Joe is in Iraq doing cool stuff and I’m stuck in boring Tacoma … just kidding!
Joe dons his father's Kevlar in Panama in the '70s.
Joe is three weeks in to a life-changing trip to visit US soldiers in Iraq.
He’s making great images and amazing memories, but he’s also helping me learn more about our relationship.
The trip was supposed to be short, I thought. Only six weeks, Joe doing his thing, I doing mine. I visit my family at Christmas, he spends the week in Baghdad.I get sick during New Years, he hops many flights between Iraq and Kuwait and finally lands in Basra. In the end, he has super travel experience, and I get lots of to-do listy items done. When he comes home, life seamlessly goes back to normal.
I hate to admit this, but I only wish it was that simple.
Instead, it’s been one of the most challenging/character revealing periods of my life. IT HAS SUCKED (sorry, I didn’t mean to yell).
I’ve not spent so much time “alone” since … I can’t remember when. Even though we talk every day, the separation has caused me to rethink who I am and who I’ve become since getting married. I am different now, and I believe that “different” is good. But this new me doesn’t know how to function very well without Joe. Perhaps that’s weak to admit, but it is true.
So I’ve decided that even though it’s been tough, in the big picture, the divide will bring us closer together as it independently makes us better people. It will make me a better person because I believe, in part, that I’m starting to reconnect with the successful and happy single person I was when we first fell in love.
Joe, on the other hand, is doing something he’s felt passionate about since before we met: good journalism. With the steady decline of the industry in recent years, Joe’s passion had been restrained as we waited to see if his name was next on the list of lay-offs. This opportunity to go to Iraq gave him a renewed excitement for his job that I’ve not seen in a while. In a way, he too has the opportunity to reconnect with the person he was when we first met.
I’m very proud of what he is doing, because I believe the work is selfless and perhaps thankless. And now I’m excited to see what this next life chapter has in store.
IB
Go time!!
It looks like Scott Fontaine and I are going to embed with soldiers from Fort Lewis over the holidays. We’ll spend six weeks checking in on several different units all over Iraq. To be honest, I have mixed emotions about the trip. I’m sad that I won’t get to see family and friends over the holidays, especially Ingrid. She loves this time of year and being with her makes me appreciate it all that much more. I am however excited about the idea of telling some good, meaningful stories about the men and women who are fighting and living there in the service of our country. I’ll promise you all that I will do my best to stay safe and come home in one piece after we get our job done. If you are interested, you can follow along at the military blog on the newspaper’s site: FOB Tacoma.
With that, I say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!!
Work has been keeping us busy…
I shot this today for the newspaper. I was over on the northeast side of Tacoma for another thing and went for a drive afterword. We’ve had a lot of rain the last few days and the sky cleared up for a few hours this morning so I went looking for some light that didn’t suck. I spotted this little tug heading out of the waterway and waited for it to get some separation from the cluttered shore.
In other news…I edited the time-lapse I shot at the Sounders Playoff match into a tight, one-minute video that is posted here. Let me know what you think.
Sunday I shot the Seahawks as they beat Detroit. Sam came along to help me with gear. It was a good game mostly because we stayed dry…and they won.
Here are some game action photos.
Ingrid has also been busy with work and school. She spent a day a the Yakima Training Center documenting soldiers training with missiles. And, she got to shoot a .50-caliber machine gun!!
Ingrid’s also been making audio-slide shows. The field burning one and the weight lifting are both fun to watch.
We are heading out to Boise this weekend to celebrate my birthday with Sean, Michelle, Zoe and Aiden. Look for some pics from that trip.
JB
Sounders vs. Dynamo, game 1
This image is of my co-worker Janet Jensen and I figuring out who got which shooting position at the Seattle Sounders first playoff match at Qwest Field in Seattle, last Thursday. The Sounders played the Dynamo to a 0-0 tie. The match will head to Houston next week for the second game.
It was my first chance to shoot the Sounders and it was a lot of fun. More than 35,000 fans were in the house and they were loud.
See the gallery that Jeremy, Janet and I made here and a short little time-lapse video of the evening here.
Enjoy!
JB
More wine…and smiles
We had some friends over the other night and got to try several bottles of wine from our wine rack. Many of them were very tasty, and I have placed photos of the bottles I liked the best here, but I got to thinking about the wine rack in it’s new state…and got sad. No wine rack should have one bottle in it for long, so tonight we will go shopping…it just makes the rest of the house look empty. Maybe we’ll do a wine and cheese gathering at the house Saturday. I’ll keep you posted.
Oh, by the way, we have to thank Wendy and Robert for introducing us to the Inama Vin Soave. The first time we tried it was at How to Cook a Wolf in Seattle with Wendy and Robert. The wine was just as good this time, but we missed our friends from Yakima.
Have a great day!
Another week, another football game
The Seahawks played the Arizona Cardinals yesterday and it felt like family day down on the field for me. My nephew Nathan was chosen to be the Tee Hawk for the day and got to run out on the field and collect the tee after the Seahawks kicked off. So, I ran in to Byron, my brother, and Nathan before the game on the sidelines. See my game gallery here.
Ingrid was my assistant for the day so she was down there, too. She made great pics, but she’ll have to post them since they are on her computer. You can see her Husky pics from last week’s game at her blog.
Been busy
Between work, the house and Ingrid starting school again, life has been moving along quickly.
I am about halfway finished with painting and hanging all the doors in the house and hope to get them all done in the next week or so.
We had the the front of the house repointed and the brick is looking great. The next big project will be getting a new roof on the garage, but that we will have to wait a few weeks. We got the all-clear to use the fireplace this week, so I ordered a bunch of wood and we have been enjoying the evening fires.
I’ve been shooting a bunch of football for work this season, too. Ingrid and I got to cover the UW vs. Arizona game last week and had a blast.
See the full gallery from that game here.
And then on Sunday I took Hans up to the Seahawks game as my assistant. He got stuck lugging my big lens around when I wasn’t using it. I think he had a good time, and I know the help was appreciated.
and from the game…
See the full gallery from that game here.
JB
Breaking in the new house
Sean and Michelle came by last night and we had a great time. I think this was the first sit-down dinner since we got all of our stuff moved in last week. Everything was great. We haven’t seen them for a while, so it was fun to catch up. Looks like we might be headed to Boise next month to hang with them for a long weekend at their place. They actually live in Meridian, but I’m told it is close by. Should be fun.
These are the wines we had last night. They were all very good.
Tacoma Rainiers in the playoffs
I got to shoot some baseball last night. The local Triple-A team is in the playoffs.
