I met my brother in Saint Cloud tonight for his birthday dinner since SC is halfway between our homes. I drove through campus since I haven’t really been there since graduating from college except for maybe one trivia marathon. Since we were so close to the Mississippi, I had to drive across the bridge and that led me to the Gardens. I hadn’t been there since first moving up north from Alabama almost 8 years ago. The gardens are really spectacular. Great for photohunting or a stroll with your significant other.

Walking through the gardens had me thinking about the WPA (which helped the gardens come to fruition) and how we could sure use the WPA now. During 1935 and 1943 the WPA was the country’s largest employer, providing more than 8 million jobs to people who also sometimes ended up learning a new skill as well as providing beauty, comfort, ease of transportation and necessity to people across the country.

With rumors in our town about one of if not the largest employer in the area closing its doors at the end of the year, I’m going into a mini panic mode. What will this do for the value of our house? With unemployment so high, will crime go up? Surely this in inevitable.  How will this effect my children’s school? Will there be increased behavioral issues? Malnourished kids crabby and as stressed-out as their parents?

I mentioned to my mom today the news story I read yesterday about Amazon announcing they now sell more kindle books than they do hardcover books. With panic my mom looked up. “What?!” She could hardly believe it. Then she predicted, “I bet we will see the end of the library in 10 years then.” Such a dark thought. I’m not sure if all libraries will end as we know them, but I can see them closing in city after city and then shipping the books to a “museum” of sorts for books. We need to be doing something to save our libraries now.

And while we are at it we can try to save a few trees as well as plant more through something such as a WPA. When I say “save trees” I’m not talking about printing unnecessary paperwork at one’s job, I’m talking about saving actual trees. Over the weekend, workers by our home cut down what in my estimate appears to be about 50 trees so they could widen a road. Yes, I realize the WPA also did a lot of road construction-type work but I consider it a design flaw if the city can’t figure out how to keep the trees that have been in place for hundreds of years. The look of the street in our town now is just awful. Sickening really. And even in this little conservative town, people are upset that the trees were removed. They realized the benefits the trees had along the street- the shade it provided to the homes along that street who will now have to use more energy to keep their homes as cool.

I didn’t really mean for this blog post to turn into a rant but I hate the feeling I get when I am in a place of beauty and then I drive a few blocks and am thrown back into the real world of strip malls, litter and treeless streets. Why is beauty only reserved for special places like parks- often places we must pay to visit (Munsinger is free btw)? Do people not care enough about their earth, country, state, city to make sure that wherever they look there are plenty of trees and/or foliage, minimal trash but most importantly to me, no abandoned buildings? Why we have empty shells of building lying around our town rotting away while new ones are being built is a mystery to me. There should be a law against it. Or at least a compromise. For every new building that goes up, they better be putting in a new (or investing in a current) park or giving my local library the support they need.

This was my sky on the way home from the gardens tonight. Can anyone honestly look at that and still want to throw their Taco Bell trash out their car window? How does this happen?

Asking for change,

Kristine

We all came out of the store tonight after a big storm sideswiped the town of Hutchinson and stared in awe. I quickly rushed home to grab the camera and we took a little drive around the perimeter of the city. Here is what we saw:

I wanted to keep going but the kids were ready to go home and have snack and bedtime story. Andrew blatantly told his parents that we were “weird”. We told him to get used to it . . .

I had the idea to do this a few months ago but thought it to daunting- review all the county parks in our area (including the Twin Cities metro). Now I am wondering why I balked- I don’t exactly need to do it all in one summer. I have my whole life! Yesterday I posted about Piepenburg yet again. Today we went someplace new. This is Swan Lake Regional Park in Silver Lake, about 8 miles from our house in Hutchinson.

Don’t try finding it by the sign- just look for a park. Although it looks as though the park isn’t well taken care of by the overgrowth covering the sign, looks can be deceiving. The park was well manicured and was very clean sans one lonely beer can.

There is a water source which Andrew had fun trying to pump, but he was disappointed when I told him he couldn’t drink it. There are also bathrooms and a nice big shelter.

There is no beach (water looked too green anyway) but apparently there is fishing.

The pier is across the road from the shelter. If anything, it’s a nice escape away from the rest of the family say if you were having a reunion or other get together. A nice place to watch the sunset.

There is plenty of shade around the park but also lots of wide open space if you crave full sun.

This would be a great place for a kickball tournament!

Something tells me this is what Canada looks like. I bet there are lots of deer back in there!

Personally, I think the park would be perfect for a family event such as a reunion. Although there is no playground equipment beyond 1 train “rocker” and a swing set, so if small kids were going to be present, you would need to bring your own fun.

Silver Lake is a small town but I did notice this sign behind the restaurant we ate at. I couldn’t find a website online, but I will definitely check and see if this is indeed a business still in operation. My husband and I have been wanting to bike the Luce Line Trail and it would be easier out this way where it is paved.

I decided to eat here even though I have driven by here several, several times and passed on the experience. From the west, the sign says the name of the place is The Gallery . . .

From the east, it says the name is Molly’s.

The city of Silver Lake website says it is indeed called Molly’s. Either way, my husband missed out on 1919 Root Beer on tap (and the city of Silver Lake needs a new website).  Once inside Molly’s I was pleasantly surprised. I am a sucker for that roadside dive, Americana-filled burger joint and this place had a lot of that.

This is the type of restaurant I scout for when I am in towns just like this- towns with populations less than a thousand. Sometimes I get lucky and sometimes  they are terrible but you should have seen the looks on our faces when the waitress served up this fruit plate and we all gazed upon yellow watermelon for the first time!

Just look at this stuff! I would be surprised to get this at a restaurant in the cities but at a little roadside place in the middle of nowhere? I was shocked.

To be honest, I didn’t even know yellow watermelon existed. It is much sweeter than regular watermelon which I don’t normally care for. This was delicious!

And because I am German I had to order the kraut burger. It was delicious too. I will definitely go back to Molly’s.

So my goal is to review all the regional parks in my area starting with the closest ones first and working my way out. If there happens to be a roadside dive in the area I will review that too. Here’s to a happy summer!

I always said I wasn’t going to be the kind of mom who dressed her daughter in dresses. But something happens to me when I am in a store and I walk past a pretty dress. Some sort of magnetic pull. . . especially if said dress matches my daughter’s pretty blue eyes.

So I took the kids out to the lake tonight, my intention being that I needed some good natural light for some pictures of Chloe in this dress. But as soon as she saw the beach she made a B-line and I never even got to snap any shots of her dress matching her eyes!

She walked to the edge and I thought once the water touched her toes she would surely turn back around.

But she sat right down in the water. I tried to put on her suit, but she wouldn’t have it. Thrashing about so bad, I couldn’t even get her into it if I wanted. So I let her be.

Wow, look at the ring of sand over Chloe’s head that Andrew must have flung. . .

We had some weather rolling in and I thought we were going to get rained out. But it just made for awesome picture taking.

This is why people want to live on the lake in Minnesota.

I couldn’t decide which photo I liked best.

The sun started to cloud away and we decided to go check out another nearby lake.

Only a mile away and the sun came back out. I think this is what they mean by amber waves of grain.

The other lake had some sunflowers and that was about it.

I’m pretty sure these contribute to my allergy debacle but they are beautiful nonetheless.

After staying in Duluth for 2 nights we drove through the fog for an hour or so and came up over a hill and down into the sleepy little town of Bayfield. Our neighbors had told us about this charming little town and after looking at pictures of the Apostle Islands we decided to rent a cabin there. It was worth suffering through a few rainy patches just to get pictures of the amazing sky! There isn’t a lot going on around Bayfield so the light pollution is low, allowing for the true colors of the sky to come out. The above picture was taken our first night there at about 10pm. The moon glistening off the water was magnificent.

My favorite thing about Bayfield is that there is not a single corporate chain in the entire town or within a pretty far radius. The nearest McDonald’s is 30 minutes away, same for the Wal-Mart. After driving through the American landscape of strip malls and fast food neon overload for the majority of my life, the sight of Bayfield was a refreshing experience.

I can honestly say it is probably the most underdeveloped area I have ever been to and in my book that is a very impressive feat for a town of any size.

When we got to our cabin we were definitely satisfied with the property we rented. Here is a view of the house:

I snapped the shot of the cabin and then I turned around and shot this picture of our view:

We didn’t have a sand beach, but we did have access to the water (via rocky terrain). We were a little worried about finding a decent grocery store to stock the fridge with being in such a remote area and all but when we walked into the IGA in Washburn we were amazed. They had a huge selection of beautiful looking food in such a small space. Everything we needed and more was in that small store. No “super center” needed!

After preparing the first meal of wild rice and grilled chicken, we went into town to take a walk around the marina. It was a Tuesday night and at 7pm everything was pretty much shut down except for a few bars. I imagine the stores stay open later as it gets later in the week and later in the season but for now we had the town to ourselves for the most part.

I took a lot of pictures- mostly of boats, clouds and water!

Here is the first storm rolling in. That night we did have a fire, but later as the night went on the lightening really picked up and it started to rain.

The next day we woke up and I really wanted to see one of those sea caves so we went to Meyer’s Beach where I heard you could walk a mile down the trail and see a sea cave from the trail. But when we got there the park ranger said the trail was way to muddy to trek on unless you had special gear. I was disappointed, but Andrew enjoyed looking for rocks.

And Chloe. . . well, she was only happy during the trip if she was on the beach!

But eventually it started to rain and so we packed up and went back to the cabin. We spent the afternoon there, the cabin spacious enough for the kids not to feel cooped up. Andrew and I went and got  a pint of fresh strawberries for a snack, made burgers for supper and then twiddled our thumbs wondering what to do. Finally the rain stopped around 7pm and my brother and I decided to go on a photo hunt. I’m so glad we did because I got the best pictures ever!

First we went down by the water. The sky looked like a watercolor painting.

It looked like fine, delicate paper that had been ripped open to reveal layer after layer of watercolor from an artist’s brush.

Then we became sun chasers and we followed the sunset up over that hill into strawberry-picking territory. After a 5 minute drive we came up over a hill and saw this:

The sky was changing rapidly, I was worrying about my settings on my camera because the sky was so bright. I didn’t know how I could shoot something so dynamic.

The colors were changing before our eyes. We would shoot a few photos, stop, look again and shoot a whole round more because it had completely changed in a matter of minutes.

Count the colors . . .

I think the above photo is pretty amazing. After getting that I figured we had seen it all. But on the way back down the hill there was this:

5 minutes later, back at the cabin, I snapped this:

Amazingly, the sky was actually pink, purple and blue. No Photoshop!

The next day the sun was shining and we all made plans to head over to Madeline Island. Chloe was crabby again for most of the day unless she was either in the dirt or sand!

The ferry ride was only 20 minutes. Chloe screamed (I guess she doesn’t like boats?) but Andrew enjoyed the sightseeing.

Once we got there we found the nearest beach so that Chloe could be at peace.

My brother and his friends hopped on some mopeds to get a better look at the island.

Personally I thought it sounded a little spendy but they acted like it was the most fun they’d had all vacation!

We were on Madeline Island no longer than 2 hours. It was okay, but without money and a babysitter, there wasn’t a lot Josh and i could do. I guess we could have gone into the state park but we didn’t pay the $22.00 to bring the car. We thought that was a little much. Here’s what I would have liked to have done:

But I needed a little more cash and a babysitter. Oh and maybe some lessons first. . .

On the last night, our buddy Nathan discovered you could scale the rocky terrain at the foot of our cliff and get around the bend to see this:

My intentions were to get up with the sun and get a better shot of this the next morning but vacation must have caught up with us. We all slept in. But I’m glad to have at least seen some of the red cliffs that are so predominant in the area that a nearby reservation is named after them.

In the end, it was worth it for the sunsets.

And for a chance to see the world’s largest lake up close.

It was like being at the end of the earth which is where I often long to be. Away from all the neon, light pollution, strip malls and Best Buys. The Applebees and Wal-Marts . . . all the things we can certainly live without.

Last week we traveled up north to experience the joys of our first real family vacation. I knew it wouldn’t be perfect, but I wasn’t expecting the baby to be teething for the majority of the trip or the amount of rain we got! On the bright side, the rain made for the most amazing skies! After looking back through the pictures, I feel like the vacation was totally worth the trials and tribulations we endured- the dirty looks in restaurants from other tourists as we tried to soothe a hurting baby, the disappointment of not being able to see the sea caves without forking over an extra $200.00 or so, rain. . . But Andrew had a fantastic time and Chloe was so happy to be back home she started walking the night we got back.

We started our vacation by spending 2 nights in Duluth. Next we drove over to Bayfield, Wisconsin and the Apostle Islands. I have only driven through Duluth once so the city was practically brand new to me. Since I love San Francisco, I naturally enjoyed Duluth. I booked our room on Priceline and got a really awesome rate for the Radisson downtown. This was the view from our hotel window:

Not a bad view- definitely better than the view my brother and his friends had at the Motel 6 and they paid the same price- ha!

Like most tourists, we started out down around Canal Park. After walking around that area, I’m glad we decided to stay downtown and not on the canal. It was a little too touristy.

This was definitely an interesting sight. Known as “the cribs” to some (read more here), there were kids doing back flips off this thing. I really hope they were professional, it looked dangerous.

We spent the money to go on the Vista Fleet boat cruise. It wasn’t too expensive, but the tour was a little long (for us anyway- Chloe was crying the entire time and that’s not an exaggeration). We started out sunny and came back rainy. Andrew got to watch the aerial lift bridge go up and down.

A lot of the tour was around the industrial perimeter of the coast.

After we got off the boat and the rain started to come down, we made our way back to the hotel. Duluth is an okay city to visit even if rain is in the forecast because they have the skyway system! We only had to walk a half a mile in the rain before finding the entrance to a skyway.

The next morning, Chloe woke up at 4:30 and wouldn’t go back to bed. She was extremely crabby. Rather than wake the other 2 up and have everyone sleep deprived and crabby for the rest of the day, I loaded Chloe up and grabbed the camera. I was headed to Enger Tower to catch the sunrise. But I had to pull over a little early because I was so afraid I was going to miss it! This was snapped at 4:45 am from Skyline Parkway:

The sky was changing dramatically and quickly! I would snap a shot and then the sky would completely change in a matter of minutes. It was amazing!

This is Enger Tower:

And this is the sunrise from the 2nd floor (carrying a baby, I didn’t make it up to the top):

Then I decided to drive over to Canal Park and go across the lift bridge. I drove out as far as possible which brought me to a small airport but just as I was turning around I saw the beach access:

It’s hard to believe, but this was the sun already up that high at about 5:30 am.

I wanted to take Andrew back over here later that day but it started to rain in the middle of the morning and continued through the day off and on. We met friends at Pizza Luce for supper later that night after going to the children’s museum (worth the price) and train museum for the afternoon.

As you can see, Josh is standing with Chloe because if left to eat her dinner in her highchair she would just scream!

We left here and drove through an hour of fog along the south shore to Bayfield, Wisconsin. Pictures to follow. . . The skies were even more spectacular there!

Chloe turned 1 last weekend. I had some anxiety about meeting up with extended family because after I had Chloe I lost some of the weight, then came to a stand still, then turned some sort of curve and started gaining weight again. With birthdays I always think morbid thoughts, like how many more will there be and how many will I be here to see? When my husband and I got married, our gift to each other was quitting smoking (we also do not drink). For Chloe’s birthday I wanted to give her something similar. I want her to have a healthy mommy who is a good role model and knows a lot about nutrition. I want to know how to cook meals that are good for you but taste good as well. I never want her to be embarrassed that I’m her mommy either. I need to lose the gut.

The day after Chloe’s birthday, I went and looked at several “diet” books. I hate using the word “diet” because to me the word diet makes me think of something you do to temporarily lose weight. I want this to be more than a temporary thing. I want it to be our way of life. I’ve always been envious of people who actually appeared to enjoy their health food. I knew there had to be a book out there for me and luckily I found one! What I found was Flat Belly Diet! Family Cookbook.

At first it looked a little gimmicky and the last thing I wanted was a gimmick diet, but when I looked at the recipes everything looked SO GOOD! Basically, it’s the Mediterranean diet. You eat what is called a MUFA at every meal. A MUFA is a monounsaturated fat. On the first day of the diet, I was allowed to have dark chocolate with strawberries and vanilla yogurt as a snack. Believe me, I do not feel deprived at all eating the recipes in this book and that’s what I need to stay on track. Take away my chocolate and I fail. But here, they allow dark chocolate because dark chocolate is a MUFA and eaten with certain other foods it can actually be beneficial. Of course you are not allowed to eat ounce after ounce of dark chocolate on a daily basis, but you get enough to feel satisfied and then your body eventually becomes trained to a new standard. Eventually, what you once considered a small amount of “junk” will feel like a large reward.

The only drawback I can see right now for someone who is wanting to follow this diet is having enough time. Luckily I am at home a lot so I have time to bake muffins, pitas, etc. but for someone who works full-time, preparing most of the recipes in this book could become a challenge.

Now, here is why I am excited about this “diet” . . . On Tuesday I weighed 149 lbs and now I weigh 145! It’s not a fluke either. I’ve been weighing myself everyday for over a month and everyday it has read 149. This week it finally budged. My goal is 135. I think that’s a healthy weight for me. I’ve been drinking my 8 glasses of water a day and that’s really been helping. The book suggests drinking what they call “Sassy Water”. It’s delicious! Cucumber, lemon and zest of ginger all add perfect flavor to something that can become monotonous after a while. I definitely look forward to drinking this water everyday and mix up a big batch every night for the next day.

One of the greatest discoveries that just sort of came about out of happenstance was the discovery that I can make amazing whole wheat pita pockets! I used to HATE these things (I grew up with them and always dreaded having to eat them as a kid) but the secret to yummy ones is freshness. Like, the sooner out of the oven the better. I used this recipe and here they are right out of the oven:

So I had those yesterday with tuna and balsamic vinegar, olive oil and fresh lettuce right out of the garden. Then today I had these:

Olive and Tomato mozzarella Pizzas on sprouted grain English muffins. . .  I’d eat’em everyday, they were that good! For breakfast I had lemon blueberry muffins.

Here’s the reason I started doing this (see picture below!) But now that I am actually enjoying it, I’m doing it just as much for myself now. It’s not a diet but a new way of life!

And who wouldn’t want to be the most in-shape best mommy for that little blue-eyed cutie!

Last week, the kids and I packed up the car and took a trip 45 miles east to visit the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chanhassen. First we stopped in Waconia. What a beautiful little town! I sort of have a dream of living there now. The downtown sits up on a hill overlooking the gorgeous lake. And the lake actually looked clear when we got a close-up look!

At the arboretum, we walked from the cafe to the hedge maze and back. And that was pretty much it. It was about 95 degrees and humid as all get out. Plus the friends were meeting had this little one with them:

But we got to see some stuff. Here would be a nice little place for a game of uber lawn bowling. . .

The highlight of the trip (for Andrew and I anyway) was the Uff da Palace. The artist (Patrick Dougherty) sculpts these amazing structures out of willow.

I’ve been trying really hard this spring to get a nice shot of all the butterflies I’ve been seeing around. Sadly, I only own one lens for my camera and it’s not a zoom. . . this is the best I could do:

Now here’s a great concept for a dining room table!

I snapped a few shots of my beloved poppies:

These 2 were born a week apart. It’s fun to watch them grow together. Andrew looks so much taller because Maya is sitting back further on the bench. In reality he’s only about an inch taller.

In conclusion. . . The arboretum is nice but not on a hot day! Too much walking involved and a lot of it isn’t shaded. I think the perfect time to visit here would be a day in the 70′s. I will probably go back sometime in the Fall- it’s probably gorgeous then! They are actually open year round. I think they allow cross-country skiing in the winter which would be fun- it’s hilly there so you’d get some exercise, that’s for sure!

I have taken a small hiatus from blogging this week to immerse myself in my latest addiction Swap-bot! When I first heard of Swap-bot I thought it might be something for people into swap meets and that sort of thing. But really what I have found is that it is an amazing community for artists to get together and share their works of art with one another or materials. Actually, that is just the tip of the iceberg but that is what I am loving the most about it.

Basically, you search for swaps on their site and find one that you think you might want to participate in. When it’s time to “start swapping” a robot picks partners. You get their address and you prepare a work of art, package, book, whatever it is you are swapping and you mail it. For example, tonight I put together what is called a parcel themed “Frog” for a girl in Alabama. To keep it fair, the person who sends to you is different from who you send to. My package is actually coming from Canada. Woo-hoo! Here is what I put together for my froggie parcel:

I hope she likes it! I try to tailor it to the person I am sending. For instance, I probably wouldn’t have put this particular parcel together for a 60 year-old.

Yesterday I received a large package full of snacks. Inside the package were even some Fair-Trade Chocolate Covered Gogi Berries! They were delicious! It is a gamble and you never know what you are going to get but they do have a rating system in place and anyone who has not met certain requirements can be banned from swaps and Swap-bot in general. I’m sure what they refer to as “flakers” do exist but so far I haven’t been flaked on. Regardless, if I am flaked on I will continue to swap. I wouldn’t let one bad apple spoil this great thing I have discovered. They also have “angels” in place to send out replacement swaps when flaking does occur. The whole system is really just brilliant!

In the beginning, I  signed up with Swap-bot g because I wanted my son to get some fun mail every now and then and to help him learn geography but really it has sort have turned into something I do for myself as a sort of therapy. I have discovered something called ATC cards and every night I work on a little 3.5″ x 2.5″ work of art using various themes. The fact that the theme is chosen for me takes the work out of it for me. The coming up with the idea has always been the hardest part of the creative process for me. I found this site helpful when learning how to make an ATC:

Art in your Pocket

Here are the ATC’s I have made so far that I am most proud of:

ATC

Most of the ones I have received have included more than one element, but I am kind of liking my “2-D” colored pencil creations.

When I was a kid, my grandma had these giant light-blue garbage bags full of light-blue envelopes with stamps still attached that she had saved from when she worked at Banker’s Life Insurance. A lot of the stamps were international and I remember spending hours on the collection. I would cut the stamps, soak them to remove them from the paper and then arrange them nicely in my journal. Andrew and I are going to do the same with the international (and probably domestic) stamps we get via Swap-bot. I can’t wait!

Check out Swap-bot if you are into sharing, crafting, drawing and snail mail. Here are some of the swaps I am currently involved in to give you an idea how varied it is:

• Vintage Candy Swap
• Favorite 80′s Hair Band ATC Your Choice and Mine
• State Bird and State Flower ATC: Nevada
• Frogs
• Butterflies ATC
• Fair trade edibles
• Alice in Wonderland ATC
• ATC ☼ Loteria ☼ EL ARBOL (the tree)
• ATC☼ Loteria ☼ LA CORONA(the crown)
• Invader Zim Atc Series: GIR
• Sailor Jerry ATC
• Something handmade swap
• Kawaii ATC: Charmmy Kitty #12
• Thrift Store Find #3 – USA
• Food Box ATCs
• Mother Earth design
• BIT O’ BLUE WHIMSY JAR–APRIL
• Gnome Sweet Gnome

I haven’t been to see a movie in the theater in quite some time. It’s been at least a year, maybe two. The last movie I saw in the theater I think was Burn After Reading on opening day so it was a while ago. This past weekend, my parents offered to babysit the kids so we could go see a movie. In Hutchinson, we are rather limited so it was between Avatar and Alice in Wonderland. I am a huge Tim Burton fan and have been watching and re-watching the trailer for AiW for what seems like forever now but after the Willy Wonka experience I was skeptical. I tried to have a good attitude, really I did.

When we got to the theater there was a sign on the door that said there was no heat in the theater showing Avatar so that settled any last-minute bail-out plan I had as far as going to see Avatar instead of Alice. That didn’t stop the people in front of us though who cheerfully paid for 3 adults and 3 children (ALL under the age of 6 might I add) to go and sit 2 hours and 40 minutes in a cold theater. One of the kids had to have been no older than my son who is 3 but I won’t go there in this post. One can imagine the looks my husband and I were giving each other though.

From the opening scene I knew I was doomed. No fancy credit opening or anything just right into it which is okay except it was just a boring scene in a study. Which is OKAY but then my eyes were trying to focus and for the first part of the movie I sat there trying to figure out if the blurriness was for artistic purposes or if the projector was out of whack or what. My husband noticed too and I told him I thought Burton might have been trying to make a point that Alice’s eyes were closed or that she wasn’t seeing clearly, was in a daze, until falling down the rabbit hole. But then she fell down the rabbit hole and the movie remained blurry. I didn’t want to be THAT GIRL who gets up and complains to the theater manager about something as trivial as a slightly out of focus picture but it was incredibly distracting. But this is all beside the point. . .

The first Tim Burton movie I ever saw was Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. My brother and I used to watch Pee-wee’s Playhouse every Saturday morning and when the movie came out I was delighted. I’m positive the show and the movie were major influences in my quest to include the arts in my life. There was something about the inventiveness of the show that pushed me to think more creatively, like an inventor, and something about the movie that convinced me that “dark” could also mean creative i.e. Alfred Hitchcock.

The next Burton movie to come out was Beetlejuice. I admit, I was a little freaked-out by some of it but I was 12 years old. I remember being in awe. I had never seen a movie like this before- so full of art! I started to doodle in journals and think about color in new ways. I loved the vividness of the movie and started to understand the importance of set design and costume in a movie. I was beginning to form definite standards for movies I deemed worthy of my hard-earned allowance. First, it had to be artistic and appealing to the eye. There needed to be a reason I was going to see it on a big screen. Burton has never let me down as far as making something enjoyable to watch. Beetlejuice also introduced me to one of my teenage obsessions- Winona Ryder. Burton has never let me down in his casting either. . . errrr except maybe Michael Keaton as Batman but I understand his reasons why he cast him now.

Which brings me to 1989 and me, 13 years of age, blowing my hard-earned allowance to go see Batman in the theater. What do I remember about this movie besides the fact that on opening night I also held hands for the first time with my first REAL boyfriend???? Jack Nicholson! I had no idea who this guy was before watching this movie (my parents, unlike some I saw at the theater today, were strict on what movies I saw). I don’t remember being too fond of the movie- my brother however was CRAZY about it but I remember swimming at the pool all summer long, listening to Prince’s song Batdance from the soundtrack play on the radio every hour on the hour ALL SUMMER LONG. Maybe that’s what drove me away from “regular” radio.

Up until 1990, I didn’t realize that Tim Burton was behind any of these movies at all. Then Edward Scissorhands came out and that changed. I wanted to know everything there was to know about Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder. There was something about the movie that was so unique, so different but not just that it was creative and quirky and had good acting. It was done so well that I actually understood what it was Burton was trying to say about American Suburbia even at the age of 14. THIS is what makes a good movie in my opinion- the trifecta: Good acting, visually stimulating (eye candy), and when the movie has an important message that is conveyed and understood easily by the audience without spelling it out. Instead, you let the script, the acting, and the photography convey the message for you.

After Scissorhands, I never looked at America the same. I saw how ridiculous it was for people to live in houses with perfectly manicured lawns, selling makeup and hosting barbecues all the while pretending to be somebody you’re not. It was also like peering into a crystal ball. I got to see what it would be like entering high school in the next year. But mostly, I got to escape for a few hours, into a world that was magical, and I got to enjoy a story that was neither done before or lacking in moral. Burton inspired me to write because I wanted to be him- I wanted to say the things he was saying!

In 1993 The Nightmare Before Christmas came out and I literally almost went out and got a tattoo of that dog Zero. But I was only 16 and I guess I’m kinda glad now that I didn’t but at the time I really wanted to give Burton the ultimate credit and have something he created permanently embossed on my body. After watching this movie (several times) I seriously began to think about art school. This movie had a MAJOR influence on me and I really began to dream big plans for my life when I wandered off and daydreamed.

Ed Wood, Mars Attacks!, and Sleepy Hollow are all good but by far the most looked forward to movie for me during those 10 years between 1993 and 2003 was Big Fish. When I was 19 years old I drove my car from Nebraska to Montgomery, Alabama where I lived for 7 years. My last 3 years living in Montgomery, I lived in a section of town known as “Old Cloverdale“. I worked at a little pizza restaurant called Tomatino’s and I frequented a jazz and blues bar called 1048. Huntington College is on the same block.

The movie Big Fish was filmed from January to May of 2003 in Old Cloverdale and I moved from this neighborhood to Minnesota in June of 2002. I would get emails and phone calls from friends in Alabama telling me, “Oh Tim and Ewan are so nice. They come and eat at Tomatino’s every day. Leave us big tips and tell us amazing stories.” or “Oh, Steve [Buscemi]? Yeah, Steve is so great. Real down-to-earth guy. Comes to 1048 each and every night. Sits right in the front row and listens to Sam and Ziggy play!” Nothing agonized me more than hearing these stories! That I could have met Tim Burton and shown him my zero tattoo. Who knows, maybe he would have told me to come along, pack up and join the troupe! Yeah, I know. . . keep dreaming.

But this is what Burton does. He makes it so that I keep dreaming. When I learned he was going to do Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I was overwhelmed. I couldn’t wait to see what he would do with it. I also feared he wouldn’t be able to do it justice. After all, the original is pretty damn good even if I can’t stand the look of Gene Wilder. Maybe Burton was a little overwhelmed too. Maybe you only have so much creativity in you and once you exhaust it all your done. People talk about this all the time. Do you quit while you’re ahead or do you just keep making movies? Kubrick didn’t stop and Tarantino won’t so I certainly don’t expect or want Burton too.

It’s hard though. It’s painful to watch someone you once so admired, move into a “slump”. As I watch the tweets roll in and read what people have to say on Facebook, etc. it’s clear people still love Tim Burton movies. But will I pay to see one of his films in the theater again? I’m not so sure. Alice in Wonderland seemed to be the kind of movie I would fall in love with as a 12 year old. For some girl out there, it’s probably like what watching Beetlejuice was for me at 12. Something new and amazing. But now that I am in my 30′s and have seen a fair share of movies, it’s not so new. A part of the movie seemed reminiscent of Lord of the Rings. Other parts reminded me of silly slapstick humor movies that drive me insane . Did the Mad Hatter really need to break into that silly dance toward the end? As the audience roared with delight, I thought to myself, Burton and Depp have sold out. Of course they have to some extent already otherwise they wouldn’t be working with Disney, but this dance scene really pushed the selling out envelope!

In conclusion, it has me thinking a lot. Not only about the movie industry but my own creativity as well. Number 1, I’ve decided I’m probably sticking with independent films if I’m going to a theater again. Thankfully Minneapolis isn’t far away. It just seems to me like “Hollywood” is dumbing down their audience movie after movie after movie. This can’t be good for humanity. Number 2, I’ve decided I need to push myself further creatively. There’s not a lot of room for innovation anymore now that technology has caught up. 10 years ago it would have been impressive for me to have created a 20-minute long stop-motion short. Right now, there are probably 100 12-year olds doing that this very minute, on their own time, with their own equipment. They are the next “Tim Burton”. They will be younger and more tech-savvy, but will they be creative geniuses and what will they do with it? Let them save humanity now.