The jumble in my brain

So many tidbits to write about tonight . . . .

I’m taking a photography class on Monday nights. Initially I wasn’t too impressed. The instructor is a wedding photographer, and I’m sure he does a great job. But the class is two and a half hours long, and the first night he didn’t even really have anything planned. We all just asked him questions. I was a little leery that all the sessions (eight total, plus a field trip) would be like that, but this past week was a little better.

And I can’t complain. Since I’m going to be missing a few classes, I emailed him to ask if he could schedule the portrait session for one of the nights I’m there. He did! And he drew up a syllabus for the remaining weeks, even though he said he wasn’t going to. I think I may end up learning as much from some of the people in the class as I do from him, so that’s good too.

The image above was taken for class. It’s supposed to demonstrate the rule of thirds. I’m not sure how well I did on that part, but I don’t think the shot itself is too bad. I set it up with my new backdrop, so that was fun.

I’m debating whether we’ll have enough room in the car for the backdrop for our trip to Minnesota. Oh, didn’t I tell you? We’re leaving for Minnesota on Saturday. My mom and step-dad could use some help while she recovers from her surgery, so J.P. and I are headed that way, probably for a few weeks. We can take our work with us, and they had an extra phone line installed, so we’re all set. Hopefully Maggie won’t revolt when it’s time for her to get in the car.

Friday is J.P.’s birthday. If you have a minute, stop by and wish him a happy one.

This cracks me up every time

So funny. So true. So sad.

What is it with September 12?

Do you remember when you were a kid, and your parents would say things that would make you mad or unhappy? You know, “parent” things:

• When complaining that my sister was doing something to bug me: “She’s only doing that because she knows it annoys you. Ignore her, and she’ll quit.”
• At a relative’s house for Sunday dinner: “I don’t care if you’re not very hungry. You’d better eat now, because I’m not fixing anything when we get home.”
• “Well at least eat the meat.”
• “Because I said so.”
• “Life isn’t fair.”

Back then, I vowed never to say such things to my future children. But there’s a reason why these phrases have survived the test of time. Either because A) they’re true, or B) parents don’t know what else to say in those moments of frustration, and their own parents’ words slip out of their mouths before they can stop themselves.

My mom’s favorite phrase was the last one: Life isn’t fair. We learned that one early, and we heard it often. Those words haven’t been far from my mind in the last week or so.

Mom called last Tuesday night. They think her (ovarian) cancer is back. She’s having surgery today, and will be in the hospital for 5-7 days. Depending on what they find, they may want to do more chemo and/or radiation.

She had plans for this fall. She was going to come out for a visit with me and J.P. She was going to take a trip to Salt Lake City with her sisters to visit some longtime family friends. She had all kinds of plans. Plans that will have to be scrapped, or at least put off temporarily.

If you’re so inclined, I’d really appreciate it if you’d send up a few prayers, good thoughts, vibes . . . whatever you want to call it . . . for Lurking Lucy* today. Because life isn’t fair.

*Click here if you want to read the post that goes with her comment.

***UPDATE***
Mom came through the surgery pretty well. The suspicious spot on the CT scan did turn out to be cancer. But they got it all, and they didn’t find any anywhere else. So the news was as good as could be expected. Thanks for your good thoughts and prayers today. Stay tuned, and please keep ‘em coming—chemo and/or radiation are probably in her future.

Need your help!

I know that, as a whole, bloggers are pretty shy about stating their opinions online. So I’m going to ask you to take a step outside your comfort zone for a few minutes and let me know what you think. Uh, yeah. Shy. That’s it. Right.

But seriously, I do need your help. In a month or so, J.P. and I will be the official photographers at “our” rescue’s Blessing of the Animals. We’ve done it before. The picture you see above is from 2004, when we still had our old camera. My question is:

Now I get it

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a little slow sometimes. No matter where I turn, someone’s bashing Internet Explorer in favor of Firefox, Safari, or one of the other browsers that’s out there. Several months ago, I downloaded Firefox onto our desktop PC. I played around with it a bit, but didn’t understand what was so great about it.

I shrugged my shoulders and went back to using IE since that’s what I have to use at work, and didn’t think much more about it. But now that I’ve been using the MacBook for a month? Oh my gosh! After my big move over the weekend, I knew I still had some work to do. But I didn’t realize how much until I hit my site from the office today. It looks horrible in IE! (And also, I’m now just a little bit addicted to tabs.)

At some point, I’ll have to see what I can do about that. I’m afraid it might involve spending the $15 to upgrade WordPress so I can access and modify the CSS. Or you know, you could switch to one of the other browsers, I’d save the 15 bucks, and all would be well with the world. Whaddya think?