A Brief Time-Out Of Sorts

If you can call it that. Perhaps "working holiday" might be more in order. Apparently I have to have some sort of photographic images of myself, one in black and white and one in color for Storey. Now, I really really really do not like having my picture taken. I have put this portion of the book-writing venture off. See, it says here in the contract that they won't pay my advance until I do this one little thing, have this picture taken. I decided to bite the bullet and go for it. I had Girl call a friend of hers who is a photographer, graduated from Hallmark and everything. $225-$250, the child said, for a few headshots. Not working for me. Cash is not something I roll in, and $225 for pictures of my head just is too much for me. I could use a self-timer if it came to that. In retrospect, I should have gotten my sister Jody to take some pics of me when she was here over Christmas. But hindsight is 20/20 and all that. So, up against a wall, I took a workman's holiday and headed to the local (read closest possible, 45 miles) JC Penney photo studio last week. First-class, all the way! Maybe for a second book we can do better. For now, $19.33 sounds like the perfect number to me. Now, this is a grainy black and white picture of the grainy black and white printer-image they give you at check-out. Not horrible. Also not remotely me. I spared you the other four poses, the ones I did not like. Where's the chicken poo? Where's the dog hair? The t-shirt with a llama on the front? The dirty sneakers?? BUT - Can you say CHEAP? Cheap, cheap, cheap. And acceptable. In one, the "free-8x10-with-coupon" my eyes are nearly scrunched to closing. I was laughing. The other is the one I selected to be "the one", and now I think I look too bloody cheerful. I should perhaps be mindfully staring, intently looking into the distance at some unseen object, some nebulous sock-thought. Perhaps in tweed. With a pipe. The girl at Penney's was lovely, very good at her job, and very sweet. I told her a secret, which made her laugh - "So tell the photographer, that makes sense!!" Well, it does to me. It's a secret after all, and if I tell a total stranger, what's she going to do with the info? Call home and rat me out? Not likely. It's not a bad secret. We were just chatting. More of a nauseatingly girlish secret.

Since I was out anyway, I ran to the Whole Foods Market for cat toys. You heard me,
cat toys. Three of them, which were arranged in a triangle on the dining room floor and provided hours and hours of stalking and hiding entertainment. I also picked up a bunch of produce, some fish, and some weird cereal bars for Girl. And I did swing through their buffet salad bar thing since it was 3pm and I was starved. They have great tofu on their bar. Also a beef of decidedly African influence. And felafel, and brocoli salad and sweet potato salad. This grocery stop was to supplement Mr. Wonderful's grocery trip. Mr. Wonderful did groceries. Also laundry. And Girl has been all kinds of helpful, except for the whole insistance that dirty utensils go in the left sink (which they do not) and newly cut can lids go in the right (which they do not). But the whole dishwasher emptying and refilling without my asking thing, and the preparing of pots of decaf thing? Nice touch.
Then I came home and knitted.
and typed.
and knitted more.
and typed.
and fixed a total moronic space-out on a sample pattern for Persnickety Knitter, and wondered how many other stupid small errors I made along the way, and prayed that I catch them all as I go. I see visions not details. I have to be glued back to the planet for those. It takes time.
and knitted.
Today I am going to knit more. Pics soon, when I have time to figure out how to take pics of socks and some volunteer feet to go in them!