to Flower St.

“A” is for Awesome

I was battling two things when I got home from work yesterday. Hunger and antsy-ness. I was ridiculously tired which created some sort of weird high that I tried to walk off. As I walked up Grand Ave., I stumbled across the set-up for the Moca celebration. As I stood there, staring, I looked down to see the “M”, “O”, “C”, and “A” lying on the ground. The “A” was my favorite.

#5: Black Roses

Ok, it’s a white rose. But it reminded me of the song “Black Roses White Rhythm and Blues.” I took this at a wedding we shot yesterday. The light was a little eerie so I converted it to B&W.

#4: Central Library

You would think that teaching reading and writing would make me never want to do it during my free time, but that has turned out to be the exact opposite to the truth. I think I’ve read more books for fun in the last two months that I did in the entire two years at my previous job. And writing. Well, I’m trying to keep up with blogging. It’s harder because there are actual time limitations in my life now, and I’m working on two other projects that aren’t eligible for the instant gratification of blogging.

This, however, was from this beautiful Saturday morning.

#3: Dodger Stadium, June 5th

The Dodger season, and baseball really, ended tonight. Even with a sad ending, it was a wonderful season. And, this night was the prettiest at Dodger Stadium. It was absolutely entrancing. Not that Dodger Stadium needs any help, but the sky was simply amazing.

Thanks for all the beautiful 2009 memories. See you in AZ in a few months….

#2: The Duck

I eat it out of the can. I spent four months so obsessed with this salsa that every element of my meal would have El Pato. I seasoned rice with it. I marinated chicken in it. I bought it by the case at Costco.

I think I overloaded myself with this fabulous salsa, and now it is simply a treat. The best part about it is it’s consistently about 50 cents so I never feel guilty about buying it. And yea….I eat it out of the can.

#1: Old School

My neighbor has one of those old fashioned maps. I was absolutely entranced by it this morning. It took all of my self-control to not tug on it to see it spin around and roll up nicely.

Old School, I’ve titled this because it’s my approach to teaching. I like to think that I blend my training in the more modern approaches of differentiation and alternative assessment with some tried and true practices of sentence diagramming and respect in the classroom.

re.defined

It occurred to me on my drive home that I have the perfect category of life to fill this blog: photography.

“Watchtower” is words. Words are the first and best way that I define myself. They are the best way for me to express myself. When I speak, I stumble over the word choice. When I write, it flows so simply. The words just come. I’ve always had this way of just spilling words onto a page with very little thought or planning.

“A Soul Twist” should, then, be another expression. And the other way I express things is by trying to portray how I see them. Sometimes, I edit. Sometimes I let the image sit exactly as it is. Through editing, I’m often trying to convey the way that I see things myself. Through unprocessed images, I’m often trying to simply document something. A moment. A feeling. A vision of beauty.

Does it have anything to do with the song or the title of this blog? Absolutely. There are twists in images just as there are twists in words and music. Simple little tweaks that make things mine.

re.definition

I have decided to re-open my original blog “All Along the Watchtower” (http://jtsosnowski.wordpress.com) because I missed it so much.

I may take this one down. Or I may redefine it. I have not decided yet.

In the mean time, the updates will be on Watchtower.

October

Tomorrow will be exactly one month since I’ve written in my blog. Wow. Goes to show what having a job where you’re actually busy will do for you.

Baseball season has ended, and we’re two games into the playoffs. We’re also 2 wins into the playoffs.

I am so unbelievably in love with this team that I think I’m going to cry when the season is over regardless of the outcome. I always talk of this magical 1997 season. It was the season that I went nuts. I loved every single player on that team. I never missed a game. All of my best memories of baseball came from 1997.

Then along came 2009. It started way back in March when we woke up at 4 am to drive across the desert and see the first season of games at Camelback. From there, I went to a personal record of 41 regular season games. I found out that Dodger Stadium is walkable from my apartment.

Twelve years later, and a whole new cast of characters. I never thought it would be possible to have a team like this again. With real Dodgers. Guys who grew up in the Dodger farm systems. Guys who behave like they are thrilled to be playing baseball. It’s been so much fun to watch. And yes I have my favorites, of course. Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw have my heart. They are so unbelievably talented. It is such great fun to watch them play the game.

Tonight, I think I saw something so amazing that I’m still kind of in awe over the experience. Bottom of the 9th. 2 outs. No one on. Dodgers down by 1. And they pulled it off. They totally pulled it off. I’ve never jumped up and down with such glee for so long in my life. Every pitch, every batter, I bounced up and down. Nervous energy filled my night. But that last night. I think the entire stadium collectively leapt into the air.

It depended on Holliday blowing a play, but like my brother said, “You can’t stand in the way of destiny.”

THIS is my team, I said right after. This is the team that I loved in April and May. The team that just never said die. It’s never the superstars. Just the guys doing their jobs who move the runners over and get the small hits in the bottom of the ninth that turn out to be the huge upsets.

Ah, October baseball. My last experience was heartbreaking so I usually say that I love July baseball more than anything.

But this October stuff? This October stuff is pretty darn good.