Weblog

Sunday, 15 November 2009

  • A Bride in NOLA

    For those unfamiliar with the shorthand, NOLA stands for New Orleans, Louisiana. And for those unfamiliar with the city, it's not all mardi gras beads, hurricanes, and beer. There are also sweet cafe's, French inspired architecture, and those little squares of donut-y sweetness known as beignets.

    Tonight Susie chose this city to shoot some bridal portraits for her portfolio. She'd purchased a wedding dress on sale several weeks ago and found a friend willing to model for her, and we headed to the city park to shoot some photos. I was her supplies and flash holder, which gave me lots of opportunity to observe people observing us. If your self-esteem is ever down, ladies, find a lovely wedding dress and go do a bridal portrait session in a public place. Little girls all wanted to stop and watch us, and say "you're bewtiful." The guys walking past said either "Congratulations" or "Don't do it!" except for one young man driving by who hollered "I'd have married you too!" Most of the women smiled that little smile reserved for brides and new babies and said "You're beautiful" or "Beautiful dress" and moved on. One tourist, I guess thinking this is classic NOLA, hung around silently snapping pictures of our work, never said a word, then moved on.

    It was a really fun shoot. I have several conclusions which I drew from the adventure, but unfortunately I have forgotten them all, except that it's kind of sad that most men are so anti-marriage. Is it because most women are so evil? And with that depressing thought, I will retire my weary legs to bed.

Tuesday, 10 November 2009

  • Test...

    Is anyone left on xanga?

    Helloo-oo-oo...

    I've been considering resuming the whole blogging thing lately, but just haven't been able to inspire myself to write much...does anyone still read these things?  This is like, so last year.

Thursday, 11 December 2008

Tuesday, 02 December 2008

  • I Didn't Adopt a Child Today

    Pippi Longstocking visited my office today. She has abandoned her signature pigtails for a long, dirty-blond bob and borrowed Dakota Fanning’s face and today she came with her aunt to my office. She was wearing knee high, red and white striped socks and white tennis shoes, two sizes too large, with hot pink laces dragging the floor. She started off her aunt’s visit by asking me for a band-aid. No, not that little one, because she needed had a big scratch. See? She pulled up the leg of her baggy black shorts and showed me a large scratch on her leg, definitely requiring a large band-aid, which I provided. She giggled about the fact that her Powerade and Starbursts were in the bag with her aunt’s medication, since they aren’t medicine at all and asked me why her jaw hurt sometimes when she chewed things. When I pulled out the Neurontin bottle and asked if they were being taken three times a day as instructed, she told me her aunt was only taking them twice a day now because it was only the second week and she was on a tapered dose.

    She lived with her aunt. The aunt gave me this information. “She’s lived with me since her dad died, three years ago, that was my brother, her dad was my husband, yeah, brother. My brother died one year and my husband died the next year, and the next year I got put in jail.” She interrupted herself with an odd giggle and went on, “I got put in jail because I killed my sister, at least that’s what she said. They said I stabbed her right in her chest!” She stopped and showed me the general area where the knife went in. “If it had been two inches over I would have hit her heart and killed her. But I was blacked out. Because I have blackout spells and I can’t remember anything that happens.” She stared at me, wide-eyed and honest. “Not a thing.”

    I let the imp watch me give her aunt a shot, because “shots are so awesome!” and told her she needed to come back and see me sometime. What I really wanted to say, though, was “Hey, why don’t you come live with me? I have a spare bedroom and lots of extra imagination, and I never black out and accidentally kill people. Ever. And I have lots of band-aids.”

    She said she’ll come see me sometime.

Sunday, 23 November 2008

  • No Big News After All...

    So...as most of you probably already know, I'm not moving anywhere.  I'm very sad about this fact, because I love adventure and feeling like I'm doing something brave for God and seriously, it would be so much cooler to blog from Papua New Guinea than from Mississippi.  I thought I had been cleared health-wise, but in the end, they said they needed someone stronger.

    I'm wondering if perhaps God will let me move to another country some day.  Maybe He'll give me some other calling that feels like a Great Lifework...but for now I am here, in Mississippi, and trying to figure out if I'm really supposed to just give up on the dream of "going" and try to start dreaming of being a "stayer."  Every time I think I have it resolved in my heart that I can be just as happy wherever God decides to put me, He leaves me right where I am and I realize I wasn't quite as willing to be anywhere as I thought.  I really meant anywhere but here, Lord.

    How do I find the balance between being perfectly content in the Lord and not shutting down hope and dreams which may have been given to me by God?