Lent and the Race for the Cure

Had a conversation with Paul this evening about lent. At first I was adamantly of the opinion that since I am no longer a practicing Catholic it would be a bit hypocritical (and useless) of me to decide that I was going to "give something up" for the next 40 days. My experience with lenten promises growing up have always been a lot like New Year's Resolutions- entirely selfish and impossible to stick to. We spent a lot of time in 3rd period religion discussing how well we had fulfilled our promises and how we could do better.

But then I thought about it a little longer, and I think all the old Catholic guilt started to churn itself up again. So I'm going to try something. It does combine a good deed with a selfish motive, but then there's this whole discussion of whether the good deed itself can ever be anything other than selfishly motivated, and I don't want to get into all that now. I have been thinking about taking part in the local 5k Race for the Cure for a while now, to get out and do something active, to take part in some sort of social event, and...well...because it's a good cause, right? Well, at least that part made the list somewhere.

The point is, I'm going to do it. My deed for Lent will be to actively raise money for the Komen foundation and take part in the 5k on March 21. If you would like to help out without all the pesky being outside, running around business, you're welcome to pile on the guilt to make sure I stick to my goals, click here.

And anyone who wants to have that conversation about intentions and the selfishness of the "good" that we decide to do for the world and our fellow man, just let me know. Only not tonight, I need a few hours of sleep before I tackle that.

More Excuses

I have roughly an hour before I drive to Comeaux High School to inflict all manner of photographic horror on their unsuspecting basketball team. That's right, a year after my graduation from LSU with my hard-won creative writing BA, I'm photographing sports teams for Jeff Nemetz Photography. I know anyone reading this will already know that, but some things are just so completely wrong that they have to be restated every once in a while, lest they be accepted as normal whims of fate. Let it be known: I have not resigned myself to a lifetime of Abbeville and making barely enough money to pay my rent every month. Not that there's anything wrong with Abbeville, actually since I'm not in high school here anymore the place has rather grown on me. And it's not that I mind the studio, I gave up my boyfriend and my life in Baton Rouge to come back here and make it the best studio in the area again; plus, where else am I going to find a boss who will let me take three weeks off with some of his best camera equipment to photograph Scotland this summer? I think I can resign myself to not making as much money as any of my friends, as I discussed with Erik a few days ago, I might have to save for longer to make it happen, but when there's something I want to do I have the freedom to do it.

So that's what I've been doing, in this year I haven't been posting anything- taking advantage of the freedom I suddenly remembered I have. I watch nerdy, nerdy things on TV and stay up all night reading novels; I went to the New Kids on the Block concert last October; I'm taking belly dancing lessons in Lafayette; and in July I'm taking three weeks off to see my friends from Essex. I wasn't always so happy about living alone or the fact that most of my friends are an ocean away, while my terrible ex has our dog, all the video game consoles, and a new live-in girlfriend already...but when I realized what I was giving up in order to have him in my life, well it turns out it really wasn't much of a sacrifice. Plus, I have the freedom now to buy healthy food and keep the treadmill out in the middle of the living room without getting fussed at, so compared to the day he ended things I look amazingly hot. Relatively speaking, of course; we're still working on that one.

So I suppose the only thing left to do is to find some use for that degree. If I can work up the nerve to order around a dozen or so high school boys and produce pictures I'm not ashamed to sell to their mothers (something God never intended I should do, photographic talent is not handed down through the genes, let me tell you), then this should be easy. Best laid plans, though...would you like to know how many blogs I am now pretending to regularly author and update? Imagine me attempting to keep to some editors deadlines without taking to chain smoking and regular fits of hysterical sobbing. Actually, that sounds a lot like my last semester of fiction writing...