It’s a cold thing to sit in a stroller in your pajamas and a quilt when the temperature is in the 20’s.

Homemade quilts are like time machines. They can take you back….I got this quilt from my Mother as a Christmas gift in ’99. At that time I was just starting my first portrait studio, Jon Ball Photography. I used to wrap this quilt around my legs and sit at my desk.

My dad gave me that desk. It was a giant 1980’s dark wooden thing. I can still feel the cool oak slab on my cheek as I slept through a lot of the days I should have been working. I didn’t have any idea what to do with a new business. I went to art school.  I thought that  business was beneath artistry. 

Once during that time Sam thought it would be a good idea to get health insurance, a novel idea I thought. So we had an agent come to the house to meet with us in my office. The office was cold, as the electric wall heater didn’t do a good job. He came smelling like barbasol shaving cream with a blue pinstripe suit and black shiny wingtips. I greeted him at the door with this blanket wrapped  around my shoulders, heart side out. My hair was a little greasy from a couple days of missed showers and the house reeked of bacon from breakfast.

When he left, Sam began her campain to get me to look and act more like our insurance friend. We still joke about the pink hearts of the blanket on my shoulders.

This is literally the only time that Grace sits still for 30 minutes because the cold air paralyzes her. 

I took this photograph on our daily walk to the school. Grace has to go. What else would she do?