November 16, 2007
Yesterday, I saw a woman of Asian heritage walking down the street. Wait, I should actually be more specific, I heard her long before I saw her. She was singing at the top of her lungs. I’m not even sure I know what language she was singing in, at first I thought it was an Asian language but then I might have heard some Spanish thrown in their too and at one point I’m pretty sure she also said something about “my mother, oh my mother.” So this multi-lingual tunester was just walking down the street, singing loudly, dressed in a mumu and pointy shoes that looked like slippers. Her hair was up in a bun but there were big chunks of it that wouldn’t stay put and they were looooooong, like down past her butt long. So I’m thinking she’s crazy, obviously not because of the long hair, but because of the singing. But, I’m thinking she’s crazy in a good way because her singing was sort of making me happy and it was obviously making her happy too as she was grinning from ear to ear. Then, she walks out into the middle of the road and crosses without looking (or stopping singing) and almost gets hit by a car. Now, I’m looking at her a little nervously. The first street she walked out onto was not a busy one. But I’m still walking behind her and she’s headed straight for Alameda, the busiest street in all of Chile. It’s like a highway that goes straight down the middle of the city. She WALKED OUT onto Alameda with oncoming traffic going straight at her. I could not believe it. Cars were screeching to a halt as they slammed on their breaks, a bus almost a hit a car that came to a sudden stop trying not to hit her, people were swerving all over the place to go around her and she wasn’t even looking! I looked around to see if anybody else was noticing this crazy lady with an obvious death wish, but nobody was paying attention. Chileans are fantastic at minding their own business, unless of course, you’re blond. Anyways, she made it across the street. Well, I actually didn’t see her cross the whole thing because it’s like once you cross 3 or 4 lanes of traffic that goes one way, there’s a bike path down the middle before you get to the 3 lanes that go the other way. So I just saw her get to the bike path. I think she knew that I was shocked and amazed by her behaviour because when she got to solid ground she actually looked over her shoulder and smiled in my general direction, as if to say, “Don’t be such a worrywart!”
So from now on, that’s how I’m going to cross the street. Pedestrian right of way, what WHAT! And I’m going to sing while doing it. If I don’t sing, I have a feeling I’ll die.
Oh yeah, and on The Skinny In Chile, I changed the settings so that anyone can post, not just those with a blogger account. My bad, Jayna! I swear, I don’t discriminate against people who live in India.
November 14, 2007
After months and months of trying to get something photography related going I honestly just gave up. Knowing that there just isn’t a market here meant I would be relegated to having a really expensive hobby and would just leave it at that. So for the last two months I stopped trying to advertise my services or find models to let me shoot them for practice, I really just gave up.
And of course, that’s when things start to happen. Now that I haven’t been putting zero effort into photography 3 things fall into my lap, all at once.
The first, I was contacted by a girl who wants me to possibly do a commercial shoot with models wearing jewelry for her mom’s jewelry design company. She had just seen a few of my photos through Seba’s sister and emailed me for prices. I gave her prices and sent her a link to my Flickr so we’ll see if she likes what she sees and likes what I charge.
The second thing, a girl I knew from high school saw some of my pictures on Facebook and wants to buy some prints. Of course, I said she didn’t need to buy them, that I would just give them to her, but she likes supporting local/friend artists so she’s willing to pay. So I’m going to sell her some prints at a discounted price and I’m so excited that somebody actually wants my work hanging as “art” on their walls. And I say “art,” in quotations marks because if it was really non-quotated art that would make me an artist. And I certainly don’t feel like I am.
And third, on the same day as these first two events, a friend of Seba’s asked me to shoot her wedding! It’s not for another year, but she wanted to check with me now to make sure I’ll be able to do it.
I have been DYING to get into the wedding photography business and this is the perfect chance. I know her so I’ll be comfortable at her wedding and won’t be too nervous, and she’s going to have a gorgeous beach wedding so I should get some great shots for my portfolio, plus she’s sure to be happy with the shots I take since natural outside light is a thousand times better than indoor light.
So those were three wonderful things that happened all in one day. Just when I gave up hope it seems the signs are there again, telling me to press on with my photography.
November 13, 2007
I haven’t been blogging because when I put up an entry I like to respond to everyone who left comments the last time I blogged. And I just haven’t had time to do that. When you’re busy, something’s gotta give and for me that something has been blogging and self portrait picture taking. I didn’t take a single SP all last week. I am going to get back into this week, but if it becomes too much of a hassle I think I’ll just stop. The point of the project is for it to be enjoyable and challenge me to be creative. But when I’m stressed and feel like it’s just one more thing on my to-do list, I’m not creative and I definitely don’t enjoy it.
So let’s see, what has happened recently that you all need to know about…
My gossip blog boss sent me a package to thank me for helping her out while she was away and I had to take things over. She wanted to send me things that you can’t get in Chile, so of course I requested Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. They are MY FAVORITE! I just ate an entire Jumbo sized bag. I think I’m gonna be sick. If this entry just stops suddenly somewhere in the middle it’s because I’m vomiting peanut butter and chocolate Christmas tree shaped Reese’s into the toilet. God, I love the holidays.
Last night I saved S’s life. He was in bed asleep, sleeping peacefully, like a giant baby with a beard. I turned on the light to look for a sweatshirt which I thought was probably strewn somewhere in the bed. The first thing I saw was a GIANT spider. This thing was maybe a little smaller than my fist. It looked poisonous and it was headed straight for S’s head! I shooed it so it was heading in the other direction and then woke S. up. He tried to kill it with my flip flops but they were too soft to smoosh. He spent like 5 minutes trying to get the damn thing to die.
We are apartment hunting, but we also finished the paint job upstairs. I’m still so torn on the issue of whether to stay here or not. But, as we have been trying to fix up the apartment upstairs it becomes more and more aparent that it needs a lot of work, time, and money to be put into it. And we both kind of feel like, why would e invest money to live here where we’re both going batshit crazy, when we could pay the same amount to rent somewhere nicer (albeit, much smaller), in a better neighborhood, far, far away from the in-laws.
You know most of the times people say there are things you just can’t put a price on, but that’s just not true. I know the cost of my sanity. It’s approximately $500 a month, the amount of rent money we’ll need to live in somewhere far enough from here where relatives can not just drop in whenever they feel like under the pretense of cleaning.
S. started his new job on Monday. Only two days into it and they’re already behind. Hmm, this doesn’t bode well. So from the get-go he is working longer hours than what the company said his schedule would be. But, they also did say that those hours were contingent upon construction being completed on time.
And that’s about all I have to say. Aside from being busy, I’ve also felt very boring and haven’t known what to write about…any suggestions?
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