Burning a hole in my wallet were some free zoo passes, given to me by my co-worker Lindsay at my last job. Henry came home from work early yesterday morning and we decided to take advantage of the seventy degree sun, even though it had only been a few months since I last spat ire at strangers at the zoo. And really. is it ever too soon to go on another hate-mongering rampage, am I right? I swear, every time I go to the zoo, the majority of the people there looked like they were born from a white wine-influenced one night stand between the LL Bean catalogue and Ann Taylor Loft outlet store. I bet their Cabela-bought backpacks are stcoked with Evian and organic cheese sandwiches. I bet their kids don’t swear.

Immediately, I disliked this one broad with two kids (one of which plays hockey; I know this because we parked next to her hockey league-decal’d $50,000 Mom Van). She hogged the view of a young playing tiger from the rest of us peasants while she took shot after shot with her obscenely gigantic lens through a finger-print streaked glass window, like she was some fucking safari journalist. Then just as she was about to leave, some douche in a STEELER jersey (nauseating) took her place with his equally ridiculous camera and I just stood, mouth agape, and said to Henry, “Seriously? This is the Pittsburgh Zoo, not the fucking Outback. They’re taking pictures through GLASS. Snot-smeared GLASS. Go take your John Holmes lens to the goddamn STEELER game where it belongs, Hometown Hero.”

All I wanted to do was see a fucking tiger gnaw on his rubber chew toy. OK?? 

Chooch seemed more aware of what he was spectating this time and spent less time trying to climb under fences and pick up rocks. He ooh’d and ahhh’d at the lions and tigers and at one point was so overwhelmed and amazed at what he was witnessing, that he let out a wonder-tinged “oh shit” in hushed tones.

Luckily, none of the LL Beaners were around.

In the Elepehant House, Henry attempted to play the role of Educator by saying things like, “Look at the big ears on those elephants, son! And wow, what big eyes!” which was only negated moments later when I laughed, “Holy shit, Chooch, look at their BIG POOP!” Of course, that’s what Chooch chose to repeat. “Big poop?! EW!” he screamed, wrinkling his nose. “BIG POOP, MOMMY, LOOK, BIG POOP!”

“OK, let’s move on,” Henry mumbled.

Chooch highly enjoyed the monkey house this time around. laying on his stomach at each exhibit to get a better view.

While it’s awesome that Chooch is shaping up to be so independent, it takes twice as long to walk when a two-and-a-half year old insists on pushing his own stroller. And god forbid you should tell him which way to go. We ended up side-by-side with a couple whose young daughter was trying to push her sister’s stroller, as well. Her mother pointed to Chooch and said, “See how he’s pushing the stroller all over the place and running into people? That’s what you’re doing too.” Fortunately for her, her daugher quickly dropped the reins when she saw how out-of-control she must have looked. Thanks for using my reckless son as your example, Fellow Mother. Asshole.

Chooch took this picture himself, when the camera was resting on the dirty, flu-dispensing table. His pink-painted nails are so shiny.

I have to eat every hour or else I’ll die. Unfortunately, the only food place there that served something without meat products was closed, so my only option was french fries in a Dixie Cup. Supposedly they had salads, but they must have been tossed with that new lettuce from Argentina.

You know, the invisible kind. Because I didn’t see it. So while Henry and Chooch chowed down on chicken tenders and a cheeseburger, I sulked at the sticky blue table and ranted loudly for all to hear about how absurd it is, in the year 2008, for a ZOO, a fucking piece of shit ZOO, to not have any herbivore-friendly sustenance. FRENCH FRIES ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH. I swear to God, the place that supposedly vends pizza has not been open once in the last six times I have gone to the zoo.

I AM WRITING A LETTER.

“I’ll buy you some Dip’n Dots,” Henry offered, trying to talk me down from the roof I was about to mount with my rifle. Fuck a Dip’n Dot, Mustache. I want LUNCH.

Henry gets nervous when I’m angry, and even more anxious when I’m hungry on top of that, so he ate without chewing and we quickly left for Denny’s, where I enjoyed a veggie burger and cottage cheese.

I might go back to the zoo in five years. MAYBE.

I think I finally have all the film processed and scanned now from last MAY (LAST MAY!!) when Blake and Sarah did that photoshoot with me. I hate that I get so gung-ho over projects and then laziness is so quick to take over. And of course, here I am already in the throes of another one: a legitimate photo essay of scene kids which I need to complete for my own personal fulfillment. Henry actually didn’t laugh when I explained the deets to him. It’s going to be a coffee table book. Just for my coffee table.

Anyhow, this is my favorite from the b&w roll.

Goldbricking Giraffe.

Blake should be digging ditches with the chain gang, but instead he’s goldbricking in the arms of a delightful floral chair. If the warden finds him, he won’t be digging a ditch so much as decomposing in one.

Even though we’re being graced by an Indian summer and it was nearly eighty degrees yesterday, it was still a perfect day for taking some photos of Blake and Chooch: autumn edition. 

My only intention was to stuff a preppy sweater vest on my small child, dump him in a mound of leaves, and have him behave accordingly for the camera. Except my small child doesn’t behave accordingly for the camera. He doesn’t ever stop moving. So instead I took a thousand photos of Henry’s large child playing in the leaves. Blake managed to wrestle him down for one or two shots at least.

I always keep the animal masks in the trunk of the car, because you just never know when the urge might arise to hold up the corner porn shop as a giraffe. But I’ve used them so many times now in photos that I wasn’t planning on utilizing them yesterday. Then I turned around and saw this pint-sized horror stumbling toward me.

It’s almost like the masks were swirling around my face, whispering, “Don’t deny us.” So then I was like, “Ok fine, it doesn’t ever get old. Let’s do this shit.”

Christina said, “I like this one because the background looks so happy.” I considered that opinion for a fleeting second and then countered with, “Really? Because I feel like a little girl was murdered in that greenhouse in the background, seventy years ago. And that’s why I like it.”

One of the cemetery groundsmen took a time out and perched on a tombstone to watch how this would unravel. It kind of made me have stagefright. Until I remembered that I wasn’t on a stage.

This is actually an improvement upon Christina’s natural look. I bought her that necklace by the way because true friends encourage suicide.

He’s late, obviously.

Blake has cool hair. For a rabbit.

~~All the more.~~

Rainy Saturdays usually make me miserable and grouchy, but this past Saturday turned into one of those days where every single thing had me squatting in laughter. I really needed a day like that.

First, Blake and Janna joined Henry, Chooch and me for a quick jaunt to Bloomfield’s Little Italy Days. It’s essentially just a small street fair, with a portion of the road blocked off and stuffed with food vendors and craft booths.

Henry’s mood soured immediately when we passed a voter registration booth with clip-boarded volunteers doling out Obama stickers. Too bad for Henry, but the rest of us like Obama so we made an executive decision to slap supportive flair to our chests. Henry continued pushing Chooch down the block while we stood around and fraternized with the enemy.

It wasn’t until later that I realized they said, “Italian Americans for Obama.” I scoffed and said, “Great, we’re not even Italian!” but Janna said, “Well, actually, I am.” I don’t know why, but it gave me more incentive to make fun of her. And not because I’m some closet racist plotting to bomb Italy. I love Italy! I love those fiesty pasta-slingin’ peeps! It’s just that it’s Janna. And judging Janna is my #1 hobby. I think she has come to realize, after nearly 20 years, that this is her role in life. Which is why, later, when she asked for Splenda for her iced tea, I took it upon myself to make her a sweetener bomb (Splenda, Equal, and SweetnLow). And she drank that shit too. BECAUSE IT’S HER PLACE ON EARTH.

Henry wouldn’t buy us cookies or brownies and Janna wouldn’t buy me jewels, and the clouds were black and heavy with precipitation, but nothing, NOTHING could ruin Little Italy Days for me. And oh, the sights I would have missed had I let some unfortunate weather and stingy asshole furrow my brow!

I might have missed this sweetheart of a nun, with her adorable hell-damning visage. And then I would not have known such lovely edelweiss fashion still existed in these States.

Bloomfield’s own Elvis-Wayne Newton hybrid might have flown under my radar.

And I wouldn’t find out about Gene Simmons going marachi until VH1 decided to make a show about it. Also, that waving broad is exactly the type of classy dame I strive to grow into. Imagine the lamé she has packed in her closet.

And if I had let Henry’s conservativism cloud my personal sunshine, I wouldn’t have thought to subject Blake to yet another of my impromptu photo ops.

We only putzed around the streets of Bloomfield for an hour before Henry herded us back to the car. He later complained that he had wanted to stop and fill up on the many Italian concessions waiting to bloat bellies, and when I asked him why he didn’t indulge his pretty little desires, he muttered something about “all you damn kids acting like idiots” or some such completely absurd variation. I know it was the whole Obama sticker thing. He felt left out and out-numbered.

As we drove through the back streets of Bloomfield, I caught a glimpse of a scene so horrific, it forced me to shriek loud at a volume high enough to make every occupant in the car jolt in their seats.

“WHAT?” Henry shouted, probably wondering if he had driven over the unconscious lump of a homeless man blitzed from chugging turpentine in a boot.

“Something was going on back there. There were two army guys holding GUNS and approaching a house!” I cried.

“Are you sure they weren’t cops?” Henry asked, glancing in the rear-view mirror.

“No, they were definitely armies.” This made everyone laugh and I was angry because this was a very serious situation. “We have to go back there and save a life!” I screamed.

So Henry did. He actually turned around, but not without lip, until we drove past the street in question.

As I shouted, “THERE THEY ARE!” Henry, Janna, and Blake (in unison so harmonious it could have been sung by angels on high) groaned, “They’re playing PAINT BALL.” And we all laughed.

After that, we dicked around on Mt. Washington, taking Chooch on his first ride on the incline. It started raining really hard by that point, so we went to dinner at King’s, where Chooch burped out “Asshole!” with all the charm of a Tourette’s sufferer, and Blake and I reminded Janna repeatedly that she wasn’t a part of our family. It was more fun than doing a speedball in the Champagne Room.

To add a dollop of whipped cream to a day full of giddy antics and newly sprouted grays on Henry, Blake declared that we should make cookies.

“Oh, we should!” I encouraged. “STD cookies!”

Henry got all foot-planty and spat, “If I’m making cookies, then YOU’RE going to the store to buy what we need.” Thank God he sent Blake along to make sure I didn’t fuck shit up. You know me, send me out for flour and I come back with a non-descript bag of dildos.

So while Henry slaved away on the kitchen, Blake performed serious Google image searches on various STDs while I bossed around Janna and basically sat around being cute. Then Henry realized he didn’t have corn syrup or some shit for the frosting, so while he was out we had a tea party and it was awesome because it was yet another thing that Henry wasn’t invited to. During our tea party, Blake ridiculed Janna’s selection of Earl Grey by saying that, “Earl Grey is for assholes.” My selective hearing heard, “Let’s race for abstinence” which had me squatting on the floor, squeezing back pee drops. Of course, no one else thought it was that hilarious, which only made it harder for me to not need to slip into a fresh pair of Depends. At some point, we were talking about egg harvesting and I tried to convince Blake that it was as easy as lounging in a tubful of ice, wielding a melon baller, and then creating a Craiglist post. Hopefully, he will teach all the girls at school this method.

My mug, Skelly, indulges in some delicious diseases fellatio. Look for it in the December issue of Bon Appetit.

For my cookies, I mainly stuck with the theme of Vaginal Maladies, such as menstruation and yeast infection. This one, Popped Cherry with Lone Tear Drop (added for extra sentiment), was my personal favorite. Lost virginity never tasted so delicious.

Hey, there’s some yeast in your pink. Or perhaps a fresh load. Whatever whets your appetite.

Later, I laughed at the realization of what a great role model I must be. Send your teens to my house, Parents, where we make jokes of serious matters and look at pictures of diseased vaginas.

Kara and Chris got married on August 30. It was a beautiful ceremony. A little too beautiful, so I was glad when Kara agreed to let me break out the animal masks and inject some creep-factor up in that bitch.

From the Holga at the Westmoreland County Fair.

I haven’t had much mental energy to write anything of substance. My mind needs a little vacation. I’m sending it to Haiti.

Also, I would like to have actual people add me on MySpace, rather than bands and independent clothing labels.

I’ve been on there since 2003 and have had relatively no action.

And now that I’m sixteen again, would like to change that. Let’s date on MySpace: RowdyRuby.

I just got a bunch of film processed from my Diana and Holga. Some of the pictures are from Warped Tour and even though it was only a month ago, it makes me feel happily nostalgic looking at them. That day was the last time I felt happy and accepted.

Now I just feel like that chick sitting on the curb.

For my birthday last month, all I wanted was a glorious day at Kennywood – Pittsburgh’s amusement park.  I wanted ice cream and cheesy fries and to later choke on the ice cream and cheesy fries l when it rose violently up into my esophagus while on the spinny rides.  But then Blake bailed on us so my only riding partner was Janna, who will barely ride anything more daring than the scenic train.  And I hate riding with Henry because he never talks to me in the lines. Like he’s embarrassed or something.

This asshole totally lied and said it was SO SCARY and REALLY AWESOME. The only scary part was when Janna tried to kiss me!

Luckily, I got to have a birthday do-over yesterday at the Westmoreland County Fair. Sure, the rides there are more painful than fun, but both my brother Corey AND Blake AND Janna came with us, so it was like a party for me. And Hell for Henry.

YOYO

I knew we had arrived at the fair as soon as my ears were slammed with the cacophony of blaring Taylor Dane, the desperate carny-call of “EVERYONE’S A WINNER!” and the dinging bell of Henry’s blood pressure rocketing skyward.

My new favorite picture of Blake. I love how those kids are like, “Hello, Dateline? Predator alert. Weird lady taking our pictures for the Internet.”

Westmoreland County must not be too bad because the only people I found to be fun-making worthy was some old man in overalls, a family of matching mullets, and a wanna-be MILF who looked like she was rode hard and put away wet (Henry’s favorite saying, probably because it reminds him of his ex-wife).

This girl fled after she realized I was taking her picture. Apparently it’s weird to just walk up to a stranger and snap.

Bunny Ear Bingo. Had to shout MOVE IT and shove Janna out of the way so she wouldn’t gay up the Bingo throwdown.

This carny was the cleanest and most jovial of them all. Which is good, because he was manning one of the kiddie rides.

It always seems like a good idea to encapsulate yourself in steel death traps at the fair, until the carnies come by to slam the cage down on your head and you realize you just put your life in the hands of someone who can’t even take care of their own teeth. They call them carnies because of the CARNAGE.

Blake kept trying to get me to bum a cigarette off one of them so we could share it. While it sounded tempting, I was fairly certain that would be a good way to destroy my relationship. “WHERE DID YOU GET THAT CIGARETTE???” “Uh, your GIRLFRIEND?” I was joking about that today with Henry (he wasn’t laughing) and he said, “You forgot the part where I backhand it out of his mouth first.” Yikes.

Corey, Blake and I rode this one ride that looked really tame from the ground, but as soon as it started, centrifugal force (I was good at all the sciences but physics) slammed my fat ass into Corey and from there, we enjoyed the most painful, car-wreck-like ride of the fair. Janna, who was watching from the safety of the comfortable land, said it honestly looked like Corey was going to fall out. It was so painful that I was crying/laughing and then, and I’m not going to lie, a pee drop came out, so not only did I have to fight to stay alive, but I had to also spend the duration of that fucking piece of shit ride trying not to urinate on the entire fair below, like I was spraying the fall harvest or some shit. He got me back on another ride later, as my flesh was practically ribboned on the door of the rattling cage in which we were imprisoned.

After we disembarked, Corey and I adopted a zombied gait (I was essentially using both hands to coax my right leg forward); Blake was all, “WTF is wrong with you guys? That ride was fucking great, I enjoyed myself to the fullest.” BECAUSE HE SAT ALONE AND DID NOT HAVE THE OUTSTANDING OPPORTUNITY TO FEEL THE SENSATION OF MELDING WITH ANOTHER HUMAN BEING.

Today, I’m walking with a slight limp.

Corey, still recovering and threatening to puke on Chooch, who unfortunately spent most of the time with Henry. How booor-oooor-ing.

Old people, oldin’ it up.

Obligatory Scene Kid shot. I <333 scene kids!~! 

‘Sup Willie.

 Observing my mounting interest in winning treasures made in Taiwan, Henry was wise enough to hide in the shadows to give his wallet a rape-reprieve.  So Blake and I begged, nay – HOUNDED – Janna for money to play the balloon popping game. She looked like a virgin in headlights, wanting to say no, but not wanting to look like an asshole. Finally, she sighed heavily and mumbled, “Let me open my Mommy Purse and see what I have.” Blake and I got our way, but quickly lost interest and pawned off our cheap prizes on Chooch.

Janna was too much of a pussy to ride this & opted instead to stay on terra firm and fiddle with her pleasure vegetables. Blake got yelled at for jumping before the ride started and I mocked him like the child I am.

Overall, MUCH better than my birthday and I didn’t get any pizza on my shirt this time.The whole set can be seen here.

Some of my earliest memories center around the stereo room in my grandparent’s house, a.k.a my grandma’s clown room. Listening to a plucky rendition of Dr.

Zhivago’s Theme play from a music box, rifling through my mom’s and her sister’s old record collection (and always pulling out Frank Zappa’s “Valley Girl”), carefully dusting around the clowns with a feather duster for money and thinking I was such a big help.

I’d like to use my (hopefully brief) employment hiatus to do some kind of project in this room, but my damn aunt is fucking possessive about the house now that I’m not sure if I can find a way around her.

It would be fun to have people dressed as clowns, chilling out around the fake ones. Hiding in corners, rolling blunts on the chessboard.

I need to send my aunt to a fucking day spa and get this done.

My aunt seriously hounded me all weekend about coming to visit, but then as soon as she caught me taking pictures in the clown room, she got all flustered and pushed us out of the house. She must have fucking Hoffa hidden under the floor boards or something.

After we left Greenman’s Tunnel on Sunday, Henry decided he needed to drive a half an hour out of the way to get soft serve with sprinkles and crunchies. He’s infatuated with crunchies.

A poster for Dole low-fat soft serve, complete with a cascading waterfall of plump-looking fruit, was pasted on the window. In a moment of insanity, I decided that a cone stuffed with this low-fat shit would be a tasty choice. I wanted raspberry, but they only had pineapple, which irritated me but I ordered it anyway. Not without a tinge of uncertainty, though.

As soon as I tasted it, I was racked with buyer’s remorse. I gave it a maximum of three sad licks, before whispering, “This is disgusting; I want yours” to Henry.

So while he dejectedly devoured a low-fat twist of melting hideousness, I got to enjoy this:

And Chooch ate his kid cone, my pawned-off pineapple puke on a cone, and my hijacked Henry cone. God,  to still be a kid, getting everything I want. OH WAIT.

That shitty cone seriously had the potential to ruin my day. Luckily, I walked away from it with little more than a puckered face. I don’t even think Chooch liked it, but Henry insisted that it “wasn’t that bad” and that I was over-reacting.

Blake wanted to get a bucket of golfballs to hit, but Henry deliberately ignored him. I don’t think he was in the mood to explain that since I quit my job, I’d have to turn some tricks at a truck stop in order for Blake to drive a bucket of balls. But we all know I’d do that for free, so whatev.

Afterward, we went to PIzza Hut, where I dunked an egg morsel (WITH SALAD DRESSING) into Henry’s iced tea while he was filling up his THIRD plate at the salad bar. He looked really nervous and apprehensive when he caught Blake and me laughing evilly, but shrugged it off. It wasn’t until the egg clogged up his straw mid-sip that he realized what was going on and completely flipped his shit, making us laugh even harder. Then Blake sold me out and I was like, “Sleep in a box under a pier, buddy!”

The first time I met Blake, he was an eight-year-old flesh-and-bone Bart Simpson and I was a twenty-two-year-old jealous brat, confused and not so willing to share his father. Henry brought both Blake and his other son Robbie (10 at the time) over my house one afternoon for some pizza.

Arbitrary Posturing

As we sat at the table, Henry commanded Blake to retrieve his Mountain Dew which Henry had left in the living room. Blake rose to fetch it, but I said, Henry, get it yourself! He’s not a DOG.” I remember Henry shooting me an angry glance, but getting his own drink after that; I remember as Blake smiled his gratitude at me, I thought to myself, “This might actually work out.”

Unfortunately, Blake was still very impressionable and let his mother cloud his perception of me. For years, things were awkward and tense at best, and Henry and I were fighting nearly every time he had his kids for the weekend.

I was sure Blake hated and resented me, but instead of being a responsible adult, I would stoop to his level.

I did and said a lot of assholey things that still haunt me to this day.

Seven years later, Blake is this really fucking awesome kid who thinks independently of his mother, adores Chooch, confides in Henry, listens to really great music,and for some bizarre reason — doesn’t hate me. I’m really excited that he’s moving in with us, and hopefully we can do lots more photo shoots like this one yesterday at Green Man’s Tunnel. And hopefully he shares his band tees with me.

There’s gotta be something better than this out there. Like cotton candy and illegal arms rings.

Please don’t get cattail jizz on my future Emarosa shirt, thanks guys.

Picking a bouquet for Chooch.

After we exhausted all ability to give a shit about nature and the fucking elusive Green Man, I proposed we hit up a strip club, but Henry took us to get ice cream instead.

Fuck you, Green Man.

We went for a rainy walk yesterday in the ‘hood where Henry works. It’s one of those areas that’s half-abandoned and dilapidated but you just know the leftover residents have lived there their entire lives. A few people watched me suspiciously, not taking kindly to someone snooping around their hometown rubble; but there was a tall beanpole of a hooker strutting around down one of the back roads with an oversized umbrella, and she flashed her widely-gapped teeth at us when she passed and called Chooch  a handsome man. Chooch was like, “Whassat?” when she passed, and I was like, “Someone Daddy pays when he wants to have filthy sex, Chooch.”

I saw some broad idling on the curb in her Blazer two separate times, each time with a different thug-type talking to her through the passenger window. I wondered aloud what was going on and Henry said, “We’re not in Pleasant Hills anymore, remember that.

”

The block parties probably got too swingin’.

Every town needs a good cobbler.

Next time Christina and I are on the hunt for a sleazy dive…

I’m not sure if this is a barn or a house, but I bet the KGBs hiding in there. And possibly the Lost Boys.

If I lived there, I’d use a periscope as my window to the world.

Was there ever a door so seductively blue.

This bench has a weight limit.

Shortcut to meth lab.

I took this at Round Hill Park back in April, with my Holga. It makes me think of murder. The photo, not my Holga. Although now I’m thinking of taking pictures of murder with my Holga. There’s a nice thought-train to help me travel through the night.

One of these days, I’m not going to be able to come back out of my thoughts, and that will be a frightening day.

I got some of the film back from the photo shoot I did a few weeks ago with Blake and Sarah. Here’s a few:

Just think, this could have been a sixty-year-old crossdresser in stilettos and fishnets.

"I KNOW you’re fucking our pig-masked maid!"

I have no idea what I’m going to do with these, but I like them.

 I was sad that no one used my favorite mask during my dumb photo shoot, so while Christina was visiting over the weekend we went to this semi-rural area called Coulterville to take some pictures of her in rabbit-mode. Coulterville is one of those local areas ripe with urban legend, and while I’ve had some pretty intense experiences there in the past, it was pretty tame in the daylight.

We started out at this small abandoned church, but then a truck drove up and two old people started pulling out shovels and entire flats of flowers while I was standing precariously, and disrespectfully, on some stone ruin. We grabbed our stuff and bided our time on the nearby railroad tracks and woods.

 Christina was sure she was going to take ticks away as a souvenir, and I kept swearing that I heard small wildlife burrowing through the weeds toward us, so I ran and left her there to hack her way out of the vegetation.

 When I was fleeing the invisible rodents, the back fell off my Holga and one would have thought that it was a $1500 camera with the way I reacted. Meanwhile, the camera that is worth something was flopping against my chest like a candy necklace while I delicately pieced my toy camera back together. My priorities are a disaster.

"Would you like me to just dive in next?" Christina was getting irritated by this point, but luckily the old people were leaving the church and she seemed relieved to have a non-muddy, non-jagger-bushy setting in which to be bossed around. Unfortunately, we returned too soon, and the old people were idling in their truck at the top of the road. We tried to act inconspicuous, but they eventually pulled back down and the old man got out. I remained seated on the ground, camera in my hand, kind of frozen in confusion. I wasn’t sure if it was private property that we were on, and I wasn’t sure if this was the type of guy to tote around a sawed-off shot gun in the back of his pickup for just this sort of occasion.

We exchanged pleasantries and he explained that this was his family chapel and burial ground. I silently gulped a little and said, "Well, it’s very beautiful here. Is it ok that I’m taking pictures?" That seemed to placate him and he said it was fine that we were taking pictures, but then after glancing at Christina, Christina’s tattoos, and the animal mask and rail road tie in Christina’s hands, he added a few caveats about respect and vandalism. Then he gave us a brief history of the land, and I learned that the stone stump I was idiotically perched on when they first pulled in is all that remaIns of the original church that burnt down on that land a long time ago, and that the small shrine I was pretending to photograph when they pulled back the second time is his mother’s grave. He even said if he had more time, he’d have given us a tour of the chapel.

It was insanely awkward. I kept thinking "Please leave, Please leave" over and over again and this time we waited until the truck was completely obscured by trees before resuming our shoot.

 

Talking to that guy kind of killed it for me, because I had always been so certain that the chapel was haunted, or that skinheads were inside, roasting s’mores off  the flaming carcasses of babies and cats. Talk about dispelling a myth.

 

 

More here.