If you had asked me two days ago whether or not I was planning on bringing a film camera on our next Florida vacation in June I think I would have said no.
Then yesterday I got a bunch of film developed and now I think the answer will probably be yes. I am so easily manipulated.
Seven rolls of film. All downloaded, sorted, cleaned up, and uploaded to Flickr. Here are a few randoms from the haul.
From Burlington, VT. I don’t remember the name of the bookstore.
From the Atlantic Ocean in Hampton Beach, NH. Splash.
From the happiest place on Earth.
From Animal Kingdom… unless it’s from The Last of Us.
From the lake surrounded by the Beach Club, the Yacht Club, and the Boardwalk hotels in Disney World.
With Kylo Ren at Galaxy’s Edge in Hollywood Studios.
From Rockefeller Center in New York, NY.
And in closing, my new favorite photograph.
In my previous post I speculated on which of the two packages I have shipped over the last few days would arrive at its destination first, thus winning the race. Would it be the USPS package full of 35mm film that shipped out on Saturday or would it be the FedEx envelope with my passport renewal application that shipped out last night?
I have the answer.
The film has arrived at The Darkroom. I can expect my scans to be uploaded to my account in 3-7 business days. In other words, an eternity. Disney and New York on film… coming soon.
It’s weird but I actually have two packages that have been shipped out by me over the last couple of days. One is a passport renewal form that went out via Fed Ex last night and the other is seven rolls of 35mm film* that I sent out via USPS on Saturday. Which will arrive at its destination first? The race is on! In this post-pandemic era of online shopping it’s common to be following packages that are on their way to you, but less common to have to follow packages that are on their way from you. Maybe not. I don’t know. I have to write about something.
Apparently you can spend six months in Scotland without a visa. Who knew? Ireland only lets you stay for three months. England and Wales are also six months, so is that a UK thing in general? What about Australia? I’ve recently watched two television shows that took place in Australia so I feel like I practically live there already. Duck Duck Go (fuck you, Google) says you need to obtain an Australian visa before you arrive. Well that’s no fun. Kevin Garvey, Jr and Nora Durst must have already had a visa when they left Miracle, TX on The Leftovers. Kevin Garvey, Sr… well who knows what that whack job was doing. He sure as hell didn’t.
The Bruins season ended last night on another painful loss. Some teams still have a game left to play, but my team is done. Mercifully. The best they can finish is tied with Philly for last place in the Eastern Conference. The worst they can do is finish in last all by their lonesome. Unfortunately for the draft lottery, there are 4-5 teams out west that will finish with worse records. Not that we have a General Manager who knows how to draft for shit though. In other Boston sports news, the Red Sox actually won a game last night after getting humiliated on Monday night. Fun.
I’m in the office today and tomorrow so the pickin’s for photo a day will be slim. Not that it matters. They are all just pictures of cats anyway. This one for today made use of the iPhone’s low light feature. It works well.
*35mm film refers to the size of the negative… I think. 120 film does not refer to the size of the negative. I read somewhere that it refers to an old Kodak catalog product code. Mentioning 35mm and 120 film in the same sentence makes my ass itch. It’s like doing your physics homework and mixing up your units of measure. It’s like referring to velocity (measured in meters/seconds) and acceleration (measured in meters/seconds squared) as if they were the same thing. I believe the product code for 35mm is actually 135 (not too confusing there, Kodak) but I don’t know what the negative size for 120 film is. I can’t bring myself to call 35mm 135 so I guess I will continue to mix units and have an itchy ass. I could say medium format instead of 120 but that just feels like taking it all a step too far. I don’t know.
In less than 10 hours we will be heading to the airport. Florida is so close. The bags are packed and ready to go. The only thing left on today’s to do list, apart from sleeping, is my daughter Bellana is not here yet. Once she gets here, all of the preparations will be complete.
Disney Bound.
One work day after today. Two days until the first full day of vacation. Three days until we fly to Florida. It is getting harder and harder to focus on anything else. I still need to pack. I still need to decide which film camera and how many rolls of film to bring.
I probably won’t bring any black and white film, unless there is already a roll in whichever camera comes along. Dad’s Pentax is empty at the moment. I’m thinking of bringing that one. We’ll see.
This water fountain is in the hotel we stayed in last time. I just can’t remember which one (we stayed in two last time). It is either Coronado or Saratoga Springs. My beloved bride, Jen, says this was in Coronado. She’s always right.
It is Wednesday. Vacation starts on Saturday, three days from now. The Florida trip starts on Sunday, four days from now. The temperature gauge in my car told me that it was -3 degrees out as I was driving through Wilmington, MA a couple of hours ago. Florida can’t get here soon enough, know what I mean?
This photo is inside a Disney Resort Hotel. That’s why it applies to the topic of this post. It’s not obvious so I figured I’d explain. Maybe I’ll post another Disney on film thing later just to be more obvious. We’ll see.
Five days until the first full day of vacation. Six days until we fly to Florida. We’re starting to finalize our plans for our week at Disney World. There is an after hours thing at Hollywood Studios one night, and another at Magic Kingdom on a different night. The after hours things are fantastic. It feels like you have the entire park to yourself.
One week from today we will be in Disney World again.
Five work days to go…
Six days until we’re on vacation…
Seven days until we’re in Florida.
Oh yeah, and it’s snowing out and we could get eight inches of the shit tonight. Yippee. It’s gonna be a loooong week.
It is just about 2:30pm on Friday January 17th. One week from today I will be post-lunch on the last work day before vacation. How am I going to focus on the real world over the intervening week? The Vacation is becoming an all consuming obsession. Partly because I really want to go, but also because it stops me from stressing about the end of American society on Monday next week.
The first full day of vacation is eight days away. The Florida/Disney World return is nine days away. I can’t wait to go. I can do without the upcoming shit hitting the fan on Monday the 20th though.
Inside the Red Head's Head 