Story and a photo.

Gum, black hole and dog tags......

One day a few months ago one of my students had on a necklace. It was one of those key chain dog tags and it had been personalized with his name and football number on it. It was very shiny and new. I told him it was very cool. After that, he just HAD to give it to me. I knew his mom would probably be wondering where it was eventually, so I put it somewhere safe so that when he came to me later I would be able to give it back to him. My safe spot just happened to be a special zipper pouch that I tuck into my purse where I carry my lipstick.

Today my student came to me during class wondering where ’my’ necklace was that he gave me...I told him that it was safe, in my purse. Of course, being an inquisitive 10 year-old, he wanted to see it...to make sure that it was safe. I went to my purse and unzipped the lipstick pouch...but the necklace was missing. I knew that I hadn’t taken it out of my purse so I began searching for it. I looked in the side zipper part. No, it wasn’t there either. So I started to remove a few of the bigger things, my wallet, my address book, a bottle of lotion, my checkbook, some ink pens, my gianormous set of keys, a granola bar.....

Finally, I spotted the shiny silver dog tag at the bottom of my purse....That’s right...it was buried beneath the bottomless pit of bobby pins, paper clips, buttons, earrings, pennys, rocks, scraps of paper, gum wrappers, tiny chunks of trident that have wriggled free from the wrapper, rubber bands, reciepts ...there it was....luckily I had found his necklace...but....when I rescued it from the rubble I realized that it had been slimed with some of that yucky spearmint gum...chunks of the gum had somehow goo-ed up the chain and his once-shiny namesake was now minty fresh with rubbed on gum residue. He saw the gum immediately.

He looked up at me. ’What did you do to my necklace?’ All I could do was laugh. ’I am sorry’ ’your necklace got gummed’ was all I could giggle. I went straight to the sink and got some soap as he watched me frantically trying to clean off his precious un-shiny dog tag key chain. Other students started to gather around at this point and I tried to explain that I didn’t realize it had slipped from the safe spot into the bog of junk in the bottom of my purse. I scrubbed and scrubbed, but the gum was stuck...Lime green gum.....I vowed to take it home and use some special gum remover to clean it off. "My mom’s purse wouldn’t have had yucky gum in the bottom of it" he said...."I know, but this kind of thing happens to me, I’m so sorry" I laughed, embarrassed.....

Um, yeah...my purse is not going to be a safe spot for children’s treasures ever again!!

five hot dogs heading back in space.

You might be wondering why I would post an image of some hot dogs after a silly story about dog tags and gum at the bottom of my purse.....well....recently, I participated in a photography scavenger hunt and one of the photos I had to take involved linear perspective. This photo is 'five hot dogs heading back in space'.....they aren't exactly lined up to be in 'linear perspective' and they also aren't in outer space...I wanted to create a little play on words with this title...to encourage the viewer to ask questions and think a little longer at they photo than they might normally do if they just saw a photo of hot dogs.

This is a lomography photo--taken with black and white film, fish eye lens on a Diana Camera.

Finding a Balance.

Your startup disk is almost full.

Your startup disk is dangerously low on space.

Your startup disk is so low your computer is barely able to function.

These are the worst possible messages for a blogger, photographer and movie maker to see on a computer, but these are the sorts of messages that have been plaguing me for the last two weeks. 

 I have known that I needed to off load a bunch of pictures and movies onto an external hard drive for a couple of weeks but I had a tiny little issue with my external hard drive--it got fried! And the new one isn't formatted to the operating system on my mac. So while I was able to save the info from the fried external hard drive,  I am not able to write anything new to the one terabyte hard drive to clean off my mac hard drive.

With my hard drive almost too full to function, I haven't been able to upload any new photos or do much of anything--especially with my computer running ridiculously slow!

Last night, I was trying to edit a photo in Photoshop and my computer actually informed me that it couldn't save the changes I had made. My startup disk was too full to make one simple change to one photo. Wow.

It was time to delete some stuff. I had to decide what to get rid of to make room for the new stuff. Documents? Photos? Videos? How would I know what was too precious to get rid of? What if I deleted something really important and realized it a little too late?

So I started deleting things....I started with .zip and .mbx files...and then I went into my video folder and realized that I had lots of video footage that needed to go---several gigs worth!

(I am really stressing about not being able to back up the photos and videos I want to keep on my computer so I am hoping to figure out a solution for my external hard drive problem soon)

As I was working to clean off my computer, I started thinking about how I have been too busy to sit down and write anything lately...or edit pictures....or even take pictures. I have started making room on my internal hard drive to fit new things in. I have had to give up some of my old 'things' to make room for new 'things.'

Since the year started, I have been really trying to find a balance between my bad habits and living a healthier life. I didn't really set an official 'resolution', but just 'be healthier' this year....so I have been exercising and eating healthier in order to lose a bit of weight and just feel better about myself.

Successfully, I have stuck with my 'diet'--10 pounds later -- I actually have to keep eating healthy in order to keep it off...

The hardest part of being healthier is finding time to exercise. I realized that I needed to burn about 500 calories a day to lose anything....and that is seven days a week...exercising for at least an hour...

Now, I have found some really fun activities including a spin class, zumba classes and hiking a local trail...but I must admit....I hate getting all sweaty...it ruins my hair...and it is such a pain to change clothes 4-5 times a day if I have to do something after going to the gym.

Working out for a minimum of an hour every day has sliced into my creative time. By the time I get home from the gym and cook a healthy dinner, and prepare a healthy lunch for the next day....there is barely time to relax--forget about doing something creative!

Its a little bit overwhelming. With all this working out, I feel ten times busier than normal.

I am looking ahead to things coming up--evening events at school, family visiting, and even my birthday weekend-- I just don't know how I will function if I can't squeeze a workout in every day...and SOME creative time to blog, take pictures or make something cute. 

I feel like I have committed to this working out thing....and if I don't do it every day then I will lose what I have built up, I will lose motivation, and I will get out of the habit and quit forever.

My startup disk is dangerously full.

My startup disk is barely able to function.

Find a balance. Get rid of some stuff. That is my only option. How do I decide what stays and what goes?

So, for now....I have traded in my craft (and computer time) for the gym...I just hope it pays off....and I find time to make some cute stuff soon. I am going to a crop this weekend....but I will have to skip Friday night in order to make time for my sister who is in town from Hawaii, and go late on Saturday in order to go the gym before, and leave early for a birthday party that night....

Finding a balance. Family. Friends. Work. Exercise. Art. Relaxing. Sleeping. Chores. How should I arrange things? What order should I put everything in?

(Oh, and did I mention, I am teaching an extra class on Wednesday nights 4--7:30 at the local art center....so I work 12 hours on Wednesdays!)

 How do you find a balance?
How do you do everything?
How do you make it all work? What do you give up in order to keep your 'hard drive' from crashing?

 A complete double rainbow last summer....taken with my hipstamatic.