I find myself saying more than I meant to.

Or just not saying anything at all.

The 13th Day of January

Because I have failed so much at my One-Picture-A-Day-In-January-Thing, I'm going to semi-redeem myself by doing two things.

First off is giving you a measly excuse. Pick one to your liking:

1. a. I was busy.
b. I forgot.
c. I fail.
d. I got a new camera for Christmas and I have no idea how to use it. Yet. I'm working on it.

Second is I've decided that I'm going to give you the 13 pictures that you WOULD have received had I done what I had originally said I was going to. But instead of having taken one of these each day, this was me trying to learn my new camera and my new software over the course of the three days after Christmas before I had to start doing homework again (which is what I really should be doing right now). Like with 1, please pick one to you liking.

2. a. My messing around with my camera in my car. I found out how to take Black & White photos on my actual camera and not just through editing. It's the console of my car from where I sit on 6 hour car trips. Can you say fun? No. You can't. Because it's not. Not even remotely.



b. Also taken in the car. In order to add to the fun *cough* we have in the car, we bring out cranky throwing up cats. This was when they were taking a break from blowing out my eardrums. This specifically is Bob sleeping in my mom's lap while she was driving.



c. The bush outside my Grandma's house taken from inside the house with my amazing new zoom. When we arrived it looked something like this, when we left I could see grass. You can imagine my excitement upon arriving back in St. Paul. Ohh the joy.



d. My Grandma's fake Christmas tree. Funny enough, this year she decorated it all alone. My Aunt Jill came over and set up the tree and was going to come over to help my Grandma decorate it, but got super busy so she wasn't able to. So instead, my 87 year old grandma filled a pan full of Christmas ornaments and walked around the tree until she got tired. Sat down. And started all over again. Good going Grandma, it looked amazing as usual!



e. Another view out my Grandma's front window. There were so many icicles when we arrived! I loved how they looked against the grey sky.



f. I don't know why I like this picture so much. There's nothing that's all that pretty about it. I think I like the way that the snow turned out in front of the trash cans. Or maybe it's the contrast between the blue of the cans and the white of the street. Either way, I like it. And now you have to look at it. Ha.



g. This was actually a test shot. My dad was teaching me about the exposures and how to set f-stops because I was trying to get the right settings so that I could take manual shots of the Christmas tree lights (don't worry, I finally got the settings). These are decorations that my Grandma has on her wall. She did the needlepoint herself many years ago and her house if full of them.



h. Speaking/Typing of those Christmas tree lights. I have many of these pictures but this is one of my favorites because of the way that you can see her front bush through the lights. Taking pictures of lights is hard to do. Obviously something I'm going to have to work on.



i. I have found that the best way to take picture of winter is inside. This was from inside my Grandma's front window at the icicles hanging off her roof.



j. More icicles hanging off her roof, except this time the sky was looking really cool.



k. My Grandma's neighbor's trees against the sky. It looked artsy. How could I resist?



l. More Christmas tree lights.



m. The view of the Christmas tree from my Grandma's chair.



n. Technically this is the 14th letter of the alphabet but I couldn't resist. This is my cat. He's crazy.



I'll be adding more later. Probably before the end of January. I hope. But no promises. You know how good at those I am.

Happy New Year!!
<3 e

Too Long

You know it's been too long since you've blogged when Blogger doesn't automatically sign you in...

Being Independent is Different Than Being Alone

I used to think that to be independent you had to distance yourself from others in order to "find yourself."

Dictionary.com defines 'independent' as "not influenced or controlled by others in matters of opinion, conduct, etc.; thinking or acting for oneself."

And, by definition, the easiest way to be independent, or to not be influenced by anyone, would to not be near anyone, or, alone.

But there's a difference between being independent and being alone.

When you are independent you can do things for yourself. You know that other people respect you for the fact that you know what you are talking about. You walk proud of who you are, and who you represent.

When you are alone, you can still be independent, but there are more differences in what you feel. The way you feel when you walk into a room where you used to know that you would sit next to someone, but now you don't. Alone is when even in a room full of friends you don't know what any of them did yesterday.

So, for the New Year, be independent, but not alone. No one wants to feel alone.

<3 e