you're fired!

well. it's not quite like that, but well, really it is.

Hey! welcome home! i just spent a few weeks in mexico with mio. it was nice man. i tell you... we were in the warm water. We got out of that smelly hot sticky city for a couple of minutes, and it was great. real soul searching stuff. I relaxed on the white sand beaches of Tulum, on the yucatan peninsula, just a few hours south of Cancun, and a few more hours north of say, belize. it was good times man, and right on time i tell you. I was getting really tired. the city will wear a fella out, especially if you're working a lot, and not resting a lot, and it's summer, and there are barbeques and parties to attend. it was beautiful to go to someplace warm and quiet. someplace where electricity is a luxury that most folks can't afford, and you just chill on the beach with the yerba buena, and when the sun goes down, you light some candles and chill some more. Just what the doctor ordered.

but with anything good, always (always always) comes something bad. and for me the bad was getting "let go" from my job, two days before my vacation ended.

don't ask. I honestly don't have a reason why. All the reasons i suggested were specifically denied, so your guess is as good as mine.

but on a lighter note, it's given me some time to try and sort through this heap of images i've got growing like lichen on a tree in my hard drives. There were some glitches when i brought the drive from my old job on home, and those glitches resulted in the loss of some data, but also some tweaked metadata on the images, so i've decided to post the images this round according to the dates listed in the metadata. I didn't bother with any sequencing, other than the way and order they came off of the cards, and in a strange way i find it satisfying. I mean, it's easy to scroll through and say things like, "well, i think this would be cooler if it were in front of this other one." or "but why bother putting those forks (high fashion) on that link at all?" or, "after con's lipstick, it should be martin's cupcake, and why don't you wrap up with an inverted sara?" but i tell you i find it satisfying to just let them roll.

there is also one sequence tweak i made which is subtle, but with good reason. the link numbered 7 should technically be link number 1, but it's close to my heart, and there are less images than the others, so i made it come last. It will make sense when i make my next post, and part two of number 7 is at the front.

so there's some tulum, my vacation photos. there's some stuff from right before we left the city. there's some stuff in there from a trip i took to vermont a few months back, and there's a couple of parties from my old job.

ha! my old job.
i tell you. for a couple of days i was honestly expecting someone to say there'd been a mistake. it's actually not a better place without me. talk about arrogant!!!

i get the picture man.
i do.

So, in the next few days i'm hoping to continue sorting through the back log of images. i had a big scare after i was dismissed from the studio, it was like, i got home with my hard drive which had all the stuff i've been shooting but never getting home to download, and well, i was trying to merge them at home, and all hell broke loose. i nearly lost all of my photos and all of my music when hard drive A collapsed. But, with some firmware updates, and some lucky back ups on a 3rd drive, i only lost a handful of music, and about 1000 pictures all told. it's a big library here, so 1000 pictures down the tubes is really like losing a cigarette from the pack. i'm okay with it. (probably because i'm worried about more important things like, you know? The Rent?!)

no. don't worry. i'll be good. that's what everyone keeps telling me.

i'm not likely to rent some big assed caddilac and drive it out to Yucca Valley and stop at the local hardware store for a 25 foot garden hose to attach to the tailpipe in case i wanted to take a nap listening to XM radio surrounded by joshua trees or anything like that. That's the sort of thing this guy i know's jewish mother would say. And one thing i ain't is some guy's jewish mother.

sure, the relaxation and solace of my vacation evaporated on monday september 12, sometime long about 4 or 5 o'clock; but really it wasn't the vacation's fault. the vacation was fantastic. that vibe might have lasted for at least six months or more, it's just the impact of black monday was a bit like a sock in the gut... took the wind out of me. the timing was magnificent. It was like if you came home from vacation to find out your house had disappeared in a hurricane. And mine didn't. So, it's not so bad at all when you think of it like that. i'm sure i'll be every bit as well off as the critics say.

(relax. i'm just venting. i tell you, when you aren't terribly emotional, it's surprising the sorts of things that'll pop out of your mouth when it ain't your mouth doing the talking...)

Listen, enjoy the photos. they're a blast from my past, and i've got a few more coming to wrap up the summer season, and then i guess i'll start making some new pictures. I should let you know, that when i got to mexico, both of my cameras died in a way. but after about a week, i decided, you know, i'll click the shutter anyway, and it'll be like i'm taking pictures. Guess what? the camera takes pictures, but like film, so i don't see them until i get home. God Bless the matrix meter. Somehow the pictures still come out alright. i guess that photoschool taught me something useful after all...

listen, be nice to each other. play fair. if something's eating at you, tell somebody. if somebody's eating at you, go ahead and let them know. sometimes you can wait too long to let them know, and by god, you might end up really hurting someone's feelings over something very small.

(i'm reading the english translation of Norwegian Wood)

welp. i gotta brush my teeth and get to bed.
not that i have to be somewhere, it's just that i've finally got to the part of my life where i can just go to bed when i'm done with the stuff around the house.

i feel like i'm finally growing up.
you know, a year ago tonight i was lying in bed all doped up on percocets and vicodins with a broken collar bone. where does the time go?

love and kisses,
i've missed you.

dtown 77˚ and a full but waning moon. i'm listening to groove salad for old time's sake.