Idiosycratic Life

Hallo! Hmm... Where do I even start? Alissa told you all about our trip to New Hope and Peddler's Village, unless you don't read Aliss'a blog, in which case, I went shopping over the weekend in two fun, cute towns full of expensive, beautiful things that I will not be able to afford, at least for a long time, and not while I am working five jobs that pay varing amounts in unsteady internvals. Sigh.... But Alissa feels confident that she can make many things we saw, as she is a very talented crafty lady. Imaginary Store here we come. :)

I also did an assignment for one of the places where I work- the big place where I really really want to work someday- (sorry for the vagueness, but it occurred to me that a search of my name and the name of that news organization will cause this site to pop up (which leads me to ask, actually, Gwen, if/when I get on leafygreen.org, can we have that stop happening? :) Anyway, the assignment was to photograph a big donation sale in Strasburg, PA. It was a really fun, visually appealing assignment, and I was excited to do it. Except... the whole point of having these donation sales is that many, many, many Amish people come there to sell quilts, farm equipment and other assorted things like rusty milk cans, etc., and therefore rich antique collectors and shabby chic designers come from all over the country to buy quilts and stuff. The paper that requested this story wants to do a travel piece on Lancaster County, the Amish, etc. Which means they wanted a lot of pictures of the Amish.

Sigh.... The Amish religion forbids the taking of photographs. I grew up here knowing this. I know how disrespectful it is, and how much the Amish hate tourists exploiting them. But.... I did it anyway. I did it for hours. I am not proud of that. The pictures came out very well. I think i am going to put some in my portfolio, which means i will continue to profit from the exploitation. I am selling out; I am selling out. Blarg.

Anyway, I substitute taught for the first time yesterday. I taught elementary art. It was cool. I had an awesome third grade class. The first graders were a little zooey at the end of the day, but I survived. It was fine. Kids are so funny- and I don't entirely mean ha ha funny. I sort of forgot how their minds work differently and process things differently. It's tough to be a kid.

But today.... oh goddess, I sometimes can't believe this is my life.... TODAY I taught photography at my old high school. Yup. It was okay. It really was. I was very worried about it, about running into old teachers and who i would eat lunch with in the faculty dining room. I ate with Mrs. Wetzel. She's wonderful, so it was okay. For all of you out there who went to school with me- they have a "D" lunch now. What's up with that??

But it was fine. I took in some samples of my work and stuff and talked to them about how I shot it and how they can use the same techniques. I talked to them about covering tense and painful situations and the first ammendment and the zone system (darkroom printing theory/technique). I sat on top of the desk and I was really loud. You know sometimes I shout, "I LIKE TO SHOUT!!"? (Thanks, Jo!) Yeah. I did that today. I was trying to shout over them to get their attention, and then I just yelled "I LIKE TO SHOUT." :) It got their attention. They responded well to me, which was good.

And tonight, I am shooting a basketball game for the paper in York and it's a semifinal game which means that game is held at neither of the opposing schools since they don't want anyone to have home court advantage, right? And guess what? The game is at... my old high school... yeah... which means I have to go back. Like, in two hours. :)

Goin' to eat dinner now.