What I did on my Summer Vacation

photo credit: jaeWALK

Okay.

So blogging 101 tells you that you should never apologize for lapses in blogging or rehash the experience to your readers. Just ignore it and move on, they say.

Ahem.
That’s total bullshit.

I’m sorry.
Part of our unspoken agreement across the Interwebs is in return for you frequenting my site and (on some weird level) stroking my ego when I see my page hits rise, I should update my stupid blog on a regular basis.
Sorry for neglecting Pooler Peach and sorry for depriving my readers of the ability to compare their neurosis to the chaos and insanity that makes up my own.

Huh?
Sit with that for a minute.
You’ll feel and appreciate my apology much more deeply in the morning, I am sure.

So what the heck have I been doing for the past few months?

Well, after a trip to Texas to see the Parents and In-Laws, I got a J…O…B.
Gasps heard in the upper balcony, a mother in Oregon is covering her child’s eyes, and a man in St. Louis just spit out his coffee mid-sip.
Yep.
I got a job.
A real job.
A Monday through Friday, 8 to 5 kind of job.
Freaky, huh?

I joined the masses and do the zombie shuffle to and from the parking lot in and out of the building each day. I spend numerous hours cocooned in the gray carpet tomb of the cubicle and my evenings getting my clothes and lunch together to repeat the process all over again the very next day. Mmmm, brainzzzzz……

Does this job allow my creative spirit to flourish? I am stimulating my muse? Do my dreams mingle with my reality while working?
No. Not even close. Actually the closest it gets is when, last Thursday, I got to choose the letterhead template for my outgoing emails. I let my crazy flag fly and chose a cloud motif as opposed to the corporate-safe envelope icon or, the ultimate in business zombiedom, no letterhead at all.

But something I have realized is that working a real job, an 8 to 5 kind of job, well, it pays. Pays my bills. Seems my muse always forgot her wallet whenever the bills came due. I’m beginning to think my muse is a bit of a mooch.

On the hottest day of the year (or of the century, probably), my neighbors and I decided to rip up our entire front yards (the yards I blogged about in May earlier this year) and replant everything.

Okay, I’m exaggerating a tiny bit, but it was a lot of work and I sweat like…like….like…urgh. Trust me I was sweating. A bunch. Like crazy sweating. Like sweat lodge kind of sweating. Like I’m a welder who is a dancer by night kind of sweating.  No lie.
I can’t complain, however, because the following weekend the neighbors worked off their replanting rear-ends laying out new pine straw and finishing up the yards (yeah, communal yards. With an “s”. Makes us sound like some kind of hippies, huh?) . And, boy hidy, were they sweating. A lot, a lot. Like Mathew Modine in Vision Quest kind of sweating.

I’ll stop with the 80′s movies references (for now), but sweating always brings them to mind. I wonder what that means? Any psych majors out there?

Which makes me think about The Breakfast Club which brings to mind – - – -
I’m also in the throes of creating a book club.
Apparently my reading taste is questionable considering the various area book clubs’ picks could not be more different than what I care to read. Tammie (a work buddy) suggested I start my own. I liked the idea of that and spent the weekend sorting out my ideas and getting together a book club blog. I will announce it later as I have yet to finalize a meeting place. Pooler is most certainly lacking when it comes to places to meet in the evening. One coffee shop in town and it closes before most people are home from work, what’s up with that? And no bookstore at all, really, really what’s up with that? There is a small library branch which is only open late one day a week, so I’ll need to check with them to see if that time is available for our group.

Jason stayed over a month longer in Texas than I did, but finally returned last Sunday. I had meant to see a high school friend of mine when I went to Jacksonville to pick Jason up from the airport, but it didn’t work out. She and I are supposed to make plans to see each other sometime soon when each of us has more time. She is in Pensacola and with me in Savannah, the logistics of our plan to meet may require more than a quick blurb on Facebook and a chat on the phone. But I really wished I could have made it work, it’s been ages since I’ve seen her. She is, in a word, Hi-Larious.

Oh! And I’ve been taking an online writing course which has given me much more homework than I ever anticipated. I’m thinking I will have to put it on hold until I get a better grasp on my new job and schedule. Although I am totally digging the class, I neither have the time nor the mental energy to dedicate much of my creative juices to it at the moment.

I don’t know how I found the time this weekend, but I did tune into Creative Live‘s Photo Masters class. I absolutely love those people over at Creative Live (especially physically and artistically dreamy, mm-mm goodness Chase Jarvis). If you haven’t heard of them, you most certainly should check them out. I learned a crapload of stuff from John Greengo, Zack Arias, David DuChemin, and now, Jasmine Star. A definite go-to for all inspiring photogs.

And finally, Miss B is starting up her newest challenge. The ABC, 30 day challenge. Photograph a letter or a representation of that letter, one each day – working through the entire alphabet. Gonna be fun!

Peace out alligators…until next time….

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I’m sure I’ve forgotten many other things, but you get the general idea of what’s been going on with me.
What’s new with you? What have y’all been up to? Leave me a comment and let me know what’s what.

I’ve noticed throughout this post as well as many other posts on this blog, whenever I make reference to a movie title, I underline it. I decided to Google the appropriate way to mark up movie titles. Folks, turns out I’m a traditionalist. Old school. A relic of a long gone and ancient day. Underlining movie titles has gone the way of the clothesline and rotary phone. Especially online, since underlined titles can easily be misinterpreted as a link. Meh. I like it. So I’ll keep using it. If you try and click on it and it doesn’t take you anywhere, it’s not a link. Problem solved.