Here’s my last street shot for the month. In previous weeks I had no trouble with getting strangers into the photos but this week everyone seemed so conscious of the fact someone was taking pictures and tried to avoid getting in the shot. I have a pile of images of me motioning to people to just walk in front of the camera.

This guy was giving us the evil eye the whole time, I don’t think he was too thrilled about potentially ending up in my shot. Too bad, we got you anyway Mr. Hat.

LARGE version

You can see what others are doing this week at the self-portrait challenge.

So far I don’t regret the announcement I made in my last post, it’s not like me. I know I’m a bit gun-shy because we’ve had nothing but bad news for four years and I’ve grown to anticipate the rug being pulled out from under me at every turn. Plus, during this long, stressful period of time we’ve sort of lost our motivation for the whole thing so it’s been somewhat difficult to suddenly come up with enthusiasm again.

My dear associate got herself all twisted up yesterday as she became overwhelmed with the thought of traveling to pick him up and the whole idea of the life change in general. I feel bad because it’s her adoption essentially (I can’t be involved because they don’t take kindly to folks like us) and I won’t be able to be with her when she goes to get him. Actually, it may be stupid to talk about this at all on the blog. I’m hesitant every time I post something about it because I have some sort of conspiracy theorist’s paranoia, fearing there are pathetic jackasses out there trolling the internet looking for people like me so they can report us and foil the adoption.

I’m sure you all think I’m being excessive but I don’t really think it’s outside the realm of possibilities. Look how the religious right and various militant, puritanical “concerned citizens” monitor radio and TV broadcasts trying desperately to find the slightest infraction to exploit with their letter writing campaigns and sponsor boycotts. I know the five of you who read this blog don’t seem to mind people who play on the other team, but there are a lot of people out there who hate us with a passion.

Well, now that I’ve thoroughly scared myself again I guess I should just go back to work and wait for the authorities to come and get me so I can be shipped off to the island they’ve set up for all the freaks and deviants they round up. I hope it’s a warm island, if I have to live out my life with freaks and deviants, I’d at least like it to be in a decent climate.

On a less ominous note, we had some fun over at bluberd’s house Sunday. The associate skittered about the yard with Jonas and Jack while I played with my new lens.

This is very uncharacteristic of me, but I guess I have to stop being such a chicken-shit. Ah, who am I kidding, we had a bottle of wine at dinner and I’m sure that helped encourage this post, I’m still a chicken-shit, just a little less afraid of the boogeyman this evening.

So here’s a photo of a wee boy who’s adoption has been approved.
That’s all I’m going to say.

There’s no such thing as a jinx, right?

I didn’t have much of a chance to get out on the street for this weeks self-portrait so the flower stand will have to do. It doesn’t have the pizzazz of last week’s fun but that’s the way the ball bounces.

In the Large version you can play Where’s Waldo and find the special cameo appearance of the berd. And, while you’re at it, you can check out her take on the wagon.

Here’s one I wish had actually happened, I was tempted to use it but it seemed like cheating.

Large version

You can see more self-portraits here.

I’ve been hoping someone would give me something to write about since I’ve been more or less stymied for awhile now. As luck would have it, my little five foot nothing (her words not mine) blog friend Gay has tagged me.

The rules are: List 7 random things about yourself.
Tag 7 others and direct them to your site to get the rules.

I don’t actually know 7 others to tag but I can list 7 random things - here they are:

1. If my sister had enough money when we were children she no doubt would have hired a hitman to whack me. 

2. When I was in 9th grade I was a starter on the JV volleyball team. I loved it and had a great time until one day when I made a very big mistake.

We had practice every day after school and our school’s teams were always section champs etc. so they ran their practices like boot camp, literally. The coach was a real “see you next tuesday” if you catch my drift, and she was particularly hard on me. I always thought it was because she and my mother played bridge at the same country club and my mother was better than she was, but I digress.

Anyhoo, after being beaten to a pulp we’d end the day with serving practice. Every two minutes the coach would scream at me from across the gym and I guess I just couldn’t take it any more and snapped under the pressure. I got her in my sights and served a bullet right at her while shouting, and I quote, “get off my back you stupid bitch!“  

I don’t think I started another game that season and it didn’t go much better for me the next year either. Her husband was the Varsity coach. I switched to tennis my junior year.

3. My middle name is Joy which, unfortunately, has been ironic all too often. 

4. The town I grew up in was very “white bread,” but my family wasn’t that plain. Some things that went on in my house just couldn’t be found in anyone else’s and I always thought that was great.

For example, my grandmother (Yia Yia) was from Greece and she was very “colorful” to say the least. For most of my life she lived in Florida and when I was young she used to fly up to visit for a couple weeks every now and then. When my Dad would bring her home from the airport it would take him forever to get all her baggage into the house and we couldn’t wait until it was all unloaded because that was when the fun started.

There was one bag for her clothes which contained various dresses, moo moos, gowns, fancy slippers and the like. One for cosmetics, a thousand different shades of maroon nail polish and miscellaneous bric-a-brac (this was my favorite bag because her finger cymbals and castanets were usually in there). One that housed whatever giant afghan she was crocheting. One that was just full of other bags and twisty ties (why I don’t know). One that contained a myriad of bizarre “gifts.” And perhaps one or two others that were reserved for at least 20-30 avocados, mangoes and whatever else that she picked off her trees that morning (I’m not kidding).

My friends would often want to be there when Yia Yia visited, I suppose they couldn’t resist the carnival-like atmosphere. I don’t think there was a person in Horseheads who had ever seen an avocado before in their lives. One day she was giving my friend and I avocado facials and then decided that if it was good for the face it was good for arms, legs and any other exposed bits. Now that was fun! Best I ever got at my friend’s grandma’s house was a cookie and milk.

Ah, I could fill a blog for a year with stories about her but this post is already too long.

5. I often used to plan to cheat on tests and would spend hours writing elaborate cheat sheets. I never had to use them though because I spent so much time with the information trying to smush it onto miniature pieces of paper that I actually learned the material.

6. Embarrassing as this is to admit, it wasn’t until late in high school when I realized that people got pneumonia, not ammonia. Worse than that, I made it to college thinking that people got ahernia not a hernia.

7. I haven’t read a book in over a year and the only book of fiction I’ve read in probably the last 5+ years is The Da Vinci Code. At some point I became only drawn to nonfiction and it is a rare occasion when I’ll read a regular old novel. I guess I decided that if I was going to spend time reading, I wanted to be learning something.

I’ve always wanted to make a video like this.

She looks like she’s having such a good time, I love that. And what about those legs, lordy lordy, what’s it like to have long legs like that? Yessiree Bob, those are some very nice getaway sticks!

Perhaps I should branch out into some homemade video posts to liven up this stale old blog. I know there’s already a request out there for a Cher video, maybe I’ll order a wig today. 

While I’m at it, I suppose I’d need a video camera (and some sort of benefactor to pay for it).

Right, like I need another time-consuming expensive hobby. There aren’t enough hours in the day for me to do everything I want as it stands now. But once I get an idea in my head…hmmm. 

My friend Lisa stopped by today after I told her about Sparky and she convinced me that she could untangle him from the wires and get him down without incident. I made sure to take some photos to appease Belchspeak’s morbid curiosity.

His arms were tightly wrapped around the wires and it took awhile before he finally released. I shrieked like a little girl as it fell to the ground with a dull thud, for some reason I don’t have the stomach for things like this, wimp.

I do think Belchspeak’s comment about potentially exposed electrical wires is a good one that we should follow up on.

It would appear that a squirrel has gotten itself electrocuted and is now suspended from the electrical wires at the top of our house in a “holy shit” kind of pose.

We don’t quite know what to do about it. The associate wanted to climb a ladder to the roof and get it down. I thought this wasn’t a good idea seeing that if the squirrel got electrocuted right there, she could too.

Then she thought of leaning out the second story window and trying to knock it off the wires like a piñata. I again discouraged this action for obvious reasons.

The idea of a rotting carcass outside the window doesn’t please me and neither will the body parts that will eventually begin to drop to the ground over time. Eeew.

If anyone has a brilliant plan to solve this dilemma, please let me know.

(Yes Nina, it is right outside your window so it would behoove you to come up with a solution)

I’m surprised to say this, but I am actually having a lot of fun with the SPC’s street photography theme this month. Once you get past the self-consciousness, have a friend to guard your camera and another friend to laugh at you, you’re in like flint.

We headed to the Old City district of Philadelphia for this week’s shots. I used to live down here when I was in college. It was just when they were beginning to turn it into something cool. I laugh now because I was renting a 1000 sq. ft. loft with central air and a really cool freestanding fireplace for around $600 a month right in the center of all the art galleries. I can’t imagine what you pay for that same space today.

 
(the large version is better)

Here I believe I had just been mocked by a good-natured
passerby who found me to be oh so graceful.

I liked the composition of this one, especially the way all the people follow the perspective of the shot but I was too stiff and staged looking to suit my purposes. (fyi, that’s the associate across the street)

Although I knew it wouldn’t be right for this project, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get this oddity:

It would seem that I am receiving some encouragement to refrain from cutting my hair right now. And, since I have already endured seven months of looking like a mess I may as well keep on truckin’.

I do however feel that were I to wear a little extra eyeliner and a dab of eyeshadow, this would be my doppelgänger:

If anyone would like to reconsider their opinion on my hair, this photo taken today might just change your mind. Here I am on my way to a casting call for the roll of Bruno Martelli in the remake of Fame. 

 
Crikey!

What’s worse than the closeup of my mop? The full shot and the fact that there’s a photo of this train wreck from another angle.

I think my hair got a little extra lift today because I drove my new convertible downtown and forgot to wear a hat.

Can I just say this is a sweet ride! It was worth every penny and as an added bonus, it keeps my parking spot very, very clean.

Got a bit of street photography practice in today with the associate and the berd. Beautiful weather made for a very nice day.

B/W version