the real life

This task can seem very daunting. You can't begin to imagine what it takes to write, I mean to take time out of your busy day of doing 'nothing' and seriously write. I thought I would make a mental note of my thoughts today at work. But somewhere between retouching photos of some 2,000 women(I exaggerate, only slightly) I had some great thoughts leave me. I stared at the monitor awhile and have come to grips that like people you meet in life, look away and your words are gone.

So enough of that, new thought is photography. Since moving back to the Beautiful St. Pete area, I haven't seriously taken any shots that I want to share of my surroundings. I took some people shots in Alabama, ahem to the previously mentioned Wal-Mart experience, but that was just merely an excercise in "Hey, there's omar. Where's your camera?" I'm not even a professional photographer, so as an amateur, I have suffered a photoblock. The Rocking New Year's eve party/art trade is still going on, I think it's still up for grabs on location, but I haven't had the time to put thought in my presentation pieces for the event.

I have dropped the ball for the last 2 years and I'm upset that I've let it happen. This year I've got more brain-thought into it, but the focus is slipping. I'll be spending the New Year's holiday w/ Shawana's family and friends in the great magnolia state "Mississippi".

My past feelings about this state had it and its inhabitants classified around the level of Georgia in my mind. I don't hate Georgia, I don't hate Mississippi (and for having such a long name, we will now refer to the Magnolia state as MS). I really don't know enough about MS to hate it. I've never been there and it was only till recently that I've had any interaction w/ someone who claims MS as their birthplace. Of course I've known MS from movies (MS Burning, Burning in MS, A Time to Kill) and a great tv show that my sister, Sharifa, and I watched religously everyday, In the Heat of the Night. Man, I thought Bubba was the shit on that shows. So there is the base of my MS knowledge. It has been enough so far to keep me out of the state. I always had the thought in the back of my head that the klan and the local sheriffs would be sitting at the border handling the "census" of the black folk population in their state, especially the foreign ones who hail from the North and are doing 5mph over the speed limit. I'll admit to those thoughts now as being totally senseless. But that is because my ignorance has been corrected from meeting some of MS's finest people.

So back to New Year's. Shawana has 2 weeks off for Christmas (damn!), so she'll be spending some time w/ her family in Kosciusko (took me many tries to spell that before asking Shawana how to), about an hour or so outta Jackson, MS. I'll be joining her on New Year's Eve for a couple of days in the country. I'm very excited to check it out, even though I've been told many, I mean many many times that there is nothing to see or do out there. But I'll be there w/ camera in hand to share the experience.