Thursday, February 20, 2014

Funerals, missings and looking ridiculous in the process.

An incredible friend of our family, Joann Garcia, passed away in January and the funeral was in Maryville. My Nan is buried at a cemetery on Alcoa Hwy between Maryville and me. I don't go much because she knows I hate cemeteries and I think she understands. I think she'd be more concerned about me buying a dress full price than how often I make it to the cemetery. ;) When I do go, I try to talk with her. It's an outdoor mausoleum that she and my Papaw have forever referred to as their "File Cabinets" so they can spend forever together next to each other doing their taxes. Jeanne Sexton Geiger. Wife, mother, grandmother, teacher, yard sale master.




Their "drawers" are rather taller than I am. I'm on my absolute tiptoes in this picture. Nan always appreciated my sunglasses and ridiculous style. You can see in the sunglasses that it was an absolutely beautiful day. Cold, windy and sad but with a little relief given by sunshine and some clouds. I always loved clouds. When I was little and learned they meant rain and people say, "Look! Not a cloud in the sky!" with happiness it always really confused me. I need clouds. Cumulonimbus my life.
Here's a rare look into my really high tech photography techniques. This is an electric cooler from Aaron's truck that the DC jack melted on. We had to buy a new one and I'm lazy and left this one in the car while researching how to repair the power source. (Here that, Papaw? ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING!) So I hauled it out of the car, sat it down and climbed up there. Some cemetery workers in tractors drove by and saw this: Black dress, yellow tights, blue shoes, windswept red curls, red wind chapped, crying face all on a girl standing on an electric cooler in a cemetery at 3 pm on a Saturday in January.

Nan rarely smiled with her mouth open in pictures. She had a gap between her two front teeth that I inherited, actually. Thanks to the painful and grouchy experiences with Earnest A. Rider, D.D.S. (Direct Dental-assistant to Satan) in Charlotte, I had braces, retainers, this thing called a "Frankel" and the gap similarity I shared with Nan disappeared. (To be clear, I loved Dr. Rider.) She had red hair and pale skin. My mother and I have the same nose that's some wonky combination of my Papaw's handsome nose and my Nan's beautiful nose. So we have funky Geiger noses. At the funeral I had just attended, I met the daughter of our friend, Joann, for the first time. Her daughter's name is Susan and she talked to me for a bit and said she saw Nan in me. That really warmed my heart. Her parents and my grandparents have been friends for quite a long time. Joann's husband Al (who is Cuban and fantastic!) is a retired architect in Knoxville and worked closely with Papaw throughout their careers. So Susan grew up knowing Nan and my mother and her siblings.
Messing around with Christmas lights and ASL.
Our niece, Claire modeling for me for this "One picture a day for 365 days" challenge I gave myself and promptly faceplanted on. I do not have a month and a half worth of daily pictures from 2014. Surprise, surprise. ;) (Fun fact: that necklace she's wearing is one of the many amazing clunky, funky necklaces my Nan gave me before she passed away. Style lives on, Nan!)
"Okay, Claire, give me a serious model face." I think she's got it down.
Cuddling the Cricket
The first day I began the 365 Challenge. Late at night. At the last minute. This is me with messy hair, chipped fingernail polish and my absolutely 100% favorite filter for my Canon AE-1 35mm. Behold all that hormonal acne glory.
Double exposure Love Love.