Today is an anniversary of sorts for me. I had a life changing experience on this day 9 years ago. Not long after, I moved to San Francisco and continued on my journey. And what a journey it’s been! I couldn’t even have imagined the life I have today. Really. I am a creative person, and my life has far exceeded my own expectations – “beyond my wildest dreams”. I am happy, healthy and have everything a person needs (including food to eat and clean water to drink). Not to mention being married to my soul mate. Life is good. I am SO grateful to be alive and for all of the friends I have made along the way. I am so blessed that I have another day to share this with all of you – and man, I have the coolest job in the world – photographing and experiencing other people’s joy on their special day. I just wanted to share this joy with you – like you have shared your joy with me.

Love ya!

V

This is an image of me taken the day I arrived in San Francisco….I look so young (and so short ; )

I think part of why I have been so nostalgic has to do with the fact that so much has been changing around me. At least it feels that way. In December 1986 my dad bought a new 1987 Honda Prelude. I remember how excited he was to get the car – I believe it was his very first new car. He used to take me out for drives on the highway in his “sports car”. Eventually the car was replaced, and it was passed on to my brother for many years….when Erik & I moved to CT over a year ago, we “inherited” the car. Let me tell you that it has been falling apart for a while, but we held on as long as we could. A couple weeks ago we took it the shop for repairs, and the car was put on death row. Two weeks tops was the verdict. Well, we decided to donate the car to Kars 4 Kids and they came and got it yesterday….

Well, we went out and bought our very first new car – completing the cycle. Now we take long drives on the highway, and come up with excuses to drive the new car. Here it is!

We got a new GPS Navigation system (and for those of you who know me well, know I am addicted to GPS) and it totally rocks. I was so excited that we could choose between a number of different languages and male/female voices, etc. We chose a female with an Australian accent. I know…I get excited by strange things. Its also cool that it has Bluetooth integrated for hands free calling. I can’t stand ear pieces for cell phones. I can’t tell you how much it annoys me when people walk around with them in their ears. When they first came out I was living in San Francisco, and I remember seeing people walking down the street talking to themselves – or so I thought. Heh. It was like an epidemic. People on the streets, people on the buses, people in stores…pretty comical actually. I am going off on a tangent as I usually do. Hope you all enjoy your day! I hear we may get snow tonight. It has been a very snowy winter – compared to last year anyway.

I have been feeling a bit nostalgic…always seems to happen at the beginning of a new year. I have boxes and boxes of old photos, in addition to those placed neatly in albums. The albums I look at pretty frequently, but the stuff in the boxes, well, not so much. I came across some interesting former hairdos and clothing choices from the 80’s and 90’s, some funny family pictures, and some hilarious pictures of my niece and nephews. Lots of memories in a dusty old box. The image I came across that I wanted to share was one of the first images that I remember taking and developing/printing for a 7th grade class. A long time ago, folks….I wont even mention how many years ago 7th grade was for me. Anyway, I won some sort of school award for this one. It was taken at the Bronx zoo. Enjoy!

Oh, and Happy Valentine’s Day!