Photographerkellee's Blog

Get your mind out of the gutter!

One of my Before 32 goals is to take a class on glass blowing.  Miraculously, earlier this year a deal came up on Living Social or Groupon or one of those types of sites for just that.  I know, totally random, right?  I bought the voucher and then proceeded to forget all about it.  I always forget that they have expiration dates.

I finally realized that I had only a couple of weeks left to use it, so I called to make an appointment and was met with this message, “I’ll be in Australia for the next three weeks, please leave a message and I’ll contact you when I return.”  Although the Australian accent was totally charming and the message didn’t indicate when this three week vacation had begun, I panicked – the voucher had been kind of expensive and I had obviously missed my chance to use it.  I started constructing arguments in my mind about there being no indication of “black out” periods during the usable time frame of the voucher, etc, which trying to contact anybody else.  I heard back from the instructor’s father that his son would be back in a couple of days, and either way to not worry as they would always honor the voucher regardless of the dates.  Good customer service, in my book.  I immediately liked these guys.

I received a call back the following week, and scheduled the class.  He also extended the same discounted rate to any of my friends that might want to take the class with me.  I put the word out on facebook and several interested parties popped up, one of whom had actually seen the voucher herself but hadn’t purchased it because she hadn’t wanted to attend by herself.  The day of the class arrived, and several people dropped out due to various physical ailments, so it ended up being me and my friend LeeAnn, the one who had also seen the voucher but passed it by.

Let me just tell you, the class was SO. COOL.  We had a great time.  Initially, it was kind of scary.  That torch is HOT as a mofo, and likes to yell at you with this persistent roar.  We were both a little intimidated, so after the instructor had shown us how to do various things and it was our turn behind the torch, LeeAnn made me go first.  I was shocked at the amount of dexterity required.  He had made it look so easy.  You try constantly rotating a rod in your non-dominant hand while keeping it constantly in the narrow range of the torch and while also doing something (entirely different!) simultaneously with your other hand.  It was hard!

Our first turn was a practice at making a leaf.  They both turned out well.  Our second turn was to make the actual leaf as a pendant, and they both turned out well again.  LeeAnn thinks that hers looks like a chili pepper,  but it still looks great!  I am totally proud of both of us for doing it!  We have the opportunity to go back for the next class in the series, which he offered to us for the same discounted rate as the group on, and we both fully intend on doing it again.

Glass Blowing – CHECK!

Here is the second leaf – the pendant.  I think it is pretty!  And I made it out of a perfect cylinder of glass.  Glass is so hard to photograph well, but you get the idea.

So, it has been almost three years since I started this blog.  It has also been almost five months since my last post.  The five month and three-year mark would have occurred on the same day.

It’s like many things – the more time that goes by, the more awkward you feel about approaching the subject.  The truth is the same as it has always been: I have just been insanely busy.

School has been wonderful and extremely time-consuming.  Sometimes I feel like it has been too long since I was last in school, that all the old knowledge is gone and starting over again in the middle is doomed to fail.  I feel like I don’t belong there.  And then I will do something academically kick-ass, and it calms that pesky little naysayer in my mind.  I’m where I need to be, and those fresh young minds around me aren’t necessary going to walk all over me.  I’m holding my own (and then some, in many cases.)  Also, I admit that I originally typed neigh sayer up there – but no, I don’t have a horse in my brain.  It’s nice being at a point where I’m motivated most by learning, rather than passing the class.  (I am proof positive that you can pass a class with flying colors without learning or retaining a damn thing.  No more, though.)

My dye shop has kept me very busy.  I can’t seem to keep anything in stock.  I do a tremendous amount of local business and direct business outside of etsy.  I really wish I had more time to devote to this, as I really think I could turn it into something more.  Eventually.  Right now it is exactly where it needs to be, and I am more than happy to allow it to grow at a speed that I can manage to keep up with.

I’m behind on just about everything.  I have thousands of pictures that I’ve taken and never edited.  I still have wedding photos from 5 months ago to finish editing.  I have slowly chipped away at it, in spite of losing a hard drive, and consequently losing a lot of the edited images that I hadn’t backed up yet (thank goodness still had all originals).  I now have a new laptop, and have torn my apartment up trying to find my copy of photoshop.  It was in October that I used it last, so it is around here somewhere.  But I can’t find it.  I’ve lost almost two months of potential editing time trying to find that. It’s a mess.  I’ll get it done, though.

I HAVE kept on top of my Before XX goals.  I was actually on my blog a lot during this quiet time, updating the AFI and Wine lists, as well as others.  I never posted about it, but I updated the lists regularly.  I’m currently working on my Before 32 list, and making progress – I have a gift certificate for the CCW (Thank you, Doc Bestie!), a groupon I purchased for learning how to blow glass, I’m about 1/5 of the way through my overflowing inbox and holding steady, halfway through my volunteering hours, and on pace for my three knitting related goals.  Ken and I took an art class together in February, and it was a ton of fun.  The results are hanging up, side by side, in my office.

There’s not much else to tell.  I adopted a soldier.  I finally got a smart phone.  Ken and I are doing great.  School is great, work is busy, my friends are amazing when I get to see them. I’ve started to sew, when I can find the time.  There have been many moments of hilarity during the gap here, but it’s been way too long to recall or write about them now.  I have a busy schedule, but I’m loving it.  Truly.  If I could afford a maid to put my home back in order, I might very well be perfectly content.

Here is one funny story, though.  I fed my dog cat food.  An entire bag of the most poorly labeled cat food ever made.  It was so poorly labeled, even the worker at the pet store couldn’t tell it was cat food and put it in the dog aisle!  The entire bag of food said nothing whatsoever about cats, except in the tiny little bottom corner, almost on the bottom side of the bag, where it said in tiny tiny letters, “cat food.”  Poor thing.  She has not taken up meowing, though, so that’s good.

And that’s about it.  Hopefully this will be the impetus to begin posting here more often.

Gratuitous photo of my adorable little dog, who is still, in fact, adorable.   (Gotta love phoneography) (What happened to the photo?  I shall try again!)

One of my Before 31 goals has been to meet with an advisor to find out where I stand with school, and to then take the necessary steps to continue.

I’ve always been proud of the work I’ve done to support my family.  When I left my other job in the gaming industry to step in and take over here, I knew the extent to which I was helping them.  It is unlikely they would have found another person that could run and manage the business, handle all of the accounting, perform the mechanical engineering, speak Spanish, and handle the sometimes rigorous physical tasks that pop up on occasion; I’m suited for this job in a way that nobody else would be.  My versatility has become even more important as the economy has tanked – I’m the only person that can step in and perform every single function required to make this business run.

While it has sometimes been a heavy burden, being so responsible for my family’s well-being has been gratifying in its own way.  It has also meant that my educational goals have suffered.  Being one person performing the jobs that normally at least 2-3 people would perform has left me extremely busy.  There were years when I worked 7 days a week and barely had time to grab 5 or 6 hours of sleep at night, let alone attend class.

In years that weren’t so busy, I was still on call basically all of the time.  Having to drop everything and be somewhere for an emergency meeting at the drop of a hat was a very regular occurrence, it didn’t matter that I was supposed to be in class for a test.  Being informed at the last minute that I needed to pull an all-nighter to finish something by 8am the next morning happened frequently as well, regardless if I had classes that evening or not.  The unpredictable nature of my schedule made attending class very difficult.  I was able to circumvent some of that with online classes, but only so many classes are offered online.

That was always the right choice for the business and for my family, but clearly not the smartest choice for me.  I started college with nearly a years worth of credits under my belt from all of my AP classes in high school, so the fact that I’m 30 and haven’t managed to finish is very unsettling to me.

The current economic climate has allowed things to finally slow down, which has allowed my life to blossom again in many ways.  I feel certain that I can start kicking school’s ass.  I’m thrilled that I am officially enrolled in both Summer and Fall semesters.  I just hung up the phone with a professor who has agreed to allow me access into his class in the fall, which will be taken care of tomorrow.  Everything is on track.  I’ve never been particularly excited about school before, but that is exactly how I feel now.  I’m finally to the point where I refuse to watch life pass me by as I struggle on carrying everything by myself.  If things become busy again, someone else will just have to step up and help me.

Find out what I need to complete my degree and begin working on it.  Check!!