Dream beneath a desert sky

Whew. December is off to a busy start. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with work and with life in general right now. Don't expect much blogging from me this month because there are so many other things to finish up before the holidays. I wouldn't be surprised if I don't even touch my video project this month, which is a bummer since I'm getting so dang excited to share it with you.

At least the next few weekends are looking relatively uneventful. Last weekend was sort of our final hurrah before we buckle down and face the weeks before our Christmas vacation in Minnesota. We drove out to Las Vegas to spend Thanksgiving with my grandparents and then up to Zion National Park in Utah for some hiking and camping. If you've been following me on Twitter, Facebook, or email, then this is probably not news to you, but I feel the need to document it here anyway simply because it was such a wonderful extended weekend.

It was pouring rain when we left last Wednesday morning. We cruised across the desert in an unexpected fog, arriving on my grandparents’ place mid afternoon. That evening the four of us hit a buffet, where I showed great restraint and managed to avoid getting the hiccups! It occurred to me while I was there that the first time I ever got what I call the "Killer Hiccups" was after eating at a buffet during my last visit to Vegas (I was thirteen or fourteen at the time). At the wise old age of 29 I finally overcame them by simply not eating so much. I wanted to stay at the top of my game when it came to playing computerized BINGO. That's right -- they have machines that do all of the work for you now. The numbers are still read aloud, but there’s no need to daub cards with ink anymore. Your only responsibility as a player is to yell the word when the machine tells you that you won. So in our case, we had no responsibility at all. Oh well, it was fun to get an inside perspective of my grandparents' night life. They appear to be some sort of BINGO royalty at Boulder Station.

The next day was Thanksgiving. My grandma made a turkey and all of the fixings, and it was very tasty. I was glad to be with family after spending the holiday alone last year. After dinner and some good old-fashioned relaxing, R and I went off to explore the city. This was her first time seeing The Strip and it had been 15 years for me. The place has changed a lot and so has my perspective. We walked a long way, in and out of casinos, stopping in a few shops and for a drink in the Eiffel Tower. Of course we had a good time, but after seeing this town that is all surface we couldn’t help but appreciate the real Eiffel Tower or the real New York City or the real Michelangelo’s paintings more. Maybe that’s the point of Vegas. The façade itself is impressive, but it leaves me with a sleazy, empty feeling. It's a good place for wild night life, but as you all must know, that's not really what I'm looking for.

We got up on Friday and drove northeast to Zion National Park in Utah. Ideally we would have had enough time to see Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon as well, but Zion was plenty for two days. It’s quite a spectacular place, a deep canyon carved out of sandstone. Camping was cold, but we had a couple of fires and bundled ourselves up pretty well inside our sleeping bags. We took three separate hikes, the highlight of which involved following a narrow spine with 1500 foot cliffs on both sides to Angels Landing. It was a little daring and quite outstanding. We really fell in love with the park. The only disappointing aspect was high volume of people present over the long weekend. It’s hard to revel in the glory of a landscape when there are screaming kids on the trail ahead of you or a big group of people rushing you out of the way so they can get a photo in front of the vista on which you are gazing.

Check out our photo gallery from the trip. We took 350 shots, kept 150, and posted 80. Many of the shots were scrapped because the light had either too harsh a contrast or was too dim. An improperly exposed sky or a little unwanted blur is sometimes (but not always) enough for me to hit the delete button. But I guess it works out because if I posted a gallery of more than 80 photos, it would be too overwhelming for anyone to view entirely anyway. If I made you wade through a bunch of garbage, you'd surely miss the few decent shots. That's the value of editing.

T'giving

Hello, friends and family. Happy Thanksgiving 2007 to you. This was a rather unusual one for me as it is the first one I've spent alone. But please don't feel sorry for me. It was my own choice, and I don't have any regrets. I did get to see my lovely wife for a little bit this morning when I drove her to airport (at 3:30 am!). As I alluded in my last entry, she is visiting her sister, who is five months pregnant and living in the country of Honduras. R and I are looking forward to becoming an aunt and uncle to this new person when he or she arrives. It was sweet of R to make the trip down there to check in on her sis and to hand-deliver a big pregnancy care package. She's also hoping to find some time for the beach and to possibly see some Mayan ruins. R is adventurous like that. I'm more the type who likes to relax at home... as if you didn't know that already. The idea of eating my mom's turkey dinner today was appealing too, but I just couldn't deal with the hassle of travel right now. We'll be in Minnesota for a week at the end of December, and I'm sure I'll eat enough then to make up for missing this one.

My meal today was a steak off the grill, a salad, a potato, and some cranberries (see, I got into the spirit). I also enjoyed a jog, some editing time, and a movie. I've got a series of movies lined up for the next few nights that know R doesn't mind missing. Tonight, it was the ultra-bloody 300. Tomorrow, it's the widely-considered-scariest-movie-of-all-time, The Exorcist, which I somehow never managed to see up until this point of my life. And finally, on Saturday, I'm thinking it's gonna be Fire Walk With Me because I'm jonesing for some Twin Peaks but holding out until Christmas for the new DVD box set. Plus, it's going to sound killer on our new sound system.

Speaking of electronics, I am dedicating some effort this week to purchasing a new video camera. This is not an easy task for me since the camera I want is worth more than the current value of my car. All of the money I made from my video work during the last year (14 paid gigs in total) amounts to a little over half the cost. Not only that: buying a camera will end up snowballing into a bunch of other expenses -- a new case, a new wide-angle lens, an extra battery, etc -- all of which are of a professional grade and thus more expensive than I am used to. If I keep up the video work, a new camera should eventually pay for itself, but I still have to wonder if this particular one is more than I need right now. Am I ready to make the jump to HD, even though my current computer won't even be capable of editing it? (I'll have to shoot in standard definition mode until I upgrade -- oh yeah, there's another thing to buy, a new computer.) Even in standard definition though, with 3 CCDs, this camera will shoot better looking footage than I'm shooting now. It's like the difference between using a point-and-shoot versus an SLR in the world of still cameras. The harsh reality of the situation is, if I want to be taken seriously as a videographer, the Sony Handycam I've been using has got to go (or at least become my backup).

I should be thinking about gift ideas for everybody else, not myself. I can't believe the Christmas season is already here. I'm dreading the crowds this year; mall traffic is especially horrendous in Delaware. The lack of sales tax here draws people from all of the neighboring states. I'll make it my goal to do as much shopping as possible online.

Man, this is more than I was planning to write. I guess being alone today has left me loquacious. I have to remember the week is not done yet -- I need to work tomorrow. Time for bedo.