Erin, a reporter here at The Valley News, was writing this story today about a 10 year old girl that paints watercolors and sells them to raise money for her friend who was recently diagnosed with cancer. The family's house was in Springfield, NH on Lake Kolelemook. I showed up and was greeted by their dog, Hunter. In the garage, the father was rebuilding the clutch on his Harley- their son, Phil and their oldest daughter Bethany were using a fishing net attached to a couple 2x4s to get the cat out of a tall pine tree, and Merry, the girl I was sent to photograph was working on one of her paintings. We went down to the lake for the interview and I shot a couple frames here and there but mainly I just wanted to talk to this girl Merry. She was so smart and quick-witted, one of the cutest kids I've met. About twenty minutes after getting there, Phil came running around the corner with a cat trapped inside a fishing net, having a hell of a fit- one of the funniest things I've seen in a while. Anyways, point is, this family was great, they reminded me a lot of my own family. I would have loved to stay at this house all day to just hang out with these people and pretend that I was home. I do miss home, not too much, but enough to raise thoughts like these. When I miss things I always miss small things, like being greeted by Tucker, or seeing my dad work on his car, even other things like the smell of the detergent that an ex-girlfriend's mom used- scent can be tricky- I'm in line at the grocery store, I catch a heavy whiff of the person in front of me and suddenly I'm blasted back, watching family guy in her living room. It's not that my mind is tied up with missing things, it's not. I'm doing very well up here, but I'm a sucker to comfort and familiarity so in a foreign place little reminders like the family I met today and the smell of Tide or whatever brand it happens to be can carry much more weight than they normally would.
Anyways, this is a photo (b)log so here is my favorite from the day, not the one that will be published, but my favorite.
