Focus

The first time I ever went into an eye doctor's office, I was 22 years old and I didn't even get to take the eye test. Nevermind that I was only there as my friend's chauffeur, as she was fully expecting the man behind the machines to dilate her eyes. Before I walked into that room and saw what a real eye chart looked like, I didn't even know what dilating her eyes really would do to her. You see, with perfect, or better than perfect vision (yes I'm bragging), I had no need to know these things. My family appears to be blessed with good eyesight - my father only had reading glasses for the last couple years of his life, and my mom uses reading glasses these days, but I swear its just for show. Or sympathy. I'm sure with all the time I spend in front of a computer, my eyes are going to go to hell in a handbasket relatively soon now, but that is a problem for future me. And until then I'll take as many of these DoF shots as I can.

Top Down


Go Your Own Way

Take me for a Ride

There was a night a few years ago that I tend to remember remarkably well when I look at these shots. It is remarkable the degree to which my memories come back to me merely considering the sheer volume of beer that I consumed that evening. Let's just say it was a company sponsored night, and the beer, it was on the company. We knew how to take advantage of a generous boss, but he never seemed to mind signing the checks.

The highlights of the company evening in the Prater include such fabulous events as a broken wrist, a lost Powerbook (yeah huh, a whole laptop), a burn to the leg from the bumper cars, and at least half of us still drunk at work the next day. But I got to go on a couple of rides several times over and laugh until my sides felt like they were going to burst. And since none of that bad stuff happened to me, except the 24 hours hangover, I consider the evening to have been one of the most entertaining I had that summer.

You Swing me Right Round, Baby


Wrap it Up


Gigantic Jester Hat

Out of Office Reply

I'm still in Cali, yo. I'm betting that right now I am currently lounging around in Santa Cruz, having driven from Monterey to SC in my fabulously gorgeous (yes, rented) convertible, hanging out with my guy, my brother, and his girlfriend; likely there's a volleyball with us and a WHOLE LOTTA SAND. That's right. Beach Volleyball. Rest assured, I may be having way more fun than you right now, but I am also incredibly sun burnt. And in denial. Because that sunscreen I put on 5 minutes ago? It should keep me from turning lobster red for longer than a couple minutes, right? I promise I won't have pictures of the lobster red shade for you, you lucky dog, you!

Bizarre-O combo of shots - shockingly from Vienna below.

Light 'em Up


Take a Shot

Legs, Lots of Legs

Look, to be honest, right now, I am driving to Monterey in California in a convertible from San Francisco. I'm wearing a little black satin dress with awesome white polka dots, some super kickass (new) shoes, and my hair, it is a mess - but lo! it will be GORGEOUS SOON. And in a handful of hours, I will be taking pictures of my friends and enjoying the sunshine and witnessing one of my college friends getting married to a gorgeous woman. Lucky guy!

So until I get home from my long weekend in sunny California, enjoy a few more shots of Vienna! HA!

Walkies!


In the Shadow of Two Stilettos*


*I just wanted to clarify that I stole part of that phrase from Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing (one of the best shows ever).

Catching my Eye

Its NOT the Risenrad, but it IS from the Prater. In Vienna. Still!

Daisy in the Middle


I stood in this spot, taking shots of this mini riesenrad for a while. I couldn't pull my eyes away from the little buckets. They looked like little stained glass windows against the sky. Little jewels dangling against the beautiful blue. Sparkling and being all shiny and pretty. Little gems hanging from the daisy in the middle. Girls like sparkling. We like shiny and pretty. And gems and flowers together? Yes, please!

I am totally losing it, over here. Come watch!

I'm struggling to come up with an anecdote that can lead me into these shots, something profound or funny (which I realize I don't do well, but just go with me on this one), something relative and less tangential than LOOK, HERE PICTURES! But you know, since I'm not so smart right now, LOOK, HERE PICTURES!

WAIT! More info... NOT SMART, am I. Plus, I'm completely freaking out because I have SO MUCH TO DO before getting on a plane tomorrow. On my list that MUST GET DONE - buy a dress (damnit! pressured shopping! ARGH!), buy presents, do laundry, take a shower, pack a suitcase with the new dress and the clean clothes, eat SOMETHING besides a latte and Starbuck's coffee cake, sleep more than 3 hours consecutively, harass the cat with a red laser pointer and treats, feed the cat and hope she eats whatever flavor she gets, clean the damn kitchen - AGAIN, and clean most of the apartment for the first time this month. WHAT? Its not like we entertain EVERY DAY. Or, like, EVER.

Well that was a mighty large tangent! Oooh! LOOK, HERE PICTURES!

From Street Level


It could literally have broken off its stand-thing and crushed me! But do not fear, I have the reflexes of ... a human, and to be honest, I wasn't that close so I might have been able to walk out of the path of the giant wheel in time to save myself.

A Little to the Left


Yes, these two shots were taken hours apart.

I took far too many pictures of this thing

There was a great afternoon of walking around the Prater in Vienna - YES I STILL HAVE VIENNA PICTURES - and the light was amazing right before I left the park so I had to shoot the Riesenrad for, like, ever.

PS I really only just noticed how, um not nice those portrait oriented shots look on the blog. I may look into it later, but for now I must go ahead and spend money on things to make my little heart feel better. Yeah - I am so going for some retail therapy.

Lines, Lines, Everywhere There's Lines


Arcs

Quick, before the light comes on

Solitary

Is this a bad time?

I should not be asking this, but please, give me your most assuring advice. Some kind of advice that will fit EVERYTHING.

Surely, you've got something.

Listening

What I wanted to be when I grew up

To my 9 year old self, being a vet meant I could spend the whole day with horses, frolicking in the sun and doing, well, horse things. I didn't know exactly what would constitute horse things, but I could imagine. And I did imagine and it was glorious and sunny all the time, and my hair it never tangled in the wind while I was riding a very pretty and tall brown horse. See how I got all kinds of technical about horses there? Yeah that's just like when I was nearly ten. I jhd command of all kinds of technicalities and proper jargon.

When I turned about 13 I decided I could sing, and no, I paid no heed to what everyone else said, because obviously they were idiots that didn't know I was the very next Madonna. Or was it Debbie Gibson? Gah, I really don't know, but I am sure I sounded more like a screeching kid than anyone that could read music. It turns out you don't need to know how to read music to sing, but I learned anyways, just in case.

And then I gave up the vet dreams and the singing dreams (my mother was THRILLED that day), and I replaced those dreams of what I wanted to be when I grow up with... nothing. That's right, look at my aspirations now! Impressive in their depth and contemplation, I KNOW.

I think somewhere around the age of 22 I thought it would be great to own a vineyard and make wine. I knew enough at the time about wine to distinguish red from white by the names of the wine about 50-60% of the time, which by my standards was A-OKAY. Look, some people don't aim very high.

I like to attribute my goals with all of these dreams as fantastical, and not at all something that was ever going to happen. Therefore, I didn't spend much time cultivating my knowledge around these areas.

My one thought about all this while I was sitting at the heurigen (yes, OH MY GOD I STILL HAVE HEURIGEN PICTURES) was that Holy DAMNITALL, why did I not stick with the winery thing? Looking out over this all day, everyday would not kill me. Or depress me. Or have any negative effects on me at all. I swears.

Lines


And look I even found my second house. Terrible, no?

Around the Bend

The Hills are Alive

I spent one very fine, and wined, evening drinking and eating and chatting with friends in the hills of Vienna. The sunset didn't splash vibrant colors across the clouds and sky, but the light that it threw across the city was incredible. Imagine it looked like this, only 50 times better, in person.

Glowing

Eye to the Sky

I wanted to write something all brilliant and memory filled and poetic and eloquent. But its after 11, I'm tired and stuffed full of a large serving of Mushrooms Neptune. So, the crab and the mushrooms are mostly to blame for what follows.

When I was but a smaller and younger version of myself, I spent many a schoolday morning in front of the mirror curling and hairspraying my bangs with half a can of Aqua Net so that the rather large gathering of hair above my forehead stood a good 4 inches straight up to the sky. The rest of my hair, it was not feathered, but it was long, and it was curly. Unnaturally curly. However, my bangs were, as my natural hair is, pin straight. It was a rare day that I didn't have a burn from the curling iron on my forehead to cover up. I was then, and still am, not so skilled with the hair styling.

At around the same time in my life, I had a special affinity for blue mascara. I was also a rather large fan of leg warmers, Keds, banana clips (which never could contain the awesomeness that was my permed head of hair), plastic charm necklaces laden with every single plastic charm that could be bought, fingerless gloves, rather large hoop earrings, and let us please not forget 300 bangles worn on one arm and 10 pairs of jelly bracelets on the other. When you go to a catholic school and have to wear a plaid skirt, white collared shirt, and white knee high socks, the only thing you have to set yourself apart, and therefore distinguish yourself as a cool kid, is your accessories. The more, the better. Obviously.

During the hot summer months, I had a tendency to de-accessorize myself. I left the earrings, necklaces, leg warmers and gloves on the floor of my room with the rest of my belongings. Decked out in cutoff jean shorts and puffy paint tank tops or t-shirts, I rode my bike to my best friend's house armed only with a precisely folded stack of 3 single dollar bills and a bandana that I used as a belt until my hair, it just got in my way, and then it transformed from belt into do-rag.

We would ride into town and buy Candy Buttons and (Lik-m-Aid) Fun Dip. If my pockets were big enough, I would spend every penny I had on me for more sugar snacks before hopping back on my bike and riding to the park. The ride was always gruesome in the summer heat, and after perfecting "Look Ma! NO HANDS!" bike-riding, I never arrived at the park with any Candy Buttons left. Sitting on the grass under the kumquat tree, we'd dive into the Fun Dip, leaving no trace of sugar anywhere. At the unfortunate time that the candy would be finished off, we had no choice but to climb the kumquat tree and pluck the fresh, ripe fruit from the branches. Although I was, and am, not really the world's biggest fan of heights, with two older brothers I had no other choice but to be a tree climbing kid. My friend would hold out the bottom of her shirt, collecting the fruits I dropped at her head until I tired of balancing on the branches and jumped down to earth. We would run out to the grass, drop the kumquats into one giant pile between us and spin in circles until we were so dizzy we'd fall down. Scanning the clouds that dotted the blue skies, we'd be smiling and giggling until at least one of us would see something. Arms shooting to the sky, aiming at a cloud formation, and a shrill of excitement in our voices, we'd call out the name of an animal, and sometimes, sometimes we'd even "Jinx!" each other.


Can you guess what I saw in these clouds?

1


2

Meal Time

Heurigens, for those that do not know (it's possible it could be you, Michigan), are like mini-wineries with more substantive food than bread and cheese (Napa's wineries' staples for their tasters). They serve their locally grown grape juice, and more often than not, the juice tastes remarkably like wine and contains wine-like alcoholic percentages. I'm sure they serve something non-alcoholic, but let's be honest, while I lived in Austria I drank anything but a non-alcoholic beverage at least 5 out of 7 nights (which is a lot, I know). Anyways, the food. The food is traditional Austrian fare. I have to admit that I hardly ever ate very much when I ventured to the heurigens. I don't want to put too bad a spin on it, but I mean, look at this.

Blood Sausage Sandwich


It is entirely possible that the heurigen I saw last month served more food, but I think I was more interested in a liquid diet and good times with old friends.

Taste Test


Joker


I really had so much fun that day/night, and I blame Daz, Jim-AY, and the Mels. Also, they get the blame for the headache the next day, but mostly that was just Jimmy and the Monk.

A New Week

Greetings Monday in Vancouver! What is this newfangled summer weather you DID NOT BRING ME? And why, just over a week before the Summer Solstice is it RAINING here? No reason? Really? Great. Thanks. What a way to start the week.

I demand pretty weather and beautiful blue skies. I demand Vancouver start behaving like summer is literally right around the corner. I demand the rain stop and the grey skies vanish. So, you know, whoever is in charge of these things, can you just heed my demands and let's get on with the pretty.

Here are some nice examples - learn from Austria in May.

Heurigen Hills


Silhouette

Oh Pooh, I Forgot I had a Blog to Update!

I have not been busy doing anything but reading the internet and shopping for dresses. I have a wedding to go to in a couple weekends, so I needed something pretty and now I have something pretty. Now I just need to make sure I go to the gym several times in the next couple weeks. And I am only allowed to eat lettuce. And celery. Yum!

So I have a few more Austrian shots, let's try to get through these in short order. Architecture in Vienna was always one of my favorite things. When I first got there in early 2002, I had trouble not walking into people for the mere fact that I wasn't paying attention to where I was going or who I was walking into because the buildings! They're so pretty! But really it was okay to walk into all those people because the Viennese are the stepping-on-strangers-and-not-excusing-themselves kinda people.

It's true.

Somewhere on Ferstelgasse


Votivkirche, University Side


Altes AKH, University, National Bank

Care for a drink?

I've been writing this post for four days. I typo a lot.

Wandering around on the grounds of am Steinhof, my friends and I enjoyed some coffee at the hospital's cafe. I spent about three hours looking for proof on the internet that there is a cafe on the property, but then I got sidetracked by looking for destinations of my upcoming real vacation - where I will go to a place where I do not have family or friends that live there. Its something new I thought I'd try out since I haven't had a (real (which means more than a day or two)) vacation that wasn't visiting friends or family in about 5 years. Yeah, I'm due. I know.

So anyways, I had needed a little pick me up drink and managed to convince my friends to stop at the cafe. On the table was a little informational pamphlet which, from memory, stated that the cafe was staffed entirely with patients from the psychiatric clinic. Of all the places in Vienna where I ordered a latte, this place served the best. After the caffeine jolt, we walked through the meadows and the flowers and around all the pretty buildings. While my friends walked and gabbed and strolled and gesticulated, I followed insanely slowly with my camera plastered to my face, all the while complaining about how they kept leaving me behind. Now I know if I had actually been walking instead of mostly standing around and taking a few steps every now and then, I could have gotten a good shot of my friend quenching her thirst here:

Greens and Blues

The entire time I was in Vienna, I only remember it raining once. For about 8 minutes.

The rest of the time it looked a lot like this:



And that, my friends, is precisely why I wanted to go to Vienna in May and why I wanted to escape the grey and drab of Vancouver in April.

A (Memorial) Day Late

I had a thing with the sky and the clouds while wandering around the grounds of am Steinhof.

Memorialized

After writing out a list of all the things I wanted to do in Vienna, I had a few additions from friends. One of the additional places of interest was a visit to Steinhof and Kirche am Steinhof. A history of the psychiatric hospital -

'Am Steinhof' was opened in 1907 in Penzing (the 14th district) in Vienna. At the time it was the largest sanatorium in Europe. Each of the 34 patients' pavilions was designed by architect Otto Wagner and used as nursing homes, clinics and sanatoriums. Additionally, a theater and church were built within the 1.4 square kilometer grounds. Originally, there was a farm within the grounds to support and supply the institution.

During the Great War (WWI), it is estimated that about 2,800 patients at Steinhof fell victim to food scarcity and infections. In 1922, the rich patients' private care sanatorium was closed down and turned into a lung and TB sanatorium.

Sidestep with me to a little history of Eugenics - In the 19th century a British anthropologist (also an explorer, proto-geneticist, psychometrician, and statistician) named Francis Galton (half-cousin to Darwin!) coined the term eugenics. Galton was knighted in 1909 by Edward VII. In the 19th century, Galton explained to Europe and North America that eugenics, essentially, means selective breeding, aka disallowing certain people to breed for the "betterment" of everyone else. And Europe and North America pretty much agreed with him. So, the theory (and application) of eugenics became an essential part of the Nazi doctrine. Nazi application of eugenics came in the way of compulsory sterilizations.

Additionally, after the Anschluss of Austria in 1938, approximately 65% of the Viennese doctors were systematically driven out of all areas of society for being Jewish. This number translated to roughly 50% of the medical faculty at Steinhof. Medical licenses were taken away from all resident Jewish medical faculty, and Jewish medical students were among the deportations to concentration camps and ghettoes.

So the medical staff left at am Steinhof were greatly smaller in number, while the number of patients only increased after the city-wide registration of citizens' health issues and genealogical histories. Viennese who had any history of mental illness in their families were considered undesirable and would have been sterilized, commonly against their will. Just up the road from Steinhof, at Wilhelminenspital, a women's forced labor camp was mostly populated with Eastern Europeans. A special barracks was dedicated to forced, compulsory abortions for any pregnant Eastern European women at Wilhelminenspital.

The women who died as a result of forced abortion and/or sterilization, as well as the men who died as a result of forced sterilization, were not considered victims of the Nazis until 1995. It is still, as yet, unknown how many people were forced to undergo the sterilization surgeries.

"Memorial for the victims of Spiegelgrund"

Each of the victims were children and were killed by the Nazi's between the year 1940 and 1945. Each light stele stands for an extinguished life. This memorial was erected in 2005 - 60 years after the systematic murder of approximately 800 children and teenagers.

Am Steinhof "was under the supervision of Professor Max Gundel, city councillor for the Viennese health system. The doctors employed in the institution (director Erwin Jekelius, his successor Ernst Illing, Heinrich Gross, Marianne Türk, Margarethe Hübsch) examined the children using methods that were sometimes painful and reported them to Berlin if they were candidates for killing. In Berlin three experts of the Reich Committee decided over their fates. If the authorisation for the killing had arrived in Vienna, the children were poisoned with high doses of sedatives until they died of pneumonia or other infectious diseases. Several children were also used as guinea pigs for deadly experiments: Dr. Elmar Türk of the University Children's Clinic experimented on them with a tuberculosis vaccine.

Between 25 August 1940 and 3 June 1945 at least 789 children and young people died in the Spiegelgrund clinic."

Please go read the information found at http://www.gedenkstaettesteinhof.at/en/. Something my friend said whilst walking behind the pictured memorial is that its important for everyone to know about what happened, everything that happened, in the hopes that it won't ever happen again.

Some additional photos from the grounds will be posted in the near future, and some are on flickr already.

Later that same day....

My recap of that first day in Vienna, it is not yet over. Aren't you so excited? At this rate, we'll get to my summer pictures in Vancouver sometime around December, which will be perfect since the weather will have me very, very down by then.

So, after the collection of the backup battery from the house, which should not have been necessary but was because I had not slept in two days, I went to a playground. Yeah huh! A PLAYGROUND! With Children. Yeah. Me. I know, can you believe it? The girl who only likes children that are related to her voluntarily went to a playground filled with not only other people's children, but Austrian children. Since I feel a bit skeevy taking pictures of people's children - because they always just look at me like, HEY are you trying to steal my child's SOUL, YOU ASSHOLE? - I went ahead and just shot the church. I couldn't hear God complaining about stealing souls over the screaming children, so it worked out well for everyone.

After that, there was beer consumption and I can't really remember the rest of the details, but I do know I drank tequila. And then I passed out on the couch. At something like 7 in the morning. YEAH - that's 21 hours after I got to Austria. Someone knows how to beat the jetlag!

Tequila made me do this.

Study, Breitenfelder Kirche
Study, Breitenfelder Kirche