It's Me Again

This guy may be chilling, but I'm not. I've returned from another wasted doctor's visit. It is hard to imagine that it has been nearly a year since I fist noticed the pain and began having dry heaves; I still have no diagnosis. Today he suggested I might want to consider ovarian cancer as he had researched everything and thinks that surgery might be the way to go. I've heard the surgery idea before. I was frustrated when I arrived as they said I owed them $475 and either I could pay it, or reschedule. Great--my entire deductible is already met as you can well imagine; my insurance company is behind the times. Naturally, I was in tears in the waiting room but got control of myself by the time I saw Dr. Menken. I am in tears again but I'll get control of myself. I feel like giving up, and just letting whatever is wrong with me take it's course. Bruce and I are off for our adventure--I'll just try and forget this whole afternoon. So long friends.

Good Morning

Hope everyone had a good holiday--ours was very simple, but nice. First off, I'll tell you that it was a good day at the market; I sold seven pieces! You just never know what to expect that is for sure. As seems to often be the case, a woman had her money out to purchase, but unfortunately, the two pieces she had set her sights on were sold! The weather was very nice--not too hot. Although a slight rain came up, it was no bother. Baxter again held down the home front--it is much simpler without him!

I took both cameras to Leu Gardens yesterday and Bruce accompanied me. I take a picture with both the film SLR camera, and the digital--I'm trying to detect a difference in how the finished product looks. Of course, with the digital, I take several shots at different angles to ensure a good one, but as you can imagine, the film camera is a different story. Bruce continues to try and talk me into a fancier camera--we'll see. We cruised around a bit afterwards, stopping by a museum we had not been to. Because it was a Monday, it was not open, but the grounds were lovely, with very funky sculptures lakeside. Orlando has so many great places to visit--certainly not like huge cities, but, nonetheless, there is much the tourists never see. We had a nice lunch at Gargi's--their patio along the shores of Lake Ivanhoe is quite charming.

Matt called yesterday and things are going swimmingly in London.He had the day off for a bank holiday. His stuff is finally supposed to arrive from Chicago today after more than three months-- apparently there were problems with the ship. Now if you know Matt, or Bruce, you know that they like to have things settled ASAP after moving into a new place; art is hung before nightfall. You can well imagine how frustrating the wait has been for him--I'm sure before the week is over his place will be decorated beautifully.

I have an appointment with the neurologist this afternoon after which I think we are going to get in the car and take a little two day trip. Bruce--miracle of miracles--does not have to travel for work this week, so I've asked him to travel with me. At the moment, our destination is unclear-- probably one of the coasts. The love bugs I've mentioned in the past are fierce right now, so maybe not too far from home. I only learned yesterday that the University of Florida brought these pesky insects into Florida to eat mosquito larvae. I believe they have done a good job of that as the mosquito population is much diminished since we were children, however, as is always the case, you have to take the good with the bad.

Market Day

• Let's celebrate today, shall we?
• My bangs are cut! On Friday when I went to Winter Park to meet with my class to take picutres I arrived a few minutes early. Eureka--I stopped in and Peter was waiting for his next client. If there is one thing that drives me crazy it is overly long bangs; mine qualified!
  
• The kitchen freezer is clean! I don't tend to buy too many frozen foods, however, I do tend to stockpile leftovers that languish indefinitely. I think it has been at least a year since it's last makeover.
• Finally, a day off for Bruce yesterday! He spent much of it laughing over videos on You-Tube. It was good to hear a belly laugh in the house.
• I am feeling stronger as each day goes by. I can now fix a decent meal and clean up after it!
• As well I can almost walk normally when I get up in the morning. I still shuffle a bit until I get my bearings but I don't have to hold on to things!
• Today I'm bringing some different pictures -hopefully something will happen.
• Bill and Dave are doing awesome at work, for which I'm grateful.
• I made Explore however briefly this week. Flickr is like life--you only get so many minutes of fame.
• I apologize for this post in advance. I have no idea what is going on with the format or how to change so I'll close before it gets any worse.

Feather

Early yesterday morning I was thinking about what I might like to photograph--the answer came when I went out to get the paper and saw this white feather in the yard. Our yard is pretty big, and there sat this solo delicate feather in a sea of green grass. I tried it several times with different lighting, however, it never really worked until the sun was shining on it revealing it's intricacies .

Baxter and I went to Cypress Grove Park about a mile from the house for me to practice with the new camera. It is really amazing when you go out specifically to take photos what you notice. We did witness a tiny wedding ceremony going on lakeside. Hard to imagine someone getting married on a Thursday morning at 10AM, but I guess they wanted it low-key.

Later on in the afternoon I decided to run down to Thornton Park to shoot some of the restaurants because not only have people have asked for them, butI thought the light would work well. Bruce finally arrived home from Boston so he came with me. I took Elmer along to finish up the roll. Outside Wildsides a lesbian woman stood in the intersection stopping traffic for me to get the shot!! It was really sweet. We roamed around, and as we returned to that area, I heard her asking the server if she was married--when the young girl replied no, the woman asked her if she wanted to marry her! That is one of the best things about going out and about--interactions with people of all kinds--I love it! At the park earlier these children were loving Baxter and wanting to walk him. He planted himself until I walked along with them.

We ended up at Dexters, an old haunt for us until I refused to go because they were not putting enough effort into their food preparation. It is super noisy inside but the outside patio is great for people watching and hanging out. It turned out we saw an old friend from work, Kristen, and her new husband, John. Baxter, and their dog Sandy, got along just fine. It was great to see them--when I was working people always wondered if we were sisters. LOL, I am nearly 20 years older than she is!

Today was my all day class, so that is why I am a bit behind on posting--another day--another story!

Did I Get Taken?

After dropping off the latest roll of film I hopped in the MINI and started to pull out--a woman was coming toward me and I thought she was going to ask about the baby car. No, that was not what she wanted--she wanted money. Interestingly enough, while I gave her a $5, out of the corner of my eye I saw a woman looking at me like--you sucker! Maybe so--it takes all kinds to make the world go round. Before getting in the car I had noticed the watching woman wiping down a cart before loading her children. I marveled how I ever managed to raise four healthy children with almost no concern for germs of any kind. It seems today that people assume that our skin is like a sponge.

You see displayed the ten pictures I plan to turn in on Friday. I am still getting duds, however, I really like the picture of Baxter. In the back you see the pile I culled these from! I'm thinking of turning in some not so good ones in order to get help on what I did wrong.

I now have a resume thanks to Carmello at the Winter Park campus. It must have been fortuitous that he was in the career center as he normally works upstairs. He was the age of my twins--not only was he nice, but he typed the whole thing too! I like to take young people's advice because if they are intelligent (he was), they are up to date on everything. I had to write down my weaknesses--naturally I wrote down that I talk too much! I believe we will put in for an internship at a sculpture museum in Winter Park--no pay, just experience outside the healthcare field.

I'm a bit tired today--nothing serious, I imagine I've been trying to get out and about more than I'm capable of just yet.

Bruce had some unexpected complications (oxymoron there) on his Boston job which is delaying his return to Orlando. It's been a tough three days for him, however, he always manages to put things right--that's why Jeff affectionately calls him "PM of the Year."

Unplanned

When you don't work, or if you're like me, a student off for most of the summer, days often start off as unplanned--things just unfold. Today was one of those days. I decided to go through my Picassa and get a bit more organized. I had 500 flower pictures in one folder, some good--some not so good. I went through the whole thing and sorted them by color, although I do have a separate one just for roses. The vast majority of my early flowers were taken in people's yards--I would just scout for color, stop the MINI, and shoot. I did this regardless of the lighting which I knew very little about. I still don't know much, but I am certainly more cognizant of the sun and how it can distort the color of a flower. I managed to ditch about half of them.

As well, when I woke up I had not scheduled a tree trimming, but as you can see, that is what happened. A week or so ago, a long limb fell down from one of our 60 feet pine trees landing squarely in what I affectionately call the jungle. I was hoping our yard guy would have taken it on Friday, however, no dice. My neighbor across the street was having some trees cleaned up and I went over and asked if they could take the branch for me. After agreeing, he suggested that he should cut off the part that didn't break, which seemed like a good idea to me. I then realized what a good time it was to have some work done on our live oak. We lost a huge amount of the tree during Hurricane Charley; Bruce was concerned that it was off balance. The tree trimmer agreed, and they cut off a huge limb that hung over the house. As well, he cleaned out the wound that remained from the missing limb--I use that term loosely--it filled half of our backyard when it fell, it was so huge. I don't know about you, but when I think limb I usually don't think huge.

My professor has reiterated the importance of practicing photography--with me, he is preaching to the choir. I took tons of pictures today--at present, I am hooked on the sunset. Uncharacteristically, tonight we had some clouds, and I knew they would present a whole different look to the sky. Our little Baxter was a sweetie as we waited lakeside for the sun to drop. I wasn't able to capture it, but my neighbor Mr. Sims had told me about an owl that resides in one of his trees. Alas, it flew right over my head; bummer, I wasn't quick enough--something else for me to obsess over!

I'm still feeling much improved especially if I keep moving. It seems as if when I sit for too long my body slows down and it's a challenge to rev it up again. I still can't seem to be rid of the retching, especially when I'm talking to someone--great, huh? Jonathan called when I was coming home from a few errands and of course, it came on. He says--"do you need to pull over?"
Oh no honey, I'm used to it by now--it's been nearly a year!

I got a call from the internship department at Valencia around 7 tonight asking if I was still interested. I told her I still had no resume, thus, I haven't gotten back with them. I'm going to go to campus tomorrow and get some help in the career center. If I do an internship it will give me a chance to see what some other workplace is like. I'll keep you posted.

The Day After

• The weather was immensely better than last Sunday at the market which was a very welcome development, however, the crowds were still pretty slim. Of all things, I sold the baseball again--third time. It is so funny because I took that one Saturday morning in the twins old bedroom looking for things to photograph around the house. It is very interesting to see what people are attracted to and it seems as if when you have it figured out, they want something different. Except for the baseball, of course. When we were packing up one of the original vendors talked to us about how you have to hang in there and the customers will come.
  
• My new camera is still proving challenging. I couldn't fit the zoom lens on correctly, so a man that came to the booth did it for me. There is a lot to photograph at the market--a good thing when you can take quality photos. Fortunately, I had my digital with me.
• Saturday Bruce got new glasses at Costco. In two days time he had his teeth cleaned, a new driver's license and new glasses. His work takes up so much time he has to do everything in spurts when he can. Although we have vision insurance, if you've ever ordered glasses at Pearle Vision you'll understand this--you never really know how much they cost. They seem to have a very convoluted way of pricing. Not so at Costco--only $169 for progressive lenses!
• As most of you know I got the yellow MINI after my mom died. I called it my "happy face" car, and it brought me much joy. I used to love going out to the parking lot and seeing that sweet little yellow. In an odd turn of events, I let Jonathan have it, and I got the new MINI. I do like my new MINI, but it is not the same as my first love!
• We went to dinner at Fifis on Saturday night with Jonathan and Alissa. You'll remember I wrote about that place a few weeks ago. I'll tell you -- pink lighting is very seductive. They went to their concert last night, and then left for Tallahassee this morning around 5:30AM, arriving around 10. Jonathan was tentative about asking for Monday off so he went straight to work!
• My sister Maureen had been recommending for months that I go to Leu Gardens to take photographs. Once I heard that it was free Monday mornings between 9-11, I try to go every Monday because there are wonderful photo-ops. Today I took the new camera because I have to turn in ten photos on Friday with all the configurations. I used the cool zoom, but the results were not great. I've now spent $$ on all this film processing, and I've yet to get anything that I'm remotely proud of. Again, the baby camera was with me to redeem the visit.