July has been a very furtive month for my photography. I didn’t realize how many shots I’d actually taken ’til I started looking through them, trying to see what to post. As a result, I have a lot to share, and I will try to get another post up before the month is out.

Visiting Dean’s house in Axis, I was introduced to a new litter of puppies. They were so cute and fluffy—and wet.

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For two weeks in a row I had to work my co-workers shift while they alternated vacations. It was great stress fun. One week I had to do 4 color work from 8am to 4:30pm. The next week I did the evening shift from 12-8pm. Needless to say, my circadian rhythm was seriously out of whack.

This week, however, I’m back on track. Unfortunately, it was the longest week ever, because work has been really slow. There’s also a lot of renovating going around. At the moment, what will be the new office space I’ll share with 4 other typesetters is being constructed, and nice ceramic tile is being laid in the new rooms and hallway.

For some need escapism, I took some quizzes I came across on Slowly Going Bald.

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Dudes. . .

I was so stressed out at work today, I instinctively put my hand over my face and shake my head indisbelief just thinking about describing the experience here. Words fail me at the moment.

When I first started my job, I was immediately made aware that I would eventually be trained how to do color work, because at the time, there was only one person there who processed all the color jobs. If he wasn’t there and things went wrong or something needed to be sent to plate, the customer was just out of luck.

Fast forward four months, and I’m finally being trained on color work. Glenn, who does the color, was going on vacation for a week, so someone would have to do his job while he was gone. That someone would be me. In his defense, I’ll say he did a decent job of training me. . . even if it was for half of the process. *pauses to cover her face and shake head*

While Glenn is training me, something in the back of my mind is telling me that he isn’t really telling me much about what he does up to a certain point. I mean, one would think I’d need to know where he put certain files, or that I would have to email proofs of the artwork to customers. I figured things out eventually with the help or co-workers (thanks Dave and Jessica), but jeez. Mr. Glenn left a lot to assumption. I mean, I could figure out how to do what I needed to do. But it would have been nice if I would have been told I would have to do it beforehand. Good thing I anticipated this over the weekend, so I wasn’t completely blindsided. . .

Tomorrow, I’m going in to work 2 hours early just so I can get everything done and sent to plate. I know things will be better, but I really don’t need the stress right now. I didn’t even break for lunch I was so busy trying to do everything.

But . . . I’m done venting now. I had an orthodontist appointment before work, so now my mouth is aching slightly, but nothing like last time. New X-rays were taken and I have a rubber band across my top 4 incisors to close the gap between my two front teeth.

I know that this entry was supposed to follow up the previous post with more photos, but, life happened. So, hopefully, the next post will include them.

In entertainment news:

• movies: Transformers was awesome. Shia did not disappoint.
• music: Chrisette Michele
• books: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hossein

I’ve been busy lately, as always. Work, study, surviving . . . the usual. My taking photos is the only constant, and it manages to keep me sane. I really need to fit drawing in there, somewhere, but I remain creatively blocked to no end.

This past weekend I attended a picnic and then went over to the Fairhope pier with some friends. I got some nice shots. It was really cool to shoot in black and white. I find it works really well in lowlight conditions anyways; the exposures are more forgiving, even digitally.

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