, no one will care. Let it go

2) A lot of the marginally interesting people you know in high school turn out to be way more interesting once they grow up. Keep them as your friends

3) That said, a lot of people never get any more interesting

4) Some of the losers you know will never stop being losers. Unless you want loser friends, cut them loose now

5) At least half of the "hot guys" you cry in your pillow over will peak in high school then roll straight downhill into fat and/or balding, old dudes

6) Some of the guys you wrote off as mediocre will become way hotter as old dudes

7) The world doesn't end in 1999 with the US and USSR nuking each other off the face of the earth, so lighten up

8) Get over your writers block now or else you'll spend the next 15 years hating yourself for the rut you're in

9) Skip the acid wash jeans. You'll thank me for it later

10) Sign up for that semester in England. Sure, it will put you a whole semester behind but it may be your only chance to see Europe in this lifetime

There are a lot more things I would love to set straight, but who are we kidding, we all know you are the kind of girl who has to learn things the hard way. Anyway, be nice to as many people as you can because some of them won't be around as long as you hoped they would be...and the ones you wish weren't won't go away fast enough.

Peace, out,

An Older and Only Slightly Wiser Aly

In the Blink of An Eye

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:02:00 +0000

...it was gone. By "it", I mean my iPod and by "gone" I mean stolen. Just like that. In a nutshell, I dropped it as I was shuffling to put things away in my backpack as I stepped off the train last Wednesday and in the time it took me to hear it drop, take a step or two then pivot around to pick it up...some hood had picked it up and run off with it. On a crowded platform. While a group of people watched it happen. And no one said a thing. I was so dumbstruck, I didn't even shout out. Some random young guy (I think) in a navy hoodie who I couldn't even begin to give a sufficient description of was the thief. I called the Metro police and reported it stolen, though I'm not holding my breath that I'll ever see it again. Thankfully, most of my purchases were backed up on my iTunes at home. I had to scramble to change passwords on every App that might access my information. I reported it to the Apple folks as stolen in case someone was dumb enough to take it to an Apple Store....and that's all I could do.

I won't lie, I feel like the biggest idiot ever. I never should have been fumbling with expensive gadgets while I was trying to get off the train, especially in the middle of a crime ridden big city. I know better. Only I guess I didn't. I'd gotten complacent riding the same train every day. I should have been more careful. I was also really lucky...it could have been a lot worse. As a matter of fact, at work today there was a bulletin sent out to our entire campus telling about a post-doctoral student who was mugged by three people while running on campus the other evening. There are a whole handful of worse ways I could have had my iPod taken from me and I'm grateful mine happened in the least violent manner possible.

I was hesitant to share this with the world, for one, because I still feel like an idiot about it but also because it seems kind of petty to be so upset over the loss of something that is no more than a "thing"...a material possession. Sure, it wasn't a cheap possession, but in a world where people have lost far more important things in their lives, it still seems pretty trivial...but then, I also wanted everyone to learn from my bad experience...so here's what I have to share:

A) How To Protect Yourself

1) Always be aware of your surroundings and pay attention to the people around you. In a pinch, at least you can provide a description.

2) When in crowded public areas, always keep your valuables stored away unless absolutely necessary(translation: don't waive around your expensive electronics...or your wallet...or anything that can be easily snatched away from you)

3) Carry something that can make a loud noise (like a whistle) with you if you travel alone. People might not respond to cries of "help" but a loud whistle will get attention and most criminals don't want to draw attention.

B) What You Can Do to Protect Your iPod/iPhone

1) If you have an iPod with WiFi capability or iPhone, always make sure you have the MobileMe application downloaded to it. In my case, I didn't (d'oh).

This App allows you to track and remotely lock your device as well as display a message that says it's lost or stolen, and, best of all, allows you to remotely wipe all of your personal data. Apple has also recently launched iCloud which allows you to recover all of the purchases you've made from the iTunes Store and can tell you what purchases you've made that are missing from your current iTunes library. I had downloaded some music to my iPod before it was taken but hadn't yet synched my new purchases on iTunes at home and was able to recover them through iCloud. Yay!

2) Always set the Password Lock function

I had it set on mine until my old iPod's LCD display went nuts and I had to have the device replaced under warranty. I only just switched out the broken one for a new one a month ago (d'oh, again) and forgot to set up the lock function. My bad.

I really hate that this had to happen to me, but I hope my bad experience at least has a lesson that might help so the same thing doesn't happen to you. I'd like to hold out hope that I'll get my iPod back, but really, who are we kidding?

Oh and P.S., to the jerk who took my iPod...you suck.

Countdown to NaNoWriMo: I Did It My Way

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:29:00 +0000

A little something you may not know about me...I don't like for people to tell me what to do. As a matter of fact, the best way to get me to not do something is to tell me I should do it. Maybe it's because I'm the youngest in a family where everyone thrives on telling me what to do. Or, maybe I'm just that contrary. I don't know. Why am I telling you this? Well, because it applies to my writing, too. I've never liked for anyone to tell me what I should (or shouldn't) write about...or the "right" way to write. It flat out bugs me, not to mention,writing to please others has always ended in disaster.

How bad could it be? Back in my undergrad, English major days, I wrote a paper about...aw, hell, who am I kidding, I don't remember what about. It's not really important. What I do remember is the day I sat down with my professor after he'd graded it...the day he told me it was complete rubbish and that, if I wanted to, I could do it over again. I. Was. Devistated. I sat there fighting tears back while he explained to me that my paper was technically near perfect. I'd followed every rule they had pounded into our heads back in Frosh Composition...but...there was no life to it. I wrote the paper I thought he wanted to read on a topic I know I could have cared less about...all because I thought it would get me the "A". It didn't. He told me, "When you write about something you are genuinely interested in, it shows." He also informed me that a paper that's torturous to write is just as torturous to read. So after a day (OK, maybe two) of licking my wounds, I canned the whole thing and started over. I wrote about something I cared about in the way that worked best for me...and got my "A".

I'd like to tell you that experince was my great turning point, but the truth is, I still second guess myself. As I write, I often think "That's not the way ____ says I should write it." Next thing you know, I'm writing for ____ and careening down a black hole of self doubt that ends with me hating what I've written. As much as I appreciate all of the books and blog posts out there about the "right way" to write a story, I find them more damaging and far from helpful. The only book on writing that's ever resonanted with me was Stephen King's "On Writing". He tells how he writes and makes suggestions about what might help other writers, but he never pretends to know what would work for anyone other than himself.

So, with two weeks to go before NaNoWriMo starts, I'm promising myself that I will write for me and do things my way.

I Do So Solemnly Swear to NaNo

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:42:00 +0000

This is the year. The year I take National Novel Writing Month seriously...make a legitimate dent in my word count...produce something that actually resembles what could someday be a novel. Ask my friend, Marisa and she'll tell you all about my past promises and majorly lame attempts to play the game just to have it end in utter failure. Not this time. Sure, I had to reset my NaNo account password because it had been that long since I'd even looked at the site (for shame). I may or may not have sent a freak out Tweet to Marisa about not having even a seed of a story ready to write. And then...a story found me. Well, the beginning of one anyway, which means I have a couple of weeks to start tossing ideas around so that I'm ready to hit the ground running on November 1st.

Let's do this.

I Heart Faces: Raise Your Hands!

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 19:14:00 +0000

Lil Buddy has quite a car collection. His favorites are the ones he can wrap his little fingers around and shove in his pocket. Each week, settles on one of his many and carries it around with him wherever he goes. This car seems to be making it's way to the top of his "most favorite, favorite" list. Beep, beep!

Have I Mentioned I Love October?

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 15:22:00 +0000

Because I do. My birthday is in October (the big 4-0, yikes)...and so is my anniversary (the big 1-6, wow). And of course there's Halloween, my favorite holiday. Lil Buddy picked out a couple of small pumpkins at the grocery store, I pulled out our decorations and both kids have their costumes...and every day I hear "is it Halloween yet?" The weather is getting cooler...sort of...and pumpkin cheesecake will be making it's seasonal appearance. Yep, I love October.

Swings Make Us Happy

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 15:10:00 +0000

He wants to go high...but not too high.

She likes to spin until she's dizzy.

Seeing their smiles makes me happy.

Little Goldfishy

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 17:42:00 +0000

The Man: "She is not wearing that."

Me (standing in the kitchen, tiptoeing to see over the half room divider into the living room): "Uh...yeah she is."

The Man: "She is not."

Me: "Yes she is and everyone will say "aw" and tell her how freakin adorable she looks."

By "that", he was talking about the goldfish hat SweetPea made for Storybook Dress Up day at school. The kindergarten teachers chose the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" and each classroom chose an animal from the book to dress up as...and SweetPea's class were the goldfish.

Me: "She made it and likes it. Where else is she going to wear it? Might as well get some use out of it."

The "where" in this scenario was WalMart. Like I've never taken her to Kohls dressed as a vampire or taken her grocery shopping in her Princess attire. The goldfish hat was pretty tame by our usual standards. So off to Wally World we went...

Our little goldfishy had a pet dog. Bet you didn't know fish liked having dogs for pets.

When goldfishies get tired at Walmart, they ride in the cart.

Then they go home and eat chicken and fruits and give their Moms this look because they are tired of being followed with a camera.

Glub, glub

Photo Challenge: September Still Life Standout

noreply@blogger.com (AlyGatr) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 13:15:00 +0000

I took this last Saturday as we were waiting to ride the train that circles Hermann Park. I was breaking in my new telephoto lens and trying to see what kind of macro shots I could get. When I looked down at this drain cover, I was drawn to the pattern and colors. It turned out to be one of my favorite shots of the day.