114|365 Construction Calisthenics (4/28/11)

From the second floor and higher in my parking garage, I get to see a small glimpse into the Devon construction zone. The construction workers gather each morning about 7:00 am, have a discussion and do some warm up exercises & stretching with their vests and helmets on.  Yesterday, their arms were moving above their heads in sync as they were doing an exercise.  I never really thought about them warming up but it makes sense.

The photo isn’t very great since it’s through a dirty window and the zoom on the iPhone doesn’t capture what my eyes see very easily.

The building has certainly ‘grown’ since my January photo — Sooner Tall

107|365 The Back Alley (4/21/11)

With all the electrical poles surrounding us it created an effect of archways over the alley.  This back alley (behind Coach’s Brewery in Norman) was the scene for a portion of our photography class tonight.  Each of the class members took turns being a model while the others practiced using a custom white balance.  I got some nice photos of the ‘models’ but no one wanted their photo published.  Everyone in my group really thought it was a great class.

87|365 Around the Bend (4/1/11)

Each evening I use this narrow, winding exit as I leave the parking garage to go home from work.  It’s important for me to position my car just right so it fits without touching anything and I get to practice at least twice each work day, on my way up then down.

It seems analogous to the journey of life (or to my genealogy research):

There’s a brick wall
windows with the glimmer of light
signs telling me which way to go
ups and downs
hope for better things around the bend
someone’s paved a way for me
and it’s always there for me to try again.

78|365 Today Is OK Day, K? (3/23/11)

As a child I was miserably shy and each time one of my school teachers would say ‘OK’, my heart raced and my fair-skinned face would turn beet red.  That’s because all I heard was ‘Kay’, which is my name, and I thought they were calling on me.  As the years went on I learned to ignore some of the times when they said OK.  Unfortunately, this lead to a different problem of me not responding when the teacher was actually calling on me and then they would be upset that I wasn’t listening.

So, when I read that today is the first annual OK Day, a day to celebrate the invention of the word OK, I had to learn more.  Its history dates back to March 23, 1839 in Boston.  If you, too, want to read more about OK click the links under ‘further reading’ below.

I rarely respond, like I did as a child, when I hear the standard pronounciation of OK, with the quiet ‘o’.  A new scenario plays out now when Keith, my husband, hears me say OK.  He replies with “Oh, Keith”.

There are so many meanings for that two-letter word.  Yet another meaning came up when I thought ‘today is A-OK’ after I noticed the sun reflecting off the glass windows onto the tops of the trees.

I used my iPhone and Instagram’s tilt-shift & lomo-fi filters for this photo.

Further Reading

• OK Day, March 23 — includes links to news articles
• Happy Birthday OK: The world’s most-popular word turns 172

31|365 All In Stride (2/4/11)

Since I didn’t have to be at work until 9:00, I had another day with more time in the morning.  It was so nice to have extra time to read my newsfeeds, facebook, email, pay bills, and get ready for work.  Just before I was getting ready to leave, I opened the blinds and saw it was snowing, again!

During my afternoon break at work, I stepped outside the lounge onto the balcony to get a good view.  The snow didn’t deter people much, they were out and about.  Their footsteps clearly show their intents to get to their destination. Using my iphone, I snapped a couple of photos to show that most of us have taken the weather all in stride.

The photo is a combination of two photos that I stitched together using Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.  You’ll need to view this photo in the larger view to see the details.

Of note today:  I’ve been craving Greek food for weeks and finally got it today!