On pause

You may have noticed that my feverishly-frequent updates have been on pause lately. Or, maybe you have not noticed at all, in which case I thumb my nose at you, you traitor!

Anyway, I wanted to post something brief, in case you're not connected to me on Facebook or twitter and wondered if I was still alive.

This last week we have been focusing on family. My mother in law has been extremely ill, critically so, and has been in the hospital for 10 days now. Things were not going so well for a while but now I'm pleased to report that it's all looking up again.

In the face of something so emotionally all-encompassing, I have not been in a space to do things like go on jaunts to Sacramento "hot spots" or play with my camera settings. In fact, there has been little room in our heads and hearts for much else. Hence, the lack of posts.

As a quick update for ya'll, however...

• I have signed-up for more photography classes at the same studio where I took the recent workshops. The next round, Class 3 (I skipped class one because I am ohhhh so advanced already) is on composition, I believe. This is where I consider my "skills", such that they are, to be the strongest and so I'm expecting the biggest blow to my ego here. Next two classes are at the end of August. Will blog more on that when the time comes.

• My fancy new, custom camera bag has shipped! I'm soooo excited, I can barely contain myself. I've been looking for something fun, stylish, and functional for a while, that would hold not only the camera itself but also my lenses and a couple of filters and stuff, and coming up against a whole slew of websites with either cute-and-impractical bags or boring-and-functional ones. Then I found this site. My bag is the custom type. I picked the fabrics but, otherwise, what will arrive will be somewhat of a surprise. Kewl. I'll take a photo and post it here, of course. I know, you're just DYING of excitement, right? You can admit it.

• In the absence of a vampire TV show or movie that I have not seen, to satiate my bloodlust I have begun reading The Vampire Diaries books. This is probably not incredibly surprising to you, of course, if you know anything at all about me. The reason I'm mentioning it here is because I think the books are terrible. If it's even possible, they're more corny than the Twilight saga. (I know, gag!) What's worse is that the main protagonist, Elena, is not even likable in the books. In the TV show, she's nothing special, admittedly (the attraction is, literally, all with the two hot vamp brothers) but at least she's not dislikable. Elena of the books is vain and self-centered and somewhat lacking a redeeming quality, except for the fact that she seems to like tall, dark strangers with fangs as much as I do. I started reading the first volume and cringed most of the way through it. The sad thing is, though - and here's an insight into how incredibly sad my vampire obsession is - I'm completely hooked anyway. I raced through books one and two and then sought out book three online because I didn't have the patience to wait until I could get to the book store to buy it. I know they're bad but I can't help it. Oh God help me!