October 31
[Taken October 25, 2007 | Newfound Gap | Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN]
Tonight might be Halloween (Happy Halloween!) but last night was Beggers' Night in my township. I found that out only at the last minute and had to run home from work a bit early so that I could carve the pumpkin and get stuff ready before 6:00 rolled around and the first trick-or-treaters showed up at the door.
Apparently, Beggers' Night was scheduled for Tuesday because Wednesday is the biggest church-going night of the week... besides Saturday and Sunday. My reaction to learning this was a big WTF? It seems to me that the kind of person who would be going to church on a Wednesday is not the kind of person who would be out in costume and asking for candy. Eehh... I guess that is the way it is here in Bible Belt Country.
We didn't get a heck of a lot of trick-or-treaters either... there really aren't a lot of kids in this neighborhood.
Trick-or-treating was only supposed to last from 6:00-8:00. Which also struck me as rather lame. Maybe I am remembering things incorrectly, but it seems to me that when I was little trick-or-treating was always on Halloween, regardless of the day of the week, started as soon as it got dark, and lasted until people turned off their porch lights to indicate that they were out of candy.
I guess that this is just another case of everything always seeming like it was better "way back when I was a kid".
October 22
[Taken October 20, 2007 | Fall Color | Yellow Springs, OH]
This weekend was beautiful, so John and I went hiking in Clifton Gorge near Yellow Springs and admired the changing leaves.
Today it is gloomy and rainy. I hope that it clears up for our vacation, since it is a lot more fun to camp and hike in nice weather then in the rain. Also, rain and digital cameras do not mix very well at all.
I have been working a lot of extra hours lately, to make sure that none of my projects fall behind while I am gone. Man... I am earning this vacation...
October 15
[Taken September 16, 2007 | Sunflower | Dayton, OH]
When I talked to my Mom on the phone last night (after about a week of playing phone tag) she pointed out to me that I hadn't updated this site in over two weeks. (Sorry, Mom!)
Granted, for one of those weeks, I was out of the country (London again) and the entire week that I was back has pretty much been taken up by a heavy project load at work and a heavy event load at the dance studio. So… I think that I have a semi-valid excuse for a bit of procrastination.
This past Friday was the Halloween-themed hafla at the studio, and we (the advanced students at the studio) spent the evenings leading up to it decorating and rehearsing our show piece. Saturday and Sunday were specialty workshop classes taught by Ava Fleming. Ava Fleming is a great teacher, and her classes definitely lived up to her promise that she was going to "kick our asses". Heh.
Because of the aforementioned busy schedule, I am woefully behind in photo editing. I haven't even finished editing and posting all of the photos that I took on my September London trip, and now I have a whole new slew of UK photos to work on. Not to mention the two shows that I photographed at the studio in the last month and a half.
The weather this weekend had better be cold and rainy, so that I have the excuse to just sit in my office, drinking endless mugs of peppermint tea, and editing photos for hours on end.
I really feel like I have to get this backlog taken care of before John and I go to the Smoky Mountains and I come back with a whole new slew of photos.