i spent tonight mentally searching for inspiration.
i found a little... followed shortly by a couple of composite images to go along with the personal project i'm working on. pandora did wonders for me... "la vie en rose" by louis armstrong and "sweet and low" by augustana.. songs i had forgotten but love nonetheless.

no project preview though, it shall come as a surprise when it's all done.

ryan had his exhibition's opening reception last night downtown at blueline's gallery/studio... a great time was had by all... great people, great place, great art.



















wondrous.

fashionable lights are all the rage.

this morning i have some musings. it's nothing incredible, but something i like.

So i found this on chase jarvis' blog and i just love it. he says it's 7 creative habits, but i'm pretty sure it's a good 7 rules for life. please, enjoy them:
1. Get into adventures. Instead of saying no, say yes. Whether it’s agreeing going to the South China Sea or to Sundance festival or the grocery store.
2. Devour popular culture. Examine the work of other artists, movies, books, magazines, the interwebs.
3. Take pictures of things. I photograph things I see in the world that inspire me and use them for reference.
4. Scribble ideas. On a notepad, ipad, or whatever.
5. Share your ideas with others. Better ideas often come from a conversation. Give and receive. It’s a dialectic.
6. Ask Questions. Lots of other people know more than you do.
7. Listen. Try to listen carefully. When other people talk, you should listen. Ideas are everywhere.

i told you they were sage advice.

spent the weekend in e-ville on my first visit there with the awesome chelsea sanders helping her out. it was lovely and i just haven't done enough things for me like that lately. it was just what i needed!!! we also went a run that was further than i have been going. so so so cleansing!

also, i realized that i have, disturbingly enough, missed 3 race weekends in a row. that hasn't happened in... ever? oh NO. lexington OVCX next sunday, here I come! long drives for a good cause.

i saw "the social network" friday as well.
i was checking my facebook WHILE watching the movie, and the first thing i had the impulse to do upon leaving the movie was to update my facebook status.
you know you've changed the world when...!

i'm working on great things for YSB also today. I'm creating a "logging 101" to help people figure out logging and stuff during school time today while the kiddos are doing quiet projects.

i cannot tell a lie: i love that it's 70 in november.

also. very excited to attend ryan's opening @ blueline's gallery next friday. STELLAR.

had a wonderful cookie date with the little today at the bakehouse.

it's a friday night tonight. what to do?

shootshootshoot! i'm thinking a trip to a parking garage, i love them so.

this is the good stuff.
traverse city, michigan.

this is the plan for iceman:


warmup at 21 degrees:




i ran into neff and it was so cold!:




start:




waiting around for results, chatting it up:




winner winner chicken dinner:




winery hopping!
peninsula:


Brys estate:




(CRAZY ABOUT THIS CEILING):






little ol lighthouse way out on the peninsula:


last winery:


great weekend.
plans in the works for another trip to the grand canyon in march. eeeeeexcellent!!!!!

a lesson in time management...

I've been threatening/planning to do this for a long time.

i finally spent some time figuring it out.

i sat this morning and counted up days.

i have been dying to know how many days i've really been at home in the last calendar year. i took the liberty of also calculating how many days i've worked too.

so. there are 312 days of this year gone so far.

80 days were spent in travel mode. that's 25%.

this leaves 232 days left that i was in bloomington for a full day.

200 days of the days i was home for a full day, I was working. that's a solid 65% of my FREE days I was working.

32 days, I was off. that's only about 10%.

(however, i only counted the days when i worked but didn't travel up until work or travel after leaving work. if you count those days that overlap (there are 14), i actually worked approximately 214 days, which is about 69% of my year so far i've spent working).

simple breakdown is:

65 percent of my year was spent working.

25 percent was spent traveling.

10 percent was spent having days off at home.

this is all so crazy to me.

i can't decide if i should reevaluate how i spend my time, or try for more travel days and less days "off" next year!

life is good.

this is a little of what my time management got me this weekend in michigan:

the shelter kids showed me this fantastic rock formation yesterday, and i promptly went immediately back after i got off of work to haul a bajillion cameras up there to shoot.
it's so funny, my gauge of how great something is is very dependent on if photos can be shot there.



win.