Nine days of models and meetings. Nine days getting to know an author, a painter, a singer, and an actor. Nine days of discussing day rates and goals that are closer to being reached than I thought. Nine days without substantial internet connection. Nine days without my family and most of my friends. I feel so weird – like I’m still not home yet. I want to come home.

More like deadmill. 1 mile is all I could do. My goal was 2. Last time I picked up a pair of running shoes, I could run 2 or 3 miles straight, but not this time. My chest feels tight, my lungs suck, I feel hungry, thirsty, and vomity at the same time.

Also, the gym here at the apartment was hotter than Hades, with no a/c adjustment in sight. Maybe tomorrow I’ll use my Nike+ stuff if I can find it, and just run around outside. At least it’s fairly cool out right now. I’ll post about my program tomorrow. Supposedly It can get you from a 2-mile runner to 13.1 in 12 weeks, just in time for the PF Chang’s thing. :)

Maybe I’ll start writing again. I need a reason though, and for now, I think I may have found one. Half-marathon.

I know, I’m not expecting me to finish either, but I’ve run three miles at one time before, so it could happen! The only one I know of around here is in January – the PF Chang’s one. Perfect time of year for it around here.

We’ll see. Tonight is night 1. I’ll post later what plan I’ll be following. This isn’t something you can wing.

I saw this for the first time tonight at Ike’s Album Release concert. It was an amazing event. I’m always taken aback by his voice and could not believe how in-tune his voice was the whole night. Very consistently good. Just real, raw talent.

I was especially excited about seeing my photos used in such a way, especially the one on the actual CD. How fun is that? And to have my name only two names away from the incredible Robbie Seay was an honor. The talent that went into creating this album was extraordinary. You should click the picture and order it.

I am also excited to say that I have a tentative shoot scheduled for Ike and his whole band on December 12. So, more to come on this matter!

I find myself with some time this morning as I got up at 5:45am only to show up to the wrong place for a bible study. Nobody’s fault but mine. And actually, I’m glad to have accidentally cleared some time where I’m alone at a coffee shop and just happen to have a computer handy. If I were to go home to nap at this point, I’d have about 15 minutes before I needed to get up again anyway. I call it the perfect storm for reasons to blog.

So without a better reason to blog (ok let’s face, there are lots of important things I could talk about, and I’m just too noncommittal right now), how about some truths.

1. Sometimes I worry about things that don’t matter too much. I’ve been like that since I was a kid. I would worry about all sorts of things that were not huge deals but that felt as overwhelming as financial issues seem now. I remember one time I didn’t hug my dad goodnight and sat up crying all night because I thought he would think I didn’t love him. I wonder if things like that should give me a clue that perhaps even my current worries are over things that don’t matter too much, that maybe these issues aren’t very much bigger than those from childhood. Maybe I just overreact. God has graciously allowed me to let some of that go in recent years but has left enough of it to remind me where I fail and that I need him to continually release me from that trap.

2. I will never be Jeremy Cowart. He’s good. So good! I enjoy the categories that he’s created on his website, too. I enjoy original usage of categorization if that makes sense. If you peruse his site, my guess is you’ll find a lot of photos you’ve seen before. Because hey, it’s Jeremy Cowart (i.e. you should know who these photographers are who take the photos you see a lot). Mario Testino is another one. He’s created lots of Vanity Fair / Vogue covers and editorial spreads over the years, but he is also (and more importantly in my opinion) a consistently utilized force in many many (omg maaaany) seasonal fashion ad campaigns from the likes of Gucci, Burberry (my fave), Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, etc. Check it out!

3. I want to be a writer. And at this point, i’ll go ahead and let that also be my confession that I really want to go back to school for something creative. Anything, really. I enjoy all of it, at least in theory. I’m inclined to some things more than others. Photography, film, writing, for instance. I doubt I’ll ever be a painter or sculptor. I want to keep that sense of awe about some forms of art by refraining from learning how those things are done. I can’t imagine sculpting something from a block of material, especially a material that’s really dense and hard to cut. But people do it, and it’s amazing. Likewise, I SUCK at painting, though I think I could be good if I tried harder. I don’t want to try harder.

4. I am addicted to coffee. Specifically, Americanos. And I see no change in the near future. Hey, this isn’t a list of things I wish were different. Not completely anyway.

5. I’m addicted to gmail. Ok, that I wish was different. I have looked at my inbox at least twice since starting this post. And I think that’s an improvement from the norm. I don’t know what I think will be so imperative that I stop everything to respond instantaneously.

6. I’m not a big reader. And something tells me changing that may be the key to writing better. I decided last night that I’m going to compile a list of classics to read over the course of the next year. One per month for a year in addition to whatever else I’m reading. I think it’s doable. And maybe on the last Saturday of each month I’ll post a review, anecdote, analogy, something from each book. Any suggestions? Keep in mind, I’m thinking fiction.

7. I’m not big on raw tomatoes. One thing I’m pretty sure no one will ever convince me, is that the red, circular, slimy, dirt-tasting objects people eat with their sandwiches actually add anything to the experience. Yuck. Get outta here. (Oddly, I love me some cooked tomatoes.)

8. People called me Dawson in high school. No, not because he was graduating the same year as me (2001). Not because we were both trying to get into film school. Not because we were both pretentious a-holes  who used wildly outlandish words in all contexts, pretending they were all casual and appropriate. It was none of those things. It was a combination of a large forehead and thick eyebrows. I get that comparison less these days. Thankfully.

9. I am such a sucker for some good old-fashioned Christmas commercialism. I don’t give a rip about Santa or pretending he’s real for my kid(s) in the future, but I am charmed very easily by ornaments, movies, or greeting cards about him. I will always put up a tree and decorations, and the sooner the better as far as I’m concerned. We’ll probably put our tree up when we come back home after our Cali trip for Thanksgiving.

10. One of my favorite people died on September 5th. My grandma. She was the best, and I miss her a lot. I was tempted to be sad about not seeing her one more time, but ultimately I’m really glad that Heather got to meet her, and I’ve decided that it’s inappropriate to think that one more visit would have added anything to the relationship. It was ok the way it was. It doesn’t change the past 26 years of love. (She would have been writing me the best Halloween story right now.)

And that’s my Thursday offering. About 1000 words worth. Also, Xtreme Bean smells like popcorn right now.

I promise my posts won’t always be this shallow! They will only sometimes or often be shallow, but not always.

I got a new laptop on Wednesday night. I highly recommend Best Buy’s open box items, especially laptops when it’s just been the floor model. Sure, 4,000 people have touched these keys. Sure, countless children have sneezed on the screen (which reminds me – I should probably give it a good wipe-down.)

It’s a Dell and has an LED screen. Pretty awesome I think. And it’s really cool looking — lots of lights, super quiet keys, widescreen. Also has 4GB of ram, 500GB of space, and just lots of other stuff. Considerably better than my desktop incidentally (which is pretty great itself).

And I’m going to stop my gloat right there.

I’ll be the first to point out that I know nothing about wordpress and how to customize, etc., but hopefully we’ll get that ironed out soon. I wanted to start a blog because 140 characters isn’t enough, and facebook just doesn’t seem like the right venue. I’ll be working on the look and such for a while. Heather’s playing a video game right now, keeping me company. Love that woman.

my feather by you.

Recent Tweets

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.