DITLOA

Hilliard Street view
Originally uploaded by mygothlaundry

Well, here it is: that moment you've all been waiting for: Day in the Life of Asheville 2009! I was all ready to be jaded and grumpy and not give a shit but I have to say that instead I'm excited and have already even taken a bunch of peculiar photos. I just went out to smoke a cigarette and took some pictures of Asheville's firefighters hanging around in the sunshine outside the firehouse. That's the best thing about DITLOA for me - it forces me out of my comfort zone and makes me brave enough to go up and ask perfect strangers if I can take their picture. The reason I mostly take pictures of mountains and dogs and traffic lights is not only because I find these things so utterly fascinating (although I do) but because I am an abject coward who is very shy about taking pictures of people. Something about being "on assignment" though, makes all the difference and I manage to smile and talk to perfect strangers and snap their picture. Sure it makes me nervous as hell and I want to go back in afterwards and take a klonopin and have a little lie down or perhaps a double vodka to recover, but I manage it, which is some kind of triumph, I guess.

Last night was the big DITLOA meetup and it was very fun. Hung out with old friend and met some new ones; cuddled a truly adorable puppy and, of course, drank beer. That was all good and when I got home I discovered that my friend Adam had successfully put in a really great looking new door downstairs which is moving me slowly towards my evil plan of renting out part of the basement to some needy college student type. He also dumped half a ton of gravel on the mud where I wanted to put a paved patio but, oh well, this is much cheaper and it looks pretty cool and, hey, it beats mud.

In other news I don't have much other news except that my computer is fixed, thank the gods, and I'm going to go pick it up this afternoon, so perchance there will be more blog updates this memorial day weekend. One can hope. Have a great one, anyway, and take pictures!