Yes, I really do! But I'm not just being cute with my lack of capitalization. i like you is a store in Minneapolis that is filled with handmade crafts and gifts, including local art on consignment (the store keeps a percentage of the sale, and the rest goes back to the artist). It's the first place I'm going when I finish making the photo notecards that I'm going to sell in shops around the Twin Cities. There are so many little boutique stores and cafes in this area. I'm really excited about the prospect of making some money from a project that I can do at home at any time. What have I got to lose? I like my photos, so chances are good that other people will too. And buying a notecard is less serious than buying a print or a framed photograph. Eventually I'd love to sell larger prints, but notecards seem more manageable right now. I'm really excited about it, and I've learned that you've gotta follow your excitement. When you do that, things inevitably go your way. I was in a gift shop near my house, checking out their card inventory and asking about their buying policy, and I found a journal with the word "Passion" on the cover, and down in the corner, "every day." I opened it up to a page with this quote:
"You only lose energy when life becomes dull in your mind. You don't have to be tired and bored. Get interested in something. Get absolutely enthralled in something. Throw yourself into it with abandon." - Norman Vincent Peale
I turned a few pages and found this one:
"At last I've discovered the secret: Do whatever your heart leads you to do -- but do it!" - Truman X. Jones
I put the journal back, because heaven knows that I don't need another journal. But after looking around a little more, I went back to the journal and opened it one more time to this quote:
"When you do not tire within but seek the sweet satisfaction of your life and your work, you are doing what you were meant to be doing." - Gary Zukav
With the goosebumps slowly disappearing from my arms, I took the journal to the cash register and bought it. It's going to be the special journal where I write all the ideas that make me excited.
I'm sorry if all of my feel-good inspirational quotes seem a little hokey to you, but I am telling you, people, that it is an amazing feeling to be excited about life again. I didn't know how drained of joy my life had been until I broke free and went to California. Nowadays, even a good cup of freshly-pressed coffee in the morning makes me so damn happy I could burst, and I don't think it's the caffeine. So I am here to tell you: STOP DOING WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL BAD. Think about what makes you feel good and do it. Don't think about the negative consequences, because that's only going to make them happen. Think about how great it feels to do what you love. Don't sit there and dream about a better life. Go out and MAKE it better.
*Whew* Stay tuned for more pep talks in future posts.
Oh, and I got the job at the clothing store. See, what did I tell you? It's magic.
January 10, 2008
January 08, 2008
Track 27: Good Intentions
The title refers to my intention -- ill-fulfilled, thus far -- of keeping this blog up-to-date. I now have Blog Guilt, where "Update Blog" is always on my to-do list, but it always gets put off, and I feel like I'm letting my readers (all 3 of you) down.
I thought it would be fun and good practice to take a picture a day and post them here. My goal was to start January 1. Unfortunately, as you know (unless you live under a rock), today is January 8. Hm. Maybe I should post a weekly photo instead. Temperatures have been hovering around 40 degrees (January thaw! January thaw!), so I should take the opportunity to walk around my new neighborhood and see what jumps in front of my camera.
Here are some updates on things I mentioned in my last post:
- I start school next week! I really couldn't be more excited. I'll be taking four classes; they're all held during the day on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.
- I've been doing a little photo assisting. A local photographer I met a couple years ago has kindly been paying me to help him. It's been mostly clerical work and a couple of small shoots, but it's his slow time and he's promised me that things will pick up in the spring. I feel so incredibly lucky that I've lined up this assisting job without even having gone to school yet. It's going to provide me with great experience that you can't get in a classroom.
- I got an internship at the MN Center for Photography. Starting in April, I'll be assisting MCP with their McKnight Fellowship program. It's four $25,000 grants from the McKnight Foundation given to four photographers. I'll be helping to spread the word about the grants, holding information sessions for photographers who are interested in applying, witnessing the panel reviews and hearing the reasons photographers get chosen, offering support to the grantees, and helping with the final exhibition of the grantees' work. One of the MCP staffers I'll be working with told me it's a primo internship because of all the connections I can make and because I get a first-hand view of the whole process. Whee! We had a "welcome, interns" meeting last night (there are around a dozen of us, all doing different jobs), and I can tell I'm going to fit right in. The MCP staffers are cuh-razy and goofy and fun.
- Keep your fingers crossed, everyone, because I'm waiting to hear if I got a part-time job at my favorite little clothing store that's about a mile from my house. They sell organic cotton and other sustainable and environmentally-friendly clothing and accessories that are also fairly traded and sweatshop-free. Visit the website here. I really really want to work there! I believe it was meant to be, because right after I went in to inquire about a job, one of their employees announced she was leaving. Um, hello? Could the planets BE more aligned?
Since I don't have a new photo yet to post here, I'll post one from the end of my trip to California. As I was driving on I-35 North through southern Minnesota (hardly believing that I was going home, but anxious to get there), the sky behind me started to turn the most beautiful shades of pink and orange. Frustrated that I couldn't see it without turning around to look behind me (not a good idea, obviously, when you're driving 70 miles an hour), I exited the highway and got this photo:
I thought it would be fun and good practice to take a picture a day and post them here. My goal was to start January 1. Unfortunately, as you know (unless you live under a rock), today is January 8. Hm. Maybe I should post a weekly photo instead. Temperatures have been hovering around 40 degrees (January thaw! January thaw!), so I should take the opportunity to walk around my new neighborhood and see what jumps in front of my camera.
Here are some updates on things I mentioned in my last post:
- I start school next week! I really couldn't be more excited. I'll be taking four classes; they're all held during the day on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.
- I've been doing a little photo assisting. A local photographer I met a couple years ago has kindly been paying me to help him. It's been mostly clerical work and a couple of small shoots, but it's his slow time and he's promised me that things will pick up in the spring. I feel so incredibly lucky that I've lined up this assisting job without even having gone to school yet. It's going to provide me with great experience that you can't get in a classroom.
- I got an internship at the MN Center for Photography. Starting in April, I'll be assisting MCP with their McKnight Fellowship program. It's four $25,000 grants from the McKnight Foundation given to four photographers. I'll be helping to spread the word about the grants, holding information sessions for photographers who are interested in applying, witnessing the panel reviews and hearing the reasons photographers get chosen, offering support to the grantees, and helping with the final exhibition of the grantees' work. One of the MCP staffers I'll be working with told me it's a primo internship because of all the connections I can make and because I get a first-hand view of the whole process. Whee! We had a "welcome, interns" meeting last night (there are around a dozen of us, all doing different jobs), and I can tell I'm going to fit right in. The MCP staffers are cuh-razy and goofy and fun.
- Keep your fingers crossed, everyone, because I'm waiting to hear if I got a part-time job at my favorite little clothing store that's about a mile from my house. They sell organic cotton and other sustainable and environmentally-friendly clothing and accessories that are also fairly traded and sweatshop-free. Visit the website here. I really really want to work there! I believe it was meant to be, because right after I went in to inquire about a job, one of their employees announced she was leaving. Um, hello? Could the planets BE more aligned?
Since I don't have a new photo yet to post here, I'll post one from the end of my trip to California. As I was driving on I-35 North through southern Minnesota (hardly believing that I was going home, but anxious to get there), the sky behind me started to turn the most beautiful shades of pink and orange. Frustrated that I couldn't see it without turning around to look behind me (not a good idea, obviously, when you're driving 70 miles an hour), I exited the highway and got this photo:
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