Photograph Album

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You might find the photographs more amusing in their full contexts, which are linked if they exist.

The sole organizational theme in this is that as I constructed the page, I inserted the jpegs in alphabetical order, except for a hiccup or two in context.

smooching beargrass
and
I look like MEM here

Smooching a stalk of beargrass in Glacier National Park, August 1998. I cropped my arse from this photo.

Crossing from the west to the east side of the park, very very early in the morning, over Going-to-the-Sun road. I love that name.

cleansing our pores for god

My sister and I cleanse our pores for God, Old Saybrook CT 6 September 1997. Isn't this a great shot considering it's one of those where we just held the camera at arm's length and hoped?

bouncing

Upon the bouncy thing at UConn, 15 May 1995. Bounced 19 June 1998. Last bounced 15 July 2000.

into the ocian

Overlooking the Pacific Coast Highway, somewhere just south of San Francisco, 12 September 1998

hallowe'en 1977 and Hallowe'en 1998

Hallowe'en, 1977, I think. The absence of a dog in late October indicates Sagi was nearly gone, therefore fourth grade. I am a pack of Wrigley's Doublemint; CLH is a McDonald's garbage can. Both oevres are our own handiwork. The backyard, Old Lyme, CT.

Hallowe'en 1998. I see that the fatal flaw with this costume was its lack of vertical symmetry. Barbie offered me a slinkier, red tank top, though, so I didn't have the big black thing on all night.

good morning, captain!

My childhood hero, Captain Kangaroo, and a humbled moi. On this day he called me thoughtful (because I bought his book for CLH too). Notice that he has his hand on my shoulder (and I didn't put it there): he voluntarily embraced me. I swooned. I cried. I didn't recognize him without his many-pocketed coat. Or with his age. Denver, CO, November 1996. One of the giddiestly happy moments of my life.

me and zbd mcgee

ZBD and I, New York, 22 June 1998. Anyone opposing my stance that she is the most beautiful child ever anywhere will be subject to re-instruction. Remember what happened to the boy with the ball and to Winston Smith.

stupid yearbook pose

For my birthday in 1997 my father bought me a dress with horizontal stripes. I exchanged it (he told me some women would be glad of what I try to de-emphasize). In 1998 he took no such chances and sent me a check, which was good because I'd already bought this dress. Then he sent me flowers at work. What a charmer. Being the demure type I am, I asked RDC to take some pictures of me in the dress for Father's Day. (One picture features me holding the flowers.)
Blake's in his cage on the ground behind me.
This is the only picture I like of me with my hair down--mostly down, with the front hair in a barrette. I had just had it cut to its shortest since it's been long. As I type this, not quite a year later, my hair is about three inches longer than here. Damn.

and now...monty and just for contrast

Christmas in Aspen, 1995. RDC found me Monty a few weeks before in Breckenridge, and I don't know how he kept him hidden from me until Christmas. Not that I peek on purpose, you understand, just that some things are bigger than others. Here I am in Yuletide comfort, in my FAO Schwartz nightshirt and glasses (all ready for the pajama breakfast party we'd attend later that day) with my moose. My old boss JBM gave me that nightshirt. It's purple (so he thought of me) and has a big rocking horse on it. I love it.

ljh & rdc get married

The best of the wedding pictures, even though our faces are pretty dark. I had the most unimaginative bouquet I have ever seen. CLH carried ivory roses to match my dress and I carried pinky-peach ones to match hers. This concept was pretty much lost since I held my bouquet facing me (doofus that I am) during the ceremony, which was the only time we were standing next to each other and holding our flowers.

I had a really wet butt after this one

We went up to the Adirondacks over Memorial Day in 1993. I was deluded that I could swim. I think this is somewhere around Mt. Marcy near Lake Placid.

Behind us is the Never Summer Range just northwest of Rocky Mountain National Park. We went camping over the weekend of our first anniversary. I think this might be the actual date, the 24th of June, although the significance of the date wouldn't strike us until later in the day.

This picture might date from earlier in June 1996 than our anniversary, because what RDC is showing me is the new tripod (which took the picture and the one in front of the Never Summers). Could I really have been so tan in June?

surrounded by beasts

At Nisou's U.S. wedding, August 1996. I am flanked by my favorites the Beasts, who unfortunately did not photograph well here. I did.

menage a troiseaux

Menage à troiseaux.
You have to know a little French for this. I'll assume everyone knows what menage à trois connotes in English? In French, literally, it's "household of three," if you wondered.
"L'oiseau" is French for "the bird" and its plural is "les oiseaux."
Thus, a menage à troiseaux is a grouping, illicitly sexual or otherwise, of three birds.
Notice that Blake is leaning toward me to kiss me. I am nothing if not a jealous mother.
When we went to see "Grease" rereleased in the theatre, since no one would dance with me (which is okay because really I don't know the movie that well), I consoled myself by doing Danny's big reach around Sandy at the drive-in; my Sandy was Hillory. I tried to drop my hand rather to Hillory's right of where it is in this shot, but she stranded me gropeless.
And I wonder why there are rumors.
Spring 1998

rdc in the snow barcalounger

RDC in his snow barcalounger, 26 October 1997.

rdc & clh

RDC and CLH at the nuptials. Check out CLH's waist: impressive, isn't it?
I have blurred BJWL's face in the background because I don't post anyone's picture without their permission (except Captain Kangaroo, who's a known figure, and ZBD, who's unrecognizable I hope).
When BJWL saw a glassful of the beer, which was not the piss-color of the soaped-up brands she was accustomed to, she asked if it were rancid.

rdc at nsf

RDC at my birthday/our anniversary party at NSF, 20 June 1998.

rdc & rdc

RDC holding RDC2 at the nuptials. RDC2 is RDC's nephew, not his (or our) son.

ljh in 1981 and ljh in 1987

I think the contrast between 1981 and 1987, pre- and post-orthodontia, is important to keep in mind when assessing my evolution. The orthodontist liked to have before and after shots. You'll notice I wasn't smiling in the first one, which kind of undoes the point of a "Before Orthodontia" photograph. This might have even been my first appointment, so I wasn't not-smiling because I already hated him. No, I was not-smiling because I just didn't smile much. In 1987, I knew he was an incompetent moron, but hey! I was free of him, so what wasn't to smile about? I insisted on owning these two photographs. I didn't want the swine-rodent to gaze upon the contrast and think hehad had anything to do with my transformation.
I just love the bangs I wore in 1981. That's my mother's hair-cutting. She knew to cut hair wet but she never took into account the fact that our hair curled (or waved, or bent at least) when dry.

Sisters, 1972

Speaking of bangs, check 'em out here. The fact that we've got way too much hair here is more the fault of the year (1972 or 1973) than of our mother, as is that hair growing over our ears. The fact that our bangs go every which way (for annual portraits no less) is wholly our mother's. With our hair sopping wet, she'd cut a straight line across our foreheads. Notice that both CLH and I have the same cowlick over our right eyes.
Also notice our little outfits, straight off our mother's sewing machine. The collars! Why is anyone reviving the '70s? I have no idea. And my little baby teeth, and CLH's buck teeth.

ljh in 1975

Notice CLH's same little outfit on me three years later, my second grade picture. Notice who's got the buck teeth now.

Sisters going to school

The first day of third grade (or sixth, depending on whom you ask), in front of the house.
I don't remember what Sagi wanted to do, but to sit there wasn't her first choice--notice the stranglehold on the choke collar.
I loved that dress. In fact if its sleeves were different (and it were a size 12) I'd still wear that dress. Our mother made both it and CLH's jumper. I remember craving that shirt too, yoikes.
This is the only first-day-of-school picture we have, except CLH's first-day-of-school-ever kindergarten snapshot. Our mother was sparing of film, and I wonder if she wanted to commemorate her sewing prowess more than our school days. Certainly we wear her handiwork in most of our school portraits, and I think it telling that our best clothes were homemade--not necessarily bad, just indicative of how we lived.

buried in his jammies

Just before her last party, in August 1998, KMJ had found in her building's basement an abandoned record player and a crate of LPs. This was a record player, too, nothing sophisticated enough to be called a turntable. Of course, this collection of music hadn't been added to since compact discs got big. The most recent thing was Gene Loves Jezebel or something. A late '70s and early-to-mid '80s fest. When HAO brought these photographs to her birthday dinner, almost everyone's guess about what song was playing was wrong. What do you think?
While you're considering the possibilities, let me point out that this was a Saturday and KMJ was moving on Tuesday. And that bookcase is just what the rest of the apartment looked like (and on that bookcase was The Fountainhead that got Sabrina and I talking about guilty pleasures like Rand and V.C. Andrews.
And by "last" I mean "last I am likely to attend since she moved to Canada three days later," not "last" as in "KMJ was afterwards 'late.'" Everything in relation to me, remember.
Guessed yet? It wasn't the Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian." No no no. Note the grin. That's not only embarrassment; that's also delight. I was dancing to Steve Martin's "King Tut."

vital business of state

June 1991, spelunking for dragons deep in the bowels of MIT. From left to right, Dave (looking like Milo in a particular Bloom County strip I forget), KRE (who is not a man, despite what some have asked seeing this picture, your humble narrator, SEM over my head, and PLT.

 

The following four are my favorite favorites and live in my bedroom.

In the summer of 1988, DEDB and I shared a room in a fraternity. I went through a lot of jobs that summer, alleging I wanted varied experience but actually hating myself for not getting a real job, as DEDB had at Lesley College. Varied summer jobs for someone wholly lacking any experience involved retail and subservience and my last restaurant stint, and one day DEDB knew she would find me stomping up and down the Esplanade. There she and a photographing brother did find me (in my Joshua Tree tour shirt). I don't care that this is blurry; it is one of my favorite pictures ever because not only does it have us but it has us hugging.

rml's wedding

From right to left, CLH, our mother, and I at my sister's friend's wedding reception. The actual ceremony took place in the breakfast garden of the Bee and Thistle Inn and the reception in her parents' backyard. The Inn would have been a lovely place to be married in, but I much preferred DEDB's backyard to my own.
This is one of my two favorite pictures of BJWL because she's smiling a genuine smile. I believe she likes neither of these favorites because her smiles look silly, according to her. To me they look real and I prefer them to her usual posed smiles (grin retained; eyes blurred for privacy)

100 Steps in a gale

In the summer of 1994, DEDB's friend Ulla visited and she and I became fast friends. One day the three of us and SEM's then-girlfriend went to Newport. The last time I had been there, RDC and I swam here, at the bottom of the 100 Steps leading from the "cottages" (like the Breakers) to the water. This day, there would be no swimming. We were minutes away from a gale that would rock the Subaru full of us four, flood the shoulder we pulled onto, and throw tsunami over the nearby beach club (nearly). This is the only picture I have of Ulla and me, and with DEDB, who introduced us, in it too, it's a keeper.

surfing safari

In the fall of 1994, CLH moved to Aspen. She spent a few days in Old Lyme beforehand, and here are DEW and she at the beach. It's October, so Long Island Sound features actual waves.

Holcomb trio

This photograph, of me, DEDB, and HEB, lives in my DayRunner. For a long time, even after I thought I had lost HEBD, I had it in its own frame, which is how it didn't find its way into any of my collages. The only time I thought I lost my datebook, I panicked not just for all the personal information in it but because I think SEB took this photograph, and thus it would have lost and gone forever. I scanned it as soon as I found my book.

Sis, me & mom at nuptials

The Houlihan women at my wedding. TJZ took this picture and CLH is making a goofy face at her, whom she had met for the first time only hours before, because they had bonded so well while anointing themselves before the ceremony. TJZ had nailpolish to remove but neither of them had any cotton and the crisis was near until my sister remembered she had a pantiliner. Our mother is wearing earrings I gave her, because she loved them, for her birthday years ago, although she protested they were too expensive, followed by a matching necklace for Mother's Day. I hope she wears them because she likes them, not because I gave them to her or she feels guilty about their cost (which was not a problem). We've all changed out of our wedding finery, but my mother kept her corsage. "I am still the mother of the bride."

is this even me?

I cannot even believe this is me. My mother-in-law, DMB, got married on New Year's Eve 1999, and this is me.

Blake would like everyone to know he has his own page now.

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Last modified 13 September 1999

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