Well, first of all, hello. I’m kind of surprised that it’s already Wednesday because it feels like a Monday. That has everything to do with a major bout of insomnia last night. I went to bed at 9:00pm, having barely watched any of the results from yesterday’s Ohio/Texas primaries. But don’t worry! I was up at 1:30am and had the chance to check in then. And I didn’t get back to sleep until after 5am.
The insomnia thing is kind of troubling, especially since it’s happening more and more often lately. Somebody recommended valerian, and I ignored that person because I’m not the biggest Drinker of the Kool-Aid when it comes to herbal supplements. (With some exceptions.) And then somebody else, somebody I know who definitely buys into the herbal-supplements-fix-everything mindset, told me that valerian root was basically a narcotic. That got my attention- maybe it would actually work! So I bought some herbal tea at the health food store made with valerian and peppermint. Last night, it became one of those internal struggles about time management. As in, “if I’d got up and made the damn tea when I first woke up at 1:30, I would be asleep again by now!” At 3:00 a.m., I finally acquiesced and made the tea.
Which is when all the cats descended upon me in the kitchen. They were psycho, obsessed with the smell of my tea, and clamoring for it. Which I did not understand until about 4:30 a.m., when I was still awake and thumbing through a copy of an Andrew Weil book: valerian is like catnip, and the smell is attractive to cats. I thought they were just crazy.
Anyway, the valerian did not work, and I was wiser to ignore the First Somebody in the first place, because, also, valerian kind of smells like old socks. It doesn’t taste too bad, especially with the peppermint, but it does not smell good.
I’d like to say that I finally fell asleep reading Andrew Weil, but that’s not the case.
Anyway, it was a good weekend that I just had, that weekend that is now, somehow, three days in the past. I went to the gymnastics meet on Friday night with my parents and Tracy. My sister, who is lame, did not go. (She had the flu, though, so she gets a pass, grudgingly.) The meet was pretty good. It was the Cat Classic, which doesn’t mean anything to me except that it involved four schools instead of just two, so lasted about twice as long as a regular meet would last (I’m guessing). The whole thing was over in two hours, including the trophy ceremony at the end. I’m not sure how the schools were selected for the Cat Classic, because it was kind of an odd assortment: the University of Missouri-Columbia (obviously), The Ohio State University, Michigan State, and (the oddest of the bunch) the University of California at Berkeley. Did MU just send out a bunch of invites to big-name schools and see what came of it? The odd one in the bunch, of course, and I mean this with all the love in my heart for my alma mater/quasi-current-employer, is the University of Missouri-Columbia. The others seem to be a little higher on the food chain than MU. Maybe I don’t know anything about gymnastics, though. I’m willing to admit that. Maybe MU is really great at gymnastics, and it was worth the flight from California for the Berkeley team to compete against them. MU did kick Berkeley’s asses, but then Michigan won overall. Probably Berkeley used it as an excuse to compete against Michigan.
Here’s an article on the meet. Read it fast; I’m not sure the Columbia Tribune is wise in the ways of permalinks. According to the article, MU is currently ranked #14 (NCAA Division 1). Michigan is apparently very good and currently #4; according to Wikipedia, they’ve been ranked in the top 10 every year going back to 1993.
What really, really surprised me about the gymnastics meet was the audience, which reminded me a lot of going to see Enchanted. Clearly, MU gymnastics events are a favorite of the under-12-and-wearing-pink demographic. If I’d been thinking, this would have been an obvious one, but I wasn’t. I’m not sure who I thought would be attending these meets, but it did not meet my expectations. Also, the audience was a small one. It barely filled 1/3 of the Hearnes Center. We didn’t even sit in our assigned seats, because we are people who like to spread out a little. We sat in a higher section and had plenty of room to ourselves.
In summary, I would attend another gymnastics meet at MU. I’ve wasted $5 in far stupider, less entertaining ways (such as going to see Enchanted). And I might even think about attending a women’s softball game or something like that in the next few months. The tickets for MU women’s sports are so cheap, it’s scandalous, and there’s something very summery about softball games. Also, I love nachos.
To change the subject entirely, I had my second shoot with a model last night, and it went super duper well. We had scheduled it for a couple of weeks ago, but: A) the weather did not work out, B) my camera decided to go on a one-day rampage in revenge for me having ordered the new replacement, and C) my model called in sick. So we rescheduled and were promptly threatened with more snow, but that did not happen. It ended up being a very pretty evening (maybe in the low 40s or something?) and the model was really great. She knew what she was doing and came up with lots of interesting, dramatic poses, and it was so nice to focus solely on the photography part and not on the posing part. I need more of this to build confidence, but it was a great first step.
Then I got home and had a very bad couple of hours. You know that feeling of success where you think everything just went well? And then something just terrible happens and you know it’s karmic retribution because nothing ever goes that well? Yeah, it was a bad couple of hours until I discovered a tiny little switch in my camera that fixed the problem completely and made me into the most joyous individual in at least half of my particular postal district. It was a really wonderful feeling.
I have not yet started post-processing the photos. I always need a little bit of time between the shoot and the beginning of the post-processing. I don’t know why; coming to terms with the results, I guess? It’s like when you used to take big, important tests in school. You always had a couple days’ break before you knew the results, which gave you a chance to emotionally distance yourself. I hated the computerized tests I took later in life, where you got your results right away. Those were always a huge blow, because you don’t have the time to go over everything in your head and psych yourself down, so to speak. Or is this just me? You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?
Photo Note: This is an oldie, a scan from film! I took this less than a couple of months after I’d bought my first SLR camera, a Nikon N75. I was at a conference in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, in late April of 2004. I stayed at the Atlantic Sands Hotel right on the boardwalk, and even had a beachfront room because it was still off-season and the rates were great. I had a nice few days there, sleeping with the windows open to hear the waves even though the night temperatures were certainly below 40 degrees. I took this with the kit Nikkor 70-300mm zoom from the roof of the hotel, sans tripod! Fully automatic! The horror! But I like the composition. A nice grandpa-and-grandson moment. If only I knew who they were, I would send them a copy.
Thanks for the meet summary. The thing is, I stumbled on your blog through the powers of Google (I’m a vegetarian, too) and before we all came down with the flu, were thinking of going to the gymnastics meet. The thing is, we’re in Ann Arbor, MI, and are gymnastics fans. The kids had the week off from school, Missouri is south of Michigan, my daughter is dying to see the Gateway Arch, seemed like a plan. But sickness overcame us and we didn’t go to Columbia (or anywhere) and didn’t need to find vegetarian food in new cities. But I was curious of how the meet seemed to a complete outsider, and it was fun to read.
Michigan is generally a top 10 team, and this year they are particularly good. Missouri is an up-and-comer, though — two very talented gymnasts and the rest are all competent. They actually edged Michigan last year. Cal is terrible this year, sad to say. They’ve been better in the past and perhaps were booked then? College sports really are a good deal, outside of football and basketball. I don’t know how the softball facilities are at Missouri, but baseball and softball are terrific here. It’s nice to have an excuse to sit outside for a couple hours, if nothing more. Fun to photograph, too.
It would have been a good plan for you! There are some vegetarian restaurants in Columbia and St. Louis, if such a trip works out for you next year. I hope you’re all feeling better.
I thought the meet was great! And I would enjoy going to a softball game (but not during an afternoon, only evening).
Don’t tell me twice! I will get tickets before you know it!
Melatonin. I take melatonin. It’s certainly not something that’s going to knock you out if you have serious insomnia, but I do find that I sleep better (or at least fall asleep better) when I take it. For years, I’ve struggled with the three-hours-later-and-I’m-still-awake problem. When my sister started having trouble getting to sleep a few months ago, she skeptically resisted my recommendations but eventually decided it couldn’t hurt to try. She’s convinced now and takes it every night.
Oh god, gymnastics. A close friend, who was also my across-the-street neighbor, was obsessed with gymnastics when we were in late grade school and junior high. She made me watch a lot of it. And then made me watch her try to mimic the moves. I was never as captivated by it as she was.