Last weekend we had another family travel adventure. This time we went back to our old college stomping grounds: Syracuse! It had been at least 5 or 6 years since either of us had been back there and suffice it to say that neither of us imagined that this next trip would see us return with a baby in arms.
It was a long-anticipated return for the purpose of Daddy defending his masters project, the Illuminated Ink tattoo book. We were all so thrilled for him and hoped that it would be an easy defense with a quick “you passed!” result.
Are we there yet?
Uncle Alberto has been instrumental in getting the book designed, laid out, and printed. He’s also one of Daddy’s closest and most trusted professional confidantes, so we couldn’t imagine being there without him. True to his reputation as a true friend, Alberto dropped everything to fly from Puerto Rico and make the 5 hour road trip with a baby in the car to Syracuse, only then to turn around and make the 5+ hour drive back again. (I’m getting ahead of ourselves. The long and short of it: Alberto rules.)
We’ve arrived and Syracuse is… cold. No surprises here.
Daddy getting the presentation ready to go for the morning. Are the blacks black enough?
Ada helped by making sure that the screen was good enough for her Daddy’s work. Yum.
That’s a wrap! You’ll be great tomorrow, Daddy! Now is it time for Dino BBQ?
Once Team Support-Eric-Getting-His-Masters had worked out all the technical kinks, paid a visit to the bookstore for a missing cable, tweaked and finessed the language on his slides, and taste-tested all the moving parts of Daddy’s equipment, it was time to call it a night. We had a delightful dinner at Dino BBQ and retired to our hotel to catch some sleep before a very early morning.
On Monday we rolled into Newhouse armed with coffee and doughnuts (a la make the judging panel as happy and comfortable as possible), and Daddy got to work! In the end he had an audience eager to hear about his professional work in Manhattan and very appreciative of all the time he puts into retouching his images. (Up to 40 hours of Photoshop for a single image!) It was a quick verdict…
HE PASSED! We didn’t ask any questions; we said thank you so much, can we please get all the paperwork squared away. There was time for a brief celebration and then a long trip back. (We did have a wonderful celebratory dinner with Seth and Carly when we returned, complete with champagne. But alas, no photos.)
CONGRATS, DADDY! We love you and are so proud.
Daddy & Ada look on as Tony fills out the paperwork to make it all official: Daddy is a master of communications photography!
