the laanba blog

She Speaks

With a vacuum of my living room this morning my apartment will be clean.  Hooray!  Yesterday was a mix of sleeping and cleaning.  I probably could have cleaned everything in two hours if I had done it straight, but instead I did one thing and then rested.  I thought I was being lazy, but today I feel better so I think my body was just exhausted.  This always seems to be the weekend to repair my broken body after the start of school.

I am coming out of vocal silence because I am going to have breakfast with two high school friends.  I have known both of these people since middle school.  I saw one a few years ago by complete accident.  I can't even remember the last time I saw the other one, but I'm going to guess it was close to 15 years ago.  I know I'm not supposed to use my voice, but I think reconnecting with high school people that are in town for one day is worth it.  

 

Passages

The less said about last week the better.  It was my "several times a year" allergy misery.  At these times I think that all those years of allergy medications and doctor's visits have done NOTHING. But in the end I don't actually get a sinus infection and after a miserable week like the one I just had I come out of it and I have to realize that there is progress.  I used to get really sick with infections more than once a year and now I just get these bad weeks.  Still it doesn't make them any fun especially because I come home, eat my take out food (because who has the time or energy to shop or cook when you are sick), and go to bed.  My apartment looks like, well, I'm not telling you.  Let's just say, bad. 

Something else that is bothering me that is completely unrelated.  I used to read books.  I was so proud to be a reader and I could never understand non-readers and now I'm one of them.  I can't seem to finish a book anymore and it has been like this for many, many months.  Actually almost a year.  I try and try, but I can't seem to get my reading groove back.  Maybe it is hanging out with my photography groove on a beach somewhere.  So do you have any ideas?  Maybe links to something I can read online that will give me an idea of how to get my groove back? There is this article, but right now I can't seem to follow it.  Each time I think I'll get it back by starting fresh with a new book. My nightstand is piled high with half started books that were supposed to kick start my reading again. Books I can't seem to finish.  I know the answer is something like turn off the TV, close the laptop, hide the iPhone, but I can't seem to follow through.  I need some help with the follow through.

Weird Tuesday

A lot of random mish mash today.  Lucky me, I have a cold.  My throat has been hurting since Sunday and I've felt achy with a very mild fever.  I finally went to the doctor today to make sure it wasn't something worse and he said it was a cold combined with my allergies.  It hurts to swallow, I can't breathe.  It's just peachy, especially since I'm on Spring Break.  

I've pretty much been in my apartment since Saturday except for working at the museum 2 hours on Sunday and the trip to the doctor today.  I'm very, very pouty about this.  I'm going to go out tomorrow regardless because I have a lens from Borrow Lenses that I need to try it out, plus the fact that I can't stand being cooped up here any longer.

Since today is St. Patrick's Day my thoughts always wander to my trip to Ireland in 1994.  I had a wonderful time there and the country is beautiful.  You know when you are in a place and you just feel like you belong there?  You feel comfortable like that is where you should be?  I had that feeling when I was standing at Trinity College in Dublin.  A feeling of peace just settled over me.  

Spending the afternoon keeping virtual vigil for Natasha Richardson.  Watching all the wildly varying reports flow in on Twitter and while I know it is a train wreck of a news source I can't seem to turn away.  I loved her in Parent Trap and on my broadway recording of Cabaret.  

It's been a very strange day.

Lull

There's just not much going on right now for me to post about.  I'm sure when I get my new camera TOMORROW, that will change.  February is not my favorite month because of a competition I don't like, the trip out of town (I love the convention, but it is still exhausting), and four nights of clinics with the students.  Add to that the fact that I'm usually sick in January/February and it is just a struggle.  

Well the competition is over, the trip is done, one of the clinics has been moved to March and by some weird set of circumstances the clinics will all be next week.  That means I'll hate next week, but it will just be one week and over.  And smack dab in the middle of it I have a night photography class.  

I finally feel like I might be able to establish a better routine now that January has passed and I'm feeling better.  I went walking yesterday and went to the grocery store so that I won't eat out all the time.  

One other thing is that I signed up for another one of those online dating sites, but I haven't finished my profile.  It has all these questions that I'm supposed to write paragraph answers for and, ridiculous as this may sound from someone with a blog, I find it hard to write about myself.  I'm not good at describing myself.  It asked for three adjectives, the shortest part of the survey, and I couldn't even do that.  I am just going to have to sit down and make myself do it.

Tomorrow, NEW CAMERA!

3 days

Just three days left until we go on Christmas vacation.  Hallelujah!  The concert went well by the way.  Last night was another late night as I stayed to work on grades, clean up the office, organize things for my final performance today and help at the band concert.  If I finish with grades today I will be able to coast into Friday.  That's a great feeling.

Thanks to a heads up on Twitter from Wil Wheaton, I bought a Flip Ultra from Woot.com this morning!  Woo hoo!  I've been considering getting a video camera, even to the point of watching Andy Ihnatko's comparison videos with the Flip, Kodak and Creative Vado, but the big stumbling block was logic.  My compact camera has video and I never use it.  What makes me think that I'm going to use video just because it is a different device?  Well I don't know, but how could I pass up the camera for $59!  I couldn't.  I love some of the things I've seen with video on Flickr, especially the 30 to 60 second clips of the everyday like the video below.  I can't wait to play with my new toy.

This, That and the Other

I went out night shooting last night with a group of people from Flickr. I had a good time although I was frustrated at several points with the photography part. It seems like my camera was fighting me. I had problems with the focus, with the remote, with the exposure. I'm not sure if it is because I was talking with the people around me and not really focusing on what I was doing or if it was just one of those nights. It certainly makes a difference when you are with a group of people. The museum area is relatively safe and I'll probably go down there again, but I'm always more jumpy when I'm by myself at night and it seems that the guards of the various institutions don't want to bother a big group of people.

Before I went out yesterday I potted my new plants that I bought on Tuesday. I tried buying plants last year and I was not successful in keeping them alive. I pretty much ignored my patio after they died in the fall so it was not a pretty sight. It floods easily so I had bricks in place to help stop that, but I think they make the patio more gunky. I moved the bricks, scrubbed some of the patio and potted the plants. I was dirty and sweaty after that, but today it is nice to look out at my semi-nice patio. I still need to work on cleaning the cement some more, but it is a huge step in the right direction. Now the impossible mission. Keeping the plants alive!

I have solved my Twitter problem, at least for now. I'm starting fresh with a new account and I'm not following any local people (except one). I'm obviously not mature enough to follow local people because I get my feelings hurt when I'm ignored and not part of the in crowd. This also takes the pressure off of me, because sometimes people get ticked if you don't follow them but they follow you or you start following them and then stop, etc. I know I shouldn't care whether people like me or not or are mad at me or not, but I do. All of that hassle has now been eliminated. This is taking Twitter back to the way it was for me when I started. Using it for myself and following a handful of interesting people around the net.

I think my mother is starting to realize how lucky she was. We talked today and she has a friend that comes to her house in the afternoon because she probably won't get her electricity back on for a few more days. Mom hasn't really ventured out into Harlingen yet other than trying to go to the grocery store. She said the Wal-Mart still doesn't have refrigeration and was having to throw out cases of food. The news shows many homes in Rio Hondo that are still under water and of course you can't turn electricity on until the water goes away. The Valley will be cleaning up for a very long time after this hurricane. The island was hit especially hard.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5908627.html

And finally I am very happy to see that I made Top Comments of the Week at Swamplot.

http://swamplot.com/top-comments-of-the-week-the-osteens-garden-of-eden/2008-07-25/

Brain Dump

I'm here although admittedly mostly just marking time until Thursday begins and Friday ends. This is going to end up being a random brain dump. Let's see...

I am finally to the point where I only have about a week's worth of backlog for the photoblog and that is a little scary. It is the point I always wanted to be at, but I have for quite a while now had 2, 3, even 4 weeks worth of material waiting in the wings. One week of material means I absolutely have to get out every weekend to shoot. And even though I have that planned I don't know what I'm going to do if I miss a week. Especially with Bayou City Wanderer taking up the excess that I would have normally fallen back on. It is where I want to be but sometimes new territory is scary.

I had a good and busy weekend. I went to a meet up where we got to shoot a fire station on Saturday and went to the Japanese Festival on Sunday. I like staying busy, but I was tired by Sunday evening. I need a day off to recover from my weekends!

8 weeks, 52 days until school is out!

Flickr has added video. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it yet. I don't want to be inundated with people's videos and it is hard enough as it is keeping up with the pictures. But in keeping with my technolust, I want a flip video camera. Why? Who knows. It isn't like I took video as it is with my compact camera. It is pure technolust. We'll see if I get over it. Or maybe I should actually try using the compact camera for now and see if I would even use it.

I'm starting a new walking program. I say that every few months don't I? Well here we go again. I really want this to work. Hopefully it will help my old person knee which is really hurting. It is my right knee and it is really stiff and uncomfortable when I first stand up. It doesn't hurt once I'm standing on it and I'm fine being on it all day, but it seems to tighten up when I'm not on it. All I need now is a cane and I'll be all set to sail into old peopledom. Hell, I missed middle age!

Hmm... seems like I had more stuff rattling around in there, but I can't recall. Spared you further inanity. Escape while you can.

Busy, busy, busy

Wow, I've been busy. And exhausted. I just feel like I can't catch up, even when I spend the whole weekend trying to rest and catch up. I think I'll probably just end up feeling like this until Spring Break.

Part of the reason for always feeling behind is because I have had late evening rehearsals every Tuesday and Thursday for the last two weeks. I basically have had no time to recover from my trip. In fact my suitcase is still sitting in my bedroom instead of out in storage where it belongs. Thank goodness I only have one more evening rehearsal and that is on Thursday. Then the week from hell happens after that with a pre-contest which is actually more exhausting than the actual contest in April and a mini-concert the day after that. All of this would be manageable except in the middle of all this, my magic piano playing machine has decided to bite the dust and there doesn't seem to be a replacement. Stress, stress, stress.

What else. I voted and did my tax return on Wednesday. As soon as it arrives in my checking account I will be ordering myself a brand new Macbook and Time Capsule and depending on what Apple says on the 6th an iPhone. I've pretty much spent the return already, but I've had that planned for a long time. It will be nice to get a new computer and not have to make payments. My 12" is still a trooper and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. Probably keep it around for back up.

I went to the rodeo parade yesterday and have a meet up planned for next week. In fact there are a whole bunch of interesting opportunities coming down the pike, but I haven't had a chance to sit down with my calendar and mark them all down. Maybe I'll actually have time to do that this week, we'll see. Now off to tackle my email inbox

Speaking of...

I've been really terrible in terms of following the doctor's .... er.... request that I eat a low fat diet. Not exactly on doctor's orders, just something that he wanted me to do. I did really well for one month back in September and I definitely saw results, but I've just had a hard time sticking to it after one weekend that knocked me off. I keep trying. Maybe if I write it here I will do better. Some things are definitely better (I'm a lot more aware of the fat grams), but I have been eating poorly lately especially in the last month. Comfort food for the sick maybe. Not a lot of hope for straightening things out until I get back from my trip to San Antonio next week.

Speaking of my trip I started working on my personal session schedule and there are SO many good classes happening at the same time. This convention is huge and this happens all the time, but it seems especially difficult this year. One of my favorite clinicians is going to be there and I know that I will be going to every one of his sessions (except maybe one when my high school choir director is presenting), but there are a lot of other great classes too. I am a nerd who likes to go to the classes. A lot of people go to socialize or explore the exhibit hall, but I go for the sessions. I guess I'm a loner no matter where I go.

In a completely unrelated topic The Fratellis have been in heavy rotation on my iPod (when I'm not listening to podcasts). I first heard them in this Apple iPod commercial. I loved the song the first time I heard it and bought the single. Then I bought the EP. Then I bought the album. I wish I could figure out exactly what it is about their sound that appeals to me, so that I can find some more music to listen to. Usually I'm listening to musicals if I'm not listening to podcats. You can check out two more songs here and here.

Speaking of podcasts I have a new permanent member of the rotation, The Bugle. I found this thanks to Andy Ihnatko and it is now the first podcast I listen to each time I do an update. I love it. I am attracted to funny, intelligent people (one day I hope I'll find one to call my very own).

The last few days

Dinner: Chicken Marsala with fettucine and steamed vegetables. If you read that sentence you might actually think that I could cook! Or that I liked to cook. This particular dish from Village Table does require the most cooking (the other ones you just basically bake things). I'm proud of myself, it was good!

Spoiler: So there I was sitting in the doctor's office waiting (and waiting, and waiting) to see the doctor. I didn't bring a book in with me so I randomly picked up the magazines in the examination room. There was a TV guide and it had a lead story about Sci Fi on television. Hey, that sounds good. I love Sci Fi television. I open it up to the story and BAM. There it was. The name of the four cyclons on Battlestar Galactica. Did you hear a howl of pain on Thursday? That was me. I have been very meticulous about avoiding spoilers (the sci fi podcast I listen to is really good about not spoiling things), but TV guide had a big picture of the four of them with a caption that said THE FOUR CYLONS. Dammit!

Doctor: I saw the good doctor (not the woman that I've been unsure of) and found out that he is there on Thursdays (Thursdays it is then). He said he was concerned because we were at the maximum of medication. I don't really feel like I'm taking maximum of medications. Surely people are taking more serious allergy meds than I am. I'm going to take another skin test in March and he said that we may start making changes in the medication. That I'm glad of. I don't really want to take all these things. I would be happy just taking a pill each day although he said he would be happy if I was just taking Advair.

Meet Up: I'm going to a photo meet up tomorrow and I won't know anybody! It is through Meetup.com so not my normal group of photographers. This is definite progress for me and my shy and reclusive nature. Cross your fingers that it goes well.