Friday, January 25, 2013

Senses

The other day, I had put a bean soup into the slow cooker in the morning. It had heated nicely and was smelling the house up by the time we got home from work. When we walked in the door, Lydia said, "Ohh. The cat litter is smelling." I smelled for a second then turned to her and said, "Actually, that's the beans." Says something about my cooking, doesn't it? Lol.

I am still in the midst of editing wedding pictures. Even though I had hoped to complete the remainder of them on Wednesday evening, there are still around 100 left. One more evening! Here are a couple that I enjoyed.





Other than that, preparing music festival entry forms has been taking up my time. And oh yes! My phone crashed yesterday morning. Since I use it mostly for teaching and keep very little personal stuff on it, the damage isn't too bad. But it is annoying that I lost all of my contacts. At least we got it working again. I rather need it...

Saturday, January 19, 2013

All About Merry Christmas, Weddings, Sickness, Creativity Absences and Some Pictures...

For me, sick sucks all the creativity out of my brain. That's why it's been one month and a day since my last post. No excuses. Just fact. 

Note: that virus... bug... whatever it was... was nasty. Keep in mind that I only had it once, along with a kidney infection. Lydia had it three times. I don't envy her. Imagine having a high fever, nasty cough, draining sinuses, headache, chestache, backache, body ache and a runny nose. Imagine getting over it and then getting it again... twice. I'm quite thankful that I only had it that one time. 

So, here's to good health, keen minds and a passion for words. 

The holidays were tremendous. First, there was the Carol Festival. I played four solos on the piano and sang with the Cornerstone Theatre group at the local United Church. It was festive. And nerve wracking. It is so different singing/playing in a troupe as opposed to performing by oneself. The nerves... oh the nerves! Each year, it seems that I leave the place going, "I'm not doing this next year. I'm not doing this next year." But this is the third time and this year, I didn't even bother. I like it, in a weird, twisted sort of way. The nerves... the performance... it keeps me fresh. 

Then, I got sick. I went to the doctor. She said, "kidney infection", which is why, among the other symptoms, my back was bothering me. She wrote me a note, informing the world that I was not supposed to go back to work for a week and prescribed antibiotics. So, I stayed home, taught piano, gave away early Christmas gifts and dealt with my negative emotion. I hate being sick. Two days later, my dearest woke up with a fever and just barely made 2 1/2 hours at his place of work. We spent the next three/four days in bed, trying to drink liquids and break our fevers. There was one bonus: being sick together is always much preferred to being sick alone. So, while I wish that Jesse hadn't caught what I had, it was nice to spend time together. 

The kids arrived Christmas Eve. It was so, so good seeing them all. Six Holters in the same house. It's been awhile. Christmas morning brought presents... and presents... and more presents. We ate, drank and were merry. I am looking forward to doing it again next year. Minus the sick!


On the 30th, I photographed a wedding with my friend Simone. It was quite an experience. A very good experience. I know I will break this promise but I must say that I will never criticize another photographer. Haha. Most of that day, I was overwhelmed. There were so many pictures to be taken... so many precious moments to be captured. I love how some of the pictures turned out... others make me almost cry in frustration. But experience is always the best part of the job. Besides work at Pharmasave, teaching and all the other things that make up my life, I have been editing over a 1000 pictures from the wedding. There is such joy in it. Yes, it is time consuming and frustrating... and my eyes hurt sometimes. But it's worth it. I am in my element, as they say. And I am thoroughly impressed with Simone's ability as a photographer. She is so creative. Her pictures are beautiful. 

Here are a couple of my own favorites from that day. I love the joy expressed in these. This was a special day, filled with special people. 





And besides that, not much else. I feel my creative juices creeping slowly back into my brain. Tonight I made potato pancakes covered with lemon pepper and garlic salt, fried eggs and bacon. The potato pancakes were the artistic part of the meal, though due to eating mostly high protein, I could but only partake of them in scant portions... 

At any rate. I do apologize for the length of time between posts. It will probably happen again eventually but let's hope that for my brain it's not too soon. Here's to passion and deep, abiding love. 

Happy Christmas, New Years and all the lovely days that find us.