a year ago today….

admin — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 02:08:03 +0000

see? I’m always trying to decide where to be and what to to. It’s not that I don’t have options. I have too many opportunities, and not enough years. =)
I hope that most of you get at least a hundred. =)
elle….

twentyfour

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 07:24:02 +0000

I am a freak about record-keeping. I’ve been keeping paper journals daily since I was about 13. I have tons of them. I’m afraid of losing memories, I’m afraid that by not documenting in some way, it will be forgotten. I also take photos and video like crazy. I wanted to do something special for the millenial year…2001. What I chose to do was a kind of strange journal-keeping ritual. I videotaped myself for about 4 minutes a day, doing whatever I was doing. I did this everyday at a specified time. I started on Jan 1st, 2001 at 12:00:00 and ended on December 31, 2001 at 11:59:59. Everyday in between followed the previous day at the time that it stopped. So, at the end of the year, I had 24 hours of videotape documenting an entire day of my life…taken from everyday of the entire year. It was such a fun project. I’ve done others…a photograph of myself as I leave the house every morning, taped into my journal with the time of departure, and my destination…and there will be more. I’m working on one right now actually. =)
I’m posting that project from 2001 here….the twentyfour hours crammed into about 6 minutes (thanks Josh for getting it into this format!)…just for fun. I’ve been thinking about this lately because one of the themes of my life is everyday. I believe that the biggest things that we do as human beings are the things that we consistantly do over and over, not the one time courageous acts. Anyone who’s married can tell you that a marriage is everyday, not wedding day. Getting married is a big thing yes…. but loving your spouse and staying commited to him or her happens daily, and it happens hundereds of more times than your wedding day. By small and simple things, great things are brought to pass (10 points if you can tell me who said that!).
The other theme word that I like is today. If I learned one thing while doing this project, it was that you can’t capture the best memories. I was proposed to on May 16th, 2001. The four minutes that I filmed that day didn’t coincide with the two minutes that I spent staring at a beautiful man, down on one knee, asking me to marry him. I couldn’t dictate when the best parts of my life were going to happen, and I couldn’t videotape them all. So I learned to live today. I learned to enjoy the moments that used to seem mundane…I learned to simply cherish extra special times when they arrived, and I learned to hold on dearly to those few people in this world who, when I’m with them, always seem to create magic. It’s all in you.
Thanks for listening. =) Y’all rock.
xoxo
elle

xoelle » documentation

a year ago today….

twentyfour