Always Busy

Somewhere between the small business meeting and today, I attempted volunteering at the local Humane Society, saw Aerosmith, shot mostly nude pregnant photos of my cousin, attended said cousin's baby shower, and saw my queenie Jordan win the Miss Chemung Drag Queen Pageant. I really have no room to complain about my life's activities. 

Can't volunteer until we take the training course, and that won't be offered until October, but you best believe Casey and I will find ourselves there asap for it (and it won't stop us from going, say, this afternoon because Casey wants to donate cat food). 

Aerosmith is old. But they put on a decent show still. Our seats were ungodly far away, but it was so so good to see HannerMuffin again.

My cousin loves getting her picture taken, and her style pregnancy shoot is the sort that I prefer doing, so I'm beyond thrilled that I have some solid advertising photos to work with now. Her baby shower was darling.

And finally, my bffqueen Jordan, aka Miranda Moreae, won the whole shebang Sunday night, and I couldn't be more proud. 

(Sorry it's sideways & dark, I haven't had a chance to edit them at all)

I also got to meet Angel, my employer for the Mr. USofA Pageant -- FINALLY DETAILS!!!:

I am the official photographer for the Mr. USofA Drag King Pageant, taking place September 18th at TREXX in Syracuse NY! It's hosted by the one and only Pandora Boxx (cohosted by local favorite Dusty Boxx) & LOGO TV is supposed to be there, and I'm just wicked excited to be a part of it. Manning is coming into town to see it and I'm renting a hotel room so that everyone can crash with me for the night after the show. It's going to be a blast, the women are going to be handsome and sexy men, and if you're available/in the area, I had best see you out there supporting!

Today is the first day of classes for most colleges (specifically Caz) and frankly, I feel no loss or heartbreak over not getting up at 815 for an 830 class today. Instead, I set my alarm for 830, crawled out of bed at 9, made some coffee, and have been working on my ad for the Mr. USofA Pageant ever since. 

My own coffee mug. My own advertisement. In my own command center green Salvy chair. No grades or bra required.

I love my real world too much to miss classes right now.

woot small business!

Yes, I wore suspenders to my small business councelor meeting. What of it?

Meeting went so well! I had basic questions and got my basic answers, and an accountant referall, something I was nervous about. I am also pretty set on joining the September class - it's 3 Wednesdays, all day, and they have all sorts of speakers coming in such as lawyers, accountants and other successful small business owners. I think it'll definitely be the best $60 to invest in this business so far. 

Once those basics were covered, we discussed my marketing strategy (or lack thereof) and my need to revamp my branding before I start advertising. She gave me a bunch of questions I need to answer before I can move forward, otherwise I won't know what I'm moving forward to or from (would that make me go backwards?). I can't wait to start but I have a slew of other loose ends to tie up before focusing solely on the actual "business" side of work.

From there, I told her my immediate future plans and lack of private work space. She offered me her house, in exchange that I let her dog out in the afternoon when no ones home before work - ridiculous and totally feasible & loveable offer, something I definitely didn't expect to discuss during this meeting! I just might take her up on it. It'd give me somewhere to "go to work" every day, and it'd benefit her family. Can't really argue with an offer like that...

Bought some vanilla creamer (for my pending coffee addiction), blue staples & reorganized my entire desk, including the box of desk supplies just cluttering my space left over from school.  

I think I'm finally ready to take this seriously. 

This afternoon I'm going to the Humane Society shelter with Casey to find out about volunteering with the animals each week - a goal I've had for a few years now, and actually have the means to pursue finally.

Time to answer a few emails, apply for my EIN, take the KGB test for some randomass income, and shoot a call to my first boudoir client, promptly followed by as much attempt to wrap up the wedding edits as humanly possible before tomorrow.

How productive were you before noon?

I wanna make stuff. 

There are a whole lot more meaningful things I could say today, but that's all I'm preoccupied by right now. I just wanna make stuff. 

Tshirts and a Halloween costume, in particular, but the details aren't necessary.

The last few days have been full of some of my favorite people, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Ithaca and drag and roller disco and pancakes and reminiscing and movies and snuggling.

(My new salt and pepper shakers! Aren't they beauties?!!)

Today & tomorrow are biddness, Thursday is for fun (Aerosmith concert!!), Friday is for catching up / a Preggers shoot with my cousin, Saturday is a baby shower, Sunday is a drag pageant, and I go back to real life on Monday, with all the edits and emails like usual. 

I just wanna make stuff.

Quickie

Must have been some crazy-ass 24 hour thing, because today I feel fantastic in comparison. 

Been being a good little biddness photog (and, might I add, an excellent friend / care-package sender) all day. I'm wrapping up some edits still now, but I wanted to let you all know that I am more than alive and more or less healthy.

One last thing: WHY haven't I found or made a pair of these yet?

Too cute. Want.

Got some cute to share with me? 

I'm sort of grossly out of character cute feeling lately. I know who to blame.

Really?

What has two thumbs and a fever in August?

This kid.

Who honestly gets flu symptoms in one of the hottest months?

I've had a fever since yesterday afternoon, slept like hell (if you could call it sleep at all), and felt like death this morning.

Mommy got me flu medicine, juice, jello, toast, and Vanity Fair while I was bedridden because she's the best (and thankfully Mondays are her days off so I had someone to whine to in my feverish stupor this morning). 

Feeling all over insanely achey, even typing hurts my fingers to be completely honest. 

I'm hoping this goes away tomorrow, I don't have time for this. Today was enough time wasted.

I really hope it isn't actually the flu. I especially don't have time for a real illness.

But, do you really think early flu symptoms would keep me from my 6Bests Dinner Date? You'd be sadly mistaken.

This kid is a trooper.

PS

This is my 201 post. 

I thought maybe I'd share some fun sites, on the offchance you were unaware of them.

www.fuckyeahtattoos.tumblr.com

http://dearblankpleaseblank.com/

http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=47670

http://twitter.com/shitmydadsays

enjoy!

Another Week

I've gotten so terrible at updating in a timely fashion. 

It has been such a great week that started out merely as a great weekend. Unforeseen events extended it into a great week. There's no comparison. 

I got to see some of my favorite people, do my favorite work, and on top of everything, I FINALLY found my bike!!!!

 (Pre-wash & new tires, added today)

(Jill went to town cleaning up the handlebars for me, they were BROWN.)

I've been searching for a bike with fenders all summer long. This one just popped up in Lisle, NY on the  way to Ithaca a day trip. With some elbow grease and a whole lot of tire replacement, my baby is all cleaned up and works. The tires are... sort of bent, so when I go slow, it sorta... wobbles? But it's also raining right now, so I'm not going to take a "real" picture, and my first ride was... soggy. 

BUT It's BEAUTIFUL!!! Needs a paint job, due to the rust spots, but I can wait on it because the current color (where it still looks shiny) is gorgeous. 

In. Love.

In other news, Jill & I made a road trip to see Miss Manning and Agent Sculley - the pool was beautiful, the sun was out, Manning made a pizza, and there were mustaches by the end of the night.

I'm really happy these days. 

How happy have you been this week?

Wow I suck

So sorry for the lack of updates - I was in Maine for the past week, and while I want to tell you all every detail of the trip, I'm sort of exhausted with telling everyone stories in person. I will say I definitely needed the vacation, and it was so refreshing to see Kate again. The wedding was beautiful, the weather was beautiful, even the food all week was beautiful!

Coming home felt so good though. I missed my own bed. I missed my NY traffic (as opposed to the shit I put up with in the other states we traveled). I missed beer in my fridge (as opposed to being told they couldn't accept out of state IDs, they'd only serve under 25 at the concert, and having everyone do a double take to my ID ["You... don't look like this at all...? Did you dye and cut your hair or something?" well yes, actually, that photo is almost 2 years old... sorry I grew up.]). 

Home is good. Always busy. I'm shooting the Miles Wedding tomorrow, with several smaller senior shots in the line up but none totally booked yet, as well as a children's shoot early next week. Still working out the kinks in a contract for September (which I'm glad I didn't share details about yet because it's been up in the air for a few weeks now...) I am scheduling a small business meeting with a counselor for sometime in the next 2 weeks and working out the legal/financial side of things that I haven't been able to navigate myself yet. 

In other news - super random: I might become a part time semi professional house sitter? (Go figure, my favorite hobby is sitting.) Warren's contacted me about sitting again with the dog & cats while he's in Canters this fall. This will be a much more extended stay than last time, and I will certainly be able to freelance during the stay. This takes a whole lot of pressure off of looking for another "real" job this winter while I have no studio and will be struggling a bit to make photo ends meet. This summer has been pretty productive but not in a personal way - I still don't have a puppy and I still don't have any apartment prospects.

BUT there's a bright side! If I'm not paying rent, house sitting makes total sense because I won't be living in one place, and paying for another at the same time. 

I have had another offer sort of on the table about sitting for a short vacation in Binghamton, but he hasn't gotten back to me yet. Good thing pets tend to like me, I like sitting houses with pets for me to play with and smother with attention and love. 

In other other news - this weekend is looking to have great weather,  so I'm wholeheartedly expecting inspiration everywhere, wrapped up with fun and popsicles (& kisses).

What have you all been up to?