days 7-11:photos

rather than attempt drabbles about photos, i'm just going to put all 5 of them here.

day 07: a photo that makes you happy: a Mark Jenkins street installation


day 08: a photo that makes you sad/angry: the suicide of Evelyn McHale by Robert Wiles


day 09: a photo you took: from my 90s birthday party


day 10: a photo taken of you over 10 years ago: no such thing exists on the internet. sorry...

day 11: a photo taken of you recently: from a trip to Belle Isle a couple weeks ago, by Emily S

day 06: whatever tickles your fancy: the future

She was kind of terrified by the prospect of her future.

This stemmed, at least partially, from her lack of life goals.

In high school, her greatest ambition had been to turn an old VW Microbus into a traveling darkroom. Her photography teacher had told her about one year on a field trip to Washington DC, the photo students had set up a tiny portable darkroom on the Mall. It was a refrigerator box with red cellophane over a hole in the top. They developed small pinhole pictures.

In college, she abandoned that idea - or at least the darkroom part, she still wanted the bus. She changed focuses, from photography in high school to textiles in college. And she realized that she had even less of a guarantee for a job after graduation. She developed a somewhat pessimistic - realistic, to her - idea that she would be working at a coffee shop or other similar food venue, while attempting to sell her craft online. She even finally registered on Etsy, though she hadn't even thought about putting anything up for sale.

She worried about everything. Her teeth kept getting cavities, what was she going to do about a dentist? Where would she live? Who would her doctor be? Would she even get a doctor? Who would hire her? Would it pay enough for some tiny hole-in-the-wall apartment? Would she even be happy? What about insurance? Would she ever afford a car?

Surprisingly, she never thought about any possible relationship, as nearly everyone she knew must be. She had come to terms with her unique situation, even if she hadn't actually told anyone about it. She kept meaning to tell her best friend one of these days, but had a feeling she would be too nervous to tell him. Somehow, it was different from letting slip casually that, yeah, she had a girlfriend. But her summer fling had added a new perspective, and things made more sense. She didn't even want to think about what her parents might say.

For the moment, though, she was focusing on the next two years. After she graduated, or perhaps the semester before, she would take the time to figure out her life beyond school. Because she certainly wasn't going to stick around for four more years.

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this got away from me a bit, so i had to end it...

Half of You

day 05: your favorite quote: "I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as much as you deserve." Bilbo Baggins, Fellowship of the Ring


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i can't come up with anything to say. i may just leave this...

Keys to the Kingdom

day 04: your favorite book: "The Keys to the Kingdom" Garth Nix, 7-book series

She loved reading. In the last couple years, with her growing internet addiction, she tended to read more online than in printed form, but she loved it nonetheless.

The problem, however, lay in picking a favorite. She read so much, of nearly everything - but not romance, never romance - it was just too hard to pick one book she liked more than all the others. She didn't even feel right in resorting to her usual defaults, since she hadn't read any of them in so long, had read many, many other things since then.

At the moment, though, of the 5 most recent books she'd read (or was reading), she would have to say her favorite was "The Keys to the Kingdom" series by Australian Garth Nix. The seventh and final book had finally been published in mid-March, and she had torn through it in a matter of hours (spread over three or four days, but it was the fastest of her recent readings). The end had left her stunned, not entirely in its brilliance, but in the manner in which it was reached. She really was sad to see the series end, considering she had been reading it as it was published for five or six years.

However, her summer reading list was growing. She expected her favorite to be replaced relatively quickly. After all, she was still working her way through "Life, the Universe, and Everything", and "Storm Front", soon to start "Darkly Dreaming Dexter" as well. She hoped to make it through the rest of the Hitchhiker's books by the end of her summer classes, and to make a decent dent in the Dresden Files. Dexter would have to wait, as she had mistakenly gotten the second book, instead of the first, despite knowing what happened after watching the TV show.

Hopefully, though, the list wouldn't grow much more. 19 and two halves was a lot to read before the fall semester started, after all.

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fuck, i love books. i'm currently reading 2 right now, and i really do hope to read all of that at least this year. wiki links ahoy!

keys to the kingdom
hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
dresden files
dexter

also, since i wasn't home for this past weekend, i've got to catch up. so three more to come.