Beginnings

If you had told me five years ago that I'd be sitting at my house*1, waiting on my girlfriend to get home from work, because I was bored out of my mind on sick leave from work after surgery for a herniated disc in my back*2, I would probably have told you that seemed an unlikely scenario. Ok. Maybe not exactly. Anybody that really knows me knows I most likely would have looked at you like you were an idiot and then proceeded to ignore you.

Hey I never claimed to be Ms Congeniality.

Yet, here I am, 27 years old*3 and I'm recovering from back surgery.*4 Back surgery! Isn't back surgery for old people, or in the very least people that were born with some sort of preexisting back condition? I would have never in a million years thought I'd have back surgery in my twenties. I guess it shouldn't come as any surprise though. I'm overweight and I make a living taking care of other people's toddlers. And I'm not exactly overly cautious about how I'm bending and twisting and moving my back. *5 So, okay, I guess I shouldn't have thought recouping from back surgery was that unlikely a scenario.

I'd be lying if I said I was sad about missing the next 4-6 weeks of work. Don't get me wrong. I kind of like my job on most days. But honestly, I stopped loving my job a couple years ago. Again, don't get me wrong. I love the kids. I just don't love the job much anymore. Most days I feel under appreciated and way under paid. Mostly under appreciated though, because we all know that people that go into the child care profession aren't doing it for the money.

My dream is to become a freelance photographer and have my photos published in newspapers or magazines or anywhere they could be enjoyed by other people. Don't worry, I'm not under any delusions that I would make any more money doing that, but at least I would be doing something I truly loved! And until I figure out how I can actually get my foot in that proverbial door, I'll have to stick with the kiddos while I enjoy photography as a hobby.

So, from here on out, this blog will be a virtual showcase for my pictures.... with a few stories along the way, I'm sure...

I'll leave you with a picture from my latest photo shoot:

How would you like to run into this sucker while walking out your back door?

You'd think as a wannabe photographer I would always carry my camera with me. I guess that's why I'm a wannabe and not an actual photographer. My wonderful girlfriend had to make a detour after work on her way to my parent's house to pick up my camera so I could take pictures of the cool web. My mom had picked me up on her way home from work last night (cause I still can't drive after my surgery) so that I could get out of the house and sit on someone else's couch for a few hours. When I got to her house, I saw that a spider had made this cool web right outside their sliding glass door to the backyard. To my utter delight while I was waiting for the sun to go down so that I could attempt to get a picture of just the web, the spider returned home! It made the picture of a pretty ornate web ten times better!

*1By "my" I mean a house I purchased, not my parent's house, and not an apartment.
*2 Let's see how many different prepositional phrases I can get into one fragment
*3 Which I'd like to think is the new 17 since 50 is the new 40, 40 is the new 30, and so on. Right?
*4 Yes, in my own home. Though I had help from the love of my life, whom I met two years ago on an online dating site. That's a story for another day though.
*5 In other words, I'm fat and spend my days heaving around heavy kids that aren't even mine while I have no regard about the damage I'm doing to my back.