Reshuffling Priorities

  So remember when I was househunting? Update–we did not find the perfect house. However, we did find one we really love. The house isn’t what I envisioned when we were looking, at all. It’s a condo, for one, so we share a wall with the neighbors. There’s no dishwasher. The back yard is mostly concrete. It’s on the other side of town from where I’ve lived for the past twenty-some years. (Twenty? Holy smokes!) But it works. We haven’t heard a thing through the shared wall, and no one has complained to us. The kitchen has enough room for a portable dishwasher, and we found a good used one for $125. The back yard has an orange tree, and enough dirt we can plant things. It also has a brick fireplace-type-thing built in. The drive to work is about fifteen minutes unless traffic is bad–that’s enough time to make it worth finding some books on CD.

Continue reading

Year of No Fear: Photography

Continuing my Year of No Fear series, I’d like to talk about photography. My grandfather was a photographer who had his own darkroom.  I didn’t know it until I began studying photography and darkroom work in college.  I remember feeling amazed that he’d done the same things I was doing; that it was maybe in our blood.  I’d wanted to pair photography with my Journalism major, to make me more marketable (“hey, I can write and take my own photos!”).  However, I ended up learning fine art photography instead.  I absolutely loved every minute — from the shooting, to the developing of the film, to printing my own enlargements.  It was like magic, really — you have a blank sheet of photo paper that turns into something beautiful instead.  I will always love darkroom the most, no matter what I do.  It’s where my artistic soul feels most at home.  Unfortunately, I’ve had to put my darkroom stuff on hold due to several different factors.  (I knew that once I’d graduated from college, I would no longer have access to a darkroom.  My fiancĂ© at the time had his own darkroom and I thought, maybe I can do this.  It took a lot of time, a lot of work, and a bit of magic, but my dad, my ex-husband, and I made it happen.  To this day I still marvel at it.  We had no contractor but managed to move an entire wall to create a little “room” for me).

Continue reading

It’s Hard Not to Be ADD When Everything Around You Is

Unlike Siri, winter doesn’t get me down after awhile, but that’s because here in Colorado, winter is a bizarre and very confused season, which tends to turn into a bizarre and very confused spring. Take yesterday, for example. 75 degrees (~24 degrees for you Celsius people) and sunny. It was brilliant. We went for a long walk in short sleeves and played in the yard. Today? Blizzard. (Although admittedly a fairly warm blizzard. It’s not sticking to the streets but it’s blowing around pretty impressively.)

Continue reading

Waiting for Spring

I’ll be honest, guys. I really struggle with this time of year. By the time March hits, it’s been cold for so long (especially this year) that I’ve forgotten how summer feels. It’s still dark. I’m tired of my winter clothes and of wearing a giant coat. I feel like I’m slogging through life.

Continue reading