Monday, September 3, 2012

Balancing act

So I was reading Good Housekeeping today, yes... I do apparently do that?  Side note to my Dentist: You might want to update your magazine selection.  Women enjoy things that are outside the home and men enjoy more then ESPN and both really enjoy not reading a magazine from March.... just saying.

All the same, I was sitting waiting patiently for my time to have my teeth shined and I picked up the only magazine that interested me and that was solely to do with Kelly Ripa being on the front cover.  I fell head over heels for her way back in high school, home sick and enjoying every minute of it.  In case you haven't picked up on it I am like the worst story teller in all the world cause I want to throw in all this information that seems to be important to me but according to my husband it is not so important to other people; all the same I will share it cause it is my story.


I missed the point of the article, if there was one, but basically what I took away from it is either Kelly--yes we are on a first name basis--is pretty neat.  I could almost hear her voice as I read over her responses to the journalist.  She told a story that effected me.  As she was going about answering questions about her family life, specifically kids.  The journalist asked her if she had ever burst out at her kids and she told this story about a long day of work returning home hungry greeted by a sitter praising her wonderful kids before skirting the coming disturbance.  All the kids awoke all asking her to do this or not do that (seeing as she does have a teenager that likes to repeatedly remind her that he wants her to be in no contact with him or his life).  With each request she told them all to go back to bed and each continued on.  Weary from her long day she sat down in tears.  Her two sons quickly skirted back to the privacy of their rooms and the daughter offered, "want me to rub your feet".  Kelly slumped shoulders and all tearfully said, "No, I want you to obey me and go to bed."

This story has stuck with me.  At the end of the article I felt close and at home with Kelly as a person but it made me wonder is she really just that transparent in interviews or she is amazing and sharing just enough information that you feel like her best friend.  Either way I feel like she kept a good balance of her life being private and her being real.  It made me wonder if I could manage the same in her situation.


So often I tend to be an all or nothing kind of person.  It is easier for me to exercise everyday.  If I take a day off I take another and finally just don't exercise.  I used to be, if you can believe it, a really internal person.  I have some serious trust issues and to keep myself "safe" I just didn't share, well anything.  All that changed, obviously.

Why is it so hard to keep balance and why can't I just have some training wheels like I did when I was a kid?

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Sunday, August 19, 2012

I'm "special"

My mother thinks I am high strung.  I understand her assumption and in some ways I guess I am.  I love order, the idea that everything has its own place... always easy to be found and always waiting where you left it.  This idea I would imagine doesn't sound too bad to most... or if January sales ad's are to be believed I am not alone in this idealistic desire.

I know the reality is that even if you buy every last beautiful contraption they sell to organize your every facet of life they only work if YOU actually organize it and you keep it that way.  I realize my pipe dream of having a label maker will never happen, if nothing else because my husband has declared it loudly on more than one occasion.  My crazy comes out when I actually try and make that "new years resolution" of organization an actual reality in my life... In my world every cabinet has a label so that whenever anyone puts anything away there is a clearly labeled place for it.

My husband calls insanity... and thus I get no label maker.  I still think it a brilliant plan and that all our organization problems would be solved if only for that beautiful and unreachable label maker... despite me knowing the reality...

So instead I simply harness my crazy and only let it run free on occasion.  Like when I will, later tonight go through and color coordinate my closet, first by style then by color.  

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Thursday, August 9, 2012

Daily do's and don'ts

Things just seem to pile on at a certain point.  It is like when you are at a cookout and you say "Hey thanks, that was a great burger", then every time you visit you're eating burgers and you can only eat so many burgers.

It always starts small.  I told you the story of my Giraffe figurine.  That's where it started.  "Yea, my dad got it for me on our trip, it's pretty cool huh"  For the years following  birthdays, Christmases, and anytime anyone went out of the country, I got a Giraffe figurine or related theme gift.  

It was sweet.  They were thinking of me.  They felt confident that they knew what to get.  At a certain point it gets a bit ridiculous.  

I had thought over this moment for months.  Sweat started to pearl at my temples sitting there at the table, how do I let them down easy?  Stumbling on my words and unsure of what to say I fumbled till finally blurting, "I really don't get the Giraffes.  It's really nice and all but no more nick nacks.  I don't have anymore shelf space!"  My eyes widened at I had finally allowed out.  Sitting around the table everyone started laughing.  I quickly switched from each person to the next, "what's going on?"  "We didn't get it either but we thought 'Hey everyone's got something?'."

All this time thinking over what I was going to say and in the end... why?  I have never been a timid person.  You can ask pretty much anyone.  Blunt is a good way to describe me.  I think I learned a lesson that day.  So much pain and struggle on my end at least could have been saved with simple honesty.  Why is it then in my business, in my photography I am so concerned with what this person will say or if I'll step on this photographer's toes?  You'd think with my blunt and transparent take on life that I would translate it to my work.


It is a struggle of mine.  Not when I'm dealing with brides, nor when I'm behind the camera.  There, behind the camera or in front, I feel at home.  It is like and extension of me.  It is a place where being playful and silly is not only okay or acceptable but it is down right fitting.  Who wants a portrait like your one stop flash portrait of the Victorian days?  I love seeing life in photos, capturing life that is happening now to make those photos happen.  No, it is not then I struggle with this but with dealing with other photographers and with being me here.



So often I am unsure of what to post.  I mean if you think about it everything you post online is permanent and public.  Even in your private facebook groups, more often then not people can see what you have posted on the wall.  They can see every down day you have and every time you post about your third bowl of ice cream in a day (okay, so that may just be me, but they were small bowls ;P).  It makes you question if "you" being "yourself" is enough.  "Maybe I should just keep that part to myself"  or "no one needs to know that I can't stand _____"  

And other photographers... well it is like going back to the first day of school in a new state.  There are comrades to find but you feel all alone when walking through those crowds to find them.  Honestly the few photographers I have taken the time to talk to, be myself and hear about them are great, wonderfully fun people.  Each with their different take, their own art with a lens and eager to talk, show and do their art.  So why is it that I am still so tentative?

You tell me?  Cause it baffles me!  I wake up each day with a resolve to be bold and not just in my personal life.  What's your daily affirmation?



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