Back from my weekend in the South, sanity still (relatively) intact :) Had a great time, two great photoshoots and got to visit a fair amount.

Thursday during the day I took my dad to the hospital for outpatient sinus surgery (no big deal), then I napped, met my friend Monica for late dinner and hit TBC. Danced the night away to the tunes that dj_spider was spinnin', then went home and got my 2nd day in a row of 4 hours of sleep.

As luck would have it, Thursday night, my aunt from Toronto came down as well, so she, my father and I went to Stowe botanical gardens and Belmont Abbey on Friday morning. Took some cool picts with the fish-eye lens, they're odd, but I wanted to force myself to use it, since it's my lease-utilized lens. Then, late lunch @ Lupie's, an hour nap, and off to do my shoot at the Museum of the New South....for which I've already posted picts :)

After the shoot, hooked up with dj_brians for some darts, and then had a BLAST at Hell on Wheels. I think a lot of people already had weekend plans, and it was somewhat sparsely populated, but from a selfish point of view, all the people *I* wanted to see were there, so hey, I was doing fine :) Huge thanks to seven_hz for letting me spin, and not throwing me out after the Bud Light commercial ;) Breakfast @ San Remo was fun, if only for the conversation partners (ah, hot alternative models...), and then it was back home for sleep (a whole 6 hours!)

Saturday was my "Modern Day Sleeping Beauty" shoot...for which I count myself truly blessed, because all evidence pointed to it being a disaster, and it worked out very nicely. Monica (as always) did an outstanding job with makeup, the location was perfect, and the models were awesome to work with.

I had plans to go out Saturday night, but I wound up going to bed @ 8:30...hell, I guess I'm old these days ;) (Actually, I had no "going out" clothes to wear, and just kinda needed to let my introvert self sleep.)

Yesterday, I spent 12 hours on an Amtrak train. Watched "Seven Samurai" and "Escape from LA"...played a lot of gameboy. Lucked into an almost instant transfer from Amtrak to NJ Transit @ Trenton, and was home by 9:00pm. Cleaned the apartment a bit, and was in bed by 9:45.

Everything came together at the last minute...I had EVERY SINGLE MODEL cancel on me, but somehow we made it happen.

Shot in The Museum of the New South last night with the lovely Merlot.

I'm working on a shoot for Saturday the 29th in Charlotte, and I need a few things...

#1: Ideally, a baby-basket, failing that, a stroller. Something that says "Baby in here" without actually having to show the child.

#2: A syringe. Ideally, an old honking metal one with the loops...but I'll take just about anything.

#3: Suggestions on where to find a metal gurney for a day would be *highly* welcome. I'm willing to rent one if it's not too expensive.

#4: The biggest air-fan I can find ;)

#5: A motorcycle helmet and jacket - preferrably something in bright "racing" colors.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Attention those of you in the Charlotte NC area who care about such things: I will be DJing on Friday, Oct 28th @ http://hellonwheels.vocodex.org/ - That's right, me spinning CDs while you spin around on rollerskates. It doesn't get any better than that while Bella Lugosi is still undead.

Big thanks to seven_hz for the opportunity :)

Ok, I booked my amtrak tickets, so things are (relatively) set in stone:

I'll be leaving Trenton @ 3:19 on Wednesday Oct 26th, getting into Charlotte @ 2:30am on Thursday (I'm a masochist)

Then my train back home leaves Sunday morning Oct 30th @ 7:30, but since I can sleep the entire way, expect me to stay out Saturday night until the wee-wee hours.

Next topic: I'm going to be doing a shoot while I'm down (of course). The theme we're thinking about is "Modern Sleeping Beauty", and I'm looking for models for both the princess and the prince. dj_spider has agreed to be our wicked queen, which I'm totally psyched about. :) I'm also looking for a good location. We have this idea for the princess to be sleeping on a big metal table, the kind you find in restaurants or morgues, but I don't have direct access to either of those sorts of places. Any suggestions or help from people with connections would be awesome.

Ok, it made it to 100 degrees today, and I was outside shooting botanical gardens with my father all morning. (ok, one botanical garden, but still all morning). It was fun, but very very mushiatsuii (literal translation "bug hot").

This evening I went rock climbing, which kicked ass. I went up about 6 times, as well as playing around bouldering. All told, I was there about 2 and a half hours, and I have a sneaking suspicion I'm going to feel it tomorrow. I gots to find me a place in NJ to go climbing though, that was a lot fun :)

Tomorrow morning, going running @ 6:15 with Skip, then back out shooting with Dad again. Tomorrow evening I'm shooting head shots for an MUA friend of mine, and then Thursday morning I'm leaving early for the beach! Ah, vacation :)