Abbie's Real Life Blog

In spite of myself, I’m happy that Obama won in Iowa last night.  I say “in spite of myself”, because I can recognize the faults in the guy, but, dammit, I like him too much.  Last month, I wrote to a similarly-politics-minded friend and asked him to make a decision on his vote right then, and he was going with Hillary, and I told him that I was leaning Obama.  I will probably vote Obama on Super Tuesday, unless something unforeseen happens.  But I was almost tempted into donating to his cause today while listening to his victory speech, and that’s unusual.  I didn’t even consider donating to John Kerry until he’d been nominated at the convention, and even then I was irritated that he was our choice (and still feeling burned about the whole Howard Dean issue).  I guess it’s partly the glow of hearing a politician who can work a crowd.  That’s why I still love Clinton, you know.

Things are going okay right now for me, I guess.  I don’t have much going on for the weekend, except the intention of finally getting to see Sweeney Todd and getting a facial tomorrow morning.  (I love getting facials, but they’re expensive and indulgent so I only do it every once in a long while.  This one was a gift.)

I have a lot of New Year’s goals in terms of photography, I really do.  I want to second shoot on some weddings this spring, I want to find out more about getting on the exhibit schedule with the Columbia Art League, I want to sell a picture (even if it’s just a greeting card or something), and I want to do more portrait sessions, whether with family or friends or complete strangers.  (So if you know anyone, speak up!  The shoot will be free and I am eager and friendly!)

I have a lead on the selling-pictures front: a coworker of mine is a potter and has started selling out of a consignment shop in nearby Fulton.  She told me that I should put some pictures in there, and though I haven’t done it yet, I have been shooting with it on the mind over the past few months.  Finally, I talked with the store owner at a party last weekend and decided to move forward and make this happen.  I ordered some prints of a few of my abstracts yesterday, and I’m going to frame them up with big white mats and thin black frames and take them down there and put them up for cost or nearly that, just to see if I can get something sold.  Profit can come later.  The owner said that greeting cards don’t sell well, but that she has lots of college girls and mothers decorating college housing and framed prints sell better than matted prints.  So this is a big step!  An exciting step!  (If the abstracts don’t work, I’ll try some of the black-and-whites.  I don’t think color landscape will sell.  It’s hard to match that kind of thing to your furnishings, you know?)  (Clearly, I am not too worried about ‘selling out’, have you noticed?  I do not really think I’m an artist, just someone who loves using a camera.)

In other, unrelated news, I read The Golden Compass this week and quite liked it.  We discussed it at a recent work lunch, in which my coworkers agreed that it was good and sort of the anti-Narnia, because the Church is the evil overlord of the series, more or less.  It’s also very enjoyable at an adult level, more so than the Narnia books.  It’s clearly meant for young adults, of course, but it’s not as child-friendly as the Harry Potter books either.  Anyway, I hear the movie was bad, but that’s not surprising.  My sister was taken with the story but not the execution of the movie, and if you’re like her, try the book and see.  I bet you’ll enjoy it.  I’ve started the second in the trilogy and will let you know what I think when I’ve finished them all.

Photo Notes: My little nephew (well, first cousin once removed, but that’s a mouthful and I like to think the ‘aunt’ and ‘nephew’ titles are inclusive) turned one year old yesterday, on January 3.  Lots of babies stare down my lens like this, I’ve noticed.  There’s something about the wide open aperture that keeps their interest for a few seconds, though it’s usually a thoughtful expression and not so much a smiley expression.  But I like the thoughtful expressions, and also the big eyes.  I took this last week at the family party.