Life is in flux BIG TIME these days. I want to keep in touch with all of my peeps. The Internet is this beautiful thing. I can move to a brand new city and still stay in easy, near-daily contact with the people I love. When I feel connected to the people in my life that matter, I am unstoppable!
I really did try to get the Blackberry problems sorted out, but in the end, the not getting service in my office thing was a BIG problem. I learned from the receptionists that noone was able to get Verizon service of any kind inside the office. They’d actually lost contracts because of it. And so once I realized I’d have to switch carriers, I knew I would have to cave and get an iPhone. Yep, I followed the herd. I have so many friends around with them that I knew it wasn’t a stupid herd move, and that I would likely be pretty happy changing over. I’ve had the thing about 2-3 weeks now, and I really love it. Lots of fun to be had, AND when I schedule appointments while sitting in my office, they sync correctly. Hooray!
So along those lines, I was out shooting with friends (pictures, not guns – of course), and Lalitree was messing around with her Tumblr iPhone app. I had tried it briefly but for whatever reason, wasn’t that all impressed. I re-added it yesterday and now can’t imagine was was not to like. It is perfect for both reading on the go and posting on the go. So easy, in fact, that I’m expecting I’ll be posting there a LOT. So if you aren’t following my Tumblr blog, might wanna add it to the feeds… or perhaps conversely, REMOVE it from your feeds if you would like less Abby content (yes, that is often the case, as I believe I have proven time and time again that I generate WAY more content online than anyone should have to deal with!).
I have photos in two shows this First Friday. One is the Flickr Raleigh Social Group summer project. There are 50 of us who signed up to be in the show, so there will be as many as 50 photos hanging on the walls. One of them is mine. I’m not telling you which one because we submitted in seeeeekrit! The show will be juried, and there will be winners. It will be held at Crocker’s Mark Gallery at 613 W Morgan Street in Raleigh, next to Moonlight Pizza. I also have two photos up at Slim’s Downtown (227 S Wilmington St). I donated these two for a benefit for a friend’s grandmother’s cancer treatments.
Also, my friend Oliver is doing a First Friday show that’s just his work (he also has two in the Slim’s benefit). That will be at Cafe 101, located at 444 S Blount, near the corner of Davie.
Wayne Sutton is someone I’ve known online for a long time, but I finally met him in person last Thursday at The Borough. He was there with a group of bloggers from NBC-17, and I was there with a group of Flickr friends. He asked if I would mind doing an interview with him about blogging and social media. But of course! We met up on Monday night at Helios Coffee (Oh, I mean Cafe Helios!). It was packed, so we did this interview in a spot right by the register. It was a bit cramped, but I’m pretty happy with how the interview turned out. I’ll make you click over to his page to watch. Blogging is now part of his job, so I want to give him some link love!
BTW, the title of the story about me cracks me up! I’m soooo mysterious! Oh, and at the very tail-end, you see me do a little head bob. it’s because he said “a little more conversation”, and my mind went straight to Elvis! I know it’s not quite right, but you get the idea.
What’s funny is that my periodic blog posts about how I’m not blogging add up to probably more posts than many people who consider themselves regular bloggers, but I accepted long ago that I just produce more verbal/written output than the average duck. I’m just built that way, and that’s why blogging is good for me. It provides a nice outlet for all the talk in my head.
On a walk two days ago, I was thinking about my reasons for not blogging right now. I came up with this: Right now, I am not content, I am not in love, and I am not employed. I don’t feel comfortable sharing about my job hunt, because reporting about the steps I’m taking to get a job is boring, and honestly, it takes up time that I’d rather spend actually taking more steps to get a job. I don’t want to write about the fun things I do, since I feel like (maybe justifiablely so, maybe not) people are thinking, “How can you see bands when you have no job? How can you take pictures when you have no job? How can you cook when you have no job? How can you justify doing anything when you should get getting a job?”
I don’t feel compelled to answer those questions (real or imaginary), and I find that when I start to blog, I immediately feel that I need to defend myself. There is a lot of shame in not working. It takes a lot of mental energy to keep motivated, to continue to allow myself to live a regular life and not get too sad. Blogging – like photography – is something I do simply because I love it. I have never even once tried to blog regularly. It just happens. I have things to say. If I’m not experiencing joy with it, then I won’t do it. I feel confident that when I get a job, when I meet someone great, when I start to feel more content, the words will once again begin to flow. For now, I’m letting myself focus on photography as my primary means of expression. You can always follow that stream of images. I’d love you to. And I love comments, if you’re feeling up to it. If not, that’s cool, too.
I have recently joined a group on Flickr called 365ish. Each day, I post a photograph that reflects my mood. You can tell pictures that I’d posted for that because they will have a number in the description: 1/365, 2/365, etc. Here’s my first entry:
Hatching Plots
Actually, I’m looking at the crazy table of crap and trying to decide where to put it all. Truth is, I live in a really small apartment and need more space, but I’m convinced that I can get it to work.
1/365ish: Motivated
I have that early-January determined feeling. Last year things I spent a lot of the time feeling very stuck. In this picture, I’m wearing new Christmas jammies, eating some healthy food, and plotting ways to reduce some of the clutter that I feel like is wearing me down on a daily basis. Actually, I’m looking at the crazy table of crap and trying to decide where to put it all. Truth is, I live in a really small apartment and need more space, but I’m convinced that I can get it to work.
Twitter is also a good outlet for me. I can get out the expression (a crucial thing for me) 140 characters at a time.
I hope that if you are reading this, that you’re doing well, and if you’re in the Triangle, and you hear about any places hiring child psychologists, please let me know!
— Now listening to an old favorite that you’ve probably never heard (unless you’re Xopher):
I blog when I feel like it. I haven’t felt like it. And I think that’s OK. Blogging and photography are things I do because I love them. If I forced myself to do them when I didn’t want to, it wouldn’t be as fun. The nutshell of things is that I’m licensed and trying to find a job, and I have a new camera. I’m trying to force my rudder to direct me somewhere good, but it’s not working the way I want just yet. I’ll get there. I really will. Don’t lose faith.
