This is an aside from the regular story, since it was sprinkled all throughout.

Anyway. For months I�d promised myself that I�d get back to my art when I had free time�and here was a city that was ripe with opportunity. At first I was a little shaky, but I quickly got back into the rhythm of composing and taking shots. I took the first few with Sylph on the phone, actually. Somehow that made the experience really pleasant; hadn�t ever shared the experience with someone. Mostly I�ve stuck to doing downtown/urban shots this trip. There was one time a few nights back when one of Nicholas� friends, Jason (or Jackson #2 as the inside joke goes), accompanied me out to where he�d walked a lot. We were still several blocks from The Projects, but I was damn glad that he was out there with me. I found it odd but cool that he took such an interest in my photography. I�d banter about this or that thing and he�d nod. He had a good eye about him too. I got 4 print-worthy shots that trip. I wish you could see some of the sketches he�s done; that�s some amazing artistic talent.

I�d also gotten a series of shots over at P�s place, who (at the time) was Nicholas� boyfriend. Those consisted of this lit-up tiny tree outside and the frozen lake out in back. The near full moon helped too.

There�ve been some lulls here and there because of lots of good and bad shit going on, but as it stands I already have a lot to upload�and I�ve already edited all the shots. Just need to slap on borders.

So like I mentioned before, I�d spent a few days over at Nick�s mom�s place, then went with Nick to stay at the new downtown apartment. We did a lot of stuff and nothing at the same time for three days. I can�t even recall what we did, but it involved either waiting around a lot or doing cool things.

One pleasant and notable day was when I finally got to meet Caribbean J. Nick and I had dodged down to where she was staying with T, her man and a mutual friend of ours. J, Nick and I talked with T�s family and each other for awhile before we went our separate ways. J and I ended up having a 5 hour lunch at Rhed Lobster. I still can�t believe I ate all of that food, and damn but it was good. Ye gods we had a great time. She laughed, I laughed, we covered all the essentials and all sorts of interesting topics. The time flew by.
Nick had called me and mentioned that P wanted to hang over at P�s place, and I think I was invited�and somehow J got invited too; I think I asked since Nick called while she was in the car with me. J and I decided that we�d wait a few hours until T got off of work, since he deserved a relaxing time with friends and new people. So to kill time, J and I ended up going back to T�s place and talking with his family. Oddly enough, the history channel got us to talking about apocalyptic Christianity, fundamentalism, and then abortion.

After that sojourn into the vastly uncomfortable, it was finally time to pick up T. This was also the first time I�d met him, and I got an unexpected but pleasant hug when I greeted him. Seems like everyone I know nowadays is or was from this section of the �net.

I spent most of the time at P�s doing photography, truth be told. Everyone but P knows how I am about that sorta thing, though, so it wasn�t too vastly weird. Nick occasionally went outside to smoke and looked on from across the way. The way, in this case, was 1 foot deep snow that I�d navigated with T�s big-ass boots. It was fun.

And coming up on the next episode: Getting lost, more lost, and even more lost still; arguing about the metaphysical nature of humankind in a Jacuzzi; other assorted bits.

previous - next