Citizen Photographers

Since I have a wide array of travel experience and am now a resident tourist in DC, I'd like to provide some advice for all you travel hopefuls out there.

From my experience, there's a technique that can take vacation after vacation to perfect. It's referred to as the art of picking the right "citizen photographer". What I mean is, your future Christmas card cover could be in jeopardy! If you are inexperienced in this art you could grab the wrong Joe Schmo off the street and ruin your Kodak moment. Therefore, here are my handy tips:

1) It's preferable to find someone who speaks English, or any other language you speak (this is not racially based. See reason #4).
2) People who rush past you in a hurry do not take good pictures.
3) Tall people tend to take bad pictures of short people, and vice versa. If you are short and your spouse is tall, we've found it to typically be a lose-lose situation.
4) Try to specify before the photo is taken what you want in the picture. Scripted example: "We are taking this picture because...". This tip could have saved us from many a ruined pictured (see below).
5) People dressed in artsy or trendy clothes tend to take better pictures.
6) The guy with the huge Nikon around his neck is usually a safe bet.

Since I recently became an expert in this art, I have a few examples from various sites in the city.

Example #1:

This is a beautiful photo of us standing by a DC stop sign. But wait? What is that white behind Ben's head? Could that be... the White House? I think this citizen photographer was too preoccupied to realize he'd used the subjects to cover the subject. He was a middle-aged man in business attire, and clearly in a hurry. That was our first mistake. Although when you look closer, there really is a beauty to DC stop signs that you don't see anywhere else.


Example #2:

If you go to the Eastern Market on Saturday morning to eat blueberry buckwheat pancakes, be sure to get a picture. And while you're at it, be sure to hint to your citizen photographer that "the pancakes are so delicious we just have to get a picture". Then tip the plate up just a bit, as I did. Will it work? It didn't for us, but maybe it will go better for you. At least she got the cool lights in the background, right? By the way, she was a 30-something woman clearly more focused on her eggs and bacon than taking advantage of a great photo opportunity.


Example #3: The Award for the Most Epic Citizen Photographer

While visiting the Lincoln Memorial, we thought it was a great photo op. Ben happened to choose for our citizen photographer a rough looking guy in his late 20's, probably a George Washington University student. I knew from the moment Ben picked him that he hadn't taken an artistic picture in his life, but of course Ben is still learning the drill :) This was the first photo he took:


Can you tell what is wrong with the picture? Never mind that we're standing in front of one of the most famous statues in America. It's on the back of the penny for crying out loud. I guess he took our request of "Will you take a picture of us?" literally. As soon as he shot it, I knew he hadn't gotten Lincoln in it. So I kindly asked him to take it again, "Up and down". This is a courteous way to kindly "guide" your citizen photographer in the right direction.


Hopefully some of these tips aid in getting Grade A photos of your family during the year. And if they turn out great, we expect a Christmas card.

DC Happenings

Lately we've got to do a lot of fun and interesting things around the city. The weather has also been warming up and I couldn't be more grateful. Allow me to fill you in on our happenings...

Grocery shopping in DC can be tricky. First, every store in DC charges 5 cents for each plastic bag you use. So we always have to remember to take our reusable bags. Second, there are only 2 small grocery stores near apartment; one is Trader Joe's and the other Safeway. The Trader Joe's is right across the street but we only buy certain things there since the food is organic (and usually expensive) and the selection small. That's why we usually walk the 4 blocks to the Safeway in the bottom of the Watergate complex. Before, we both had to go so that there was enough manpower to carry our food home. However last week we found this genius of invention (see photo) in our kitchen so I decided to go shopping alone. It was going great until I discovered there is no elevator access to Safeway. After hauling the cart backwards up 3 flights of stairs and nearly breaking one of the wheels, the food is home. Thank heavens :)





For my birthday this year, Ben bought me tickets to a dance concert at the Kennedy Center. The company was the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and I was very excited since I'd studied about them when I danced in high school. Anyway, they performed some AMAZING numbers and I loved it. After I just wanted to get up and dance! Behind us is the theater. Ben hates this picture (he says we look like dear in headlights) but it shows how pretty the theater is. What a great husband I have.




Friday was beautiful so after Ben got out of class we walked down 25th street, along the boardwalk of the Potomac River, and to the Lincoln Memorial. I think of all the sights in DC the Lincoln Memorial is one of my very favorites. I have such an fascination for him as a man, such an admiration for him as a president.

On a more somber note, we went to the Holocaust Museum on Saturday. We took our time to read the plaques, watch the movies, and see the exhibits and before we realized it, we'd been there 5 hours. It is so awful, so sad, so heavy, yet I felt it so important to remember. It made me examine myself, my prejudices, my stereotypes.
In high school I heard a quote that "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" (George Santayana). In a few places in the museum signs read, "It happened. Therefore it can happen again". Just some things to think about. I would definitely recommend it for anyone visiting DC, although you could see it in 2-3 hours or so.

things Athena says when she is asleep

Oh hey! This is Ben. I'm writing in the Petersen Palooza blog for the first time in my life. I tried to catch that "blogging spirit" once. I started my first entry on my ipod when we were camping in the rain this past summer. It started with something like “Ben’s first blog post.” And that’s about the spot that it ended. I guess I just struggle to be intensely interested in posting. Oh well. We officially decided that Athena is the blog superintendent and I am on the blog board. I think they pay me to go to meetings every quarter. I’ll have to follow up with the superintendent on that one. I’m overdue for my check and stock options. In the meantime, I present to you a blog post that has been nearly 10 months in the making:

I am a morning person, tried and true. I crash at 11 p.m. and my brain starts turning on sometime around 5 a.m. Athena is a night person. Her brain hits full throttle around 11 p.m. and begins to wind down around 5 a.m. You can see how this would make life interesting. I usually find myself stumbling through the dark in the early mornings getting ready for school or work as Athena begins to saw logs on her side of the bed. I try to avoid disturbing her, but sometimes my various rustlings in the morning cause her to stir. It is in this environment that Athena lives up to her namesake and says some of the most profound wisdom I have ever heard. In order to enlighten our future posterity and increase our blog rating, I have spent the last 10 months collecting the nuggets of knowledge Athena says in the wee hours of the morning. They come unprovoked and with no details or context other than what I described above.

There are patients!

No one's going alone.

We should be out of here by the time I get back right?

Did you get the patients in room 16?

Athena: What do I need to know about 4... Room 4?
Ben: they’re ok
Athena: ok (then she rolls over and continues sleeping)

Ben when get a minute will you come talk to me about broken bones?
(Then after I came to be by her) You don't really have anyone in room 1 do you?

I like what they have here… whatever they use to encourage you know.

Room for accessories.

Athena: Ben can I ask you a question?
Ben: of course
Athena: I was mad at you in my dream. We were arguing because you were taking a social dance class at BYU and dancing with other girls all the time. Is that unreasonable?
Ben: I would never take a social dance class.
Athena: But, but if you were taking a class, would I be justified in getting mad?
Ben: Yes honey, keep sleeping.

I've been thinking about that condo that we looked at and I don't know if it's a good idea. I mean it would be nice to be working toward a mortgage, especially while we're living here in D.C. That's all.

You can do whatever you want and I'll support you love.


I figure this is the first installment of many wonderful things that Athena says when she is asleep.

"A Man's Museum"

Last Thursday, Ben had a man moment. As soon as we'd been in the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum only 5 minutes, he proudly stated "This is a man's museum". It must have something to do with testosterone levels. But in the end we both, male and female, had a great time.

In front of the Apollo 11 module.
It carried the first men who walked on the moon.

Ben inside the aircraft carrier. He loved it and I loved watching him love it.
"Honey, did you know this is a F-14 tomcat?!" Why no honey, I did not :)

In front of the Wright Brother's first flyer

Adaptation

Today I had a realization: I don't like change as much as I wish I did. When we heard we had the opportunity to move to DC I said, "Let's do it! What an adventure!" However, if I was to describe it more accurately I would have said, "Let's do it! Let's live in a small dorm room in a freezing and expensive city, walk nearly everywhere, share a kitchen with 20 single guys (think freshman dorm), and while we're at it, Ben won't enjoy his internship and I'll go without work! Now that's an adventure!"

I think some of those statements are a bit radical, but they describe a few of my (and maybe Ben's) attitudes in the past few weeks. I know many would say, "Are you crazy? You're living in the middle of one of the greatest cities in America?" and if you did you would be right. I wish I could say that I moved here and right from the beginning I loved it. That I was captivated immediately by the museums, history, and shopping. But that's not true. The adjustment has been harder than expected. In the past few weeks we've had things turn out differently than anticipated, and that's called for change. Or maybe the word would be adaptation.

But yesterday and today it was a relief to note that I'm starting to adapt. And Ben too. We went to the Eastern Market yesterday to enjoy delicious Blueberry Buckwheat pancakes for breakfast. I bought a fun pair of knit gloves from Ecuador. We walked to the Library of Congress and got library cards, then explored the National Botanic Gardens. And then the highlight of the day was we went to the temple with our little branch. Out of about 70 active members, there were 22 in our session. They are so faithful. And I felt such a confirmation that we need to be in that branch, even though it's been an adjustment to attend in Spanish.

Then this morning we waited at 8:15am in 25 degree weather for the bus to take us to church, but the bus didn't come. Oh well :) So we trudged to the subway, where I realized I'd left the bread (that I'd promised to bring for the ward luncheon) at home. So Ben valiantly ran back to our apartment and came back just in time to catch our train. We arrived at church late, but with enough time so Ben could play the piano for the choir to practice. He's been such a trooper playing the piano for the branch, and I love him for it.

I tried to hide the bread in the kitchen, but after the meetings I found that the priests had used part of it for the sacrament. We had a good laugh about it. I guess I should feel honored they chose our bread. Thankfully there was plenty of food, it was delicious, and we had a great time talking with the members. After, we did some single young adult visits in a car (what a joy to ride in a car again!) with some members and took the subway home. It was a long day, but it kind of feels like the mission again. Tiring, but equally rewarding. And tomorrow Ben will begin another week of his internship that's he's beginning to enjoy.

So back to the idea of adaptation. It takes time. It's a process. The things that bother me don't go away, it's just that I don't let them bother me anymore. I'm beginning to focus on the good. Like what a beautiful and amazing city we're living in, what a great husband I have, and what wonderful memories we're making.

Speaking of being sick...

Last week when Ben and I were sick we couldn't help but feel like the Mad Madam Mim. We got a good laugh out of this clip.



What a great movie.

A View from L Street

How are we doing? We're doing great! Mostly because we got a pillowtop to fix the hard dorm mattresses and crack in between our beds, but other things are going great too :) I got a job with a temporary nursing agency today and begin in February working in the local hospitals. Ben's enjoying his internship... although it is with the government. Need we say more? But all of this is a great experience. We're learning and growing and... we're in DC! Here are some photos to update you.

On the Mall

Up inside the Washington Monument

Inside Ford's Theater, where Abraham Lincoln was shot

Enjoying our new pillowtop on our twin mattresses. Best purchase ever.

The second highest view in DC, the Old Post Office

Ben playing with the camera

I think he's pretty good at it