Flight Day has arrived.
I have no idea if I will make it over to the other coast today. Weather is always a factor, when you fly in the winter.
So while you wait for word that all is well with me and the return to my family and my life, I give you a snapshot of what the past 4 months was to me and my family.
This is, of course my best effort at a Holiday Card.
Hopefully, I can get it out before Christmas.
See you all on the flip side. :-)
The car is gone and my paper is (hopefully) submitted. I am down to just me and my luggage.
The bed stays here and as I mentioned, so does my microwave. The rest of the place is empty.
I need to clean up the apartment, say goodbye to my life here and take the bus down to Syracuse.
I will spend my last night in the frozen north, closer to the airport, so I don't have to worry too much about getting onto my flight so early in the morning. Since I had to vacate the apartment, it seemed the right thing to do.
As I am pulling up my "tent" and moving on, I have such sadness. It has truly been an unforgettable adventure. I just wish I could have seen my family more, during my stay here. Talk about non-stop business all the time.
As expected, I made friends and they taught me so much, I will be missing them.
Counting down the days til I leave...1 left.
I want to begin this post by saying that I did not take this photo. It was taken by Laura Halferty. This is a place to the north and east of where I am, called Southwick Beach. It is by Watertown and Fort Drum and probably near where a drone crashed...
Though it is obviously taken along Lake Ontario, I consider it a sunset photo and not a water photo.
I would like to use this photo to be my final goodbye, since tomorrow's post will be all about cleaning and leaving.
Goodbye Oswego area. I have enjoyed staying here with you and wish you well. May the economy get better for your residents and may my school continue to grow and expand. It makes me so proud to have seen it this one more time.
I also wish to say a final goodbye to my landlady from the past. I visited her grave just one more time on Saturday and placed a flag that has graced my apartment these last 4 months, onto it. May we sometime meet again, Mrs. Imbolli.
I have no idea if we get to go to graduation, so this might be it for me. Only the future knows for sure.
Counting down the days til I leave...2 left.
I had just stopped at the text area by the Mohawk River and already I had decided that Canajoharie was going to get a stop from me. It was noon and a pizza from Tony's was calling my name. Remember I spent a half hour or so, walking around the town a year ago October. You can refresh your memory, HERE.
I get off the Thruway and find out that there is no more Tony's. What? But I wanted a Tony's! Now, what do I do?
I walked down the street and viewed the shops in the small town and then saw there was a pizza place called Gino's. I figured I would eat there, instead and so I walked in.
The owner told me that Tony's and all the other businesses on the block had been kicked out of the building, because the owner sold it to someone else. The business had been there something like 40 years.
So I ordered a slice of pizza to go and as I go to pay the woman, she informs me that the pizza was on her and since she is the owner, she would not take no for an answer. What a wonderful thing to do for me.
I walked back to my car, admiring all the cool holiday decorations in the little town and was very glad I had made the stop to see my favorite little town along the Thruway...Canajoharie.
Counting down the days til I leave...3 left.
It's Water Wednesday!
This post is a bit of a stretch, but I fell in love with the ice on the mountains of rock, that line parts of the NY State Thruway. This is somewhere along the way, where they cut the road through the rocks.
It was quite impressive when I came down on Friday and so on Sunday, I grabbed a few photos. This one being the best of the bunch.
I get the feeling that during the times of the year when the sun is very low in the sky, these rocks live with ice on them. They just never see the sun.
Very cool and I hope you enjoy.
Counting down the days til I leave...4 left.
This is basically the class of 8, though one of us is missing (she had to leave before we who had class, arrived) and another is an Art lab assistant and couldn't get away. One of the people in this shot is in HCI (Human Computer Interaction) instead of Integrated Media. But still, you get the point. Being that we cross boundries between, HCI, Art and all sorts of media we end up with each other, in several classes. The girl in HCI ended up in our Technology and Culture class, several of the people in the program come from the Art world, me and my friend, along with one of the guys are Broadcast. A couple of students, I am not sure of their undergrad degrees, but one has a website and is trying to kick it up a notch or two. The final one did graduate with a Communications Degree, but she isn't sure where she is going or what she is doing...but she hopes to learn skills that will help her find a job and career.
No matter what, we were in each others pockets for the entire semester and will probably be there again, next semester. Me remotely, of course. It will help that we know each other this time around, since I will only be there via the screen. :-)
Jamie, Laura, Liz, Azania, Andrew, Me, HCI Trish, (not pictured, Carly and Kyle)
As the founding class of Integrated Media, we are proud to push this degree certificate forward.
Counting down the days til I leave...5 left.
My Water Post For Today.
I drove back from Long Island to Oswego, NY for my last few weeks of class.
It was a warm day, though not very sunny. Perfect for driving, though. No bright sun in the eyes.
This is a text area I had noticed the last time I came through this stretch of the NYS Thruway and I swore I would pull over and take a few photos. It's actually the Mohawk River, but I believe the Erie Canal is part of it, at this point.
It goes back and forth, around this area of the state, because the Mohawk starts to get smaller.
Please note how nice and clean my car was, in spite of all the salt on the roadway. My brother in law helped me get it washed, while I was on the Island.
Now if I can just get through the next week without lots of salt being put down on our roads in Oswego, the car might get out of the frozen north relatively unscathed.
Counting down the days til I leave...6 left.
It was crazy these past 2 weeks, with running down to Long Island last weekend. What that partially caused, is that I did not actually get to edit with Final Cut Pro, as I had wanted to do. I was there watching and putting in my input, for just about all of it, so I did what I could in that regard. It was fantastic to watch something we had cobbled together and shot, against all odds, become something so awesome.
When our teacher got a look at the final product, she said she really thought we were going to be the winners of the screening. Of course the winner got a can of Easy Cheese: American, so it wasn't like it was a big deal or anything.
But still...That was a nice thing to hear. No guarantee though, since audiences are so fickle. :-)
You can view the final movie HERE.
The big moment came and we all voted. The announcement came and yes, we did indeed win the audience award. (Note: there was an instructor award and that went to The Matrix, though our teacher told us on Thursday that we had won that one, too but they decided to spread the love). We were just happy to hear we won both, we didn't need the Easy Cheese... :-)
In spite of the hint the day before, I think we were all shocked.
But happy...very, very, happy.
Great job team!
Counting down the days til I leave...7 left.
The big, big, BIG hockey event of the Fall Semester...is White Out Weekend.
That's when our Laker Hockey Team goes up against its archrival, SUNY Plattsburgh.
I have never attended a hockey game, and I feel that this one will be a sell out. I think I might walk by the rink to catch the scene, but there probably won't be tickets left.
I got my husband a shirt, per his request and will probably wear it today.
Gotta show some pride...right?
Anyway, my best to the Lakers.
Counting down the days til I leave...8 left.
As the semester moves on to its inevitable conclusion, I realized I still had not heard from the company who will be transporting my car, I needed to call the utilities and get myself off of them and I had to get rid of my bed/couch and my microwave.
Well, thinking about all that at 4AM made me wide awake and so I began my day at 5AM, working on logs in Los Angeles. As soon as it was into the work day, for businesses, I got right on the phone and began calling all the utilities and got that done. Then talked to the transport company and they do have me, but they have not yet confirmed the transport. It will be soon though and maybe next Thursday will be pick up. Which will be close to perfect, though Friday would be even better, IMHO.
So then I called the tenant who will be taking over my apartment the day I fly back to LA. He was totally on board with taking my bed/couch and my microwave and immediately came over, money in hand. I was shocked how fast it went.
So they will be left in the apartment, for my use and I no longer need to worry about what to do with them.
WOOT!
Counting down the days til I leave...9 left.
This goes back so far, I don't have a year on it, so I am assuming I painted it in 1988.
It hangs in my sister's house and I only see it, when I visit.
It happens to be one of my favorites, with the dramatic clouds of receding thunder storms and the sunset obviously happening at the same time. I believe the painting was called "After The Storm".
Add to that, the simplicity of the farm and you have a winner of a painting.
Glad I painted it!
Counting down the days til I leave...10 left.
It's Water Wednesday!
This was taken from the same basic spot that my Monday post was taken.
As usual, a totally different view occurs when you look the other way.
It was so wild that day, that the waves did a serious job of crashing against the rocks on the shore.
I couldn't last on that lake for long, that day, but for the few moments it took, it was very invigorating.
Enjoy.
Counting down the days til I leave...11 left.
So I lied the other day...
When I went to Rochester, I said that the trip would be the last one I took, before I left the Oswego area. Well, I guess I lied, because even though I wanted to go Downstate during the Thanksgiving Holidays, I knew I couldn't. I had so very much work to do and I figured I would be stuck here the entire 6 days.
I knew the weather was going to be terrible, so I definitely was not going to make the attempt in the snow. I am not totally stupid. I had heard that the weather was going to warm up toward the end of the week and that is what I shot for. I worked and I worked and I worked for 3 days and I got almost everything done. All that is basically left is the 8 to 10 thousand word paper (due on the 12th) the Powerpoint about the paper (due on Monday of this week) and a Powerpoint about this blog compared to my new baby, Steely Dan, Steely Dan! I am to compare the 2 styles and what I feel are good points and bad points in each one. This is for a group of future Graduate Educators and it is due on the 13th. P.S. If you have anything to say in this regard, feel free to leave it in the comments. I am leaning toward the cleaner look I have with Steely Dan, myself and I am thinking of taking some of the many things I have added over the years, off of this one. Feel free to tell me I am totally wrong to think these thoughts. :-)
So I watched how Friday was shaping up, weather wise. We had about 4 inches of Lake Effect Snow that morning, but they had the area plowed, when I got the car out at 9:30AM. So off I went. I ended up with a car full of salt and a windshield filled with salt, because my windshield washer fluid was obviously not OK for freezing weather. In spite of that challenge, I would stop and wash the windshield off once in a while and I got down to the NYC area of the world, just around sunset.
So my sister and her husband got visited and then on Saturday, I spent some time with my youngest brother. It was a fast 2 day trip, with me leaving on Sunday morning, but I wanted to see them all, just one more time, before I left the East for my home in Los Angeles.
Here is a photo selfie I took of me and my sister. Oh, sis, you were right. I like you with your lips together, cause it came out better. :-)
See you next time...whenever that is.
Counting down the days til I leave...12 left.
My Water Post For Today.
We have had some wild weather the past week and one of the days, I went out to another place I hardly visit, to take some photos.
This one shows off the wave action and a bonus. Off in the distance, you can see Oswego Light House, in the harbor.
I hope you enjoy.
Counting down the days til I leave...13 left.
I needed to create a podcast for my Integrated Media Project, which is, of course about Steely Dan. So I decided to talk about how I ended up joining a web community that was into Steely Dan.
The following is a 3 minute story explaining how I started hanging out on Steely Dan message boards, back in 2001. In the podcast, I speak of watching an "In The Spotlight" show. If interested, you can see that, HERE.
It was a journey that took almost 1 year, from the start, to the first posting on a message board.
The concerts I have seen and the friends I have made along the way, have been priceless. I encourage people to scope out the scene, tread lightly, but don't be afraid to jump in.
Enjoy the podcast.
