Vegas

The time has finally come. Tomorrow I will step on a plane bound for Las Vegas, Nevada. I've never been before but I've heard lots of great things. I probably won't be doing a whole lot of gambling, but I definitely plan on sightseeing. I've already booked a reservation for The Neon Boneyard, a huge lot that contains several defunct casino signs. Oh, and don't worry. There will be picture taking.

This evening I finally broke down and bought a record player. Corley and I were at Target where I bought a new backpack and shoes when we discovered this little beauty. It's pretty nice and it sounds great. I inherited a small collection of records from a friend and have been wanting to buy a record player since receiving them. I hadn't seriously gone through them until tonight when I discovered I had Michael Jackson's Thriller ON VINYL. "Holy damn!" I exclaimed as I held the record in my hands. I proudly presented it to Corley who squealed in delight and insisted we play it next. Listening to it now.

As for the rest of the collection, I have several Bill Cosby, George Carlin, National Lampoon, Steve Martin, and Richard Pryor albums to work my way through. I found a Ramones album and some Bing Crosby christmas albums as well. Clearly a very distinctive collection.

1,000

Well, more like 1,002. Either way, I finally hit 1,000 photos uploaded on Flickr! It's a milestone! Granted, I have taken about 5,300 photos since I got my camera, but only 1,000 of them are good enough for Flickr.

In other news, Corley left for Port Aransas this evening. You may have heard about it. She's down there with her family for the weekend so it's up to me to entertain myself.

Also, I will be applying for my dream job in the next week. Pixar has an opening for a graphic designer at their studio in Emeryville, CA. I am mostly qualified for the position and while my main goal is to actually get the job, my more realistic goal is to get an interview. If I don't hear anything after a month I'm going to apply again and keep applying until they tell me to stop.

Running on fumes

For the past two weeks I've been flying solo at my job. The only other artist there got canned for no good reason and that leaves me in charge of all things art. I am now responsible for absolutely everything which includes embroidery, something I know little about. I've slowly been learning the ins and outs of it, but as I learn, the art inbox just keeps growing and growing. I feel like Sisyphus rolling a gigantic stone up a hill only to have it roll back down again. Hopefully it won't last for eternity.

It's been affecting other parts of my life too. When I come home I don't want to do anything else but lay in bed in a fetal position slowly counting the hours until the weekend, my only reprieve. I know I sound like a forlorn emo kid, but honestly, having this incredible amount of responsibility resting on my shoulders drains the life out of me. When I get in my car after work I feel like I've been running a marathon all day.

To be fair, there are plenty of positive things going on in my life. It seems a lot of people like my photography and have been asking me to take pictures for them. My friend Pam is getting married and wants me to take bridal pictures. Corley's friend Lauren is getting married and wants me to take engagement pictures. To top it all off, this weekend I will be doing a semi-professional portrait shoot of a gal who's debuting her first album soon. The pictures are going to be used for the cover and hopefully some promotional materials. In preparation for that I went ahead and purchased a Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 lens for my camera. I haven't been able to post them yet, but this lens takes AMAZING pictures. I love it just as much as my 50mm.

I suppose if I look on the bright side of things, if I can hold on long enough for Aztec to hire a new artist, I'll more than likely receive a raise. If I can make it of course.