Happy Leap Year!

Might as well get that out because it'll be another four years before I can say that again with gusto.

The Change Mug That Made its Way Home (sort of)

In early January I was standing at our dresser in the master bedroom putting away some socks and other folded laundry when I glanced at Jon's glass mug full of change sitting atop the dresser.

As long as I've known him he's had that mug, full of change, sitting on top of the same dresser. He had it at his place when we were dating, then it moved (along with the dresser) to our first home after we married, and now there it was, sitting on top of it's old buddy, the dresser, in our home in Washington state, twenty minutes from Portland, OR, home of the Rose Festival.

I don't know what prompted me to read the mug. It's just one of those things in your home that you get so used to seeing you hardly notice the details.

My eyes opened incredulously as I saw clearly for the first time the words "Portland Rose Festival."

What? I had to laugh. Who put those words on there? Surely it hasn't always said that.

I later mentioned to Jon, "Hey, you know your change mug says, 'Portland Rose Festival' on it."

"Really?" He had to go and take a look for himself and then gave a prompt "huh" once satisfied.

"Where did you get it?" I asked.

"I dunno. Somewhere in Colorado. Maybe. I dunno."

I don't know where Jon got the mug or how it ended up several states away from Oregon, but here it is, eight years later, twenty minutes from home.

1965 Polaroid "Swinger" Camera

This little commercial is too catchy and nostalgic not to post. It stars Ali MacGraw and the Polaroid Swinger Camera.

Polaroid announced on February 8, 2008 that they're ceasing production of instant film. Although there's something captivating about the jagged and painterly edges of a photograph taken with Polaroid film (with those those terribly intriguing yet telltale circles), I'm only slightly sad about this. I remember playing with an old black polaroid camera when I was young. Ah, childhood...Wish you could've been here just this second as I flipped through the pages of my mental album, viewing all the polaroids of the family from ages ago. ...Baby pictures... Mom and all the girls in the family playing dress-up, Mom and Dad before I was born...

And still recently Jon and I were in a thrift store before Christmas rummaging through ancient electronics tossed on a metal shelf when we found an old Polaroid Camera with film still in it. Granted, the film was light leaked but for some inexplicable reason I just had to have it. The chemicals had long since dried, leaving random bubbly designs on the front and back of each Polaroid. We eventually left after deciding there was nothing worth buying but I left that thrift store a happy girl with three little mysterious Polaroids tucked under my arm.

Well, goodbye Polaroid. There are ways to recreate things digitally, but I imagine it'd be hard to recreate something as tactile as the real thing.

And so the digital age moves on.