Anti-WHAT powder??

Thanks for the great comments on the last post, y'all. Shutterbug, it's always especially nice to hear from you. :-)

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Well the switch to Boost Mobile, and their awesome $50/month unlimited plan (which I have been talking up nonstop to people whether they want me to or not), has an unplanned and pleasant side effect: I got on Motorola's site and found a way to use my phone as a modem. A free dial-up provider later, and I'm back on the internet! Now, this access is only about half the speed of normal dialup, mind you, but it's the internet nonetheless, and from the comfort of my own home. Yay!

For about the last three or so weeks I have been working part time for Liz, and that seems to be going well. I'd really missed hanging out with her. We'd initially discussed going full-time beginning in June, but that got put on the back burner. For now, I'm still doing the whole work-with-Liz-on-my-days-off-from-Wally-World routine. I must admit I kinda like the pace of the schedule, and the pay is nice. I'm now basking in the warm glow of a buzz from Guiness instead of Milwaukee's Beast.

I've really gotten into bicycling lately, and have on several occasions ridden my bike the 19 miles out to Dark Haired Girl's place just outside of Bradford, Ohio. I was hoping to enter the Strawberry Festival's bike tour this next weekend, but they shifted my schedule around at Wally World and I now work Sundays. I can still do the route later, they paint markers on the roads. I just wanted to experience the camaraderie among the riders, as well as the frequent stops with water and carb-y fuel snacks like doughnuts and bagels and bananas and whatnot. There's still the one Mom and Chuck go to every year in August... the Amish Land and Lakes tour up north. It always sounds like such a blast, so I'm dead-set on going with them this year. Should yield some great photo ops as well.

Anyhoo, I broke down the other day and bought a pair of tight stretchy spandex-y bike shorts. They're really nice because they don't bunch up, they've got a nice soft chamois on the inside for your undercarriage, and gel padding on the outside. It was awkward as hell though, taking my first tentative steps out of the house feeling like I was wearing nothing but a shirt and shoes. It felt kinda exhibitionistic, actually, and a little sexy...

;-)

Oh, and BTW there is this great product they sell at Tractor Supply Company: Anti Monkey Butt Powder. I kid you not. That is a legitimate product made up of talc and calamine powders, and it works like freakin magic. The last ride out to Dark Haired Girl's house... I was monkey-butt-saddle-sore free!

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Anyhoo, I haven't really done much personal work with the camera lately, save for a profitable headshot session with a local MR/DD agency. I've really been letting it gather dust lately because I simply have been in an inspirational void since coming back to Troy. I did have this great idea for a project, though... it's no secret that I drink (and, inexplicably rather enjoy) Steel Reserve beer. Once, Dark Haired Girl asked for a sip of that stuff I'm always drinking, and her face contorted in disgust in ways I didn't know faces could move. I died laughing. So Shaggy asked about it the other day, and I said he's not allowed to try it until I have him in a studio setup so I can photograph his initial reaction to it. I think it would make a great book, to get people who have never had it before to try it and let me shoot their disgusted grimaces. I'll call it "Steel Reserve... a love affair."

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Have you guys seen those new commercials for Dos Equis centering around a figure known only as "The most interesting man in the world"? I should find them annoying, as I do most commercials meant to make men feel insecure, but I think there's a perfect amount of tongue-in-cheek B.S., and they're just cheesy enough that I really think they're clever and funny as hell.

"He lives vicariously... through himself."

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It's 8pm, saturday night, and I have to get up at three to do doughnuts tomorrow morning. Spent my day off golfing with Mom and Chuck (almost parred one hole, but missed the putt and bogeyed it), and then putting in 10 miles on the bike. I am tired.

Good night, sweet dreams, and stay thirsty my friends.

From bad, to better, to "hell yeah!"

So Liz has offered to take me on full time at her studio. Yesterday was my first day training there. I'll finish the month on my regular Wally World schedule, working with Liz on my days off while I train. My next day off is in about a week and a half. (whew!) I'll go full time with her on June 1st. Well, Wally World wasn't keen on the idea of me leaving, to the tune of the personnel manager joking "No, you're not allowed to leave. We won't let you!" So I worked something out with them, and I will still be on part time there. I'll work one of my two days off from Liz's, and/or also short evening shifts stocking the floor, writing names on cakes, and whatnot.

I have also just been flooded with a slew of paying photo gigs, the latest of which has garnered orders totaling several hundred dollars. This is a true instance of "when it rains, it pours."

So... full time job + part time job + occasional gig = mucho dinero for I, your friend and humble narrator. Do you know what this means? It means that roughly by the end of the summer, providing I get Cleveland paid off in a timely fashion, I WILL BE ABLE TO GET A PLACE OF MY OWN AGAIN. You have no idea how thoroughly orgasmic an idea that is to me.

And I also found a wine and spirits store that carries the oh-so-ubiquitous-throughout-Cleveland Genesee Cream Ale! ...and it's still cheaper than dirt, smooth as silk, and sweet as honey. It's the perfect beer.

Life is good. :-)