The Business of Blogging

March 25th

No photo today. But three points of blogging business.

Another one of my photos was chosen to be on Gothamist. I feel like such a proud mama when this happens. Maybe someday someone will actually pay to use my images.

PJ found a cool slide show program that works with a flickr account. Down on the right I've now got a streaming version of my favorites from this project.

I finally finished working on my "Best of 2007" mix. Making these CD's is a labor of love and can not be rushed. However, now that I have my own laptop at home, I need to delete all the music on my work computer, including the tracks I had set aside in this particular playlist. In any case, I put something together quickly and PJ found a cool website that creates online mixes to share. This might be fun for those of you with a Myspace or Facebook page. Feel free to click on the button below and listen or just go here.

Nicky And Maggie

March 24th

An old buddy from Villanova, Nicky, and his hip wife Maggie, came to New York for a conference and some quality time with me. I couldn't attend their wedding this fall due to my extended time in Moscow, so I'm happy I got to take them to dinner at my favorite local Thai fusion joint in a belated celebration.

It was also hilarious to look through old college photos with Nicky and realize what idiots we were at 18. At the end of two photo albums he exclaimed "Did I ever wear pants?" and I had to answer no!

Happy Easter

March 23rd

My aunt and uncle held Easter dinner at their new home. Their yellow walls make the perfect spring holiday backdrop.

They had some really cute decorations.

This is a salt and pepper shaker set. I'm not big on holiday decorations, but I love it.

I suppose I was feeling festive as I was wearing my bunny socks. (Yes, I own bunny socks.)

My man Trevor got a webkinz snake from the Easter bunny. He's also sporting some super hip emo hair.

Cousin Daniel was happy because he got accepted to all sorts of smarty pants grad schools. I'm routing for Columbia so I can keep my eye on the little punk!

And as much fun as it is to visit the family, I'm always really happy to return to home sweet Brooklyn.

An Easter Tradition

March 22nd

Even though I'm 30 and single, my family keeps up traditions as if I was 10. Not that I mind, as dyeing eggs is fun at any age. Gram even came over in her "play clothes" (an actual quote) and was quite pleased to dunk away.

My family ensures the boring solid colors are represented and it is my job to provide variety and "arty" eggs. There is always a Villanova and Syracuse egg for the annual bonking competition and this year I made one for Siena College. (It worked because Nova won!)

I found some left over costume pieces from a bizarre egg decorating kit my mom bought last year and created this bi-racial princess cowgirl! Hilarious.

My dad usually has more fun rocking his coordinated purple sweater and turtle neck. I think he was mad in this photo because I was bogarting the teal green cup!

"Special" Delivery

March 21st

Today I went home for Easter with the family. Because I'm 30 and "whatever - I do what I want", I totally ruined my dinner eating a Reese's Peanut butter Cup Sundae at 5pm from my old place of employment, Friendly's.

When I finally arrived at the Martin household, the Easter bunny was delivering...um...a little extra special something to the mailbox.

Popular Photos From The Miss Banana Archives

March 20th

I'm having issues with my camera and I needed to give the battery a full day to charge. However, in downloading things from my old computer today I came across photos from a trip to Arizona in 2003 that were worth sharing.

I had to drop off an artifact in Scottsdale and pick it up again two days later. Since work was covering a hotel, rental car, and per diem, I got my brother a plane ticket and we went on a quick trip to the Grand Canyon. In order to get this photo I had to slide down the snow embankment clinging to the tree, but it was totally worth it. What I wouldn't give to go back there with my new camera (once it's fixed).

Sitting on the edge for this photo below really freaked my brother out, whereas I could sit there all day with my feet in outer space watching the light paint the rocks in all shades of red and purple.

Siamese For What?

March 19th

Well, you learn something new everyday. I was mostly pulled towards this object because it was super super shiny. I often see staff of the fancy apartment buildings near work painting and washing the sidewalk, but I felt particularly bad for this building superintendent who had to spend hours shining a neighborhood dog pee post.

In any case, I also looked up "Siamese Connection" on goggle and it helped answer my nagging thoughts about this photo taken a few weeks back.

The Museum Of Jewish Heritage: Alumni Association

March 18th

For almost two years I worked at the Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to The Holocaust. I really hated my job. I had a micromanaging sexist boss who wasted my time demanding excel spreadsheets showing how my department spent their time in 15 minute increments. I also was in charge of a collection of things I didn't understand (seeing as I was raised Catholic) and was generally frustrated with my staff and the exhibition schedule. However, the museum hired tons of kids directly out of college or in their early careers (translation - they could pay us less) making for a fun younger crew for happy hours, birthday parties, and general debauchery.

This is my friend Deb of Deb Central blogging fame (and part inspiration for this 365 endeavor) who organized a reunion of museum alumni from the past few years. It was such a smashing idea that she was forced to make...a spreadsheet...to determine the best day possible for everyone to attend.

Anytime I hang with Deb, she is talking 10,000 words a minute telling some crazy story and looks much more like this!

She also has a really fancy pants camera that takes nice photos of nice people.

Seeing Sam (one of the first people to leave MJH for greener pastures) reminded me of our daylight savings time happy hours. Because a large portion of the staff was orthodox, the museum closed early on Fridays to allow for services. For those slightly more secular, that meant seats at the bar for the full duration of any drink specials. Good times. Yeah, good times.

And here is Jason, who apparently stole the camera and is actually much less silly in person.

St. Patty's In Bermuda

March 17th

Today BAM went scooting out to breakfast at a local joint. While it wasn't quite the same as walking in the parade drinking huge beers with Gram, I wasn't too upset because this was my St. Patrick's Day breakfast view.

On the way to and from breakfast, we got caught in downpours. It really sucked getting pelted with ice cold rain drops in the face at 30 mph. We pulled in to Horseshoe beach dripping wet and I thought it would be funny to take photos. So... I pulled out the camera, closed the seat compartment, had Bonnie take this photo and... realized I had just locked the keys and my purse IN the scooter! Too boot, I was supposed to leave for my flight in 30 minutes. So typical.

Thankfully, we were close to the scooter rental place, so I ran there, got a spare set of keys, ran down to the beach, snapped this amazing post rain sky, and just made my flight. I was sad to return to the real world. I'd like to spend more time on vacation!

Scooterific

March 16th

After a wedding brunch and hangover nap, BAM made the fateful decision to rent and ride scooters. Now, it's important to know that both the bride and groom bet I would die or seriously injure myself, hence waiting until AFTER their wedding to give this a go.

If you haven't gotten the jist over the course of this blog, I'm inherently clumsy and things "just happen" to me. By choosing to ride a motorized death trap on the wrong side of the road in foggy drizzle, I was basically asking for it! Thankfully, rental bikes have different colored license plates and coupled with the retarded looking white helmets, people knew to give us a wide breadth.

With Bonnie as our fearless left side of the road navigator and Rocco covering my ass, I managed to survive without incident on the first leg of our trip to the Crystal and Fantasy sea caves. While waiting for our tour guide, I met a friendly Bermuda kitty. He looked a lot like this cat from my first apartment in DC named Bob...who was normally referred to as Boob.

There was another less friendly cat lurking in the shrubbery. I really wanted to pet this little guy but he would run as soon as I made any moves.

Both the Crystal and Fantasy caves were packed with amazing stalactites and stalagmites, but the real gem was the clear sea water lake. My favorite part was the walk along the pontoon bridge in Crystal Cave.

After a dinner at the Swizzle Inn, BAM scootered along with the setting sun. I wish it had been possible to take photos while driving along this particular inner bay, because it was tranquil and so much fun!

The winds really started to pick up towards the end of our return trip. I had my only real brush with death by scooter when I was literally blown off the road...thankfully on to some grass. Bonnie scootered away unknowingly, but Rocco stuck with me while I collected my shit. In a perfect demonstration of the friendly and hospitable nature of the locals, a man found Bonnie up the road and pulled over to let her know I was fine and coming along shortly.

So....BAM lives to see another day!

Dolphins And "I Do "

March 15th

Today started out gray and windy as we explored the Royal Navy Dockyard. Bermuda turned this abandoned maritime area into a tourist destination by opening a mall, the Bermuda Rum Cake factory, glass blowing facility, and several art galleries.

Also housed on the compound is the Bermuda Maritime Museum and Dolphin Quest. Dedicated to Bermuda's maritime history, the museum has several nice exhibits within the Commissioner's House and outlying buildings. I was really disappointed to discover swimming with dolphins is extremely expensive. Thankfully museum visitors were free to watch up close. I suppose that item will just have to remain on my "bucket list" until a more affluent time in my life.

Thanks to the happy appearance of sun and the crystal teal water, I became photo drunk. You can go here to see my full set of photos from the first half of our day.

After a morning exploring, it was time to get all gussied up for the wedding! This is the only photo of the shortest lived shoes in history. They lasted less than an hour thanks to a broken strap! You can bet these puppies are getting returned!

Sue and Brice were very smart for choosing a destination wedding. A sunset sub-tropical beach backdrop made for awesome photos. Here is Brice looking quite dapper and super happy!

I couldn't have been happier for a great couple and it was certainly no hardship to sit barefoot sipping champaign while they exchanged vows.

After the ceremony, the guests were treated to more champaign on the beach while the wedding party took photos. I did my own little photographer's dance of joy for the lighting. You can click here to see all 147 photos taken in just a few short hours.

My shadow was happy to be barefoot in a sun dress in Bermuda.

The reception was a ton of fun thanks to DJ Bubbles (who knew?) and a few of us even snuck into a late night fraternity party happening in a different part of the hotel!