New York [1/50]

I figured I would start marking states off my list with the easiest one, the one we're living in right now. It's easiest because all the photos I have from here are digital. (A lot of my older stuff is on film and I'm scanning prints.) And, of course, I have the most photos from places we have lived.

Generally the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of New York is New York City; the subway,

 Central Park,

 the skyline,

 Radio City Music Hall, Times Square, Grand Central Station.

 

But sometimes people for get that New York is a huge state (for the East Coast), not just a huge city. There is history,

Lock 57 of the Genesee Valley Canal

The Castle on the Hill in Dansville, a turn-of-the-century era health spa.

 agriculture,

New York is 2nd in the country for apples, Washington being first of course.

lakes and rivers, forests and wetlands,

fall foliage that attracts tourists

and, my favorite, waterfalls.

The bottom, non-NYC, photos are much more representative of the experiences we've had in New York, but I think they all fit. 

Wow, that was WAY more photos than I was intending for New York. But I'm not undoing it now. Most of the states will have fewer photos than this.

All 50 States

One item on my bucket list (which I have not yet posted because I want it to be 100 or 101 things and I'm stuck at 79) is to visit all 50 states with Les. We're getting there, slowly but surely.

As I was attempting to fill up my list I decided to add taking at least one representative photo in each state. So I thought I would get a start on documenting that now because it requires going back through all my (many, many) photos, film and digital, and selecting ones that represent each state.   So this is the start of checking that item off my list.

I will post the states that we have visited with their representative photos. As this is a new idea, I don't have photos for all the states we have visited.

States we have not yet visited together (I've been to several of these alone, Les has been to a few alone):

• Alabama 
• Alaska
• Arkansas
• California
• Delaware
• Florida
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Louisiana
• Maine
• Mississippi
• Nebraska
• New Hampshire
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Oklahoma
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Wisconsin

States we have been through without stopping that I don't really consider us to have visited:

• Arizona - We only ever went through the corner from Utah to Vegas that is mostly one long canyon.
• Connecticut - We drove through here on our way back from a concert in Massachusetts and noted the craziness of their drivers but didn't stop for more than gas.
• Michigan - We drove through a small part of Michigan on our cross-country trek while moving to New York, it was dark, we didn't get out of the cars or even off the freeway.  

States we have been to but that I do not have photos of for one reason or another

Rest area in Indiana, right as the rain stopped.

Trevor, Les and me in 2006, the first time I met him.
Note the presence of prison vibe and lack of Kentucky vibe.

• Illinois - We went through here on our vacation in January of 2006. We only had a film camera with us and didn't take that many photos. I did, however, pick up a small ziplock baggie full of dirt in each state we passed through for my friend Malena. I believe we did that from a rest stop in Illinois and there was an acorn in the dirt. We also drove through when we moved but, again, only stopped for gas. (Plus we were getting to the insane level of tired by that point in the trip.)
• Indiana - Again, we've been through on our trips. I do have a photo of a rest area on the Indiana Toll Road and, while very representative of our trip, I don't think it is representative of Indiana.  
• Iowa - We drove down through Iowa and slept there on our move, but didn't take any photos. Based on that experience, if I was going to take a photo it would be of 5 or 6 cars on a a two-lane highway all within 6 inches of each other. I have never seen so much tailgating in my life!
• Kansas - We drove through Kansas on our 2006 vacation and actually stopped in a few towns along the way but didn't take any photos. I don't think we had bought film yet. 
• Kentucky - Two of the main reasons for our 2006 vacation were in Kentucky. The first was to check out a college that we were thinking of attending. We did that, but were more concerned with navigation and exploring the school than photos. The second was visiting Les's brother, and they don't let you take a camera into federal prisons. We did get a photo, but it is not representative of Kentucky, it's more representative of prison than anything.  
• Maryland - We drove through Maryland on our way to and from the Reason Rally last month. We even stopped and had dinner there but all the photos we took were in D.C.
• Massachusetts - We went to a concert in Mass. for my birthday last year and had quite a good time. But all the photos we took were with phones and of the concert. When I think Mass. I don't think daytime, outdoor concert on a lake with an unpronounceable name, I think Boston. I do intend to remedy this one next. I am about to stop accruing vacation time if I don't use some and I am going to use it to see Boston, which is another item on my bucket list.
• Minnesota - We went through Minnesota on our move and had dinner there, but took no photos as I had already taken my 365 shot and put the camera away for the day.
• New Jersey - We stayed at a hotel in New Jersey when we went to NYC to ring in the new year. However all the photos we took were in New York.
• Ohio - We drove through when we moved but barely got off the highway. By the time we had come that far, staying awake was our only priority. 
• Virginia - The third reason for our cross-country vacation in 2006 was for Les to see the Atlantic Ocean. So we came all the way to Virginia. We saw the ocean (but really late at night so the few film photos I took didn't turn out, I was still very new to photography) and toured the Confederate White House but didn't take any photos. I photography may have been prohibited on the tour, but I don't remember for certain.
• West Virginia - On our 2006 vacation we took some back roads and saw a lot of West Virginia. But not really because it was pitch black and we could barely see the road in front of us and it was terrifying. We also saw our first covered bridge but didn't take photos. The town we stayed it smelled like sewer, not really relevant here, but true nonetheless. 

So my goal of visiting all 50 states together is much closer to fulfillment than my goal of taking photos in/of each of them. But I'm getting there.

EDIT: Apparently, even though Les and I have been to Colorado at least 4 times, I can't find a single photo from any of those trips, not even a bad one. So I'll add that to the bottom list.

Also, there was film in the camera when we were in West Virginia. I found this photo of the covered bridge we saw. But I'm leaving it on the list because I don't think of covered bridges when I think of West Virginia, I think Appalachia. So this photo is not really representative of the state.

Compromise, compromise

Few things making political headlines have put a simile on my face recently, but this did. 

A common sense solution that allows the Catholic and other Christian churches to maintain their religious liberty to treat women like nothing more than baby machines, allows women access to affordable preventative health care, makes insurance companies happy, and forces the misogynistic asswads running for the GOP nomination to backpedal or prove their misogynistic asswaditude - what an idea!

I really hate how insurance coverage in this country is tied to employment and it is nice to see steps leading away from that. I'm not convinced that it was planned from the beginning like the article states, but it makes me happy to think it might be.

I Have Embarked on a Quest (Warning: Slighly Nerdly Refrences Lurk Within)

 Yesterday I began a quest. I'm kinda like Frodo. But not really, because my quest is for a hat, the perfect winter hat to be exact, and will involve much less walking and fewer magic talismans than Lord of the Rings, and I do hope to avoid Mt. Doom. But other than that, I'm just like Frodo (or any of those other fantasy heroes by those authors who think for a fantasy book to be fantasy it has to rip off Tolkien).

Having recently gotten ill after spending two whole, cold, windy days outside, I decided I need a hat. Les's parents were visiting recently and we spent all of Sunday at Mt. Hope cemetery. It was very cold and fairly windy but we were having a good time. At the end of the day I had that little tickle in the back of my throat that genereally means I'm going to get sick. But we came home and then I felt fine.

The next day we went to Niagara Falls (my own photos coming soon). I bundled up quite well, but I could not find my scarf that is also a hood before leaving for Canada. I knew it was a bad idea to be out in the high winds and mist of the falls, but I just didn't know what to do about it, we were on a schedule. When we got to Niagara Falls I looked around the souvenir shops for a hat, but the cheapest one I could find that would cover my ears was $12 and it was hideous. I thougth about going elsewhere to find one but we had already parked, it's expensive, and I really didn't want to ruin the Bowens' trip because they were so insistent that it was the only time they would ever be there and so they wanted to do it right. So I just went about my day. The longer I was outside the more I could feel myself getting sick. I never actually felt bad, but the tickle in my throat was more pronounced and my ears were getting ... itchy, for lack of a better way to describe it. But I ignored it because I'm an idiot.

By Tuesday I had the sniffles. By Wednesday I had a full on cold and was having to drug myself to work. Thursday I realized the full side-effects of the "daytime" cold and cough medicine and had to leave work early because I was so dizzy. Friday I was miserable, but Les was awesome and sabotaged my alarms, called into work for me and let me sleep all day, I wound up being asleep for about 19 hours on Friday. Saturday I went to work but, again, left early. I discovered if I took the daytime medicine that doesn't treat cough, just sinus symptoms, I didn't fall asleep standing up. In fact, even though I only take half a dose of anything, it made me so wired I couldn't sit still or close my eyes. Helpful at work actually and Les drove me.

I pretty much recovered over my weekend, I still have a fairly bad case of bronchitis, but that has pretty much been standard every time I get sick since I was 17, and I can work around it by now. But this has taught me a lesson. Even though I hate hats, especailly winter hats, I need to have one and wear it.

Thus begins my quest.

Since I hate hats, if I get one I don't completely love, I know I will never wear it. So I will find the perfect hat.  It will cover my ears, it will be the least itchy a winter hat can be, it will be cute and it will fit well over my hair, up or down. I am under no assumptions that this will be easy. I will not overpay for it, but I am really hoping for a bargain since I work in - and know how to shop in - a thrift store. I will be looking in every store I go into, from Goodwill to The Evil to the stores in the mall. I have only been at it for two days, and, as you can see, I have already ruled out several options. Since I took these photos in front of a bunch of coworkers, the hardest part was not laughing, everybody else was.