ManitouWolf

I am so humbled by the sudden outpouring of attention and comments my photography seems to be currently gathering.

I know, in great part, this is due to a feature of tanikel tanikel.deviantart.com/ doing of my photo Surprise in his journal entry "Undiscovered Photography".  And I am deeply, deeply humbled that he thought my simple photography worthy of that.  Seriously, if you have the time, do look through the other photography he's featured in that journal entry.  They are stunning.

To say that my artistic/creative side has taken a beating in the past 6 months is an understatement.  I don't know why, but my photography drive/passion really just shut down on me.  Honestly, I shut down there for a while.  Between two jobs and a whole lot of internal chaos, I just didn't have the energy, nor the desire to even visit my favorite zoos or to touch my camera. 

I've been pursuing a new, less strenuous hobby -- sharing postcards.  *chuckles*  I know.  Sounds kind of dorky, but I'm doing it through PostCrossing.com and I can't express how nice it is to simply get a postcard from some stranger somewhere in this huge, VAST world of ours...just dropping a line to tell me a bit about themselves and their area of the world.  Very nice.

But all of this simply reminds me of what I DO enjoy doing. 
I love my photography.  And, like any skill, if I want it to get better, I need to PRACTICE it more.

So thank you.
To all my stalwart Watchers who have been with me for ages now, thank you for not giving up on me.  For cheering me on, to continue. 
And to my new Watchers, thank you for the encouragement you are bringing to me now. 

I was all excited about having Saturdays off.  I dreamt of spending those days at either the Fort Worth Zoo or the Dallas Zoo. 

But the reality is, I'm working 6 days a week.  Averaging 44+ hrs each week.  And it's serious manual labor at this point. 

So yeah, when Saturday rolls around, I need to complete all the errands I can't get to during the week and the rest of the time?  I'm exhausted and just want to stay at home.

Sucks to be in debt.  Take it from me, Credit Cards are EVIL.  Stay away from them.

Maybe this is a touch of depression too, mixed in for kicks.  *sighs*

Man, I feel like the only photography I do now is either of my various altars or postcards (which I don't share here, but could....but don't really feel like it, as it isn't my artwork).

But come April, I won't be working Saturdays at Starbucks, so hopefully that means I can hit a zoo here and there again.  I'm not sure if I'll get back into the habit of going once a month again.  I have other things I plan to pursue.  My husband and I have just started getting into Prepping, so there's various prepping/survival classes I want to take.  And I'm getting into self-defense soon (hopefully).

My brother and sister-in-law just announced that they are expecting a baby boy on August 5th.
I'm going to spoil the crap out of that kid.
Plus geek him out.  *chuckles*  My brother's not a huge movie-watcher, so it's up to me to introduce the lil tyke to Star Wars, Monty Python, Princess Bride, etc, when he's of the appropriate age.    Can't wait!

I'm absolutely bushed.
I've started working part-time at Starbucks, and it is the biggest challenge, and yet, such a rewarding, job all rolled into one.  I figure once I actually get all the drink codes AND how the make them down, it will be worlds easier, but right now, I'm doing my best to relish and rise to all the challenges it is throwing my way.

Sadly, this means that my photography time (namely weekends that I would spend at the zoo) has been drastically cut into.  Like today, I worked 9:45 am to 4:30 pm.  The Fort Worth Zoo is open 10 am to 4 pm today, so there's just no way I could make it.  Plus, on the days that I only work a morning shift, by the time I get home, I'm utterly beat and have no desire to drive the 40 minutes to the zoo and then walk around.  *shrugs*  Hopefully this will change, yet I'm not holding my breath. 

Ya gotta do, what ya gotta do.  And right now this is putting money in my pocket AND allowing me to save up for my Polar Bear Trip www.nathab.com/polar-bear-tour…  So far, I've got almost a grand squirreled away for it.  Just need about $6k more and I'm good to go!  *laughs*  I'm shooting to do this on my 35th birthday (just 3 years away), or at the absolute latest on my 40th birthday.  I think it would be a GREAT and well-deserved trip for myself.