Photo Walk

Last Creative Saturday, Laura and I attended an event for photographers called PhotoWalk in Hollywood, Florida. Here’s a recap of what I saw, via the pictures I took:

~ Picaso had the coolest temperament and behaved like a dog ~

~ Laura and I ~

~ Lunch at TGIF's ~

~ Inside Barnes & Noble - our outings are incomplete without a visit to one :) ~

We awoke at 4:30 am that day, and despite going on little sleep, we had so much fun, as always :)

After Barnes & Noble (where I $pent more than Laura this time), we went to Michael's Arts and Crafts  (for watercolor supplies), and then Home Depot to get paint chips for our next Exploration project.  We grabbed stacks of chips, allured by the delicious colors and their corresponding names.  As our stacks increased, so did our paranoia about getting kicked out, so our time there was brief ;).

Anyway, I've been in cocoon/hermit mode this week, trying to get a foothold on myself.  Self-discovery is liberating (enlightening) and at times painful (confronting old demons) ... and frustrating (impatiently waiting for everything to click into perfect place) ... Breathing and Gentleness will get me through ... This "quest" is partly inspired from reading Eat, Pray and Love.

Must. Sleep. Tonight.

Just got done taking a De-Tox bath and am feeling wilty and sub-human ... Feeling the grip of my mortality at the moment, and it's not pretty ...

Taking Valerian. It's early ... Will chase that down with Tylenol PM. I. Must. Sleep. Tonight. Or else.

I started writing last night so I'd have a blog entry for my Tuesday deadline, but after taking time to process pics, it got too late and I was too tired to fiddle with finalizing it.

Will try to get it up tonight so I could mark it off as done.

I've been spending the last week reading about writing novels, and the consensus is one must routinely write without fail, and one must read lots and lots to learn writing style and whatnot.

I don't know if I'm more excited about learning how to write than actually doing it. I started a novel years ago but got lost in Chapter 1. I was intrigued with how characters came to exist ... of the cornucopia of plots that were suddenly handed to me mentally ... But now, the characters and plots are a distant memory, and my desire to weave them back into being has dwindled.

So I've realized writing a novel is something I'd like to do ... I just don't have a must-do feeling about it right now ...

My limited amount of time and energy can only be reserved for pursuing compelling must-do's. The extent of my "must-do" where writing is concerned shall now be reserved for journaling exclusively.

Here, I can write in bite-sized pieces, expressing only those things pertinent to this moment and my current reality.

Anyway, to recount my weekend, it started with me revisiting old flames, like belly dancing and drumming; scanning and processing pictures; and then taking care of chores.

The first part of Sunday was spent taking pics at Green Cay. We were under cover most of the time to avoid the Sun's pummeling heat. Fortunately, we were still able to get shots, as wildlife is always nearby there, regardless of where you stand.

~ Taken within the shaded refuge of a gazebo ~

A last minute craving for Kilwin's brought disappointment when we discovered the store was closed for the holiday ... but the trip to the neighboring Barnes & Noble made up for it!

I brought my tripod in anticipation of getting fireworks shots. Alas, the show was canceled. All was not lost, as we had a blast preparing a faux tuna dish from a recipe in one of my raw food books from Carol Alt. This was done while listening to his Sound of Music CD. It tickled me to know he owned the CD and knew more of the songs and lyrics than I did, lol!

Our dish turned out pretty good. One ingredient was seaweed, so we were apprehensive about how it would affect taste and texture. It was surprisingly palatable ... We agreed the only thing we'd change is the amount of white onions ...

Several hours later it was Monday morning, and we headed to Palm Beach to take architecture shots of the Bethesda Church. We had to work around unsightly scaffolding and rain drizzle, so spent most of our time under cover. After playing on the church's playground we went in search of nourishment.

We dined at a restaurant called Field of Greens in Downtown, West Palm Beach. We intended to eat wraps, but they gave us salads instead. After getting our fill of photo ops in Downtown, we balanced our healthy lunch with the unhealthy Iced Frappucinos at Barnes & Noble and the sweets at Duffy's, where dessert was our our main course ... We tried waiting out the rain to continue our photo excursion at Lox ... only it didn't recede ...

~ Taken under an arid waterfall ~

~ Our Main Course at Duffy's ~

It was jolting to wake to a work day after a sleepless night. ... Took it slow and steady as I put in a full day's work, shop at Publix (yes, I actually went, and right after work, no less ;), and conclude with using the remaining mental and creative wherewithal I have to blog and process corresponding pics.

I pushed aside exercise and chores for another night ... and am still working on getting caught up on on E-mails ...

I. Must. Sleep. Tonight. Or else. So gotta' run!

p.s. I'm so excited that more and more of my girlfriends are starting to blog ... :)