We heard from Mike’s brother and sister-in-law, and they are just fine. She was in a Tube station when the bombs went off, but fortunately her station was safe. With all the public transit systems down, she had a three-hour walk home from work!
Thank you to all of you who expressed concern for them! I’m so sad about all that has happened in London, Madrid, the US, and elsewhere. What barbarians.
I had a long, dreary day of travel today. It should not take 10 hours of air travel to get from Colorado to DC. Because of severe storms, flights were a total mess today. I’ve been in Oklahoma, Texas, and Virginia today. I’m exhausted now. I had to postpone dinner plans with Christy and Sarah tonight, much to my disappointment, but I hope to see them tomorrow.
After today’s experiences with the following:
Two hours of sleep
Dog surgery
Three photo deadlines
Skunk infestation
Three lattes
Half a pint of Ben and Jerry’s
An inexcusable amount of makeup purchased as retail therapy
Too many repeat playings of the “Spamalot” soundtrack
I now seem to be hallucinating. Every time my black cat, Roger, walks by, I freak out and think there is a skunk in the house. There is a magazine on my desk with a photo of a woman wearing a black dress with a white stripe. When I see it out of the corner of my eye, I am convinced the skunks have invaded and will soon take over.
After learning that we will have to spend $300 of our honeymoon savings to remove a skunk convention from our backyard, I decided to get the hell out of the house and treat myself to (another) latte. Then I couldn’t bear the thought of going back home, so I went to the mall to try to find an outfit for my bachelorette party this weekend.
Picture me, walking around the mall with too little sleep and too much caffiene. I waddled like a zombie, with wide-open eyes and jittery hands. I bought a top and skirt, purchased with caffiene-goggles, so after a full night of sleep they might look ghastly. Who knows. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to drink a lot of coffee on Saturday, to make sure I look ok.
Afterward I still couldn’t bring myself to return to the colonization of Pepe le Pew and his descendants, so I went to the Clarins counter to treat myself to some bridal makeup. The saleslady there said that she had never had a customer who bought a ton of stuff to avoid spending time with skunks. Yay, I’m special.
So now I wearing a thick layer of eye shadow, eating Thai takeout, singing “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” and looking over my shoulder for Pepe. I need to go to bed before I do anything else stupid.
If I weren’t so frightened of baby skunks right now, I’d find this picture very cute:
Orphaned baby skunk adopted by kitten
I got in touch with the animal mover guy, and he is going to come tomorrow and try to trap them. I have to pay $20 per baby and $40 for the mom, plus $45 for him to drive out here. Argh! But it has to be done.
I miss my old apartment!!
I am so busy. Busy busy. I can’t even think straight from all the commotion and lack of sleep. I have no reason to complain–I’m keeping so busy because my business is taking off, and because I’m getting married. It’s all great stuff, but I’m starting to feel the stress.
Yesterday I booked two weddings, which is fantastic. I did two portrait shoots in the last couple days. Business is great. Really I am thrilled with the speed at which I have made a name for myself here in Colorado Springs.
A successful home business means LOTS of work, though. Yesterday I worked from 10am to 3am. I ate lunch and dinner at my desk. When I finally got to bed, I lay there for two hours, rolling through my mental to-do lists…. Send client packages, order bridesmaid gifts, create wedding programs, return client phone calls, send music requests to the DJ, send signed contracts to clients, pay the photographer and hotel, finalize guests’ hotel reservations, reserve pet sitters, design DVD jewel case, create the guestbook, reserve honeymoon hotels and flights… the list goes on and on, and bounced around inside my head during the hours of 3am to 5am.
At 7am today, I had to get up to take Ally to the vet. With only two hours of sleep, I felt almost intoxicated. I probably wasn’t in any shape to drive, but I got her there safely. I crash drive into anything until I got home and drove into the back wall of our garage. Not too bad, considering.
I tried to go back to sleep for a quick nap, but the to-do list came back on repeat play inside my head. I got up and got to work.
Tomorrow morning I leave for a long weekend in DC. The girls are having a bachelorette party for me, which should be excellent. I’m not feeling very festive right now, though, and I can’t help but think that I need those four days to get stuff done. I hope some time at home with family and friends will help to wash away some of the stress.
Stay tuned for bachelorette party updates. Should be interesting.
We saw “The War of the Worlds” last night. It scared the crap out of me. I was curled up in the fetal position most of the movie, doing yoga breathing and looking for inner peace. If you like scary movies, then I recommend it. Personally I can’t tolerate them, but I do think it was an effective work of scary movie-making. I haven’t read the book, though, and apparently it is very different. Mike loves the book and was very disappointed in the movie.
My first words upon leaving the movie theater: “I need chocolate.” And I still haven’t gotten any, dammit.
I have a busy weekend! Today I have two meetings with prospective brides. Tomorrow I shoot a family reunion. I’m taking the Fourth off. Tuesday I am photographing a family at the Garden of the Gods. It should be a fun shoot, because they will be submitting the photos with their adoption application to China. Occasions like theirs remind me all the time how important photography can be. It feels good to help in even the smallest of ways.
It was gorgeous out this evening. Man oh man, I love Colorado summers. I have a ton of photo editing work to do, but I couldn’t bring myself to go inside and sit at a computer all night. I made a compromise to myself that if I were to stay out and read instead of go inside and work, then at least I need to be productive and do some wedding planning. So I got out my magazines and notebook, and wrote my final month’s to do list.
Oh my.
It’s about 10 pages long.
OK, now I’m starting to feel the stress. I didn’t think it would get to me. “Stressed bride? Who me? Naaahhh, I’m not the type,” I had convinced myself. Wrong-o.
Tomorrow I will cross off several of those items. I promise myself. Holy crikey, there is a lot to do. In the meanwhile, I have (literally) thousands of photos to edit for clients!
Haven’t posted anything significant in a while. A lot is going on in my life! Here’s a quick update:
1. We get married in five weeks and one day. We leave for England in 3 and a half weeks! Not that I’m counting. There is so much to do! I am definitely feeling the pressure. For my fellow brides on my friends list, here’s my to-do list: programs, seating arrangements, gifts for family and wedding party, rehearsal dinner invitations, placecards, music request list, photo request list, salon appointments, reception decorations, guestbook design, and honeymoon plans and reservations. Yikes.
2. We bought our wedding rings this week! They are gorgeous! Mike chose a plain platinum band, and I chose a white gold band with five diamonds. We are living above our means. 
3. I am in love with my new T-Mobile Sidekick. Now I get my email everywhere I go! I love it! I never have to hurry home to the computer to see if I’ve heard back from a client or friend. The bad news is that now I get my email everywhere I go. I can’t escape from the world! Another problem is that I check my email at stoplights! If you ever see my Corolla approaching, I highly suggest that you keep a safe distance. Look out, Colorado, I’m armed and dangerous.
4. I’m in the process of booking my first long-distance wedding shoot! A couple from St. Louis wants to fly me there in October for their wedding. They said that they couldn’t find any local photographer that suited them, so they are willing to pay an extra $1000 to fly both me and Mike out there and put us up in a hotel. I am so excited that someone likes my work enough to do that. It’s my first step to global fame! First St. Louis, then the world! It’s all part of my master plan. Muahahahahahaaaaa. Seriously, though, I look forward to more long-distance weddings in the future. I am also corresponding with a couple from Wyoming who is considering sending me there for their wedding. These inquiries are great developments for me professionally.
