Area 151

Three: it’s a magic number
Yes it is…it’s a magic number
Somewhere in the ancient mystic trinity
You get three as a magic number

The past and the present and the future,
Faith and hope and charity
The heart and the brain and the body
Get you three

Some folks I know have been doing the "Friday Random 10" as a posting habit—which might be fun but I’m trying desperately to get to the end of my CD crawl, so no iPod for me, missy.

Instead I’ve stumbed across "Stuff Portrait Fridays," which is another excuse to take more pictures, which is a good thing for me nowadays.*

Alas, then I got food poisoning Thursday evening (another sick day, and I am honestly wondering if I’m gonna get snarked at for it).  I didn’t start feeling myself uintil late yesterday afternoon, by which time we had a show to attend, and then today’s been all about all the laundry and puttering that didn’t get done yesterday.

So here, almost three days late, are the pictures I had intended to post Friday morning. Good thing I took them Wednesday, eh?

Anyhow…

Nov. 18th – No Kids or Pets Allowed

1) Something that represents your past

I decided to take all of my SPF pictures at the office this week.  Why? Not sure.  Maybe I’m spending so many waking hours there it just seemed worth acknowledging the sheer volume of time invested in that place and the items that reside there.

Anyhow, these are two pictures, engravings of locations in Hudson, OH, where my family and I lived twice (once during preschool through 1st grade, then during my 5th through 8th grade years). The famous (?) clock tower should be visible on the LH print, even with the glare.

These are doubly past-significant. In addition to representing on of my many childhood homes, these prints were pictures Dad had in his office for years.  The next transfer and promotion would come along, we’d wrap them in bubble wrap for the new Monsanto location, whether it be St. Louis, Brasil, or New Jersey.  Two years ago, when he was retiring, and I was starting my current job, we put them in bubble wrap again: this time into the trunk of my car and onto my own office walls.

2) Something that represents your present

This is a glimpse of the array of papers and files, and dayplanner entries clamoring for my attention. The job’s been stressful lately, what can I say?

Also to be seen on this corner of my desk: the coffee mug and water bottle with which I try to balance the unhealthy desire for caffeine with a more virtuous effort at hydration. They get washed every evening, refilled every morning (and then throughout the day as required). The square-note chant reminds of of my singing days, and the water bottle is purple because so many good things in life are. Observant lookers will also notice Cluck, my beloved stress chicken, peeking out from behind the pencil cup.

3) Something that represents your future

No big future plans in my life as of this moment.  More work, more life, more efforts to get the house and my weight under control. So I cheated on this one by taking the really easy way out.

It’s my 2006 desk calendar. Next year, that’s the future, right?

Yeah, minus ten points for poor effort. Do I at least get some virtue points for being organized enough to have said calendar safely stowed away for when the caledndar turns over to next year?

So that’s my first attempt at stuff portraiting.  Maybe next week I’ll do it on time so that I can then look at everyone else’s work when they post it…

* I’ve always wanted to be an artistic-type, a desire only confounded by my thorough lack of talent.  But I have hopes that I can develop camera technique where I was never able to develop drawing or painting…