It rained and rained today. And then the wind kicked up. It has been a wild night with huge gusts of wind rattling the house and making the raindrops smash into the large windows behind my head. I love it. I love it now that I'm inside the house and no longer driving in the gusty wind.

When I was driving home tonight, I saw 3 bright blue flashes behind some buildings and then lights went out. The stop light I was stopped at went black. And I watched many cars just scream through the intersection--no light? Great! I don't have to stop. Hel-lo? It's now a four-way stop, you freaking Nards. I got home safely because I'm no nitwit--I waited until there were no cars coming before I proceeded into the intersection.

I saw that the power was out all along the west side of the highway. I pulled into a small, dark neighborhood that adjoins my own. It was very, very dark. I turned the corner into my subdivision and was delighted to see that our development was lit up like a Christmas tree. Yay! Don't know how we lucked out but I'm not complaining!

Today I took photos of my friend Maralyn and cello and then her husband and his viola. He is the principal violist in our state's symphony. Getting to take pictures of him was a bonus because he wasn't scheduled to participate but when I asked if he'd like to model he said "Sure!" It was really great working with them but my favorite part was listening to the music they played while I snapped the photos. I was wishing I had more film just so I could keep them playing. :-) These photos are part of my photo essay The Things We Do. I'm excited to start putting the essay together--I believe I have enough pictures to get started with it. It will be an ongoing work--I'll keep adding to is as I find new models and as I get the photos I've already planned out.

Grandma came over today and stayed at the house, waiting for Joey to come home from school so I could work in the lab today. It was nice--she loves it when I aske her to babysit. I took her out to dinner afterward as a thank-you.

I had a frustrating day at the lab today--that place is going to hell. Week before last, the big drum washer got broken so we have to use this little drum washer that I don't like because is can scratch photos if people aren't careful when they take things in and out of the washer. So I've been just washing my prints in a tray away from the washer and people's inconsiderate hands and tongs. Then today I get there and the print dryer is moved and taken apart. Without the print dryer, it takes FOR-FREAKING-EVER to dry your prints. I spent almost 45 minutes drying my prints with a hair dryer tonight so I could get out of there. I just wanted to scream. Stacey and I are both so sick of this lab--people with no concept of darkroom etiquette (like touching your negative carrier and jiggling it while you're exposing a print, for example, or flicking developer or stop bath or fixer on you while they move their prints around, or people who put paper and notebooks on an enlarger to reserve it during open lab and then not coming in for hours leaving others with no enlarger to work with) and who are just stupid or careless with your prints (picking them up and bending the corners or denting the print, getting the tongs mixed up so you get fixer on the paper before the developer, etc.) And now the other important equipment is broken. Time to ditch the "free" darkroom and start using a pay-as-you-go darkroom with high-quality equipment and a dry darkroom procedure. It's more expensive--$5/hour plus $1 per print--but after having a dozen or so prints scratched, bent or otherwise damaged, I'm ready to bite the bullet.

In spite of my frustrating day at the lab, I still ended up with a beautiful print of my sister that I know she will love. I made a gorgeous 8x10 of it but now that I have 11x14 paper (my photopaper and film order came today--yay!), I'm thinking I might do a larger print of it. I'll have to see how it looks that large, though, since it was done with a diffuser filter and it might be too fuzzy when it is so large.

And now I am at the end of my rambling. Ed is out of town again--the last time for awhile, though--so I'm sitting here on the couch not wanting to go to bed, wanting instead to fall asleep here in front of the fire but knowing I'll miss my wake-up time so I need to drag my ass off the couch and go to bed. ::sigh:: Why do I get so lazy when Ed's out of town?

Later...

--L