Day 189: Food Deliberation

My dinner

I was supposed to get a bunch of things done tonight, but I didn't do a thing.  Instead, Christine and I sat in the living room for a good 30-45 minutes deliberating on what we should do and where we should go eat because neither of us felt up to doing anything.  It was laughable how long it took us to decide on a restaurant.   Once we decided (Goodwood), I had to go shower and get ready to leave the house because I was still in my work-out clothes.  We ate at record speed once we got to the restaurant because we'd waited too long to eat and both of us were starving.  But when we got home, the apathy continued.  Should we try to catch up on our TV shows or go straight to bed, or maybe just sit on the couch and space off for an hour?  We basically missed our entire evening because neither of us could make a decision.

It was awesome.

Day 188: Home Is Where the Hearth Is

A Christmas decoration

Another work week started today.  Another Monday. I'm starting to feel the stress of the holiday.  I usually feel it sooner than this, but I think I was in denial.  This time of year is full of family and friends and good will, but it's also filled with stress and over-booking and lots of missed deadlines.

Not only do I have more personal errands than usual to run during December, but I also have more work to do.  I have more church responsibilities, more family functions, more chances to screw something up.

And I feel it keenly, that I will have an epic fail at any moment and disappoint everyone around me.  It's not like I'm jumping at shadows here either.  I've done it before, and I'll do it again, because the more I have to pack into my schedule, the less I get done.  The more responsibility I have when I'm stressed, the less responsible I am.

The only difference this year is that I'm one year older and one year wiser.  And most importantly, I have perspective.  I may get easily overwhelmed.  I may freak out and forget something important.  I may fall short of mine and others' expectations, but at least I know that it's not the end of the world.  I will live through it.  January will come around, desolate and boring, and I'll still be here, intact and relatively unscathed.

Day 187: A Case of the Sundays

Lauren

Today is quite possibly the closest I came to quitting the photo project.  Not that I was contemplating failure in any way today.  I simply didn't feel like picking up my camera, and when I did pick it up, I couldn't bring myself to take anything.  I completely spaced the fact that I have to take a picture every day to keep up with this project.  I would have been lost completely if I hadn't taken one, pitiful shot of Lauren tonight when her family was visiting.  I tried to take better, clearer shots of her, but like I said, I lacked motivation.

That's not to say that I didn't have a great time with Lauren around.  In fact, I think I was so busy cracking up at her playing house with our toys and making up stories that I forgot about my camera.  Shocker, I know.

At any rate, I did survive the photographic lethargy of the day, and I'm still on track with the project!

Day 186: Family Portraits

Robert and Lindsey and baby Davis.

So I got to take Robert and Lindsey's family portraits today and it was so FUN!  Coincidentally, we went to the Riverwoods shopping center to take the pictures, and I was so excited, having traipsed through its deserted streets with glee just last night.  I was able to pose them in front of all the sites I drooled over last night.  And even though we took the pictures during the day, the lights were still amazing and provided a very festive backdrop.

I noticed today that when I get into the groove of taking pictures, I don't notice much else.  For example, I was so hyper-focused on getting the right angle for one of the shots with the family that I didn't even notice that I'd stepped in a very sticky mud patch.  I was walking all over the mud, taking pictures here and there, and not noticing that my boots were getting more and more glued to the ground.  It wasn't until I tried to move from the mud to a rock that I realized my boots were so gunked up and gooey that had no purchase when I stepped onto the smooth surface of the rock.  Luckily I didn't slip or fall, and luckily my boots weren't real leather, so cleaning them off at home wasn't that difficult.  I found it very funny because I honestly didn't care about the boots - I was more worried about slipping and falling - all I wanted to do was move on to the next location and get more pictures, but Robert and Lindsey were so worried about it.

The shot above is not one of the "portraits."  I just like candid shots so much that I decided to pick it for the photo project.  But we also got some really good portrait shots of the family that hopefully Robert and Lindsey will be able to use.

Day 185: Christmas Cheer

Our Christmas Tree

Sorry for the late posts.  As usual, the weekend caught up with me.

Tonight I went out to a movie with friends, and afterwards we walked around the newly-remodeled Riverwoods shopping center.  They have the coolest Christmas wonderland theme right now!  It's an outdoor mall, so you wouldn't think kiosks and Santa's workshop would be a good idea in Winter, but they skillfully placed fire pits and heat lamps all over the shopping center to allow shoppers to enjoy the ambiance without getting frost bite.

Our movie didn't get out until after 11pm, so when we walked around the shopping center it was basically deserted.  That made it all the more fun for me!  I just wish I had my camera with me.  The trees were gorgeously lit, and there were little icicle lights that "trickled" downward.  We walked around the entire area twice, and only went back to our car when the heaters and lights started turning off.

What a great way to get into the season!

Day 184: Lights

Lights shining through some dead grasses.

So it's the beginning of the Christmas season, and the beginning of the second-half of my project, and I was all set with a picture of our newly trimmed Christmas tree.  But on a whim I took this shot in a parking lot tonight, and when I looked at all my pictures from today, this was my favorite.  So, We'll have to save the tree for another day.

I'm excited about the holiday season and all the fun it brings!  Christmas music, societal good will, corny Christmas movies, parties, yummy food, and getting gifts for everyone.  Usually this is my favorite time of year because I completely ruin my budget and splurge on all my family and friends.  But this year I'm not as financially comfortable as I'd like, and it's the first time in several years that I have no money to spend on Christmas.  It puts a slight damper on my season, I won't lie.  But I'm trying to find a better way to look at it.  Now, instead of spending hundreds of dollars on impulse buys for family, I'll be able to take more time really thinking about each person I give a gift to this season, and spend a lot less money doing it.  There are very economical ways of giving gifts to family and friends, I know because I have a few siblings who have always been very good at thrifty and thoughtful gift giving.  So I just need to put my thinking cap on, and find unique ways of showing my family and friends that I care about them this Christmas.

Now that I've typed that all out, I'm getting excited about it!  This is going to be a great Christmas!

Day 183: Half-way Point!!!!

Sunset in my back yard.

Today marks the last day of month 6 and is the official half-way point in the photo project!  I made it half-way!!  Yay for me!  Tomorrow I start on the second half of the year, which is awesome and a little bit scary because I ran out of ideas a long time ago.  But I'm hoping with the holidays coming up, I'll have a lot more opportunity to take some good shots.

Thanks to everyone who reads and comments on this blog!  I know your numbers are few, but it is a tremendous boost to me on days when I'm ready to give up because I can't stand the sight of my camera!

Some things I've learned so far:
*You don't know if you're good at something until you try
*Consistency is a nightmare, but totally worth it!
*You can accomplish anything if you put your mind to it.
*Cameras are expensive, sure, but printing the photos on 14x16 mat-board is worse
*Photography looks much cooler on paper than it does on the screen
*It's OK to let yourself be proud of your accomplishments every now and then
*It doesn't matter how many times my mom, or others, praise my pictures, I'll always be a little embarrassed at the compliments.