Hippie

i love protests. i really do. when the republican national convention was here, i discovered how much i love them. and ya know...i'm not a protester myself. i'm so wishy washy with everything, i rarely feel strong enough to brush my hair, so picking a side to scream about isn't really my thing...but i LOVE being with people who are passionate about what they believe. i love that they want me there, photographing them, promising to get them online. i love witnessing something first hand that the media is reporting and i love having my own take of things though my memory, and my stories; but, most of all, through my photos. i love making up my own mind...

so...here are a decent chunk of the photos i took. (i have more...but this was enough, for now.) i promised people i'd have these photos online and that's all they wanted.

for search purposes i feel the need to throw in these specific keywords...

Occupy
Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Minnesota
Occupy Minneapolis
99%

maybe i'll sleep tonight?

the insomnia. the sinuses. i'm not really that happy, or functional, these last few days.

tonight, i called into work for tomorrow.
i called my boss and attempted to leave my phone number in case she needed to call me back.

i rambled for almost 30 seconds about my number, but i had NO memory of what it was.
only the area code made sense in my head.
so i spewed random numbers into her voice mail, hoping to jog my memory and maybe redeem myself...but, it just kept getting worse and worse--and i never did remember it.
i finally said that i'm sure she has it on file and asked her to email me, if nothing else.

i then apologized for being so tired and hung up.

this insomnia thing is making my brain mush.

i'm gonna go back to watching star trek and reading craigslist now. because neither of those things take any brains at all...

why won't my brain just be quiet...for just a tiny bit...

insomnia.

sucks.

last night, i woke up at three. went back to sleep at 5:30. that's pretty typical. i'm so tired but i don't want to fall asleep until at least ten...or i'll never make it the whole night. my dreams have been ridiculous again too.

every night.

so real.

ugh.

so, in other news, the pic above is my dogs feet. she discovered that our backyard pond contains one, large, frog. she has spent hours, everyday, for weeks obsessing over him. she has tore apart the cattails to try to find his home...though all she really did was make him a bigger home (as well as herself a bridge). she falls in almost everyday, requiring a daily bath and every night, she's exhausted.

hmmm.

maybe i need to go look for frogs too...

fall is lovely

yup. got out and did some shooting on thursday. it was rainy and chilly and perfect. out of all the shots i took...i liked my usual two. (two seems to be my magical number with photo-approval.) i just love the moodiness of fall skies...

hmmm.

uhm. what else?

oh! i invited friends over last night and they came over for an impromptu get together. it was a pretty darn okay time. i never invite people over anymore. i'm so lame. it used to be like every weekend...and now, it's completely random. i'm trying to work on that...i know it's my fault. the night was fun until they left and i went on this over-the-top, emotion-stricken, rant about my hatred of conrad murray. i cried about michael, listened to my fav songs and admitted a buncha embarrassing things about my lifelong mj obsession ...it was slightly crazy. okay, really crazy. (in case you couldn't guess...there was alcohol involved. plus, i was way overtired. plus, i had forgot to eat anything since lunch.) i went straight to bed, after being cut off in the middle of another part of the rant, and i slept until almost noon today.

i was, surprisingly, productive once i finally crawled out of bed...i made a homemade apple/pear sauce (since we had this ridiculous amount of pears and apples), chicken salad for lunches this week with the rest of the crockpot chicken from the other day, and a fabulous pasta dinner--complete with eggplants from the farmers market sneaked in...topped off with a completely from-scratch, apple pie. i'm still finishing off my homemade cheese/potato/corn soup from the other day but as soon as that's gone i'm dying to try out the recipe for a black bean and corn soup that i have. fall and hearty, healthy meals go as perfectly together as grilling and summer.

shocked, humbled, honored and smiling :)

(fav from the other day...see last paragraph for explanation...)

wow. so...i'm sitting here in complete aw of what happened this afternoon.

a few weeks ago i decided to jump ahead of the trend and jump on the google+ wagon. trying to brand myself as a photographer who doesn't do weddings, and who isn't a guy, is difficult...so, i decided to just throw up some of my favorite work while i get to know the routine of it all. as it turned out, i knew like three people on there...so my account just kinda just sat there--i wasn't even sure what to use it for. then i started following a few of my favorite photographers for the inspiration, trey ratclif, jeremy cowart, thomas hawk and lotus carrol. from there, i added a few more, lesser known, photogs, that were equally amazing to my circles. then, thomas hawk noticed me and circled me...even 'liking' some of MY stuff and the artist, natasha westcoat circled me and then so did lotus carrol. seriously, i was beyond honored that any of them would even look my way...let alone add me to their circles.

so, back to this afternoon...lotus carrol put together a list of her top 250 favorite photographers on google+ and she included me. i'm there, right next to jeremy cowart, trey ratcliff, thomas hawk and her. i am so humbled and proud and excited...all at once. i don't even know where to begin with this. i went from having 30 people in my circles to having over 200 within ten minutes...and that number is still growing and will continue to for days, i'm sure.

i have no idea what to say, what to post, how to not suck, how to keep doing what i do, how to get people involved in conversation so they don't hate me every time i post and i really don't know how not to be totally annoying. i'm going to have all of these total strangers listening to me and watching me...it's so intrusive feeling and honoring, all at once. i think i'll make sure my profile is clean and doesn't suck too bad and then wait a couple days to actually post again. i'm totally overwhelmed but excited...and seriously, i am super motivated and inspired to go shoot MORE!

hmmm.

now i'm done writing but, well, i have no photo to post. i see a lot of irony in that...not the funny kind though. crap. hmmm. i could go shoot something...but, well, that'd be too much work right now. i spose i could leave you with one more shot of me...my fav from the other day...i spose it's kinda fitting for this blog, too??

somewhere between pennywise and bigfoot, you get cowboy boots i'm scared of?

(my new boots. i love 'em...but as soon as i got them home, i got scared to put them on...)

woah. i'm currently listening to a band called, 'boyce avenue' cover the song 'lovestoned' acoustically. it's really good. like...really good. i mean, the original, by JT is good and all...but i'm diggin' the acoustic, a lot, lately. so...with that being said, it might not be that good, it could just be me.

anyway. yeah. i woke up today with a new found fascination with clowns. i totally hate them eff-ers typically, but i woke up this cloudy, monday morning thinking about them fondly--in an artsy sorta way, or something. and not the cutesy kid ones...like the old freaky ones. i wonder what that's all about? i mean...i'm used to randomness, but this is a little further out there than my normal random. eh. oh well. i blame the documentary on big foot i fell asleep watching. i don't know why...but, i do.

hmmm. what else is new in my weird, little world? wait? what's that you say?
nothing cuz you're a lame-o, loser, iris?
oh.
yeah.
nothin' cuz i'm a lame-o, loser.

in conclusion, i may have a clown thing all of a sudden, but i still can't handle monkeys or david spade, nor do i ever see that being a possibility in the future--just so ya know.

i think i'm gonna go eat broccoli and soy chicken now...

stop. camera time.

yup. i never do that, turn the camera on me (with the exception of a few cell phone shots here and there...), but this past weekend, i figured it was time to have some fun :) i still want to do a good self portrait...i have the idea, just need the time. maybe the next time i have some wine or something.

anyway...went to the bff's house this weekend. we hung out in her bed, watched bridesmaids, ate pizza and drank some beer and tequila. we talked and complained and laughed and it was fun. i slept great too, even on her couch, despite this stupid
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crap. sorry. my dog stretched and her big 'ol paw did that. we're cuddling.

anyway. the insomnia's been bad this past week, but not horrible. three nights found me wide awake, at three am, snacking on pretzels and watching american dad reruns...it's been worse though, so, i'm not worried. tonight, i'm hoping to sleep again. i'm not positive me watching programs on ufo's and crop circles is the best idea, but, whatever...