Birthday Blessings

2013 started off really well. I had high hopes and a good feeling about the year. Then the next week and a half walloped me with stress and anxiety and pretty much every other unpleasant emotion you can think of.

And then my birthday rolled around.

I just had a profoundly lovely, low-key day. There was skating and Beaver Tails, beautiful presents from my family, brunch with a couple ladies who I haven't seen for far too long, a leisurely wander through Chapters, good news on the job search front, good news on the PhD applications reference letter front, delightful news about a dearly missed friend coming to visit in about a month, and semi-plans for some future social outings. I've been crying a lot of happy tears today.

P.S. Remember the first time I took a picture of these bolts? I've accumulated...oh, one or two other shots of them since. I took this one when my family was down at Christmastime.

Looking Crazy

I took this photo on my sojourn to Waterfront Park, before I started throwing rocks in the mud. As I was standing there taking photos a guy who was walking his dog came up to me and, with no preamble, said "Once you've seen one mud flat haven't you seen them all?" I explained I was taking a photo of these bolts and we laughed about it, but I didn't explain that I had indeed just spent the last 15 minutes of the mud flats. Who would have guessed that wandering down to the mud flats would garner so many stories?


This little exchange left me thinking. How often do people see me taking photos and think I'm totally crazy? Even I occasionally think I must look crazy. I enjoy looking at things in new and different ways that others might not see. If this makes me a little crazy at times, then so be it. Especially if the result is a shot like this one.