Is there something you’ve been dying to do for ages, but just never got around to it? Maybe it seemed too stupid, maybe it was just a little too ludicrous, or maybe the opportunity just never presented itself. I’ve had a list of things like that for as long as I can remember. Not necessarily a physical list that I’ve written down and itemized, but a loose mental list of things that have fascinated me or in some manner caught my interest.

    I got to tick a few of those off my list this past weekend and I have to say, I’m thrilled. First and most exciting: I got to make a short film! Alright, so it was ridiculously short – only 45 seconds – but those 45 seconds kick serious butt. A few weeks ago I found out about a contest sponsored by American Airlines where you could win 12 free round-trip tickets for two to anywhere in the world they or their partners fly. (Gee, could you think of a prize better suited to me? Throw in a BMW Z4 and I’d have died and gone to Heather Heaven.) But in order to enter this wonderful contest, I had to answer the question, ‘Why Do You Fly?’ using one of three mediums: photos, the written word, or video.

    Even though I’ve never in my life made a real edited-together movie, I knew I had to go with the video. Everything was just too perfect. When I found out about the contest, I had already booked my ticket to San Francisco, and guess which airline I flew. This is yet another coincidence that kills me – of course, I was flying American. On top of that coincidence, I’d been dying to test out the movie-making feature on my new whizbang camera, so it was too tempting to resist. I lugged my hefty camera through three different airports and shot about an hour’s worth of film, if not more. But it was so beautiful! The flight attendants even let me take movies of take-offs and landings. I was so set – I had so much footage of glimmering silver American Airlines planes that I knew it was perfect.

    The only downside was the fact that my movie couldn’t be any longer than a minute, and in that short period of time, I had to tell a whole story. Going to San Francisco was perfect – I was able to talk about going to my best friend’s wedding. I even got some video of them on their wedding day and they agreed to let me use it.

    I really, really wish I could show it to you, but alas, I can’t. The rules say if it’s been published anywhere then that disqualifies me. *sigh* Well, cross your fingers for me, cause if I make it to the finals you all can see it on American’s website.

    Other than making my film-making debut (ha!), I kind of fell into another little project that I’d been meaning to do but never got around to working on. It’s completely and totally stupid, but I love it anyway. Judging by the photo directory at Meggers.org, it should be no surprise that I really love taking photographs. I don’t claim to be any kind of artist, it’s just a lot of fun. Well, ever since I was little I wanted to take certain self-portraits of myself when I got older. One that I’d die to do would be a decades series, cause really, I’ve always wanted to see myself with scary 80’s hair, blue eyeshadow, pouty lips, and a denim jacket, really hamming it up like a bad 80’s rock star.

    Sadly, I wasn’t able to do that. That’d take a lot of time and costume hunting. But there was something else, something even sillier than 80’s hair (if that’s possible…) Back when I was still being home-schooled, I studied psychology a lot. When I first came across the theory on the Five Stages of Grief, this idea popped into my head that, you know, those stages are just begging to be illustrated.

Like I said, I’m no artist. But get enough sugar in me, wait until one o’clock in the morning, then throw a camera in my hands, and well… silly crap happens. Sunday afternoon I’d gone to the effort to put some make-up on because I thought I’d need to shoot one last scene for my short film. I didn’t end up needing it, but later that night when I went to wash my face, I stared in the mirror and thought to myself, ‘What a waste of perfectly lovely make-up…’     One thought led to another, and I ended up with a photo gallery that some people might consider worthy of blackmail. But me? I think it’s hilarious. I started out by illustrating The Five Stages of Grief, pajamas and all, but that soon dissolved into something I like to call The Five Stages of Happy. After that, eh, it was a gesticulating, emoting Free-For-All. Emotions came spilling out, mixed in with a hearty helping of girly giggles (which is clearly documented in The Five Stages of Happy.)

    One glimpse at these galleries and I can’t help but laugh; maybe out of shame, maybe out of embarrassment, but mostly out of just how goofy I look. I never really thought I’d be capable of taking these photos, let alone posting them on the web. But really, I think they’re too funny not to post somewhere. At least, I think so… but then again, it is well past twelve o’clock, and we all know that everything’s funnier after midnight. So hopefully when you lovely sane people browse through the galleries at a more normal hour, you’ll find them at least half as enjoyable as I do. 🙂 Just promise you won’t mock me too much.