Update; administrivia

Whoa Zetta had a great time at her class over the weekend. I feel like I came a far distance with this new material. It is magical and interesting, and, ECL, I now know what do do with some of the stuff I am learning. The VBM came up and we stayed in a sweet B&B for two nights. After that, we spent the day driving to Whistler, where we will remain until Saturday pretending to be rich people, enjoying a ski vacation.
Yesterday when we arrived I spent some time in the fitness center defragging my shitty car mood, and after that we went to the pub that is literally spitting distance from our condo thingy and quaffed ale and I ate about 7464522879 chicken wings. They were good.
My experience as a beginning skier has been a mixed bag. When I took my first lessons I did great, felt comfortable on the skis, and looked forward to a lifetime without the sort of whiplash one sustains when she catches a front edge on her snowboard at a high rate of speed. Then I got on a steep hill, and everything went south. This year I have been working on not being afraid of a steep hill and also being able to turn on a steep hill without my eyes exploding and having a heart attack because yes, you are supposed to lean down the hill. On these slippery things attached to your feet. Up until last week or so, I had been making great strides with the steep hill/heart attack situation. Then we went night skiing , and where there is night skiing, there are steep hills. I had a rotten time trying to grow a pair and make good turns with speed on the inclines. It was awful. I was very worried about coming here after that.
Last year here at Whistler, there may have been crying. Just maybe.
Today was a good day skiing for me. My first run I had some issues with the steep and some falling, but after that I got more and more confident. I am excited for tomorrow, if not a little worried that my legs might come off because of the abuse they took today. The weather is warm, the snow is good, and I am lucky to have VBM patiently teaching me. And? The band of rugrats only passed me once today. I think last year I was lapped several times by a chain of 3 year olds. I hate them.

Also, if you want me to have your email address, please send me an email. I DO NOT HAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS since my ibook crashed last week.

The Hermes*, Digital SLR edition

I have always been a photo enthusiast, but it was way out of my budget to do much with it in the olden days when I was in college and also there was only film in cameras. All the sudden they started putting megapixels in cameras! Last year, I bought a little point and shoot camera and used it every single day while my lovely 35mm film SLR languishes in a box in the closet. I am finding myself looking, looking, and looking at things, and my free time is largely spent walking around with that little camera. It has felt much like hanging around with an old friend I've known forever, this walking around and looking into a part of me that is kind of fearlessly creative.
And not that it matters, but okay it does, other people like looking at what I look at.
Though I take the kudos somewhat the same way I do when my dad writes me an email and tells me I should have my own newspaper column (which is a really great thing to get from this guy on so many levels but he is, after all, a biased dad and maybe he doesn't read very much ranting on the internet besides mine), I still have this little thought when I look at my photos:
These are good. And I don't even do anything with them--they are pretty much as I shoot them. Right now I am downloading photoshop elements, and I am yearning with every cell in my body for one of these.
I love the portability of my digital Elph. I love that it is always in my bag or my pocket. But I'm feeling ready to relearn the nuts and bolts of photography--light and time, those things that made me want to take pictures in the first place. Having a gadget as a tool is icing on the cake for a gadgetophile like me. I've got the old hermes for a camera that feels like a camera when I hold it. A camera I can use to access a little deeper that small unfettered eye I've grown to love to use.

*The Hermes: a term coined, near as I can tell, by my dad. Connotative meaning: really really wanting to buy something. The buying of the thing is inevitable.