St. Louis Photographer » A Journal by Holly McCaig

Okay, hit Walgreens since Jake never showed up. Nice to drive in a haze of a cold. I got some Tylenol Cold Head Congestion along with some Halls. I have Mucinex so I am taking that. Picked up a thing of Green Tea. Didn’t get any food really though for tomorrow. And, I can hear the rain coming in now. That Tylenol stuff has worked some wonders. I already feel the pressure is minimal. Nice.

Let’s hope the cable guys still make it even though the weather is going to suck tomorrow. Please! I can’t imagine going more days with it all like this. God, we’re spoiled.

How can a person get so sick for the second time in less than three weeks? Seriously? Today was probably the worst. I swear the pressure in my head is so bad. I won’t even begin to describe what I’ve coughed up. My throat is much more sore than it was the last time. Our bad weather is supposed to come in tomorrow with ice turning to snow. There isn’t really any food in the house, so if Jake comes home, I’m giving him my debit card to go pick up things as well as some different sinus meds. Sudafed PE does nothing for me. So far, the Tylenol Sinus stuff works best. I know there are some behind the counter things now that work good too, but I’m sure the pharmacy will be closed by then. I hate feeling like shit. I mean, I get nothing done. NOTHING. Not even anything fun. It sucks. I have a million emails still too. Trying to go through some.

Charter. Let’s talk about our LOVELY cable company. It’s our only cable option in the area. So, they came out yesterday at about 4:15 and while they set up the equipment, nothing worked. The system was down where they send out signals so we were told that it would happen and if nothing worked by morning to call. So, meanwhile, we have no cable at all. None. Nothing. I ended up putting my rabbit ears on my television this morning to at least watch the news. Then, I called again. Got the DVR/Cable working in the living room, but the data isn’t downloading so I have no idea what is on the channels or what channel is which. None of the On Demand work. The cable in my room – well they sent a new signal and nothing. So, they set up a service call to come out tomorrow. As I am sitting there the cable comes on and everything works. Then, it doesn’t. But I am able to go in to the Od Demand and get a free show. Then, nothing. Then, it powered off and it’s now sitting at the same thing it was last night. Black screen with the time at 12:00 and no information. Sigh. Why does this have to be so hard? Really? But, I did manage to lower the cable bill talking to the girl tonight. If we went with a satellite deal we’d have to go back to a phone line and change our internet. Just way more than I care to do. C’mon people. Let’s make this freakin’ work!

Still haven’t played with my new camera. Not even sad about that. When you don’t feel good you just don’t care.

Pictures are up on the photography blog – go check them out.

Now to put my head back down.

What gives? Why is that I’m feeling bad again? Sore throat and congestion. C’mon already! I think it could be that our weather is about to get drastically different. From very warm (70) to much colder, and nastier. I’ve taken some Airborne and Alleve. Last night I did the Sudafed thing. I just know that when I’m sick feeling like this, I can’t get anything done. I can’t sit long. But, I can’t stop. I have too many things I was supposed to do yesterday that I didn’t get to. My camera also arrived today, but I really don’t have time to play with it. I am also still here waiting on the cable guy to show up.

Finished proofing the pictures I took Saturday for Iris, Mike and Taylor. Have to send to them and then I’ll post some over on the photography blog. I had these two pictures to share here though.

This is the polar bear at our zoo. So lonely. They lost our other polar bear from an obstruction in its intestine. I’m sure you heard about this as it was big controversy with PETA. We have one of the best zoos and it’s always so exciting to see the animals out. I wish they could give him another friend.

And, these polar bears are quite interesting. What’s wrong with this picture? Hmm?

To Christmas. I am not a fan of the Christmas holiday. I know, bah humbug! I mean, I enjoy the meaning and the decorations. I just hate the hustle and bustle and commercialism of it all. Rush to get this gift or that gift, running to this house, this party, etc. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we don’t have a big home, nor is this the home I grew up in. We have family members no longer with us, or those that can’t be in town for it. Just loses it’s fun and cozy feeling. I love watching those movies where they have Christmas at home and are backing in the kitchen. They hang by the fire, and head up to bed. They don’t have to drive to some relative’s house. It’s just “their” time. I would love that.

I haven’t blogged in a few days. Haven’t really been online at all except to check PDW support emails. Let’s see, Thanksgiving, gram’s in town – too long, photoshoots. Now, I’m trying to clean and get an area cleaned out so the cable guy can get in there tomorrow. Charter finally got DVRs in and I called immediately to get one for the living room. Cable will go in my bedroom and we’ll move the TiVo to there. At least for now. TiVo is so inexpensive that it was silly to get a second DVR from Charter for the bedroom. Now, I hope they can get things working without problems. It will be nice to have other shows to watch at night when I wake up and can’t go back to sleep.

We’ve also been playing games the past few nights since everyone is around. Friday night, we played my Scene It TV edition. Me, Andrea and Jake. It’s a little older stuff for those two so they didn’t know much of the shows. Then, we flipped over to Friends Trivia game and Andrea was wooping up on us. Jake and I went to the store after my shoot Saturday at Forest Park and the Zoo. I finally got a card reader for my Flash Card. Thank GOD! Then, we debated over getting the PS2. See, Dan has one and has the Guitar Hero game. I love it, Jake loves it. So fun. They had the new Guitar Hero II game and man that would have been fun. But, it would be Jake’s and when he moves out I wouldn’t get to play. So, we went to Target to look for some more games. We bought Mad Gab and Trivial Pursuit the Pop Culture edition. Mad Gab is a riot! We sound so dumb. LOL Fun game and hey, “I’m a Love Machine!”. Pop Culture was great. Mom went to bed, but me and Jake kept playing. I finally one that one. Great game. I would have loved the 80s edition, but no one else would be into that game as they are either too old or too young. Pop Culture was a better fit. Loving game night! We laughed a lot.

Grams left this morning. Phew. Been cleaning. We tried to move the chair that was in the garage, into my room, but there were too many spiders and we opted to just have it picked up on Wednesday. I’m in the market for a nice reading chair for my bedroom. For when I need to, dur, read. I do NOT want to spend very much at all. I’m even thinking of going up to Goodwill and looking for something I can get a slip cover on.

My camera tracking says it should be here tomorrow. I laugh because UPS shows it arrived in town on the 24th. So, it’s sitting for three days. Glad it’s coming. Excited. Been reading my Exposure book, and am dying to try out some suggestions. I feel I am still so novice. You can have a great eye for taking pictures, but you gotta know the ins and outs really well. Looking into a couple classes. I took the MLK class but just too basic. I need some more advanced things.

My shoots went great. Will begin working on those proofs! Glad to be back into my normal stuff again!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday! I did. Still enjoying it. Having fun.

We had dinner with my family and watched the Wizard of Oz DVD that I got Ella. I’m certainly not stuffed as I didn’t overdo it, but am eating more “bad” foods yesterday and today compared to what I have been doing. Oh, well, just this once.

New goody in the store – and working on some more. I love them. These are the purses from my lovely friends, The Paper Princesses:

Cute huh? I am loving making digital templates. Tracy sent me one this week and I knew that looking it the design that goes inside definitely needs to be flat. So, digital is the best route, in my opinion. You can even just insert pictures if you want. They are $24 at their shoppe here. They are down to 3 right now, but I know they are doing great since they started selling them today that they will get more in, don’t wait!!! The templates are being sold on my site, Plain Digital Wrapper. Here’s the link to this Christmas one. SO CUTE! And, yes, I designed the Paper Princess website. That’s the adorable crown logo that KristyAnn made which is so awesome and unique. These girls rock. I’m going to make an exclusive Valentine template for them to sell at their Sweet Tooth event in February (the one I’m going to be doing photographs at). I love the versatility!

MPIX rawks da hizouse on my marketing materials. They are so fast for that stuff. I ordered this stuff LATE Monday night. My biz cards and a cute birthday postcard. I got it today – even with the holiday. Now, if my camera would have arrived this early! HA HA. Aren’t they cute? They match my new website too.

Okay, off to make some more cute templates!