t-minus

thailand is now about 36 hours away. and when i say thailand, i really mean the time i embark on the journey to get there, seeing how i won't actually BE there until monday.

but i truly am getting excited... the kind of excited i used to get before i began traveling frequently. the kind of excited that you get antsy when you think about prepackaged plane food, buying trail mix in the terminals, waking up in the middle of the night while breathing stale air, and watching movies in a cramped seat to fall asleep.

that kind of excited. seriously, that stuff used to thrill me in middle school, now i dread it. but the reward of new cultures is always worth it.

if i had looked at this stuff first, i might have pushed past all the administrative details to let my anticipation truly build.

i finished the first part of my internship at the paper on wednesday. i'll be back in late july, but here's what's been in front of my lens lately...

fife & drum corps web gallery [click]

pen show in cary:


this woman was straight from harry potter. she had so much personality and something about her was... magical? yes, magical. in a harry potter kind of way. except she specializes in inkpens, not quills.

just to give you an example of her verve, let me just give you some excerpts from my notebook.

"one of my specialites is things that write in extreme ways."
"i'm flamboyant by nature."
"[Choosing pens] is stagecraft."
"Imagine having a signature so great that it becomes a common noun." (in reference to John Hancock, of course)
"Its like having a Ferrari; you can shift it any way you want, but it will tell you when you're doing it right or wrong. And in a few days you'll get really good."
"[A fountain pen] is not judgemental. Its like dancing with somebody. There's some people or pens you never want to dance with again. And some it gets better every time you dance with them."
"[Fountain pens] make you better."

see what i mean? i had no idea there were people on earth who loved pens so much.

i had another assignment that i worked on all week, but i don't think its been published yet, so we'll have to wait for that one. i went back three separate times to do photos because the lighting wasn't so great. i've been told that is 80% of assignments, so i suppose it was good to learn.

since i'll be on the plane for hours and hours, i need some good music. any suggestions?