Birthday and Ballgame last week

On last Friday I turned 38. In general I don’t really care too much about celebrating my birthday but I like to celebrate other people's. This isn’t because I’m worried about getting older, at least not much more than most. I’m fine with turning 38 and if I say that enough times maybe you will believe me and maybe most importantly I will talk myself into believing that! Now talk to me in two years when I turn 40 and maybe it will be a different story.

One memory I have when I was younger was of my Mom and Dad turning 40. I was 13 at the time and I remember going to Spenser gifts in the Lansing Mall with my Mom and buying my Dad a bunch of over the hill gifts. A coffee mug, balloons, and cards. At that time I thought 40 was really old. Of course in the last several years I have had many friends turn 40 (Bought some of them the same gifts) and now I’m on that doorstep myself.

I had a great day on Friday. I started by waking up in my own bed. I had just gotten back from another week in Green Bay about 1am. I ran over to my parents (a nice 5 minute drive now that I live back in East Lansing.) I saw them and my Grandma for an hour or so. I then spent a lot of the day running around getting caught up on some errands.   

When Diane got out of work she stopped and got us a pizza, cake and ice cream. Diane, Jasmine and I ate, watched movies and took it easy. It was the perfect way to spend my birthday. I heard from people on Facebook I haven’t talked to in along time and called it a night.

Saturday the only thing I had on my schedule was a family photo shoot in Okemos that took about an hour to shoot and a couple hours to edit.

Sunday we were off to the Tiger game. Diane and I picked up our friends Beth and Inna then we were off to meet other friends, Andy, Nicole, Shana, Larry and Ashley at Lafayette Coney a few blocks away from Comerica Park.

We all got some Coneys, then it was time for the game. We got bleacher tickets but for the most part just stood in right field or walked around the Park.

The weather was perfect and the Tigers won, but really the best part about the game was just being with great friends and enjoying a day at the Park.

Back to Green Bay

So a few weeks ago I thought (or had hopes) I was done with Green Bay, but nope here I am again. I have decided I need to have a better attitude about this town. The reason I haven’t enjoyed myself here is simply because I have spent way too much time here. A couple years ago when I switched to this new position with my company I trained here in G.B. and then worked the location for 5 weeks, having about a year break before finding myself covering the location again for several weeks, and that brings me to now. I have been here 5 weeks in the last couple months.

I can usually find something to shoot no matter where I end up, but I have struggled here in G.B. I have talked about this before on my FaceBook Post’s, but I just can’t find anything appealing that I want to capture around here. There is Lambeau Field but when you have been to places like Wrigley (Chicago), ATT Park (San Fran), Madison Square Garden (NYC), or the Boston Garden, it just doesn't compare. It's just a stadium in the middle of a parking lot. At least from the outside, I’m sure when you are there on a game day and see thousands of cheese heads going crazy, it’s a different story.

The drive through Chicago at least breaks up the 7 hour trip. I love the feel of Chicago (My favorite big city), I always have. Right after High School several of my friends moved there, so I spent a lot of my free time doing things like seeing Junior Wells play at a small blues bar on W Armitage called Rosa’s Lounge, listening to Koko Taylor on N Halsted at Kingston Mines and then heading across the street to La Bamba for a burrito as big as your head. Or back in my drinking days head over to O’Malley’s for a little taste of home with some Green and White décor, or head to The Billy Goat for a double-double no fries, no Pepsi, or on this trip stop at Mr. Beef at 666 N Orleans for an Italian Beef combo and some fries. I have been trying to eat healthy as of late but when you know all you have to do is get off at Ohio St and you can have the below photo in your belly, the car just kind of drove itself there!

It was an overcast day so I decided I wasn't going to shot anything in Chicago. I would continue north and stop in Milwaukee. A couple hours later when I arrived it was still overcast, I thought I would drive around to scout out some locations, possibly for another day. I came across a bridge with 2 lighthouses, (image below) you will notice how the sky is gray and there is no depth to the photo, this is a throw away shot, and I knew it when I took it. I was just getting an idea of the area, so next time I'm in Milwaukee and the weather is more appealing, I can get a better image.

On days like this I try to frame out the sky as much as possible. In the first image below I used a longer lens to fill the frame with the bridge and sign, trying to only capture a little bit of the sky in the top right corner. The second and third shots I couldn't help but get a little more of the sky in the frame, but it's not part of the main focal point.

I then ventured over to Marquette University on the other side of town. By then it started to rain, but once again I thought I would scout the area for another day. I capture these few shots.

After Marquette I finished up the couple hour drive to G.B., checked into my room and watched TV for a few hours before calling it a night.

A different kind of road

When naming this Blog series, I thought about how it feels like I'm always on the road. Diane and I were talking about the original name, Travel with John McGraw, but as we were driving through the beautiful state of North Carolina on part of our 8-day adventure, we came up with “The Road to Somewhere”.

This week we moved to East Lansing. I had been living on the south side of Lansing and Diane and her daughter Jasmine were in Eaton Rapids. I grew up in East Lansing and it’s good to be back. That being said it’s not like I was really gone, I have been living in Lansing, so one place was 2 minutes from EL and the other was 20 minutes. The last place like I said was on the south side of town, and most of the things I do are in EL or the east part of Lansing, so I will save a lot of money on gas now that I’m right in this area. Plus my parents still live in EL and my brother and his family moved here about a year ago.

I decided to pay movers this time. Between Diane and my place I didn’t think it would take them that long, but figured it would be worth saving our backs, to spend our energy on getting the place the way we want it. It took them 4 hours, it would have taken us all day if not two, plus plenty of trips back and forth, with the price of renting a truck and gas, it just didn't seem worth it.

As I type this we have about ¾ of the place the way we want it. There are still boxes in the dinning room, with plenty of little things to put away. We have been shopping a couple times to get things you always need when you move but it’s starting to feel like home. It was one of the easiest moves I have ever been a part of, and well worth a few hundred bucks, to be able to enjoy the experience.

I have not been on the road the last couple weeks, and it was a well-needed break. That’s about to end. I have to go back to Green Bay. I was just there for 4 out of 5 weeks before vacation, and was hoping I saw it in my rearview mirror for the last time.  That’s not the case; it looks like I will be there the next two weeks, coming back on weekends. As some of you know I have grown to hate Green Bay. I normally can find things to do in almost every town I go to, but this city really doesn’t have anything for me.

I haven’t checked yet, but I’m going to look at the schedules for the Cubs and Brewers to see if maybe one of them are in town as I drive back and forth, possibly catch a game and take some photos. This will help break up the boredom of the same old road. So let’s see where this road takes me…