So I haven’t found a “real” job yet (and to be honest I
haven’t looked especially hard just yet). Seems that telling myself it was time
to stop messing around has helped me gain some motivation with my photography.
Figures, right?
I am gearing up for shooting a big event this Wednesday that
I mentioned on my new site (Photography Bloom). I ordered new business cards so
I’d have enough to hand out and I purchased a new external flash. I’ve not done
that much with flash photography, but this venue requires it, so I’ve been
reading and watching tutorials like a fiend, picking friends’ brains and
practicing. Yesterday I took my mom with me over to the place (the Penn Museum)
to do some test shots—so glad I did because I felt much more confidant
afterwards. I can do this. Now if I only knew what to wear! I know this is a
great opportunity to network as well, so I’m gearing myself up to be not only
charming, but also downright irresistible. J
I was able to bring my mom along with me as a trade-off for
accompanying her to an event she wanted to attend. I was interested as well,
but could easily have blown it off. It was a lecture at a closing reception of
the “Heroines and Harlots” exhibition at the Da Vinci Art Alliance in the city.
The lecture was “Re-Imagining Mary Magdalene” by Prof. Anne McGuire (Assoc.
Prof. of Religion, Haverford College; and Pennsylvania Humanities Council
Commonwealth Speaker) and was very well done if a bit on the long side (my ass
+ hard plastic chair = inability to sit that long). The highlight of the trip
into the city was that we were able to meet the president of the board and ask
about membership in the gallery, and were met with such enthusiasm we are now
both seriously interested in joining. The lecture did as my mother had hoped it
would for me—it got me thinking about creative self-portraits that reconsider
Mary Magdalene.
It felt great to pursue a business opportunity while still
nourishing the artist in me. I’ve been tired of feeling like crap both
physically and mentally. My tendency is always to wallow in it, too, which of
course only feeds itself. Two weeks ago I said enough and I began to exercise
each morning again (Pilates). I just do it the minute I come downstairs before
giving myself a chance to talk myself out of it. I started going back to
recovery meetings, which had truly fallen so far off the radar it’s frightening
(though having best friends who are in recovery helps keep me
somewhat-grounded). This is now the third week of exercising each weekday
morning and getting to 3 meetings, and it is helping so very much.
I just don’t want to go into the darker months of fall and
then winter feeling anywhere near what I have been feeling like lately, because
I just won’t survive it.
I am choosing to nourish myself today.
