Day 35:

I am unusually excited for today. I have been planning a shoot for the last few weeks and am really happy to be back behind the camera using some new equipment. By the time this blog goes live I should have the photos ready to post in a secondary Blog post, but until then I’ll share the following two sneak peeks.

A couple of thumbnails from what happened tonight.

Just take a look at this good lookin’ fellow.

I wanted my Halloween set this year to pay homage/tribute to the late Rick Genest AKA Zombie Boy who unexpectedly passed away a few months ago. RIP you beautiful human being.

Because of the shoot my homework for the week is going to be pushed back a little bit while I get the creative juices out.

Week 6 Goals:

Morning Pages x7
Artist Date x1
Money Madness, An Exercise
Complete as many additional Exercises as possible.

Day 36:

The end of today was very frustrating, dealing with UPS and international shipments made my blood boil. I was anticipating coming home to work on photos and go to sleep when a comedian friend from LA dropped me a message and said he was having a show.

I’ll take this as the Universe’s way of telling me I need to calm the fuck down and chill out for a few hours.

When Rivers Langley invites you out to a comedy show…you go.

Money Madness, An Exercise:

Complete the following phrases:

People with money are luckier than they know
Money makes people change
I’d have more money if I had less bills to pay each month.
My dad thought money was something to be hidden away
My mom always thought money would help provide
In my family, money caused a lot of confusion
Money equals comfort
If I had money I’d be a lot more comfortable in my day to day
If I could afford it, I’d rent a studio space and quit my day job
If I had some money I’d probably stress about whether to spend or save it
I’m afraid that if I had money I would forget what it was like to not have any money.
Money is a needed evil
Money Causes some people to be happy, and other people to be miserable.
Having money is not all its cracked up to be
In order to have money I’d need to work even harder or win the lottery
When I have money I usually spend it
I think money could solve a lot of my current problems
If I weren’t so cheap I’d buy more photography equipment
People think money isn’t as big of a deal as it actually is
Being broke tells me I know how to survive without a lot of money

Additional Tasks

Clearing: Throw out or give away 5 ratty pieces of clothing This was surprisingly easy, this time. Usually I tend to hoard old clothes for sentimental reasons. But this time it was easy to pick out some things from another life and give them to Goodwill.
I even found a few pieces I may try to sell on eBay to make a few extra dollars.
Creation: Bake Something (or make a fruit salad)

A food photographer I am not, but I can throw together a mean fruit salad

Communication: Send a postcard to a friend. Can a Twitter message count? I couldn’t find an address to send a physical card. But I did send a thank you message to someone who saw my potential and helped me realize there was more to my path than working a crappy retail 9-5.

Re-read the basic principles daily. I’ve actually missed this several times this week because I have forgotten to do them. Even though I have them written at the beginning of my morning pages notebook.
Acceptance: Any new flow in your life? Practice saying “Yes” to Freebies (See above Day 36).
Also Facebook gave me $15 in “free advertising”. So I figured why the hell not and decided to throw a few of my own dollars into the mix. I still feel a little dirty about it, but let’s see where it goes.
Prosperity: Any changes to your financial situation or your perspective on it? Any new– even crazy– ideas about what you would love doing? No real changes so far, but next week I’ll be spending some time with the president of my day job, earlier this year he offered to sit down with me and discuss my financial future with the company (eg: Raises and Compensation). Maybe it will lead somewhere that will make things much more comfortable in the short term.

I’ve been thinking a ton about the lottery (so is the rest of the country I guess). It would be wonderful to win a Billion dollars (yeah, probably closer to 500 million after tax). No longer would I have to limit myself because of finances.

I still maintain that I’d probably end up giving away a lot of it. I’d much rather “spread the wealth” and help other people live their dreams as well.

Day 41:

It finally happened. I’m now dreaming about morning pages…

I didn’t win the lottery. I mean, at heart I knew it wasn’t going to be that easy. But that doesn’t stop me from dreaming about it.

Check In:

How many days this week did you do your morning pages? Have you used them to think about creative luxury for yourself? I ended up missing a page this week. Today actually. Yesterday I dreamed that I missed a few days and woke up very anxious about it, but today I got up later than I wanted to and had to get ready for a wedding. So I had no choice but to miss today.

I don’t feel as anxious as I did in my dream, but I still don’t feel great about it. It’s getting a little late in the day so I need to prep for next week still. But I should be ok.

I don’t think I’ve been musing in the pages about creative luxuries for myself, but I have been thinking about them more. I still dream of a studio, or a space I can use as such. This is my goal.

Did you do your artist date this week? Have you considered allowing yourself two? What did you do? How did you feel? I had a ton of errands to get ready for next week’s trip to NYC for work. I went out and bought a new pair of jeans, and looked at shoes.

I guess this could be considered a date as I was doing something for myself. I considered buying a leather jacket. Not that I really need one. But something inside of me likes the idea of me wearing one.

I’d love to have more time to go on dates. But I find it hard enough to schedule one each week. If only there was more time in the day.

Did you experience any synchronicity this week? What was it? Monday after my day job I left in a very bad mood. I had been dealing with a frustrating shipping issue for most of the tail end of the day and just wanted to get home, eat dinner, and work on photos. But as I got on the interstate a friend from out of town sent me a text and invited me to see him perform stand-up comedy (See day 36 above).

I really do think that was the universe’s way of telling me to calm down and take a load off for an hour or so. Even if I was REALLY tired the next day at work.