cd ryan

I love this guys work. 

The crib

This is the crib my dad is making for our incoming bundle of joy. It's really beautiful as you can see. 

Satirical Observation

I know this might be old to some of you but, after showing Emily, we joke about how we often find it to be true. Like the other night at the Feist concert at Prospect Park.

Palmyra Trip

We had a fun weekend up at my parent's house. Emily had her first pageant experience as well. I enjoyed being with my sisters and brother. It was especially fun playing catch with frisbees and footballs before the performance began. We stopped by grandma's house as well.

Duty, done

So I was on Grand Jury duty in Brooklyn for the past two weeks. Unlike a trial jury that hears one case, we heard 35 cases and decided whether to indict (true bill) or to dismiss (no true bill). It was an interesting experience. Here is a list of a few things I learned:

(1) Where not to go in Brooklyn

(2) Most crimes happen at night

(3) Drugs aren't that expensive

(4) Cell phones are hot items to steal

(5) Grand Jury Duty=lots of reading time (read three books)

(6) I'm proud to be a Brooklynite (based on my fellow jurors)

(7) Brooklyn is quite diverse (and Russians are nice)

All in all it was a good experience. Heard a few terrible crimes though. I was also able to share some of my beliefs with a few people on the jury along with a Book of Mormon. I kinda think Grand Jury duty is a waste of our time if, like in other states, a judge can just do what we did. They let me go free for ten more years in NY State.

Too Much Law and Order?

Leave it to NYC to rob me of my 911-virginity. I've never had to call 911 before (Adam has--when his brother was hit by a truck as a child) but I've had lots of nightmares about trying to dial that or another important number and I couldn't for the life of me punch the right buttons. But then a few weeks ago, my time came. I was driving East on the Belt expressway (I've been told we don't call them "freeways" here) when, in one of those slow-motion moments, I noticed that there was a head floating in the middle of the fast lane on the West-bound side. Something clicked in my brain telling me that all was not right in time for me to look over and see a man in the middle of the fast lane. He was sitting serenely, with his back to traffic. My brain had two thoughts in a nano-second: "He must be protesting something" and, "Is there a mental hospital near here?" I debated if I should call 911 and even dialed 311 but hung up on the first "please press one..." This man is going to die! So I called 911, gave them my location, and a surprisingly detailed description of the man and hung up, shaken beyond belief and wondering if he would be hit. I searched the web for news of any weirdness on the Belt later that day but found nothing. So much for my "first time."



Last night, Adam and I were awakened out of a dead sleep by the sound of a gunshot. We had heard what sounded like rockets or firecrackers periodically the last week or so, but this one was different. We've both fired a hand gun, thanks to Adam's old roommate Jake and a bunch of 2-liter jugs filled with water in a Springville canyon, and so we knew this wasn't any firework. My first impulse was to run to the window and see what was going on. But Adam threw his arm over me and yelled at me to get down. Ok, maybe he wasn't that dramatic, but we were both really shaken and scared. We didn't hear any other noise, but at 1:11 AM, it seemed like calling 911 was the right thing to do. So, once again, I dialed and told them my name and what happened. NYPD called back and asked, just like the 911 dispatcher, if anyone had been injured... "No..." How many shots were there? "Just one..." Did we see anything? "Um...no--we're in bed." They asked if we wanted to meet with a police officer and we declined. They said something about officers being in the area and that was it. We slept fitfully the rest of the night; my dreams were filled with crime and violence. But everything seemed perfectly tranquil when I left for work this morning. My co-worker laughed when I told her how we'd called 911. Maybe, since I've already done it once, it's made it all the easier to do it again.



P.S. Before he rolled over and went back to sleep, I did tell Adam that, if someone was shot on our street, we were MOVING. To Utah.

Giving blood

Ah, Vampire Weekend.
They put on a good show this past Saturday at the SummerStage.
It was a bit of a sacrifice to see them, though they didn't take our blood.
We did get quite soaked several times. It's funny that we haven't learned one of the basic rules of being a NYer:
Never leave home without an umbrella.
It was a bit crazy. When we got there at 4, I walked for 5-10 mins and never saw the end of the line. So Emily and I decided to wait outside of the fence. It began to pour and seemed to not let up for like an hour. We decided to throw in the towel (which we wish we had) and headed for the subway, Once we got there we waited and warmed up a bit. By that time it had stopped raining so we said, heck we made it this far, and headed back. When we go there we saw that the line wasn’t that long and got in it since Vampire Weekend hadn’t taken the stage yet. At 6 they took the stage and started their first number as we were let in.

They were very entertaining. It was really fun until it began to pour again and were got re-soaked to the bone. We left quite the puddle under us on the N ride home.

The only casualty, we thought, was my cell phone. But now it works, except for the screen.

Thank you Brooklyn Vegan, Surgery, and Gerry Visco for the photos.

Our little girl

We had to go back for another ultrasound on Friday, because the last time we went, she was curled up so tight the technician couldn't measure her heart. The 3-D images they took that time only showed us that she was timid. Now we know she is friendly and responds when we tell her to say hi.

Oscar is printed

My first cover that I am stoked about.

Saturday Sights Part II

As promised, here are more photos of our excursion last Saturday.

We went to the South Street Seaport, a stone's throw from Wall Street. It was mostly a tourist trap but it was fun to see the ships and be so close to the water. Plus, it had a great view.

When I saw the tugboat, I couldn't stop myself from going "toot toot!" But I wouldn't do the motion for the picture. Sorry, Adam.
We checked out the restaurants on the pier but didn't find anything reasonable. Then we wandered down a cobble-stone street, past some bars that were hopping, and stumbled upon this restaurant, Carmine's. It's over 100 years old! It's hard to see in the picture, but it looked really...piratey from the outside. Inside, the low lighting and thick wooden furniture added to the feeling that we were on board a ship—the Black Pearl? And we ate some of the best food I've had here: clams, scallops, shrimp, and fish fillet, with spaghetti to break up the fishiness and garlic bread to sop up all the mouth-watering sauces. I'd been craving seafood for a while and I was in pregnancy heaven.

I think Adam's thinking, how much is this going to cost? And I'm just excited to eat seafood.

Saturday Sights

On our outing on saturday we caught this view together. More photos to come.

Solar Airship

So this is pretty cool. It's works like a kite. Check out the video here. Thanks Swissmiss (who also brought me mixwit).

On the way to the subway last night I gave Elmo a hi-five.

The Man-child

Emily and I read this article earlier this year about the man-child. It's really interesting. Tell us what you think. This image is on that very subject by Graham Roumieu who is very talent artist I stumbled upon in the past month.

This is another one I really loved.

Colin Meloy

I saw this live studio session with Colin Meloy today. I really enjoyed it. He has an amazing voice, and to see him sing in such an intimate setting in an unpolished video, like a music video would be, really makes him more real. Check it out. I also enjoyed him in an interview with Terry Gross about a year ago.

Also I just heard Laura Gibson yesterday for the first time. She's got a great sound.

Burnt offering

This happened right near my work yesterday. It was kinda freaky walking to the subway and seeing the burnt carcass of a nyc taxi cab. Never saw any smoke or fire though, I walked by at 5:15ish.

Sun message

Really great idea with type.

This CHICKen is toast!

Recipe: 4 hrs on high in slow cooker
Emily thought you can't burn in a slow cooker so she did 8 hrs on high. It was really cool how it was in one piece and flat on one side. You could have hung it on the wall as a piece of artwork. For other culinary artists out there, just so you know: you can burn using a slow cooker. Emily's not a bad cook though, since we've been married (a year and a half) this is her first charcoal rendering.

Unpublished

This may come as a surprise to some but here is our baby that emily has been growing inside of her for some 13 weeks now. It's sort of a funny picture because the baby seems to have its tongue sticking out. I guess he/she takes after his/her parents. He/She also appears to be waving. Pretty cool kid. We are excited. The cost of growing the baby has taken a toll on Emily though, she has been pretty sick, often the worst at night. Nausea, sour stomach, and a lot of discomfort. Hopefully things will get better for her at the start of the second trimester.

Published.

So sometimes I get to work a few minutes early so I can browse the stacks and stacks of free books. I've been here a little over three months now so I often keep an eye out for books I may have worked on or designed. Today I found the first one I actually did with my name on it. Cover design by: me. Egocentric ? Perhaps. Feels cool? MosDef. And hey, it may not be my best work yet, but it's my first so I can go from there.

This is great

I'm glad there are people like this.

Ego-Boost

Melanie tagged me so here's my post on Seven Interesting Things about Me:

1. I served in two missions. I was originally called to Venezuela Maracaibo and was sent to the Texas Ft. Worth Mission to wait for my visa. I ended up staying there for four months serving in an English-speaking singles ward in the college town of Denton. When the time came for me to finally leave for Venezuela, my mission president, along with Missionary Medical, decided that, becuase of anxiety/depression issues I had developed in the field, I wasn't fit to leave the country, or some BS like that. (Yes, I am still bitter about it.) So I was given the choice to stay in Texas as an English-speaking missionary (as I was the last Hermana in the Mission) or I could continue with my Spanish in the Flordia Tampa Mission. I eagerly said goodbye to Texas, though I left behind some great friends, and spent the next year in the beautiful gulf coast of Florida.
2. I've been healed three different times in what I consider to be miraculous ways by priesthood blessings. The first was when I was just an infant. (Correct me if I get it wrong, Mom.) It was a Sunday and my family was at church. Earlier that day, I had had a high fever. All of a sudden, in the middle of Sacrament Meeting, I started to convulse, eyes rolled back and everything. My mom grabbed Dad and Brother Birrell (a good family friend to this day) and they gave me a blessing in the foyer. I stopped immediately and was fine after that. The second happened a week before I was to leave for study abroad in London in the fall of 2001 (where I, too, was a resident of Notting Hill :). I had developed a sudden case of Mono and my doctor warned me that it could make traveling out of the country impossible. My father, again, gave me a blessing and a week later, I was up on my feet and feeling great. I went to England as planned and never experienced any symptoms like fatigue after that. The third time, most recently, was when I found out I was pregnant and just a week later started to bleed. The ob/gyn gave us a 50/50 chance of loosing the baby, but Adam had more faith than that. He and our home teacher gave me a blessing and not too long after that the bleeding stopped and the baby/fetus has been fine since. (Twelve weeks!)
3. I was, at one time, a hard-core X-Files fan. I bought magazines; I clipped newspaper articles; I even went to an X-Files convention in downtown Los Angeles (thanks, Dad!). Much of this, of course, is attributable to my infatuation with David Duchovney. But I couldn't get enough of the show. I would record every episode onto VHS tapes until I had shelves full. For one season premier, I made an X-Files shrine that I proudly showed to the Elders who came for dinner. They must have thought I was such a weirdo. Or a pagan. I would also imagine elaborate plots (before the show used my idea) in which I was abducted by aliens and Mulder had to meet some DeepThroat late at night to exchange me for some precious piece of evidence. When the show switched to Sundays, I still watched it, trekking from my dorm in Helaman to the basement of DT to watch with my friend Sarah and other apostate Philes. Of course, when Duchovney left the show, I lost all interest. And I haven't ever bought the episodes on DVD, though that would be a fun birthday gift...
4. I know the entire Thriller dance. In fact, dancing it at a ward hoe down is what snagged me a husband.
5. I once scared off a gang of gypsies from jumping my friend, Jonathon, on the streets of Paris. All with the sheer force of my voice.
6. I was a finalist for the Hinckley Scholarship at BYU, which is the presidential scholarship they award to 25 freshman girls and 25 freshman boys. They brought 50 of us finalist girls to BYU for a week of torture where I ate bitter herbs, answered endless questions from a panel of college professors, and fell asleep during my first Forum (and subsequently failed the questions on the Diplomat's speech). I didn't get the scholarship, which I accredit to never getting my Young Women's medalion, so I never got to meet President Hinckley. But I made a great friend--the fellow X-Phile in DT.
7. I have a terrible memory. I attribute it to my mild case of epilipsy, but I don't know if that argument holds any water. I'm terrible with short-term stuff like where I put things and what appointments I have and what I told Adam yesterday. But I'm also sadly unable to recall a lot of long-term stuff. I was going to write about my job at Six Flags Magic Mountain but I couldn't remember if I'd worked there one summer or two. I've already lost details of my wedding day and my ex-companion is always mentioning stuff that happened to us on the mission that I don't remember. Pregnancy has, of course, made it worse and I assume that motherhood will just completely annihilate whatever memory I have left. Good argument for keeping a journal, huh?

So that's me. Adam, Lindsay, Sarah K--tag, you're it.

California Dreaming...A few hundred miles north-east, that is...

So the night before last, I had a dream that I was walking down the street and I magically appeared on BYU campus. I remember exactly where I stood--on the sidewalk in front of the Tanner Building and across the street from the JKHB (or what once was the JKHB). The sky was blue but not bright, like the sun had just begun to set. When I realized where I was, tears came to my eyes and I literally got down on my knees and kissed the ground. Pathetic? You be the judge. But it really made me stop and think. And the more I thought, the more I realized I need help. So here's my thoughts. Then you can help.

After lying awake a few moments after the dream ended, I realized that I had kissed the ground partly out of sheer joy that it was CLEAN. For those of you not familiar with either Provo, Utah or Sunset Park, Brooklyn, these hyperlinks will show you what I saw/see on a daily basis. I couldn't describe better than these pictures illustrate the glaring and depressing difference. Walking home from the subway yesterday, (on that same road in the Google Map), I was pondering my sidewalk smooch and I realized that, when I walk around Brooklyn, all I look at is the ground--the dirty, grimy, litter-strewn, tattooed w/ gum ground. Maybe it's the bitter winter wind that keeps my shoulders srunched up and my head down. But maybe not. So I decided to try an experiment: I'd look up. Not just out at the garish storefronts, but UP to the old brick buildings that make up the muted skyline. I really tried to focus. "Hey, I've never noticed that building before." "Are those cell phone towers?" "How on earth did they get graffiti way up there?" It was a nice change.

Later that night, Adam and I listened to a part of the Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting in which Elder Holland, Elder Oaks, Sister Beck, and a few other sister axillary leaders talked about marriage and family. At one point, they were giving advice to newlyweds and I couldn't help but feel my conscience pricked as they talked about obeying the first law given to Adam and Eve: to leave their mother and father and cleave unto each other. Is my pining for Provo a failure to stand by my man? I keep telling myself that we're here for Adam's career which is fundamental to our family's future. But somehow, when I'm looking at the sidewalk, it just doesn't matter. Occasionally, I'll be running by the cemetery near our house and I'll get the faintest whiff of...nature. It almost brings me to tears.

So after all these thoughts (with few pictures, which Adam HATES), I'm asking for your help/comments/advice. Please. Before I loose it completely and run screaming like a madwoman down 4th Avenue. Or kiss the sidewalk.

Munday Everyday

So I came across the work of Oliver Munday. I had seen his work in Typography 28, for a bit of his student work, but his other stuff really inspires me. I love how graphic, thoughtful and simple his work is, yet how powerful it is. He has a great understanding of color and creating interest quickly. Enjoy. www.olivermunday.com

CS3 Magic

I had a training the other day on the new creative suite(more like creative sweet) and was enamored by the photomerge. It automatically aligns the pictures and blends them. Look mom no hands. I had to try it out. I took a very famous spot which I pass every day to work. I am truly blessed.
I also took one while waiting for the train coming back from 3 Guys from Brooklyn.

Smart Vandals

Man, I love this.

MTA: What's up with that?

So besides the fact that everyone especially ignores this sticker, what is up with the the type? The O's are bold and the a or e is leaning. Such a hodgepodge of type for a well branded MTA that is slowly loosing its savor. I mean the metro card is hideous and you see it everywhere discarded on the ground (especially in Brooklyn). Soon the memorable letters even will be all replaced by the digital screen versions. What a shame.