Camera Overload

You will remember that Matt was in Moscow when Yeltsin died, and quite possibly you will remember I made a big deal about his being there during an historic moment.Future students will study his life and the role he played in the history of the world. Because he knows I like that sort of thing, he brought The Moscow Times documenting the event. As well, he brought the box pictured to the left of the papers. It contains dried apricots and nuts with a chocolate coating. His Russian hosts gave it to him as part of a gift basket; being the vegan that he is, he re-gifted it. The box is quite lovely in person.

I named this blog before I used a manual camera. I may have to amend the name to state Panasonic Lumix crazy. I needed a manual SLR camera for the class I'm taking and a classmate said she had a film one I could use. I e-mailed her Sunday night with the expected no response. She had my phone number, however, I neglected to get hers--that'll teach me. At any rate, I was on a mission to find one. I did not want to invest in a DSLR at this point, so this was my compromise. I wasn't crazy about the guy at the used store thus I looked in the newspaper when I got home. Nada. Next I thought, I'll be a modern woman and check craigslist. I found two that interested me that weren't too far from my home. I was hoping for an immediate response from my e-mails. Nada. Next I thought--Ebay! I had forgotten all my info for that, so retrieved password etc from them and for PayPal. I bid on a camera and was winning until the last 30 seconds. Swept out from under me. That was just fine as in the meantime I heard from Elmer. He had the Canon with more lenses and filters than I can list for $100. I went out there this morning and scooped it up. At this point the amount of equipment is rather daunting, but, if I can learn algebra and biology, I can probably learn how to use these tools.

I stopped, bought a roll of film, and put it in--you have to put it on a spool, then turn the crank. I took a bunch of pictures lakeside, however, I'm pretty sure I wasn't focusing right. They are being developed as I type. I had to call him and find out how to get the film back out of the camera. Additionally, I didn't notice the counter and I kept taking pictures and thought wow, I thought I would have reached 24 by now. Indeed I had; when I discovered it, the counter said 36!

Wouldn't you know it, when I arrived home, Whitney (classmate) called to loan me hers.

My friend Paige in Ottawa has two small boys, 2 and 5.This morning through e-mail she was talking about the chaos around her house. I assured her she would live through it. I told her little boys--little problems, big boys--big problems. Not one hour later, Jonathan called with a crisis. It seems the tires on the yellow MINI must be replaced and the price quote for run-flat tires was $1200!!! Bummer under any circumstance, double bummer as it is a lease car and the lease runs out in 7 months. What to do, what to do?

I think I'll go pick up the pictures now and I'll see if I did anything right.