So.... last night I asked Sophie to be my girlfriend. I'm somebody's boyfriend now. What a wonderful feeling. I just grow so much more impressed with her every time we get together. Last night we just sat for about an hour on her back stoop chatting, smooching, and watching the horses. It's so tranquil there. On a nice warm non-muggy day, it's nothing short of heaven to sit there with her and watch the world go by.

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The title of this blog is "In Search of That Rarest of Treasures". I never knew what that treasure even was. I still don't, nor do I claim to have discovered it, I just know I'll recognize it when I find it. But damn if I don't get the sense that after all my fruitless digging through shifting sands, my shovel has finally struck something solid.

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Had my Lighting final a Tuesday night, to which I administered a swift ass kicking. Poor Elizabeth. She knows her stuff inside out and backward, she's just got such horrible test anxiety. I hope she did well. Anyway, I decided to have a little fun with the practical portion of the final. For one shot, we had to apply a particular portrait lighting scheme to a mannequin head. It was bald, and kinda creepy looking:



... so I decided to do a second shot where I set the timer on the camera. I walked behind it and flipped my hair forward, resting my forehead on the top of the mannequin head:



Rodney, my lighting instructor, was greatly amused. :-)

Call me Grandpa....

So tonight I'm watching TV, and a commercial one of those retrospective music compilations comes on. You know... the type of commercial where they scroll song titles, and play every third or fourth one? It was my generation's music. This compilation called Buzz Ballads.

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And I was watching Princess Bride with Sophia saturday night. (more on that in a bit) Do you realize that next year, that movie will be 20 FUCKING YEARS OLD.

GAAAAA!!!!

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So I spend saturday with Sophia. I pick her up and take her to OIP&T and give her the grand tour. Or at least as grand a tour as you can give in such a teensy-weensy itty-bitty tiny little facility. Printed out and matted on museum quality ragboard three images to give to L&V. Framed them tonight, and they're fabulous.

...but I digress.

So then we go to the horse auction and she teaches me all the different colorations and breeds that are there. I can now tell a Paint from a Chestnut from a Sorrel. And how to tell a stallion from a gelding. The two foot boner every time a mare walks by is a good indicator, but I'm talking about behavior-wise. It was great. It was in this big dirt-floor barn with bleachers and horse stalls, and this Stetson-wearing auctioneer doing his machine gun rapid fire nearly indiscernablea babble
"Starting at fifty! Babba-dee babba-da babba-dee babba-da! Do I have fifty five? Fifty-fi-fifty-fi-fifty-fi-fifty-fi-fifty-fi-fifty-fi- babba-dee-babba-da-babba-dee-babba-da" routine with this guy pointing and shouting "Hup! Hup! Hup!" every time somebody bid.

I joked to Sophia that I'd love to see this guy auction off a multi-million dollar Van Gogh painting at Sotheby's or Christie's. She laughed.

There was a horse in a stall there that honestly was criminally neglected. Mangey and rough looking, and nothing but skin and fucking bones. She attracted a huge aghast crowd at her stall. Sophia and I left after a few hours, but her mom and sister stayed for the horse section of the auction (the afternoon is all tack, which is saddles and harnesses and stuff). From what I nderstand, somebody approached the person who brought that poor horse to sell and basically said something along the lines of "Either you GIVE that horse to me right now, or I'm calling the authorities and pressing charges, and having you and your farm inspected and shut down."

Horse people won't stand for that kind of treatment. Right after we left, I told Sophie that I hoped somebody would rip that owner a new asshole. Turns out somebody did.

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I'm not going to use the L-word with Sophia. Saturday night was the first night where I finally dropped the drawbridge to my heart and let her across the moat I've built up in self-defense. We're still essentially strangers who've really grown fond of one another, and I don't believe in love at first sight. BUT! I do believe two people meeting, and at first sight sensing the immediate diggage and acknowledging the potential that this person beats the odds and could be somebody to fall in love with in the future. That's Sophie. She's a keeper.

This is really inconvenient, because I like her in a way I don't want to like somebody right now. I like her in the long term sense. I wanted to run around and be a slut for a while, but I think it's been proven all too well that:

A) The whole party/slut/college lifestyle just didn't present itself to me.
B) Although I wonder (and probably never will know) what it would've been like, my gut tells me I'd've been completely miserable living it.
C) I simply don't function well as a single person.
D) Sophie is a keeper. Hang onto her for dear life.

I could gush about her for hours. I'm falling so hard for her, and unlike Dark Haired Girl, in whom I invested energy based on a false hope, I look at Sophie and feel pure uninhibited hope for the future.

If ever I have created an image that could realistically be printed and sold with a triple-digit price tag, this is it. I went out a couple of nights ago with b&w film in the Holga to a parking lot off a newly-constructed bike path just outside Troy. It was my intention of capturing long-exposure star trails, inspired by the cover image on a magazine I just bought. Anyway, after braving two 30-minute exposures and suffering one massive case of the heebie-jeebies in the pitch darkness with weird nocturnal rural noises all around me, I arrived at this image.

I rock so hard it registers on seizmographs. The other latest ones are at the Flickr page. I've brought my A-game with these. :-)

I've been visiting quite a bit with Sophia lately. In fact, it's now 4am, and I just got back from doing Stillwater, having spent all evening with Sophia and starting cleaning after midnight. I really like this girl. Talking to my sister on the phone, she said "Oh, you've got the hots for her!" I had to reply that I don't. It's not a case of the "hots". It's more solid than that. Not that I don't think she's cute, it's just that I'm developing a genuine affection for her. No bells and whistles, no choirs of angels singing, no big dramatic... whatever. There's simply a happy contentedness I feel when I'm around her.

I spent most of Saturday with her, and after feeding her horses the cookies I baked for them (which they devoured), we picked up her mom (who's a total trip) and went to the horse auction to sell two of her saddles. Unfortunately, it was the wrong saturday and the place was closed. But we did go into a nearby western store, and I tried on many silly looking Stetson cowboy hats. But, the cheap ones like Rob Zombie used to wear with the sides curled up actually looked kinda good on me, though. If I'm gonna be hanging out on Sophie's green acres this summer, I will need something with a wide brim to keep the sun off my face and neck.

Yee Haw.

But later that evening we put on a movie and spent the entire length sitting a millimeter apart like two nervous teenagers waiting for the other to make the first move. I brought that up and we both chuckled about it. I suggested we cook dinner, put on another movie, and try again. So we did. I put my arm around her, and after awhile she was curled up with her head on my shoulder and arm on my chest. Then we both dozed off, arm in arm. It was wonderful.

You know, no matter how fucked over I feel by the DOD, and how mighty and Airman I might have been, I am still a sentimental schmuck at heart and will always feel attachment to my unit: E&E Flight, 509th Maintenance Squadron, the Mighty 509th Bomb Wing. Every now and again I still visit Whiteman AFB's website to look at the photos of my dear airframe.



I miss my babies. I miss the smell of the Phase Dock where we'd rip to pieces and put them back together. I miss the roar of the ground power units, and the long hours spent in the pounding sunlight sacrificing self for service. You've no idea the dedication, blood, sweat, and tears I invested in the repair and maintenance of these angelic birds. Just to hear the haunting call of their engines at idle from across the flightline again...

I was A1C Andrew Robert Hutchinson. I was a part of something then.

Tragedy Befalls Our Intrepid Hero...

Woke up this morning to a call from the business office at OIP&T. Seems that because I'm so far behind on my K Loan, they're gonna cancel my account until I come current on it. That's $1785 right now. Probably gonna hafta skip summer quarter, and most likely fall too. This bites. Hard.

Fear not, though! All I really need is either to find another job that'll flex to fit my existing school/chipotle schedule, or to ditch Chipotle altogether and find a nearly full time job elsewhere. I don't mind the wait. What bothers me is that I'm going to lose touch with my fellow classmates that I've been with over the last two quarters. :-( But then there's some good news...

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Met Sophia (the one I met online and who's the regular at Chipotle) after she got of work yesterday and I got to go meet her beasts. I rolled up my pants legs and had a fantastic time trudging through the mud and horse manure. The horses are so affectionate (especially when you have carrots), and aside from having to watch that you don't get your foot stepped on, they're so cool to go up and hug and scratch behind the ears. Her sister's horse Tristan kept sniffing at and biting my shoe. I also met her barn cat, two goats, and seven dogs.

Anyway, after helping feed the horses and goats, her sister came home and she invited me to stay for dinner. Afterward, we sat and chatted until 11:30. She started getting sleepy, and I still had Stillwater to go and clean. Finished Stillwater around 4am, but it was totally worth it.

Today I looked up horse treat recipes online and baked a bunch of horse cookies. Hopefully she's working tomorrow so I can give them to her.



This is Tristand and Sophia. Since she has photos of herself online on her POF profile, I don't think she'll mind if I post a couple here.


I forget this guy's name, but he was super affectionate and was this gorgeous shimmering red color. Quite the handsome portrait, if I do say so. :-)


And this is Tristan again sniffing at the lens (and trying to eat the camera bag). I just thought this was a fun shot.


And this is the male goat. I forget his name as well. She's got a male and female, and they're just the spunkiest most mischevious little creatures. They're so much fun to watch antagonize the horses.

Tons o' new photos up on the Flickr page. I've got two recent projects, photomac (close-ups of stuff) and light balancing, which is exposing for ambient light backgrounds (the window in the wine glass one, and the light behind Angela) while exposing the subject properly with a flash.

I just got back from Angela's, and let me tell you, even though the project only required four photos, I took right around 80 or so. I swear, I've never met anybody so comfortable in front of a lens. :-) And the wine glass one was taken at L&V. The owner is the coolest guy. He lets me shoot any project I want in there, as he is a huge supporter of local arts. As a token of my appreciation, I printed the photo, mounted it in a black matte, framed it, and gave it to them. They put it up in their front window. :-) I rock. And the glass of port was delicious.

... as was the second one after the shoot. I wasn't feeling any pain for a while, port is some seriously strong stuff.

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I'm not talking much about the two women I met because simply, I'm still making sense of the whole situation. I'll fill you in more as I straighten things around in my head. I'm meeting the one I met online tomorrow to go see her horses and other animals. I can't wait! :-) I want to get some good photos of her with her horse(s).

Things just keep getting stranger and stranger, and I swear I've never felt more normal in my entire life.

Not only did I spend last night with C.C., the one I met at Trolley Stop, but I also had a date tonight with the one I met online. A bona-fide she's-into-me possibly-girlfriend-material date. I met her as she got off work and we headed over to the coffee shop inside Barnes & Noble. Then we went and had Indian for dinner. I had class afterward, so we parted with a big hug. She's the sweetest girl I've ever met, and she being shy like me, there were more than enough awkward pauses in the conversation. :-) It was cute.

C.C. reminds me a lot of Dark Haired Girl... an independant, strong willed, take charge kinda gal. She even laughs a lot like her.

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To top things off, the CD I've been dying for over the last year finally came out today.. Zero 7's third album, "The Garden". All in all, I was somewhat disappointed with it. No vocals by Mozez on this one, and Sia's voice seemed... I dunno, misused. Gone is the cool groove of the first two baby-making albums, even though they both came in totally different flavours. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad, it just didn't grab me like the others. Too upbeat and poppy, only one instrumental, and way way too much Moog synthesizer, with no Hammond B Organ to chill it out. But it is interesting to hear the band's evolution.

What a Strange Wind it Was Today

Ok, update: I expected the whole PlentyOfFish thing to be a grand disaster, but despite my pessimism, I have been getting a (relative) crapload of positive feedback. This has resulted in my engaging in three separate dialogues with women in the area, ranging from a tatoo'ed goth/punk to a brilliant graphic design student to an animal lover who owns horses. The latter also happens to be a regular at Chipotle (I thought her picures looked familiar), and she already had a crush on me.

The icing on the cake: I went out with Angela to talk through and resolve a few man problems, and we ended up at the Trolley Stop in Dayton. After a thorough and tough-love coaching from me, she called her man and he came over. I headed downstairs to give them time to work out a few kinks in their young relationship. After a good two hours, I went outside to catch a breath of fresh air and caught the eye (and smile) of a strikingly attractive BBW walking in. Thinking nothing of it, I went back inside and took up my backup piece of wallflower real estate as she had taken my seat in the corner. I could've sworn she was looking at me as i glanced at her, but it wasn't until we really locked eyes that i couldn't deny her attention.

I introduced myself, and we got to talking. Her name is C.C., and she flat-out admitted she doesn't give her full name out, not even to her co-workers, which is understandable. My Mom likes to tell of her college era bar exploits putting on a fake British accent and introducing herself under the pseudonym of Felicia Cranberry from London, England. The idea still makes me chuckle. But I digress...

Long story short, we talked for a good while, and even danced a bit despite her heel spurs, but Angela drove, and was antsy to go home. CC gave me her numbers, and as I walked her to her car, she gave me a kiss. First on the cheek, and then on the lips. Both simple quick pecks, but it was the first woman to kiss me since Dark Haired Girl and I had our fling, and it felt totally electric.

Strangely enough, all this attention is so foreign and contrary to the version of reality I've subscribed to, it's almost somewhat upsetting. It's so unlike anything I ever expected or even hoped for in a million years. I don't know how to handle it, and frankly it's freaking me out. My mind is racing with a thousand and one reasons why these women aren't really interested in me, but damn if you'll catch me complaining. :-)

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Last thursday's Lighting project, Copying a Print Advertisement, for those who haven't seen my Flickr page...



I rock so hard it hurts.

Brand spankin' new Holga shots up at the Flickr page. This is a spare changer counting the handful I gave him in exchange for permission to take his photo. My first paid model. :-)

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In retrospect of last night's post, admittedly "I'm Too Sexy" is very gay, but I was feeling good up until that point, and dammit they didn't have to preempt my entire list because of it. I felt (and still feel) insulted. The next song was Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game", and two people whom I watched meet and totally start digging on each other got to dancing dangerously close to one another (as Sheryl Crow so perfectly put it) out on the floor. The bartenders nixed it halfway through. Bastards. I b.s.'ed to Ruben "Those two are going to leave here and fuck like rabbits, and it's all because of the song I chose." He concurred that it was a grave injustice.

I did get to talking with somebody I haven't seen since I worked at Honda. She took my number... she, Angela, and I were an office gang back in the day. So the night wasn't all bad. My list of allies grows ever longer.

I hate this town. I hate Troy. I hate the bartenders that "jokingly" skipped my entire list of jukebox selections because my songs were gay. I hate being rejected. Socially, personally, sexually... on every level a person can be. I hate being rejected. I hate not being like everyone else. When I finally leave this godforsaken cousin-fucking hick village, I'll never look back.