I have to remind myself that it's ok to take artistic license. I have to get that voice out of my head (my college photography instructor's voice) that says "that's overexposed! you messed with the colors! why all the contrast! enough with the sepia!" and just do my own thing. I think, maybe, some might say it's ok if not every picture looks like it was shot in your elementary school gym, with that ridiculous neon laser backdrop, in 1993. That's what I'm remembering now about that class - the instructor was SO moderate on everything photographic, and he wanted everything to look, I hate to say it, bland.
He'd have failed me for this shot. And I think it's not half bad! Photography isn't really about reality, is it? Otherwise, why would anyone even hire a photographer. I have to stop worrying about my exposure and just get on with it.

I launched my website today! You can see it here. Launching a website involved doing a whole bunch of things I havn't done in a very long time. It was a painstaking process, but overall, I'm satisfied with the finished product. Actually, I'm feeling great about the whole thing. I'm at such a good place in life right now - I've really never been happier, and things just keep improving. I'm really on a roll.

I was the only person to show up to my Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga class today, so my teacher, Shelley, decided she and I would do the ENTIRE primary series. So we did this. Yes, every pose. Did I know I could do a wide-legged forward fold, get the top of my head on the floor, then interlace my fingers together behind my back and leverage my arms onto the floor (3rd row, 9th from the left)? No, I did not know that. But apparently I can. I'm feeling just a little worn out right now, and a bit like my right leg might fall off. I wonder: will I be able to walk tomorrow?

A storm is rolling in and I'm falling asleep. Good night! Tomorrow promises to be an exciting day!

I hate wearing socks to bed. I have to fight off instinct not to take them off when I crawl in. Here's the problem: when I get up in the middle of the night with my little one and put her back to sleep, it then follows that I have to go back to my own room, and if I'm not wearing socks, the sound of my feet peeling off the floor will wake her up, and we'll have to start again. It never used to be hard to put her back to sleep; it took only seconds. Lately it's been a little more difficult, though she's sleeping through more often than not. I've found that she will almost always sleep straight through the night if I wear my socks to bed right from the get-go.

She's begun nodding. She'd been shaking her head "no" for three or four weeks now, and we were trying to get her out of the habit, and then last night she came up to Layton and I on the couch and began nodding with a big, self-satisfied smile on her face. It's too cute.

My cold is all but gone, which is nice and quite amazing. I was so out of it yesterday that I apparently put the grapes in the freezer. Layton discovered this and made fun of me for it, but then left them in there so, really, who's the idiot?

I am sick. I had a bit of a scratchy throat yesterday so I took Cold FX for it (I'm still not convinced that stuff works, but it's certainly worth trying) and woke up in the middle of the night nauseous and with a pounding headache. Luckily, the baby stayed quiet until nearly six in the morning (I know she woke up at one point and played with her crib aquarium, but then went back to sleep) but when I got up with her, I was woozy and ineffective and Layton ended up getting up and sending me back to bed. She still wouldn't go back to sleep so he brought her into our bed, which I don't like to do but I needed the sleep and so did he. The baby and I slept til 8:30, and then I found some daytime cold medication (that stuff definitely works) and got on with the day. I hate being sick. It's especially crappy that I don't get to enjoy the last two weeks (or week and a half, we will see) of my mat leave with a nasty cold. Lovely.