Sunday; Dog park day...

also... check out the cool trick my camera can do; Panorama!

What is wrong with me!?

Perhaps this is why I am single... I see this amazingly beautiful painting with sweeping romantic motion and a breathtaking sunset in it and yet this is what I see;

Mars

"The red world and the blue are brothers. They were born together in the seething maelstrom of dust and gas spinning out from the heart of the vast cloud that was to become Father Sun. 


For uncountable time each world was engulfed in endless violence. Monsters roared down out of the sky, pounding the worlds mercilessly in a holocaust of terrible explosions.  Under such awesome bombardment there could be no solid ground; the rocks themselves were liquid bubbling magma as the fiery rain from the sky went on and on, blotting out the radiance of the newly bright Father Sun with steaming clouds that covered each world from pole to pole"   

                    --Ben Bova, Mars

Are you in love yet?  I am only half way through this novel (the first Ben Bova I have read).  It is slow, methodic and about as close to Pablo Neruda I have seen in the English language. It's one of those books that I can read a paragraph like the one above and I want to look up and find someone to share it with so that I can ask; "did you see that!?" It's this pulsing story that makes you wonder what is going to happen next, it makes you curse the fact that the book must be put down to sleep or to work or other such mundane things.  So I guess the point of this post is... I recommend this book.

Cold Sleep.

I cannot sleep in the cold.  Last night the power went out around 2am because our wiring is crappy and my housemate and I both had our space heaters on.  Unfortunately the breaker box is in his closet and I didn't want to creep into his room in the black of night to try and regain electricity. 

I had horrible disturbing dreams, the kind I cannot recount here (knowing they were fictional) they were too gut wrenching to even talk about. I woke feeling like I had been beaten up throughout the night, cold and heartbroken.  It was clearly a shallow sleep, possibly no deep sleep whatsoever.  Tonight I left the heater off for fear I would have to go without the electric blanket and be faced with another fight with night terrors. 

I am officially adding "electric blanket" to my list of "Why living in the present is better than any time in the past".  It's right up there with indoor plumbing, hot showers, women's liberation and electric washing machines.
Seriously.

New Eyes

I am in love with my new camera... it seems like it can make anything look luscious.
Hello concrete wall, water pipe, safety pin bin...

I know, it's a little crazy.

dog. play. now.

This afternoon I had a Kraft grilled cheese sandwich and a four hour nap.

My head is full of phlegm.

If I had a cat, he would want to sit on my chest and purr until I fell asleep.

However, this dog seems to lack all empathy.

He feels the need to push his ball into my face.  He wants to PLAY... as much fun as napping was, now that time is over and it is play time!  Let's go on a WALK!

meh.

Photo Day.

The day began at 4:15am after all of maybe 3 hours of mostly restless sleep.
Grumble grumble, hit the On button. Coffee Please.
5am drive to East Oakland. Pack car
6:30 hello Birkenstock office... Novato, where am I?

 Yesterday I assisted on a photo shoot.  It started early.  So early that throughout the year I see 4am as a bed time more than a wake up time.  Oh my heck it was early... and oh my heck I could not get to bed before midnight, or stay asleep... so let's just say I was a little blurry for a good chunk of the day.

The Birkenstock offices are beautiful.  They're in a renovated Air Force hangar, high ceilings, pretty 'natural' furnishings, lots of windows and comfy chairs, tables and tables full of product (shoes)... although really all you need to know about the Birkenstock offices is that the walls are fuzzy.  They wallpapered with some kind of suede material, if I worked there I would probably pet a bald spot in my wall.

I helped dress models and clip price tags, I hauled heavy bags... we set up on top of a hill in Novato before sunrise hoping to get a shot of our models running as the light crept up above the horizon.  Instead we were greeted with fog.  The foggiest soup you can imagine slowly turned the world bright white as the light emerged.  Hopefully the photographers got some cool shots even if they weren't the shots they were hoping for. 

We had several set ups, lunch around 2pm (my dry and probably not the best sandwich tasted AMAZING by then) and relocated to catch the sun as it fell down the other side of the Earth. 

As the sun set, barn owls began their hunt for small creatures.  One skimmed right past us, looped the loop and plunged down on the other side of the bushes to catch a rodent on its last day.  After ten hours of photography and on minimal sleep, the introduction of hunting owls was rather similar to bringing a dog into a second grade class room.  Somehow the stalwart photographer managed to keep on task as the light crept away to nothing and our attention spans with it.

All in all, it was a tiring but good day.  The Corporate types, the photography team and the loveliest models imaginable all made the process enjoyable and painless.  I think I could do this again.


More sleep before the day would be helpful I think...

Zombi-pocalypse

This is what Trader Joe's looks like after all surrounding non-Safeway grocery stores have been closed for two days. Somehow I scored the last two bell peppers in the store.



On a side note; Hey Mom & Dad, I can't find my little green camera, have you seen it?  Now I've either got my phone (fine quality seen above) or my Nikon (a wee bit bulky to keep in my purse)... check my room? 

Google humor...

Forgive my lack of actual photos these days... I'll get back to it soon...