September 9, 2006 by Amy

Shots in the arm and the ego

Date Night was good. Dinner at Brio, then off to the St. Louis Art Fair. M was disappointed, as his two favorite artists were not in attendance, those being “The Rollercoaster Ball Guy” and “The Curvy Furniture Guy.” I, however, got to see a few good photographers, two or three really great photographers, and a couple crappy ones. The other art media were well represented too, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that I tend to hone in on the photographic arts. We were home by a little after nine, and spent until midnight putzing around.

This morning we were up early to get a jump on the day. After feeding Zozo and ourselves, we all buckled in the car for a trip down to SoCo to pick up my prints. A few years ago I hung some prints in the tanning place where my mom rents a room to do her electrolysis, hoping to sell some. I sold two. Not a great return on investment, but whaddya gonna do? Lately I’ve been thinking about them, and decided that if the prints were going to hang somewhere and not make me any money, I’d rather them at least hang in my own home where we can enjoy them.

I think I had built up the excitement too much about getting them back, because I was quite disappointed when I saw them. Maybe it was coming on the heels of seeing those few really great photographers last night. Maybe it was that my taste in frames has changed since a few years ago when I mounted, matted and framed them (I now prefer thick, heavy black frames to standard silver gallery frames). Maybe it was that I feel that my work has evolved and changed, and that I feel capable of much more now. Maybe it’s that I’m sick and tired of seeing all my old work, even though it’s comforting to look at it and think, “That’s not half bad!” Regardless of how I felt upon seeing them, it was good to retrieve it all, even if I do feel like I took a shot to the ol’ ego.

Many thanks to Grammy for meeting us there and taking them all down for us. And for holding on to ZoeGirl while we packed the car. I know that last one was really a chore for ya!

After packing the car with boring art, we headed to Babies R Us to return a couple things, then to Dr. Flug’s for Zozo’s one-year check-up. She’s doing quite well, despite the fact that she has no teeth and, so far at least, has developed an extreme dislike for her sippy cup. We’re to up her caloric intake, which I find highly ironic since Mommy is currently desperately trying to lower her own.

Zozo received two shots in her little arm, during which she screamed like a banshee, but within a minute she was back to her old self, although a bit grumpy due to lack of morning naptime. Back home and down she went for a too-brief nap before lunchtime. Lunchtime consisted of spaghetti and whole milk, and then bits of cheese to the point where M asked if I was trying to fatten her up all in one day.

So, now, she’s back down for her afternoon nap. M is out in the yard plugging away, which means he pulled a bunch of crappy-grass plugs out of the front yard, and zoysia grass plugs out of the back, and is switching them. He’s such a good hubby, working so hard to make our home nice for us. Later this weekend we’re going to the nursery to select shrubberies and other landscaping goodies to spruce up the front yard.

As I type, a crew from Laclede Gas is diligently working across the street to repair/replace our neighbor’s gas line. There’s big truck and two heavy equipment thingys that I’m pretty sure my nephew Joey could tell me the names of. All I know is that they’re making a heck of a lot of noise and our whole house is rumbling. Easy boys, this place needs piering as it is.

One of the crew has been out wandering around our road, signaling when it’s safe for cars to pass and when they have to stop for the backhoes or whatever they are to pull out of the yard. What cracked me up is that after 45 minutes of waving like a madman, he finally walked over to the truck and pulled out a hand-held stopsign to use.

I have such a craving to go over there with the D100 and ask if I can shoot, but they all have official-like hardhats on and they don’t look like they’re in the mood to be trifled with.

Besides, I hear The Bug making noise, which I do believe means she is not napping as she should. Plus, it’s the 9th of the month, which means it’s Bill Time. Not fun, but necessary so I might as well get it over with.