Goodbye Meridan

The Meridian Room is closing. It was absolutely one of my favorite places in Dallas.

In 2006 I sat near the back of that bar, camera in tow, and made light tracers out of the candles on the tables. Bets were made about what I could and couldn't draw with light and a camera. Click here to see all of them. (No photoshop was involved.)

In 2007 I took Daniel there for his birthday. Everyone has had at least one birthday there, right?

Just last week we ran into Dan there and had dinner. The usual: 3 cheese grilled sandwich with tomato and avocado and a side of sweet potato fries. A glass of red for me. A Guiness for the man.



The bathroom wall said, "Be Art." Which morphed at some point into "Be Fart." Which morphed again into "Beef Art."

Point is, places open and close all the time, but this one .... this one .... is a crying shame. This place was special.

The twitter world confirms our sadness.

Geoff

Click here for more.

Sea of children

Sea of children, originally uploaded by carissabyers.

On assignment for Advocate Magazine.

Bok Bok Bok

Trying to steal mama hen's egg, originally uploaded by carissabyers.

Like every other child in America, starting around 5:30 Penn goes through the dinner, bath, teeth brushing and story routine.

But he gets one more thing that makes his life better than any other kid.

He gets Daniel Miller.

He gets spontaneous comedy and volleyball and dancing and "poot flying" and operas and songs written just for him on his little guitar and etc. and love. He gets a lot of love. And I'll be honest. On the nights he spends at his dad's house and we get a break from that routine....well, I miss it just a little bit.

Maybe it's just this bloody mary talking, but nothing warms my heart more than a really tall grown man sitting on a plastic Disney ball and pretending he's a chicken.

We get Daniel Miller, tonight known as "Mother Hen," and the whole freaking world is just better for it.

Doggie Drive Thru

"I'd like the #3 Rawhide meal, super sized."


"And the #2 beef flavor for my friend. Do you take credit?"


Nom nom nom.

Don't forget Ringo.

Sunday Brunch

On the menu was vegetarian burritos and spanish rice with a myriad of other snacks and drinks. I've never cooked for 15 people before, but it was amazingly fun. We did it old school family style and when Penn was confused that there was an empty plate in front of him I explained he would have to say, "Please pass the ...." A phrase he used to it's full extent from the far end of the table.

We've never used every chair or dish in the house and shed before. We've never had to put the extra two leaves in the table to make it bigger.


We've never used the paddles with the bouncy ball. Penn has never had a more socially fulfilled weekend.


We've never gotten the bouncy ball stuck in a tree.


Daniel Miller has never not been able to meld and then kicked us all good by going out on his next play.


We've never been a human totem pole proving Daniel can hold up his whole family. (Photo courtesy of Kevin Marvin and his iphone.)

Thanks to Geoff, Kevin, Stormy, Pavlov and everyone else who was there but doesn't Twitter, who made our Sunday so much fun.

Click here for the photo set.

Outtakes from yesterday

The world is brimming with amazing people. I meet them at work all the time. You're probably one of them. So am I. It's just how things go, if that's how you want them to go.




I would have never found the Valley House if I hadn't been sent to shoot it. This is often the case and one of the reasons my job is so important to me. Valley House and the people who run it are magic.

I was warned that there was some renovation going on that would be difficult to shoot around. Here, I'm blocking a whole slew of wheel barrels, cones and workers with this sculpture's head. Alas, my shadow is also in there.

Here are a few that won't be published with the story for obvious reasons.

Fifty People, One Question

Fifty People, One Question: Restored from Benjamin Reece on Vimeo.

Heart

Click here to see more.

Surprise delivery!

Surprise delivery from a client, originally uploaded by carissabyers.

Thank you so much! This was amazingly kind and made our whole day.

Happy Wedding Day

You guys are truly fabulous.

This Morning

Fourth Grade, originally uploaded by carissabyers.

Here's what I faced at 8 this morning, without a single drop of coffee in me.

On assignment for the Advocate Magazine.

Altogether now

The lovely 2nd shooter, Kate Mackley, caught me taking a photo at the wedding reception.


Here's the photo I took.

Silliness in the Morning

Silliness in the Morning from Daniel Miller on Vimeo.

Oh the sweet age of 4, where it's just not funny if we don't say "poop."

Penn paints

Penn painting rocks, originally uploaded by carissabyers.

Content

My mother and I have an itinerary for our phone conversations:

• Here's what is happening right this second.
• Here's what happened this week.
• A bit of bragging or complaining depending on how the first two topics went.
• An on-the-spot realization.

My mother's ending words today, paraphrased:

Sometimes, after you've gotten all of your "things" and reached all of your "goals" the real challenge is to just sit back and enjoy your accomplishments. Because there are no more "things" or "goals" that are going to fulfill you anymore than you are right now. What's really fulfilling is enjoying every moment that is happening to you right now. Right now is what we've all been working towards.

And then sometimes, you know, the world just decides to take a crap on you.

I am grateful for inheriting from her the gentle ability to be content with life.

www.carissabyers.com

Something got mixed up along the way. Probably that time long ago when I had that really long conversation with godaddy.com about hosting.

My hosting auto-renewed. My domain expired and has been bought by someone else.

All that to say, www.carissabyers.com is not going to give you any photos right now. Please revert to www.carissabyers.zenfolio.com.

And please cross your fingers that the owner of my name gives me the domain back.

And please send your emails to carissabyers@gmail.com and not, carissa@carissabyers.com.

Happy Birthday Tyler

Espresso cups serving another puprose, originally uploaded by carissabyers.

An impromptu gathering happened at our house in celebration of Tyler's birthday. The new place has proved good for collecting smiles.

Random photo of the day: Tall

Daniel and Penn, originally uploaded by carissabyers.

Awesome. Especially the video

My Google Reader is full of heated, interesting and hilarious items like:

• And...boom -Dooce
  
• Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP -AP News
• Are you experienced? Palin and Obama. A comparison. -massless.org
• Presidential campaign contributions -Chicago Tribune (my zipcode has given a total amount of 82,014.00 to Obama and 46,540.00 to McCain.)
• Is McCain Palin's Bitch? (video) -Lisa Nova
• Thanks for the Memories (video) -Campaign for America's Future
  

from Rachelle Dauphinee

from Rachelle Dauphinee, originally uploaded by carissabyers.

I had a lovely shoot today with Rachelle Dauphinee for Modern Luxury. I met an exciting group of women I wish lived closer and came home with this bracelet and earrings to match. Talented, smart and nice!

Her line is available at Neiman Marcus, Saks 5th Avenue, and direct.

Look for her story in an upcoming issue.

Random hippy dialogue in my head

If you want to be inspired, be inspiring.

If you look for good things, you will see them, the same as if you are looking for all the faults, you will see every single one, every single time.

Practice turns into habit turns into life.

See well, be well.

Sneak Peek of last weekend's wedding

Family Time

My dad (Papa) came to stay with us for 9 days. We barely saw him. Thanks to his presence we had a staycation, went to dinner with friends, went to dinner with friends again, went to the studio, I worked (1, 2, 3), we wrote, and slept and went out and out and out some more.

FREE BABYSITTING JUST DOESN'T HAPPEN EVERY DAY!

So you saw a lot of us, Dallas, and just might think we're cool again.


We played rummikub and managed a family portrait. It was fun. It went by quick.

Thank you, Papa, for all of your help and hard work. We love you.

Click here for more photos.