Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Long day. Crashing soon. Spent a while shooting photos for my brother. Met up with the Sheepie and talked for a while. The lens mysteriously fell off my camera while in the checkout line at Wal-Mart (damaged my screwmount 50/1.4, dammit -- how does a lens unscrew itself?). Caught Steely Dan on public television -- talked to a dear friend in Texas on the phone during part of that (unplugged the modem so she could call my landline). Said a prayer of thanks afterwards for the fact that she's in my life. Froze my fingers packing the camera gear back into the camera bags while waiting for Sheepie at a Toyauto dealership -- salesman tried to interest me in replacing my car ("I'd like to take you out of that car and put you into a new one!" "And I'd love to be able to afford to let you do so!") He gave me his card "just in case", so I gave him my card just in case they ever need photography for an ad campaign. (Doh! Should've suggested a live band for a carnival-style sales event or something!)

Baltimore was cold. Not the coldest afternoon lately, nor as cold as overnight, but cold enough. Needed the gloves; the hat was a good idea; the scarf was nice; and when we were downtown and it got late enough for the buildings to make big shadows, it got pretty darned close to being cold enough for me to button up my coat.

My cape is at a friend's house -- she's re-lining it for me with the fabric Mom gave me for Christmas -- and she let me borrow a groovy coat in the meantime. Thing is, I've been wearing the coat for a couple of weeks now, and until the moment nearly half a day ago when I realized it was nearly cold enough for me to want to button it, the thought of buttoning it had never crossed my mind while I was wearing it. Makes me wonder: izzat because I've been wearing a cape for so many years (which I wrap when it gets cold enough, but it doesn't have buttons or a zipper to do up), or simply that my torso never got cold enough until today? I think it might be the first of those -- as soon as I noticed that I hadn't done up any buttons since borrowing the coat, I also noticed how usual it felt to have my back and my arms covered by an overgarment that hung open in the front. I was wearing the coat as if it were a cape-with-sleeves, almost (except that I've been carrying my purse and camera outside the coat, where they go inside my cape).

Anywho, it's a nifty coat.

elijames wrote, in the middle of a more weighty post about identity and transformation:

"My body is me. Many people would beg to differ that your body is just a shell. But whats an egg with out a shell? not really an egg, just goo."

It jumped out as me as a comment I want to think about a bit and bounce off of other people, apart from the rest of what Eli wrote (which I'll be re-reading a few times).

First win: seeing friends face-to-face.

This afternoon I got a phone call from a group of friends (saying "friends I don't see often enough" would be redundant, I'm afraid), asking if I wanted to join them up in Charles Village. I wasn't moving quickly enough to join them at lunch, but I was able to meet up with them at the Baltimore Book Thing.

While my friends were loading books into the van they'd arrived in, I grabbed the 8x10 print of the photo I got arrested for in November[2] (well, the detective said I was "merely detained" because I wasn't handcuffed; a lawyer said that I was technically arrested because I wasn't free to leave) out of my car to show them, and then we sat in the van talking about that little adventure, security stuff, cameras, and photography techniques, until somebody suggested that if we were going to continue talking, a coffeeshop would be warmer.

OhmyGod%bounce%bounce%Ihaveanexhibitionscheduled! My prints will hang downstairs in Xando at the corner of Charles & 31st in September! My first exhibition!

So now I need to figure out which photos to make larger prints of, drive myself crazy deciding which photos are good enough to hang and changing my mind two dozen times, get my photos framed, and figure out how I should price them.

The art director said that the photographer who has nine prints displayed now is selling well. It would be so amazingly cool to make some money from my art-photos (as opposed to wedding photos, portraits, and petraits), and maybe even be able to afford to get some of the 100+ rolls in the freezer developed ... I hope mine sell there. (Even if they don't, getting them exhibited in public is a big step for me.)

Hugs! Talking to friends! Free books! Getting past that first audition and being scheduled for my first photo exhibition! Very Good Day! Now to get some work done so I have a prayer of paying bills in February...

[1] "*pock*", for readers who are not on Elbows or Suspects, is the sound of the pinball game of the universe giving you a free ball. A general sound of unexpected winnitude.

[2] Amusingly, The Homespun Ceilidh Band is scheduled to perform at the top of the building I was detained for allegedly pointing a camera at, on St. Patrick's Day.