Well first, some fun news: last Tuesday, I replied to a Flickr request on Twitter for hair photos, and on Thursday I got this notification from them:

This was a nice surprise, because it meant the photo that they chose got loads of views – 2,283 so far – and I haven’t had a photo get that much traffic since I closed my old account. When I was still using the old one, Flickr Explore would feature my photos quite often, and when it did I’d get thousands of views on that photo and several new followers. But since I’ve moved, I’ve dropped off Explore’s radar, and traffic has been steady but without those little bursts of activity that, even though I know mean basically nothing, still always made me happy. So, it was nice to get some attention again. The photo they featured, by the way, was this one:

Other than that, not a lot photography-wise has gone on since my session last weekend. Work was a bit stressful since it was the week before a holiday, and everyone is on-edge and trying to squeeze in last-minute exams and projects which makes my job a bit more difficult. Since I am basically a case manager for approximately 30 kids with learning disabilities, I end up dealing with all of their exams and projects to some extent, and at times it gets overwhelming – especially since I cover all grades 9-12 and there can  be loads of different things going on between the different grade levels that I have to try and juggle.

I go back and forth about posting work observations and/or complaints here, because I swore off doing it awhile back and my tune never really changes anyway (poor me, I don’t really like my job, blah blah blah) but at times it helps me clear my head to share my thoughts about my work situation, so I’m breaking my no-work-posting vow for now. But I don’t want to get into too many details that would make this ramble on and on, so suffice it to say that while this new role at the school is definitely better than my role as counselor, and in no way do I regret making the move, this job is still far less than ideal for me. Ideally, I would have been able to get  an English teaching position, but none were available at the school, and I didn’t want to put out the effort finding one elsewhere would have required, so I took this one. Plus, I figured I’d try something new and see if I liked it better. But there’s a lot about this particular job that I don’t really like, and many ways in which I am ill-suited for the position. It’s not a structured teaching job, and my role is more one of case manager than teacher, so there is really a lot of open-ended time with the students where I am basically monitoring them and getting up in their business to be sure they are keeping up with their classwork. It’s never been my nature to be a nag, and a lot of the times that is what this role requires – sure, at times I’m helping them take tests or study for exams or write papers, but a huge chunk of my time is also spent just chasing kids down and making them do their homework or forcing them to study for classes when they’d rather just play video games. I’ve had to spend way more time than I’d like emailing parents and wagging my finger at kids who aren’t motivated to do their homework, or mediating student-teacher conflicts with kids in the program who have attitude problems – not much in life is less fun than having to force a defiant eleventh-grader to go apologize to a teacher for giving them attitude, yet this has become part of my job this year. It’s so not in my nature to be this much of a parent to the kids I teach, but I’m trying to do my best, and for the most part people are happy with the program and saying great things about it, which is a bit odd since I don’t particularly feel like I’m doing anything outstanding. The school has even held fundraisers for the school that have focused on the center; I was invited to one of them and had to endure a standing ovation for the “great work” I am doing, which made me feel like a heel since I don’t feel like I’m doing anything all that great at all. It’s weird.

We’ve already gotten approval to add a second full-time employee next year, which will help immensely, and I wish we could get me some help this year but that’s not going to happen. And the director of the program has promised me I can cut back on my hours next year if that’s what I want to do, but I still have to get through this year on my own. However, we’re almost at the halfway point with the semester ending on December 19th, and it’s not like I haven’t had to grin-and-bear-it at my job before, so I guess I’ll survive. But still, I wish I were just teaching English instead of spearheading a new program that everyone has so much invested in; it’s a lot of attention on me at a point in my life where I don’t want it, and it’s unnerving.

Anyway I am off for a week, so that’s something, then back for three more weeks before I get another nice long break. Not sure how much time I’ll have for picture-taking, as the week looks to be filled with catching up on doctor visits and taking cars to auto shops and lovely errands like that, but at least I don’t have to nag a bunch of high school seniors this week to get their planners filled out and their homework turned in!

Here’s hoping everyone else who celebrates it has a lovely Thanksgiving.

I am so excited, because we’ve had a nice little cool front this week that should last through the weekend, and as long as rain doesn’t roll in Saturday (which it might) my father and I are heading out to the observation area at IAH to do some plane spotting. Now, I know that in no way are you interested in watching 13+ minutes of plane footage from this location, but I liked this video the best of the ones I found on YouTube – I think it really gives you a sense of the observation park and how close the planes are when they fly overhead. So, I’m including the video anyway and you can watch of it what you want.

Lots could go wrong with this plan, but then again, that’s true of aviation in general; weather dictates what happens more than anything, so if the winds aren’t blowing in the right direction the runway where this observation spot is located might not get used all that much. It’s doubtful, since this runway is one of the busiest at the airport, but it’s happened to me before at Hobby, so we’ll see. Tons of Continental planes here since IAH is a home base, but during the afternoon hours loads of international flights and interesting planes landing and taking off, too. So here’s hoping it works out and we get to go.

I probably won’t post much more until after the trip, because I’m having a bad week with my arm (and Sandy the massage therapist had some surgery and can’t work until after October 20th) and I want it to be in some sort of shape to hold up my zoom lens and 7D. Saving my strength, and I’ll probably take my monopod or tripod along to help out, too. For added fun, here’s another video of footage from IAH, there are some really HUGE planes in this one, 777s and the like:

Oh ,and one other note: Stitch Fix not only contacted me to apologize for sending me a lame shipment, they also gave me my $20 stylist’s fee back for the month. AND, they sent me another shipment which I am due to get this Saturday. So I’ll be able to photograph that sometime too, but it might be awhile since this weekend is going be pretty busy as it is.

Well, we managed to get the carpet installed in a day, but the installers didn’t leave until about 8:30 PM (they arrived about 10:30) so it’s been a long night of trying to put the house back together. I started out taking photos and even made a little collage to post to Facebook as the festivities were just beginning, with the intention of adding progress photos throughout the day, but that didn’t happen.

That up there is, of course, is our old Berber carpet, which has been thoroughly trashed over the last 12 years. In really thinking about it, it’s surprising it got as ragged as it did; we don’t have kids, never entertain, and while we do have pets, it’s not like they’re elephants or anything. And yet, that Berber has completely come apart in the past five years. I’ve read reviews of Berber that are less than stellar and complain about the sort of snagging and unraveling  we experienced – especially coming from people with indoor pets – but the extent of the damage we experienced still seems extreme. I actually took a picture of some of the worst bits, but then decided there was no way in hell I wanted to share that mess with blog readers, so you’ll have to look at the photos above for your only reference.

While I do not want to go all  First World Problems here whining about sitting around in a warm house all day watching other people install carpet in my home, I have to mention that I am still out of sorts about the whole experience. There is something about strangers coming into your home and ripping it apart that’s unsettling; it’s not just the presence of the strange people but also the weird secrets that tearing apart reveals about the home’s owners. Or at least it felt that way to me. And it’s not just how small and simple and shabby the floors looked once the carpet and the pad were removed, although that was disconcerting enough; it was the little patches of rotted wood in the bottom stairs, and the strip of fallen wainscoting we’d haphazardly stuck up on the bookcase that fell down when the men were stretching the carpet in the den, exposing our laziness. Every piecemeal, patchwork, slapdash, and half-ass “repair” we’d made to our home over the years was on full display, and while I’m sure this is not a unique experience, and I wasn’t exactly embarrassed by it, I still felt as if dirty little flaws were being revealed – to me as much as to anyone. Not to mention the surprises that occurred throughout the day – the yellow jacket’s nest the installers discovered in an upstairs wall (spent the rest of the day killing them, and obviously have to take care of that ASAP) and the air conditioning unit on the bedroom side of the house that decided to stop working mid-day (we were all boiling by the time they got done). So, we get to take care of that now, too. Secrets and surprises, all tied to a sense of disarray and, I guess, this homeowner’s guilt that I’ve fallen down on my duty.

But for now, this step at least is done, and I’ve tried to put the house back together and regain that sense of security I had before, when I was convinced it was all rock-solid and indestructible – but I haven’t settled back into that yet. I’m still seeing it with all its ugly guts exposed, and it’s odd. I don’t know if that makes sense to any of you – but Simon gets it. He’s kind of skittering around the house hesitantly, sniffing everything as if it’s all new now, and not just the carpet. As if we tried our best to set the house right when it was all over, but we didn’t quite get it done, and things are still off-kilter. As am I, obviously, given the weird tone of this post. I mean, it’s just carpet. And by the way – holy crap, is this stuff soft. The Berber we had before was hard and unyieliding, and we went from that to this carpet called SmartStrand that is marketed as the softest available, with more strands per fiber, organic materials, lifelong stain resistance, blah blah blah. But it’s seriously so soft it’s almost puffy. It’s actually lush. I am a hard-core shoe-wearer who never takes hers off, but I can’t bring myself to wear flip-flops or even my Uggs when walking on this new material. I bet when I jump on it for pictures it’ll be like landing on a huge marshmallow.

I think I need to go to bed now. This post makes very little sense. And also has very few pictures, because I’m still feeling weird about this whole home invasion, and I kind of want to spin a safe and new cocoon that doesn’t include outsiders. Sorry. Those of you that know me will understand. 🙂

The carpet is supposed to be installed today. I say supposed to be installed, because Monday afternoon we got a call from the installers, saying that they might be able to make it to our house around 11:00 AM to begin the installation, and that they possibly would be able to finish by the end of the day. To which I say – WTF? Since when is it acceptable for installers to show up when half the day is over when know they have a full day’s worth of work to do? They told Doug the reason for the late start is due to not being able to pick up the carpet Monday evening, which means they will have to pick it up the morning of the installation. To which I say, then GET OUT OF BED EARLIER to go get it so you can show up to the job at a respectable time. An inconvenience on your part should not create one for me, the customer – what is it about carpet that makes all of this customer-service stuff so difficult to understand?

We did our best huff and puff and threatened to pull the entire sale if they couldn’t guarantee us better beginning and end times for the installation, but who knows if they will actually give a damn or not. We are having to board our pets for the day to do this and did not reserve more than a day at the kennel, because the salesperson told us the job would be done in one day when we made our down payment. And they absolutely could be done in day if they bothered to show up between 8 and 9 AM like, oh, any other contractor or installer I’ve ever dealt with in my life doing a major job at my house.

Anyway, we did our part and cleared out closets and moved all the knick-knacks off the tables and will get up in the morning, take the pets to the kennel (which I hate doing, I feel so guilty and miserable the whole day they’re locked up), and unhook all the electronics the installers won’t touch. Here’s hoping they show up at a decent hour and get the thing done quickly. We really need to paint the house, too, but we may have to wait awhile on that. I’m about done with home improvements for now. Well,  not so much the improvements as I am the people I have to deal with to get the improvements made. Wish us luck everyone!

Just a little update here – work is still going on this week and next, and I have joined a boot camp for the summer to kick-start my get-back-into-shape routine, so I’ve been busy. I’ve also continued to clean out my office in preparation for transitioning it into a studio; to that end, I’ve gotten rid of both the big ugly bookshelf and the little love seat/dog bed that rested against the wall where I pose for photos. Getting rid of those two things has cleared up a lot of space, and I can tell already that it’s going to make a difference next time I shoot – while I could easily move the sofa out of the way before, I couldn’t get it out of the room without it being a huge hassle, so it always ended up crammed against a wall. And of course, the bookshelf never moved.

The new space – I can easily move that chair and the end table out of the room, unlike the sofa that used to be there.

Please take no note of the carpet situation here – we are getting it all replaced soon, which is another motivation to de-clutter the house ASAP. I’ve been on a real tear with this all week, and have cleaned out my costume closet as well as a huge armoire that we are having hauled away by junk movers this coming Monday. The thing is massive and has always been pretty much useless; it’s part of a bedroom suite of furniture my oldest sister bought at an auction about 20 years ago for three hundred bucks and eventually gave to me – and yeah, we’ve had it ever since. And are still using the other two pieces of furniture, in fact. I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that I’m not one for home decorating, or buying new furniture. Anyway, the armoire at least is going, and a bunch of other things that are sitting around the house being useless (an old exercise bench, our really old Christmas tree, some computer monitors – and yes it will all be donated or recycled) and in order to get some of this stuff hauled away I’ve had to clean it out, which has led to cleaning out other closets and drawers to make room for the things I want to keep when I clean out the original piece. It’s astounding how much I’ve gotten rid of already, but I’m definitely in the mood to keep going.

So how many photos are going to be taken this weekend then? Probably none, but I’ll get back to it soon. I was going to take photos of the location where I go for boot camp,  because it’s at a community center in a nearby neighborhood that is really lovely, but the trainer had to cancel class tonight so I had to work out at home – and since I work out in the same room that functions as my office and future photography studio, well, you’ve already seen a photo of that. So I’ll get pics of the workout area Monday when I go back again. Oh, and my dad and I plan on heading out to IAH on June 14th to check out the airplanes, so there will finally be some new aviation pictures too. Have a great Thursday my friends!