A Very Hip Year

On New Year’s Day, I had only one goal for 2011 – to document the year in pictures. Several of my friends had been doing a picture-a-day/365 photo project and had posted the results on their Facebook walls. I loved the idea. I loved seeing a slice of their day-to-day lives even more. Some might call me a nosy or a voyeur. I prefer the term anthropologist. My favorite class in college was Cultural Anthropology. Unfortunately I took it in my last semester, or I would’ve probably changed my major. I still love looking at how people live their lives.

I fully expected that some people would like to see my photographs as well. What I didn’t expect was how it would influence my family life as well. The “photo of the day” is an important part of our everyday lives. My Bestest and the kids all try to point out what might be interesting. When the Eldest went away for the weekend, one of the first things she wanted to do upon returning home was to see the photos she’d missed. Documenting our lives in pictures this year has really become, in ways big and small, a way of expressing who we are.

With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to not only post the pictures, but the stories behind them. Of course, it’s May and I haven’t even started doing that. What I have done is manage to take a photo every day since January 1. By ADHD standards, that’s practically a miracle. For convenience’s sake, I decided to take all the pictures on my iPhone. That way I’d always have a camera nearby. I also decided to try out the Hipstamatic app to add some fun effects to the pictures.

So let me get started with Saturday, January 1:

365 – Fire! Fire! Fire!

Nearly every New Year’s Eve and Day for the last several years has been spent at my In-Law’s place in West Virginia, affectionately known as Grandma and Grandpa’s House in the Woods. The joke is that their other house in DC is The House in The Hood. Weather permitting, we have a bonfire to burn the brush and trees that have accumulated. The house is on the edge of the George Washington National Forest, so there’s no shortage of those materials. This year, we roasted hot dogs, marshmallows, and a very old tin of Jiffy Pop. As the popcorn flew up into the air, it looked like it was snowing from below. It’s easy to take a seat and let the warmth flow over you. Just don’t get too close.

2 thoughts on “A Very Hip Year

  1. awesome!
    though might I point out – if the goal is to post all of the photos, you have a better chance of success if you post more than one at a time 😉

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