Hi!

Welcome to a special edition of The Weekly Margs, where pictures are from you! The readers! I put a call out and asked for pictures and then bugged a few people, and the result is an issue with pictures almost entirely taken by people who are not me.

Let’s dive right in!

March 2017. Shaw (Washington, DC)

Andrew Hughey submitted a few photos, I’m sharing a pair of them.

The standard method for coping in a job building government software was to drink. So, Zach and I drank. One fine spring day we went to DC’s permanent pop up bar, known for it’s elaborate Christmas installations and a pretty fun Game of Thrones theme once. When we visited, one side was decked out in pink to celebrate DC’s cherry blossom season, complete with a replica tree in the middle of the bar.

The other side of the bar was Mario themed. You know, for spring.

This bar was always a treat to go to! It often had long lines so we’d have to go early right when they opened to get in. The Game of Thrones pop-up they had the season after this was also amazing, and I could appreciate it hadn’t even seen the show at the time. Thanks for reminding me about this place, Andrew!

December 2018. South End Rowing Club (San Francisco, CA)

Jeff Cooperman is a great photographer, who always has multiple cameras on his person ready to go, and quietly documents lots of small moments at our club’s events. He’s also a member of the Breakfast Pod, the nickname for our particular group that swims in the morning in the bay. He sent me this shot from our club’s holiday party the year before last, and notes:

I took this photo of Zach, Nicki, and Peter Day the first year I had joined the club. When you only know people in context of swimming at 6:15am, it's always a surprise to see them in a tux rather than a swim cap.

Jeff is right, normally we’re much groggier and messier when we see each other at 6:15am, so it’s a huge contrast to see each other dressed up like this. It was such a fun party! It’s the same night as the shot of Nicki and Brian in C is for Candid, Nicki is wearing her same flower crown.

March 2019. Trick Dog (San Francisco, CA)

Nicki Sroka shares a photo that I think I took on her phone because my arms are longer. It’s from the same night as the photo at True Laurel in U is Under the Influence. She writes:

Memories... trick dog and those fronch frites

Those “fronch frites” are definitely amazing btw. I love how the photo is a little dark and kinda and grainy but it’s so clear how much fun we were having.

October 2019. Wayfarers Chapel (Palos Verdes, CA)

Mandy Hoskinson sent me this photo from her and Joseph’s wedding. The photo was taken by her wedding photographer Jenna Elliot. Mandy notes:

Here we find a wild Zach in his natural habitat. Observe a common behavior witnessed in a Zach: supporting a friend with heaps of kindness and a little bit of silliness mixed in. What better way to prepare for his friend’s ultimate mating rite than to do a little dance? Further observation is required to determine exactly what this dance means, but we believe we’ll have enough data to solve this inquiry soon.

It was such a sweet and charming wedding, I loved being a part of it. And Mandy’s note is too nice. Somehow crouching at the camera became my “duck face” pose of 2019, there’s at least one picture that Jeff took that also has me making a similar pose.

November 2019. Point Bonita Lighthouse (Sausalito, CA)

This group of photos is a little layered. Mac Cormier took the rightmost photo, and says:

Hi for my user submission I have pictures of you taking picture of us taking pictures

I took the middle photo of Meghan. It’s a thing I do, pictures of pictures (see F is for Focus).

Meghan McNeil’s photo is the one on the left. Her commentary was spread across a few text messages. It’s quite a ride:

Also, I hate all of these photos [that I took that day]

Do not associate my name with these

And after working with them for a while, I don’t hate them as much

I love all the journeys going on with this group. Visually, we have the progression of a photo, a photo of the photo being taken, and then that photo being taken. Then we have reaction/commentary journey. At first, I was also really unhappy with Mac’s photo of me because it was not a good view of the back of my head, but got over it. And Meghan had a similar journey to acceptance of the photos she took as well.

This was fun to put together! It’s interesting to get other people’s perspectives on our shared memories.

Thanks for reading, and see you next week!

XOXO,
Margs