I think this process will get easier as time goes on. Right now, it's still nowhere near that. Of all the conversations I've had in the past month, the one I've referred back to the most in my mind has been Karen's. She mentioned something that no one else brought up, something that has been truer than I expected at the time. The decision to go requires a mourning period. You're either going to do it after you've left, when the newness hits you all at once, or you're going to do it before you leave.

View on Flickr
at , Birmingham, Alabama, United States by domesticat.

Geof lured me into driving down to the most excellent Workplay Theatre in Birmingham to see Over the Rhine perform last night. As we explained to the fans at the next table who had driven in from Florida to see the show: "He's a fan of the band. She's a fan of the venue." (Full photoset is here.)

Geof taped the show, so I'm guessing he'll post a link here when the download's available? It's like going to the show, without the annoying "get back after one a.m. when you have to be at work at 7:30" factor.

It's worth noting that we looked like reporters with all the gear we hauled in: taping equipment and two semipro cameras. (I'm still wondering how I ever managed to photograph concerts without a tripod / monopod.)

The Rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

This is all Geof Morris' fault.

This entry is partly to test a code fix and partly to grin at the results of this morning's photography.

#37 - Sequined awesomeness
at , Huntsville, Alabama, United States by domesticat.

BJ is a favorite and consistent photo subject of mine. I got an excellent headshot of her for a print piece I worked on a couple of months ago, but I had to cut her photo out of the finished piece due to space constraints. It made me sad, because her photo was excellent; it was just trumped by two better photos.

This morning, she saw my camera bag and said, "Think you'll need another shot of me sometime soon?" I told her that I might, but that it would be for a very different project.

This is one of those stories about human nature and personality that lacks a tidy ending or an easy moral. Perhaps that's the difference between real life and fairy tales; in real life, you don't get to turn the final page to see the theme of the story and answer the questions.

In real life, you get the questions as you go along, and you answer as best you're able with the information you have at the time.

I stopped going to the gym around the time I started my current job. I worked a lot of overtime, especially in the first six months, and I started promising myself that when life got a bit easier, and I wasn't so mentally exhausted, I'd make time. I didn't expect eighteen months to pass before I finally hit that point; me, who was so religious about going to the gym every day.