January 5, 2007 by Amy

Eyeglass Lenses or Camera Lenses

Ahhhh. Friday. Finally. At last.

Several good things about today:

1. The Zoemobile is back in commission.
2. Nothing but “fun” stuff planned this weekend. Not that the holidays weren’t fun, but that whole “getting ready for the holidays” stress sorta carries over. This weekend has just a few fun things tucked into an otherwise perfectly normal weekend. Perfect.
3. Going bowling with the cousins tonight. These cousins are much fun to hang out with. We never fail to have a great time when we’re with them. And, as usual, we’re doing something competitive, which always means lots of trash talking and swagger and insults. Good times.
4. Eating Dewey’s Pizza tonight with aforementioned cousins, which alone would make today fantastic. If you’ve never had Dewey’s, you’re missing out. Locations in Kirkwood and U. City. And no, I don’t get a kickback from Dewey’s for posting this. It’s just great pizza and I like to share great things.
5. My Christmas stuff is almost all down. I only have the tree and the trainboard left, and I can bang those out in no time. The rest of the house is D-O-N-E. I love the holidays and the decorations, but I also love getting my house “back.”
6. I’ve just started re-reading Edward Weston’s Daybooks. Weston is my all-time favorite photographer. Paul Strand is right up there with him, but Weston rocks the house all the way around. I read his Daybooks about once a year, and it is always inspiring to me. This man dedicated his life to his art, foregoing luxuries (both major and minor) in the pursuit of better photography.

Weston has taught me priorities. “You may have to give up this in order to get that.” In his case, it was sometimes food vs. film. I’m not really in that dire of straits, mind you, but I try hard not to be materialistic. I try hard to not want things just to want them. Most of the time I succeed. Sometimes, however, I fail miserably.For instance, next Thursday I will fail miserably when I purchase new eyeglasses. Now, there are two sides to this. The first side, the justification side (or Prada side, if you will), says that these new glasses, which are more expensive than my old glasses, are richly deserved after 4.5 years of the old ones, and are necessary to create the sort of image a person in my position in my industry should have. They are also just another step in my effort to improve my appearance, along with losing weight and wearing nice, tailored clothing and sunblock on my face every day. The second side, the Weston side, says that I ought to just be happy wearing anything, as long as I can see clearly, and instead I should look at what new camera lenses are available, or find some really great photo paper, or take another photography class. Or, even better, just shut up and shoot and don’t spend any money at all, except for paper and ink…the “consumables” of my art now that I’ve gone digital.These two sides are warring quite a bit. Prada is winning, much to the horror and dismay of Weston.