olivia jo

I don't take pictures very much anymore. I work full-time in an office now, so there really is no time for picture-taking. But when I do take pictures, it's for free, and it's for love. I won't be writing here very much, as life is very busy and very different from my blogging heyday. But every now and again there is an Olivia Jo, and so every now and I again I'll post.

thirty seven

I turned 37 years old on an eastbound Metro train. Two German women sat talking across the aisle from me. I caught every tenth word or so. A Vietnam veteran and his family waved from the front of the car, thanking me again for guiding them through their passcard purchase back at the Vienna station. A warm and little six year-old hand rested on my belly skin for comfort. I closed my eyes and felt the curve of the tracks beneath me.

a wedding

Four cousins who had never met became fast friends. The brothers gave a free concert to the frogs in the pond, and the frogs gave a free concert back to the brothers. And I floated barefoot through the clover and whispered to the fireflies, and refilled my margarita glass once or twice.

siblings

These are some of my favorite people in the whole world. Linking up to Emily today....

daughter love

Last week we sat together on a single chair at Starbucks, waiting for our Frappucino. I piled her long limbs into my lap and circled her with my arms, holding in her angles and big feet. I rubbed my nose into her hair, and she closed her eyes. "You two are so in love," said a woman to us in passing. "That's so rare to see."

She lingered in the kitchen with me all of this morning while I made scones and coffee. She slipped out for a few minutes, then returned and handed me this card. I whispered my thanks into her sweet, soft neck.

(linking up to emily today...)

family fun magazine

Disney's Family Fun Magazine featured the bed cave curtains and chalk board wall from our old house in New York in their May 2010 issue (click here for the PDF). My favorite part: the freakishly talented illustrator of the piece, Clare Mallison, referenced this picture of one of the bed caves to create a cute, dare I say whimsical little illustration of my girl reading in her beddie. Soooo fun, especially the (imaginary) drawings of butterflies and unicorns on the wall.

beach house | ellen's corner

John's late grandmother would sit here in her Jordache cut-offs and read in the evenings, her feet propped up on the ottoman and a glass of watered-down wine beside her. At low tide, a warm breeze would come to her through the sliding glass door, smelling of muck and mussels and ruffling the pages of her book.

james farm | ocean view, de

desecration

I found it at the edge of the Atlantic, lifeless, grey, sliding in the foam. The pain of the frigid waters shot up my legs as I darted in to pluck the ocean's dead from her shallows. The white last now sits on my window sill, the trophy of a landlocked housewife.

namesake

Laura Lucia Roberto Anderson

born March 20, 1918

died March 15, 2010

Her nickname was Ruby. She and my grandfather posed for this picture after Mass one sunny Palm Sunday on Long Island. Maybe they stopped by the bakery on their way home that day. I imagine my mother and her two brothers riding in the back seat of the car, holding their buttered rolls and watching the buildings blur through the windows.