Kick it Hemmes!

I ran in to my high school coach today in the hall at the college where I work. I was engrossed in conversation with a colleague, and never expected my coach from thirty years ago to be there. As this spry woman was walking past us, I caught a glimpse of her and said, “Majka?” and she looked at me, because I’m sure she was thinking the same thing, “Why would Hemmes be in this hallway?”

We greeted each other with a big bear hug, and not enough time to catch up. She was headed one way, and I another. I told her where my office was, and asked her to stop in one day to visit or stop by for lunch.

It was this woman who used to yell from the other side of the track, “KICK IT HEMMES” when I was on the last 200 meters of the grueling 800 meter race. I heard her yelling these very words every race in my senior year.

For some reason people in sports typically called each other by their last names. Hers was Prumo, and in my head I still think of her as Prumo, even though I know she’s been married for at least 25 years now and her last name is Majka. She’s the one who brought our school out of the gymnastics era and into the Title IX era, where we had teams of girls playing soccer, volleyball, basketball, softball and track. She’s the one who mentored us to become what we are today.

We learned so many skills playing sports and being coached by Prumo. She was more about the hustle and less about the skill. Of course if you had both, that was great. Prumo was always looking for those who would work together and form the perfect team.

The “KICK IT HEMMES” helped me when I was young, just as it helped me when I really needed it. I don’t know if I can tell you a particular time when I heard her yelling in my head during my chemo treatments. I think whenever it got difficult, she was there yelling. Maybe it was on my fourth chemo treatment and I was sicker than a dog and vomiting like I have never vomited before. I heard her yelling “KICK IT HEMMES!” Or maybe it was during the 12 weekly chemos that I had to go through and just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore – I’d hear her voice.

I don’t know if she knows how much I appreciate all that she did for me when I was in school. She helped me apply to college, helped me get a soccer scholarship, and even gave me a job coaching JV soccer when I graduated from college.

But I really think she helped me make it past anything that was difficult in my life with three simple words yelled at the top of her lungs. “KICK IT HEMMES!”

So all I can respond is with a “THANK YOU PRUMO!”

The Backyard Balance Beam

Back in the early 1970s the Russian gymnasts were inspiring young girls across the world with their skills and abilities. Olga Korbut was changing the face of gymnastics with her fabulous moves on the uneven parallel bars and the balance beam. Olga had inspired (so it seemed) every girl in my school to want to become a gymnast, and I was no exception. I got involved in all the gymnastic events at school and could even do a back handspring (with some help). I was terrified of the vault, and couldn’t do it in practice, but when it came time to show off my skills during a showcase for parents, I managed to make it over the horse and without landing flat on my face.

In 1976, Olga Korbut again inspired us to do more difficult tricks on the balance beam. I must have hounded my father into making a beam for me. He sanded and varnished a piece of wood, and put it up in our back yard near by bedroom window. My beam was the standard four inches wide, and probably about three feet of the ground.

While Olga was doing back flips and crazy back bends on the beam, I was honing my skills with a full turn, a shoulder roll, and some other fabulous moves that certainly would help get me into the Olympics one day.

During practice at school, I learned how to do cartwheels on the beam and a dismount that was a no-handed round off. This move was quite simple for me, and I wanted to show it off to my friends and cousins one day from my own backyard balance beam.

I kicked off my sneakers and hopped up on the beam while explaining what I was going to do. I gracefully moved to the end of the beam and prepared for the most fabulous dismount that they would ever see in person (and not on TV). I moved my arms around, and my feet followed.

All of a sudden, the momentum stopped and I was in the air suspended parallel to the ground for what seemed to be an eternity. I looked around at the faces while I was in the air looking something like Wylie Coyote when he runs off the cliff when chasing the Road Runner.

They all had their mouths open and I was splayed out in mid-air. And then all of a sudden, gravity took over and SPLAT. I landed flat on the lawn. Arms extended, legs straight out, and you could hear the WOOOSH of air come out of my lungs. The audience all held their breath and looked down on me lying on the ground. I sucked in a big breath and they all sighed. When I finally could breathe, we all started to laugh.

The only thing I can say about that incident, was thank God my mother didn’t see my fabulous dismount, because she would have had my father sawing the legs off that balance beam faster than you could hum the first few bars of the USSR’s national anthem.

Convergence - and a Song Called "Skinny"

Sometimes things happen for a reason. I started a class called Digital Narratives in January 2011. At the same time, my husband, decided he needed to "fill some holes" in his life by contacting one of his friends that he hadn't spoken to in a long time.

During the time they hadn't spoken, Mike's friend Jon had been creating a lot of music and brought over multiple CDs of the songs we hadn't heard. This one song stuck in my head and I couldn't get it out. At first I was annoyed with a section of the song, but after I heard it a couple of times, I guess I "got it."

I sat down at my computer the Sunday before my class started and created this video. I yelled to my husband from my office "What's the name of that song? I need to find it on our iTunes!" He yelled back, "I don't think it has a name, it's Track 7." So, I decided it was going to be called "Skinny." I'm not sure if that's what Jon was going to call it, but that's its name now.

So here's my first digital narrative project - while it is not a personal story, I think the lyrics tell a story and the images give the lyrics meaning. I used images that are out there in the webosphere to illustrate the lyrics in this song.

Enjoy.
~Lynne


"Skinny" music by Jon Liebing, video by Lynne Browne

The Ivory Horse - an artifact project

Another assignment for Digital Narratives class was to create a story using artifacts we've collected. Those who know me KNOW that I have probably a MILLION artifacts (that might only be a slight exageration), so I chose to use only ONE artifact and develop a story around it.

I chose a little ivory horse that I found a few years ago. He is about 2 inches tall, and I have him on my shelf tucked between decanters. He is very delicate, so I put him there to protect him from the tiny people who come to visit who ALWAYS pick up the scariest thing possible.

I hope you enjoy the story:
The Ivory Horse
http://www.screencast.com/users/LynneBrowne/folders/Jing/media/a6e3e24b-c2f7-463c-af63-5b792c26c2c1

~ Lynne

Birthdays - an Animoto project

I created an Animoto project called "Birthdays" for my Digital Narratives class.

Here's the link: http://animoto.com/play/1iot1kvIlfuz3fLoCCB6og

I hope you enjoy it. Thanks to my husband for acquiring the props (cake and candles). Also thanks to my parents for participating.

~Lynne

Here's a link to the full version of the birthday song.
We had to do it twice, because I forgot we could do more than one "take".
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=511349037054
(You must have a facebook account to see the video).

What a day it was - 3 stories

I created three stories for my audioboo narrative. The first one was rejected by my husband because he said “you sound like a chow hound.” Nice. I thought I had the assignment done and it was good – I even had found an alarm sound effect. I guess it was back to the drawing board.

The second story I wrote after hearing Prof. Banner tell her story about her accident. The visual of the buildings and blue sky and the story really helped me see that my first story was not personal enough. And, my husband was right. I guess I went to the other extreme with story 2 because it made him cry when I let him listen to my recording. He said, “that one’s too sad.” Ugh.

He told me to “tell the painting story.” I opted to tell the “how the painting was sold” story, and I’ll save the actual “how I found the painting” for another day.

The stories are listed in reverse order of creation. I’ve included an image of the painting and a link to the audioboo file at:

http://audioboo.fm/boos/266291-what-a-day-it-was-lbrowne in case you're interested in hearing the story instead of reading it.

~Lynne

Story 3 - What A Day it Was (and the one I used)

What a day it was…I was feeling awful that Saturday morning. I had a cold, I could barely breathe, and my nose hurt. And even though I felt terrible, I was so excited, I could hardly contain myself. Today was THE day I had been waiting for… for over five months!

This was the morning my painting was going to sell at auction. It was one of the most exciting things that ever happened to me – and the outcome of the sale would be known by 9:30.

Since the auction was in North Carolina and I live in New York, I planned to watch it online. It started at 9, so I brought my cup of tea into my computer room and logged in. My painting was lot 74, so I had to sit through 73 other lots before the fun began!

Finally, up came my painting with a reserve of $8,000.

The bidding started immediately, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5, 10, 11 thousand dollars… While clapping my hands, I shouted at the monitor, “Come on, give me some more!”And the price started to rise again, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17... Text came up on the screen, “This auction is about to close.” Auction closed. Sold for $17,000.

The whole process took about 28 seconds.

The painting with a small hole in the sky that I found sitting on the ground propped up against a plastic container, just sold for $17K. Not a bad investment for $20, and just buying it with the intent of hanging on my living room wall in a $5 frame.

Story 2 - What a Day it Was

It’s hard to forget the day that changed your life forever. My day is Wednesday, February 8, 2006.

I went for my yearly mammogram – well, it supposed to be yearly, but somehow I would skip 6 months or a year, I was young and healthy, so no big deal.

I had my mammo done and they told me to go and sit in the waiting room. I remember waiting, and waiting, and waiting some more. I saw many women come in and put their little cotton tops on and come back when they were done and leave.

All while I sat there. I remember reading Fortune magazine, and thought that it would be a good magazine to subscribe to. Why, I remember that tidbit, is beyond me.

They asked me to have a couple more films taken, and then more waiting. After that, they brought me in for a sonogram.

And I waited some more.

Finally, a woman, or should I call her a girl, told me to go into an office and the doctor would talk to me. The doctor came in and had a weird look on his face. It wasn’t happy, it wasn’t sad. It was just weird.

As I sat there, he explained that there was something on the mammogram. “Now,” he said, “It seems like something is there, but don’t worry. It might not be anything.”

I left his office with a little sheet of paper with a checkmark in the section that read, “suspicious” or something like that.

I went back to work in disbelief. I worked the rest of the day until I got a call from my doctor and she said, “You need to meet with a specialist. What do you want to do? Who do you want to see?”

I replied, “How do I know?” She tossed out a couple of names and I told her to make a decision, since I didn’t really know who to go to. She told me that they would make an appointment for me. And they’d call me back sometime.

My mind was blank. I drove home. I told my husband. It sucked.

Finally, my brain started to work again. I called my sister-in-law who has had “problems” with this type of thing. She gave me a name. I called a friend, she said the same name. I called another friend, and again, the same doctor’s name was mentioned.

It was after these phone calls that I realized that I needed to take control of the situation and choose the best doctor who would get me out of this potential mess. What a great decision. He saved my life.

That was 5 years ago. What a day indeed.

Story 1 - What a Day it Was

What a day it was

I woke up to the smell of bacon wafting down the hall.

Sniff sniff, was that cinnamon too? Mmmmm Mike must be making breakfast.

I got out of my warm comfy bed, and strolled down to the kitchen to find French toast, bacon, and a glass of orange juice. What a way to start a Monday!

After breakfast I got ready for work, and even made it there on time.

My morning was filled with emails and returning phone calls, but nothing major to get upset about.

Lunch was good too – good food, and friends talking about their weekends.

The afternoon was uneventful – more email, more web changes, and no one bugged me.

The ride home was just as good as the ride in. No traffic, and the sunset was pretty. I felt great.

I stopped into the nice and easy and picked up 2 scratch off tickets, one for me and one for Mike.

I got home and dinner was on the table – pizza, my favorite, and a salad, not so much a favorite, but according to Mike, an important part of dinner.

We scratched our scratchies and we both won $5 bucks. Not a million for life, but better than a stick in the eye.

We hung out and talked and watched TV, and then went to bed, saying, “I love you” to each other.

As I laid their reflecting on the great day I had, I drifted off to a nice calm sleep….

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ (alarm clock SFX)

I cracked one eye open to the alarm clock, ugh.

What a nice dream. I guess it’s cold cereal again today.

Welcome to my IDT 523 Digital Narratives blog

Hello and welcome.

This is where I will be posting blogs for my spring 2011 digital narratives class. I've chosen this name because I'm hoping after this class my husband will use it to post some of his tales. In my opinion, he really is the story teller of our family.

~ Lynne