Da Goddess

Oh yeah. Ohhh…yeah.

What a night!

I still can’t believe it. I finally saw B.B. King. I loved his stories. I loved hearing him sing and play. Mostly, I loved meeting him.

YES! I met him and spoke with him for a few minutes. It was…amazing. A-maz-ing. Humble. Warm. Kind. Lovely all the way around. I want to weep over the depth of what this experience meant to me.

The one photo I have of my friend Curtis and B.B. in conversation is the worst of the bunch technically, but the moment itself was priceless. It became a bit of a mutual admiration moment. I started to tear up as Curtis told B.B. how he’d genuinely changed his life and musical aspirations. His sincerity struck B.B. so much that this…this thing…it was like a spark…it happened. Suddenly it wasn’t fan talking to idol, it became something more. The connection was pure and beautiful. I wanted to cry just seeing it happen. And that photo didn’t even turn out very well. That’s life, though. I got to see it and that’s what matters.

The best photo of B.B. wasn’t taken by me, but it doesn’t matter. I got to meet The King of the Blues! And I got to witness something special.

Endless thanks to my friends for including me in this incredible evening. You’re the best!

Just two:

B.B. King.

“With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound
He pulls the spitting high tension wires down”

Godzilla!

Oh yeah, baby!

Blue Öyster Cult.

Fremont Street.

FREE!

And I got photos.

And memories.

What a great night!

And the cowbell? Perfection.

I got a call from a winery in Pahrump giving me the okay to photograph a military family there. It’s taken a while for me to get some OpLove clients here, but now it’s on and I’m thrilled to have found a beautiful location (thanks to who’d mentioned the winery to me a month or two ago).

I love that Pahrump Valley Winery is willing to allow us to come by, use the grounds for our session, and support our troops. If you come to Vegas for anything, plan a side trip to visit them, take a tour, and perhaps buy a little wine. I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up buying a bottle or two while I’m there.

Mostly, I am thrilled to be photographing military families again. I’m a patient gal, but not that patient. I’ve been waiting for this moment for too long.

New house. New adventures. Already managed to laugh my ass off, vacuum, and blow something up.

All I need now is a bed and a dresser.

My friends and I went into a studio for a shoot this week. Here are some quick edits from the project. Some of the images are darker on purpose. We wanted to give a little edge to the guitarist and he, in return, gave us so much to work with! He went from sweet to intense in the blink of an eye. Man, this was a good day. We’re going back in to work on more. Different concept, same awesome model.

Got two new tires on the car yesterday. Yay! Back to being able to drive around without fear of a blowout. Saw that happen on the highway last night and it wasn’t pretty.

Had lunch with MOBD and Little Dude over at Famous Dave’s BBQ. Catfish and tri-tip, cornbread, firecracker green beans (with bacon!), and sweet yellow corn. It was delish. Then off to borrow a flash from MBT and shoot with my friend and his daughter. We put the kids together in the photos as much as they could. Miss A is a year or so younger than LD, but she’s just as tall if not taller, funny, sweet, and super pretty. We insisted upon attitude and got it as both are perfectly dramatic when they need to be. Especially when asked to look like they were boyfriend and girlfriend having a fight. LD has asked that I not post the photos on Facebook and I agreed. Kind of. I did not, however, agree to not post them on Flickr or here. Mwahahahaha!

Big bummer last night: I remembered the sparklers, forgot a lighter. And the car lighter didn’t work. So we’ll try again tonight. Also forgot the 10-22mm lens I’d borrowed from MOBD. D’oh! Very blonde. But at least I was out of the house! After being stuck indoors for two days with a migraine, it was good to get out and just do something, you know?

Gotta go get showered and out of the house for some lunch. MBT is owed food and I will make good on that promise. He just saved my butt, so it’s off we go!

We spent the majority of the day out with wild horses. Little Dude was suitably awed. Even more awed whenever one would approach him.

I was fascinated by how many of the horses we saw were sporting leg feathers (wonderful tufts of hair on fetlocks), especially this far into summer — and it was hot up there, just not as hot as it is down here. That was another thing: it may have been around 90 or so up there, but it’s currently 115 in the backyard. Tell me where you’d rather hang out!

We saw various bands of horses, including the group with my little colt from the other day. The real finds were 1) the white horse, 2) Mr. One Ear, who obviously has battled for his role as leader, 3) and three foals who surrounded my one photog buddy and trapped him amongst the brush. That, my friends, was pure comedy gold there. Bjorn was a little freaked out by it, but we laughed. Seriously, these three were nothing short of adorable and the worst they could do to you was cute you to death. Or snot you. Little Snickerdoodle, the tiniest of the three (and yes, that’s his name…he told me!), snotted me but good. Oh well, for what it’s worth, it’s the best snot ever. And the cutest.

Now we must recover from all the cute and all the awesome. And we also must call my mom back and wish her a happy birthday yet again.

MBT and my MOBD joined up with LD and me for a drive out to the dry lake bed for a night shoot. Wasn’t sure what we were going to do exactly, but we ended up with LD as model as we played with lighting. Scary part: LD had on a red shirt. I had on a red shirt. MOBD had on a red shirt. When we went to pick up MBT…red shirt. We looked like some dorky tourist family, or we would have if there’d been anyone around to see us. We did stop to have a late night breakfast on the way back. Once home, Little Dude (who is now officially at least the same height as me) promptly went upstairs and fell asleep.

P.S. It was only about 104 out at the lake bed at 9pm. Then the wind started. Hot wind. It was oddly nice.

Let’s just call it a recurring theme. One you should get all comfy with.

Yesterday was a semi-relaxing day. Took care of business (check out some cars, dealt with a writer, dealt with other crap) and then went out scouting locations for a shoot with MOBD.

Ended up back out with the wild horses. Found a herd with a beautiful little colt. Spent some time photographing them after checking angles on the remains of a building I want to use for a shoot with a guitarist. Finally decided we’d head up the trail and see what else we could see. We knew there were other horses because we could hear them in the distance. We weren’t prepared for a goodly sized group like we found, including another foal. We pull over and I’m getting out of the truck but there’s this majorly loud hissing noise. I’m looking around and then I see a nice piece of shrapnel sticking out of the tire.

MOBD gets out and we decide we better get our asses back on the regular road and head down as far as we can before the situation gets really bad. If not for the horses, I said, we’d have been stuck so far down the trail we’d have been in big trouble.

So we make our way down the road. I’m watching the tire in the mirror and occasionally sticking my head out the window to make sure we still have a tire at all. All too quickly, we lost the tire. Bah! Nothing to do but hope we can get a signal on our phones. Nothing. But then MOBD pulls out his laptop, gets a signal, sends an email, and we wait. Then we both decide to try to send text messages on our phones. Oddly, we can do that. Finally found someone to come help (yay!) and there’s really nothing much for us to do beyond wait. And take photos. Which we did. Oh, and then MOBD decides to change the tire (the spare was flat, so we needed help no matter what). I’m not much help so I keep shooting.

At one point, we were rewarded with skies so beautiful it made my teeth hurt. Blood red rays spilling out from behind clouds…little bats flitting through the air…nothing but nature all around. It was breathtaking!

A couple people did end up stopping in hopes of helping us. A big truck, but they had nothing to offer in the way of inflating the tire. Still, nice that they stopped. Then a guy in a minivan stops and happens to have a portable unit to inflate the tire. Takes a long time to see any results, but it was better than nothing! And of course, our friends finally arrive with two big portable tanks of air and we’re good to go.

We finished off the evening with dinner and conversation.

Today has been relatively quiet. I was supposed to hear back from a couple people about cars, but nothing at this point. Eh. I’ll wait for LD, he’s my good luck charm anyway. Getting lots of photos edited and will upload later. So much to do! And I’ll probably go out later tonight to see a friend perform. It’ll be good for me to get out. Now, I gotta find some food.

It’s 111 degrees in the shade here. I’m not venturing outside for a while. No way. I’m not that crazy. Not even to protest the ridiculousness that is Obama landing at McCarran (again) instead of at Nellis. During rush hour (again). Something about this really pisses me off.

But I’m going to keep my mouth shut and finish laundry. Then I’m going to go see a band. Then come home and edit more photos from Portland. I’m tired just thinking about all of this happening in this heat. Blech.

As I prepare for my son’s impending visit, I’ve started compiling a list of things we can do.

Without hesitation, I bought some sparklers at the grocery store on Tuesday. You don’t get to play with sparklers in California. I grew up with them in Ohio, but was disappointed to find they were illegal in Cali. That’s just how it goes. Here in Nevada, they sell fireworks in almost every grocery store parking lot. I find that very weird, but whatever. So, I got some for LD’s visit. We’ll go sit out in the middle of nowhere and see what happens. I’ll take my camera, of course.

I think my friends MOBD and MBDT (just go along with this one, okay?) and I will take LD to Utah at some point. It’s not a far drive. I haven’t been there for photographic and exploration purposes yet, so I’m excited about this. (I last went through Utah in 1991 on a trip from Denver to San Diego.)

There may even be a trip to the Grand Canyon.

I want to show LD the beauty of Nevada. I want to wow him. And I want my friends to get to know my very cool son. I wish my daughter could come visit, but that’s not in the cards right now. Perhaps someday. I’d like that.

We must add the wild horses, of course. He’ll be stunned. I may even keep that a secret until he gets here.

Anyhow, if you have any ideas for what we should do, post a comment and I’ll add it to the list.

I got to see wild horses yesterday! They were so amazing. And the best part? They’re not far from the new house. Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I only uploaded a few photos because I’m SUPPOSED to be sleeping right now. I can’t though. Back has been hurting like a bad ass mofo for a couple days and I’m completely unmedicated except for Tylenol.

Anyhow, the horses were fantastic and I’ll post more images soon. If soon means after I get back from PDX. (Or if I can’t sleep, as is happening now…so check the album again for new photos.)

Last night Buster made dinner for me and for my soon-to-be roommate (hmm, what shall we name him? Dennis My Other Brother Darryl. We shall call him Dennis My Other Brother Darryl…or MOBD for short). BBQ chicken, baked potatoes, and I did up some veggies. After dinner, we managed to get one (one of two) of my “major bargain” sofas into MOBD’s truck. Buster insisted it wouldn’t fit. He’d measured the sofa, measure the truck, remeasured the sofa and the truck, and reremeasured both. He was certain one wouldn’t fit. I said it would. I eyeballed it. I even went and measured. I don’t know what math he did, but mine said “fit!” And I was right. There was even room leftover. Buster said, “oh, well, the other should fit now, too!” I shook my head doubtfully. We didn’t even bother to try after that.

About the sofas: they’re big. They’re solid. I bought them from a friend who was moving out of a huge house into a small condo (his wife died and he was losing his home). He had another sofa — Lord, I wanted that one in the worst way — but the two he was selling were nice as well. At first he wanted $400 for one, but I ended up with both for that price. Originally, he paid $2,000 a piece. Yeah. That’s what I said. But, that’s how it happens sometimes. Sadly, he wasn’t selling a queen sized bed or I’d have that, too. Ugh. Still have to get a bed.

So, anyhow, MOBD and I headed up the freeway to a part of Las Vegas I’ve never seen. North. Northwest. It’s further away than I thought it would be. But I like it. And I looked at both available rooms trying to decide which will be best for me. There’s the one right by the front door, which opens into the living room. This is the bigger of the two rooms. The other one is right by the garage and is down a short hallway. It also offers a very quick trip to the bathroom. Not that the other room doesn’t, but I could conceivably run from this room, into the bathroom naked and no one would see. Not that I intend to do so, but you know what I mean. Can’t decide which room I like better. I’ll be headed over there again today and will look again.

As I drove back toward the other house, I noticed how beautiful the Strip looked off in the distance. Yeah, it’s further away. I can’t see it at all from the new place, whereas I could see a portion of the strip from my bedroom window here. PotAYto, potAHto. There’s something familiar and cool about the new place. I think it may be the horses nearby. Yeppers, just like when I lived in Poway. Right around the corner are horses. It feels a little like home.

Also, over the hill (just up the street) is the desert. I mean, the honest to goodness desert. Kind of cool. And there’s all sorts of neat new things to explore once I move. Before then, too. When Little Dude gets here on the 14th, we’ll go ‘splorin’ like crazy. I can’t wait!

Still looking for a car, though. My budget keeps changing. I should have done this months ago, but I didn’t know I’d need to do this back then. Can’t change what you can’t change, right? Right. If I don’t find something today, I have to resume the search when I return from Portland. Oh, yeah, I’m heading to Portland to cover a festival this weekend. Leave Thursday, come back Tuesday. Got my press credentials/all-access pass taken care of and I’ll be photographing and interviewing artists whenever possible. This makes me very happy. My last travel gig yielded one photo in a national magazine, so there’s that…but I want more. I’m greedy. I want to be in several magazines and I want my writing published, too. I keep on trying.

With that said, my laundry appears to be done and I should really get to bed. I have lots to do between now and the time I get up, get the other sofa moved, explore new house, go car seeking, and come home to pack.

Just so you have an idea of what I’m leaving and what I’m gaining:

P.S. I feel very silly and almost a little conceited mentioning this, but I just discovered I was in the thank you section on my friends’ CD. I actually wept when I found out. (Thank you, Temple, for letting me know! I had the artwork for months and never saw it.)