Adventured.net

Wandering Around the Waldorf Astoria

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 | Fun, Photography | 4 Comments

Last Tuesday, Thao invited me to attend the Project ALS gala held at the Waldorf Astoria. Since she works for Viacom, sometimes these random opportunities appear out of the blue. Ben Stiller was hosting and it sounded like a good time plus we both got to get dressed up!

Though the subject matter was quite sad, Ben Stiller and Sarah Silverman were hilarious, the food was good, and the wine flowed unceasingly. After the event, Thao and I wandered the halls of the Waldorf Astoria, literally, and took a bunch of photos. I hope you enjoy the photos of our drunken wanderings as much as we enjoyed taking them!

Tags: Friends, Fun, Photography, project ALS gala

4th Anniversary - Roundtrip to Polanda via Vienna

Saturday, October 11th, 2008 | Adventure, Family, Photography, Travel | 3 Comments

As some of you already know, Justin surprised me with a trip to Poland for our fourth anniversary.  While we did things tourists are typically expected to do, such as visiting Castle Wawel and snapping photos in Rynek Glowny (the grand square) in Krakow, and strolling through Stephansplatz and along the Danube Canal in Vienna, the primariy purpose of our visit was so that I could experience, first hand, the land of my ancestors.

For a time I’ve been working on a family website based on research my great aunt,

Sister Mary Elizabeth Jupe, did that traced the roots of my father’s family all the way back to the 1600’s in Silesia, Prussia in Germany (when our last name still had both its p’s: Juppe).  That region has since become part of Poland. For our trip, Justin and I had one night in Nysa, one night in Krakow, and one night in Vienna.  Nysa is, consequently, the region where my ancestors are from.  The towns that are significant follow: Deutsch Wette, Neissa/Nysa and Lindewiese/Lipowa - German and Polish names respectively for the areas that are still in existence.

It was definitely an interesting experience, though I wish we’d had longer than 3 days!  I also wish the weather had been more agreeable and that I spoke a little Polish.  :)  It was surreal to step foot into a church that some of my relatives were married in and another was christened in more than 2 centuries ago.  It was also sad, because there is practically no German influence left in the area.  I say practically, because there were still one or two German inscriptions adorning plaques within the beautiful church.  Check out our seemingly endless supply of photos from Poland and Vienna.

Tags: Adventure, austria, europe, Family, heritage, krakow, life, Lipowa, Nysa, Photography, poland, travel, vienna

Montana Photos & Random Writing

Sunday, September 28th, 2008 | Photography, Writing | 3 Comments

First of all, check out my photos from Montana including my brief stopover in Denver.  Warning: too many self-portraits.  There are some lovely scenic shots though. ;)

This morning I wanted to spend some time writing but I was uninspired so I just decided to describe a bit of mine and Justin’s journey home from Brooklyn last night.

Last Night

We stumbled every few steps over the uneven sidewalk, scarred as it was with thick bands of wild grass, broken and even shattered to bits in some areas from neglect…  The streetlights became soft orbs of light in the humid night air. On a bridge in the distance, the line of lights was distorted so everything glowed, seemingly uniform.  To our east, a fair distance beyond the nearest buildings and the river, the city was entirely obscured by the thick, hazy moisture.  All we could tell of the city was a strange purple glow, refusing to acknowledge the presence of a sunless sky – ignoring the notion of twinkling stars above.

An impressive cemetery stretched out along the western side of the street.  All the stones were black, slate, grey.  Towering obelisks and massive crosses crowded together, interspersed with hulking sepulchers.  As crowded in life as in death in this city of ours.  We could’ve been in New Orleans – my imagination readily allowed.  My companion snickered as we clambered passed the Best Western City View Hotel.  All of the windows facing the cemetery were frosted.  I suppose this was out of concern for their customers rather than deference toward the dead. It would’ve disappointed me had I stayed there.  The cemetery was really quite lovely, and at sunset, I imagine it would be breathtaking to behold filled with warm golden light.

We walked into a more residential neighborhood where the sidewalks notably improved.  Spanish voices serenaded our march as a mother ushered in her little children at 10PM – their playground an empty street with one lone Latin bar.  I suspected that the bar was completely abandoned, though the loud music emanating from within suggested otherwise.

A few minutes later we came to the corner of a couple of streets flanked by tall, red brick apartment buildings and spotted a small yellow cab.  It was one of the new, more energy-efficient hybrid models.  We were lucky to flag it down easily.  Upon climbing in I was surprised to discover that the safety glass I’d become accustom to which separated driver from patron was non-existent in this state-of-the-art vehicle.  I wonder if it speaks to the current safety of New York city streets or something else entirely that has yet to occur to me.  I gave the driver our address and we sped quickly home.

Tags: Photography, Writing

Wild About Montana’s Beauty

Monday, September 15th, 2008 | Fun, Photography, Travel | 2 Comments

What a lucky gal am I?  Justin flew all the way from New York City to Billings, Montana just to spend Saturday with me!  He arrived at 10:30 pm on Friday night, and I dropped him at the airport at noon on Sunday.  I could not have asked for a better time together, though I may have asked for it to be longer!

At first, Saturday morning was dreary and rainy.  I was disappointed because I’d hoped Justin and I would make our way to Red Lodge and to the Beartooth Mountains.  I knew there was hiking around and supposedly Red Lodge was a cute little town.  Everyone told us to go there on our first trip to Montana in June, though the pass was still closed due to snow.

Despite the weather, we decided to head toward Red Lodge anyway.  We had a delicious lunch at a pizzeria in Red Lodge.  Slowly but surely, the day began to improve!  We browsed in the local shops and Justin tried on, decided to buy, and then deciding not to buy a coat from an antique store.  The store also had a really rad German hat from WWII but it was super tiny and wouldn’t fit my gigantic head, so I didn’t get it.  We noticed intermittent patches of sunlight and decided to continue on our way to Beartooth Highway and the Beartooth Pass. I’d heard it was beautiful, but words could not express the truth of the beauty of this place.  Check it out for yourself - captions and photo notes accompany the images: Photos of Snow, Hiking, Chipmunks and Kisses>>

After a lovely day of exploring a new town, a scenic drive and a bit of hiking, Justin and I relaxed in the hotel room, watched some TV, and noshed on hamburgers at Fuddruckers for dinner.  We also played a hunting video game where we shot moose - that was a blast!  Justin won (but I still killed more turkeys on the bonus round!).  I love you, sweetheart.  Thanks for coming out to Montana and showing me one heck of a good time. :)

Tags: Fun, Justin, Montana, Photography, travel, Vanessa

Awesome Photos: N-E-S-S

Sunday, September 7th, 2008 | Family, Fun | 7 Comments

Val!, Karen and Mike were all hanging out last night as Val! is visiting Texas. They went to dinner with Mom and Dad and then sat around reminiscing and just randomly chattering.  I asked Mom to take some photos of them, at which point she said they had taken a group shot before they left.  I told her to tell them to take some Lyrael.com style photos and to mention “letters” and “Tab” to them.  Now, to those of you new readers of this site (new as in the 6 years, woe is me), you surely don’t know what I mean.  Back in 2002, Karen, Val! and I became quite creative (and silly) when it came to taking and uploading photo sets.  I hoped they’d want to do something goofy that hearkened back to those good times.  Sure enough, they did!  For your viewing pleasure, here are the two photos Val! has sent me so far:

Love you guys!!! And I miss you! XO XO

Nessy

PS: If anyone out there wants to take silly photos and email them to me, that’d be awesome too! :)  Maybe we can get Peanut in on the action… She kinda looks like she is “E” shaped in the photos below. :)

Update: Another one!  I love this one! The lighting is great! Look how long and pretty Karen’s hair is!  I definitely dig everyone’s expressions on the “N” here.

Tags: Family, Fun, photo editing, Photography, Val

Baby on Board - My Cousin is Pregnant!

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 | Family, Positivity | 4 Comments

I am so glad that my awesome cousin Sheila is pregnant!  I doubt I’ll ever have a child and Val!’s pretty much in the same boat, so this is the closest I’m going to come to being an Aunt… well, Aunt-Like. Ok, a really cool cousin. :P

I am just so darn excited about “Peanut” Roan!!!  Sheila sent sonogram photos out to the family yesterday.  I am sharing them here, now.  I wish I could tell you more, like how she is feeling (I think a little nauseous!) and what she is thinking (yay baby!), but I can’t… she hasn’t updated her website.  :P

In these photos, you can make out little numbs that represent Peanut’s appendages!  We don’t know whether Peanut will be a girl or a boy. Mommy and Daddy (Sheila and Justin) supposedly want to wait til the baby is born, but we’ll see if they can stave off their curiosity.  Personally, I am hoping Peanut is a girl, but I’ll love it either way. ;)  Congratulations She and Justin!!!

Tags: baby, Family, Photography, pregnancy, Sheila, sonogram