Honored

Check out my step daughter, getting honored by her college. I promise she’s in this photo.

I promise she’s in this one as well, though she’s a smidge on the blurry side.

Thesis

We just came from the college of arts and sciences award ceremony. Bellana was recognized for completing the honors college thesis paper and defense.

I am so proud I might spontaneously combust.

We are going to take her out to dinner tonight because it’s also her 22nd birthday. It’s just a big day all around.

In Vermont

We are at the hotel. No interesting pics yet, but these exist so here they are.

Packed

I just packed a backpack full of camera gear. Three cameras, two 35mm and one mirrorless, four lenses in total, and six fresh rolls of film. Also a shit load of various Apple chargers, a small food scale, and a couple of camera chargers.

Tomorrow I’ll put my MacBook Pro and probably my iPad into the bag too. Then I need to pack a bag full of protein bars and go to the grocery store to buy a shit load of water bottles and sugar free gatorade to put into a cooler that I want to keep in the car. I need to get ice too.

The only other thing left to pack is one collared shirt that I washed earlier today that is hang drying in the cellar. Tomorrow morning I’ll throw that in the suitcase.

Oh yeah! I also need to pack a travel shaving kit, a tooth brush, and some deodorant.

All of this for four days in Vermont.

Totally worth it. I can’t wait.

Four Day Weekend

I am on a four day weekend. I am also suddenly super exhausted.

I don’t think those two things are related but who knows, maybe they are?

Happy four day weekend. We’re goin; road trippin’, babie!

Stomach Ache the Next Generation

Bad reactions to food on Sunday and Monday. Migraine on Tuesday. Bad stomach aches all day on Wednesday. Mostly okay except for a bad lunchtime food reaction on Thursday. What does the shit roulette wheel have for us on Friday?

Another stomach ache. But it feels different today. It’s not an oh I think I might be hungry kind of ache. Today it’s more like a you are disagreeing with something you ate last night kind of ache. Lots of gas, eating doesn’t help at all. I’ve had eight ounces of water, a protein bar, and a little protein snack. Still feeling it pretty much exactly the same as when I woke up.

Shit.

The good news though is that I have watched the season two premier of Yellowjackets. You know that show, the single most fucked up thing on television at this point in time? Yeah, that one. Great freakin’ show that is seriously disturbing while also really funny. No spoilers but the first episode was excellent and the last second reveal at the end… ewwww.

I checked the forecast for the weekend. Guess what’s not going to be out in the morning on either Saturday or Sunday. Go on, guess. You know it… the sun. No sunrise pics for me this week. It’s getting to the point where I might start taking this personally.

If we go to California in the fall, should I think about making a photo book for fun? Not like, oh I took a bunch of pictures so let’s throw the best ones into a book type of thing. More like planning out what I want to see in it and then trying to take pics that make it happen. Something like that. I’m sure I can get that done super cheap through Shutterfly or something. Maybe I can talk Jen into going up to the mountains a lot this summer and I could do something similar there. Just a thought. I like projects sometimes, you know? Like creative projects and stuff. I’m old, leave me alone.

The cats are in the cellar with me but they are avoiding me. I don’t think they like me very much. Sad face.

Unrelated productivity note: I am watching a youtube video of a guy using a folding camera from 1940 with a discontinued film format that expired in 1970. He’s in his home office talking about how he handled the ISO on the expired film and he’s standing in front of a white board that’s hanging on his wall. That’s super cool, of course. The stand out thing though, is that he has a Texas Instruments TI-83 calculator velcro’d onto the white board. Oh my god my nerd brain just exploded with how awesome that is! KaBoom!

Commute

I made it to work this morning with virtually no traffic. One douche canoe cut me off and I had to hit my breaks. Another douche nozzle tried to stop at the top of an on-ramp and then pull into traffic four feet in front of me without speeding up first. Other than those two schmucks the drive in was event free.

The post-storm sky was interesting though.

10 Month Weigh In

Today is March 4, 2023. It has been exactly 10 months since my gastric bypass surgery. I am having a tough time accepting that that much time has passed. 10 months? That’s insane. It feels like yesterday.

I weighed myself this morning when I woke up. I am down 1.4 pounds since Wednesday’s weekly weigh in. I weigh 216 pounds exactly. My BMI dropped from 26.5 to 26.3. My weight since surgery has gone down 215.4 pounds, and the loss since the first weigh in is now at an astonishing 236 pounds.

I finished my exercise a few minutes ago. I jogged in place (yogged) for a faux five miles. I haven’t been feeling well for the second day in a row. I have been dealing with the lightheadedness quite a bit today. I need to go make myself some lunch and put a lot of salt on it and see how that goes. Air fried potatoes, maybe?

On an unrelated note, I put in for some time off from work in the fall. There may be another vacation to someplace warm and sunny later in the year. I’ll let you know. I don’t know if I will be able to hold the traveling jones at bay until fall though. New York and Mountains and other places within driving distance are seriously calling to me.

Running Late on a Friday Morning

I didn’t get out of bed until almost 6:00am, which is almost an hour later than I was hoping to get up, and then got wrapped up in a couple of things and didn’t get to my morning joggin’ (yoggin’) until after 7:00am. Yikes!

While exercising, I watched a youtube video with two film guys gone shootin’ in New York. I thought to myself, self? You and your wife are going to New York this weekend, damn it! Then I checked the weather and saw we’re getting a foot of snow starting tonight and ending sometime tomorrow night.

Shit.

No New York this week. No ocean pics, no nothing pics outside of the house. What a waste. We need to go to New York soon though, and I need to take one of the film cameras with me. There. I said it. New York on film, babie! It’s going to happen. The sooner the better. I used to write all of those Stir Crazy Files posts in the early days of the pandemic lock down, but this one is stir crazy for really reals. I need to get out of the house.

My mother’s big brother is out of the hospital. I am happy. We needed some good family news, and now we have some. Continue to get well, Uncle Jim.

Jen is having computer problems. Last night I went to Micro Center in Cambridge, MA to get some components that might help, but apparently they aren’t. We might have to fly back there tonight after work, assuming the snow doesn’t come early. The Bruins aren’t playing tonight, but the Celtics have a home game at 7:30. We’re bound to hit rush hour traffic plus Celtics traffic, but it will be okay. Assuming the snow doesn’t come early. Fingers crossed.

Okay. It’s 8:24 and I still need to shower and shave and get dressed before punching into work at 9:00. I am way behind schedule today. I hate this feeling.

I am going to cheer myself up by sharing one of my favorite film shots from the Disney World trip in January. This is my road tripping travel companion love of my life woman of my dreams wife Jennifer. I absolutely adore this picture. It’s my favorite film shot by far. By miles. By astronomical units. By light years. I love her and I love this photo of her. How could you not fall head over heels in love with that smile?