The Pseudo-Hiatus

June 11, 2011 at 8:31 pmCategory:Geekish | The General Stuff | This Is My Life

I’m currently sitting in bed with a Mike’s Hard Raspberry Lemonade and I really don’t know if I’m fully awake. The sad part is that it’s only 8:30pm. I really should be awake. This is what my Saturday nights have become. I am actually looking forward to the Benadryl so I can pass out and get some rest.

Today marks my first full day of being Twitter-free. After last night’s dramatics (posted vaguely about in my Livejournal), I had told Simon that I would spend a week away from the social networking site. It had become my go-to time-passer, and frankly, I had become a bit obsessive with it. The drama of last night just pushed that knowledge in my face, and it certainly isn’t worth risking my marriage.

And so, I haven’t posted a tweet in 24 hours. Is it sad that I’ve actually timed it? 24 hours down, only 168 more to go.

Honestly, I’m not really missing it as much as I thought I would. I won’t lie, there were numerous times today where something happened, or a thought came to me that I immediately followed with “where’s my phone, I need to tweet that…” and then realized that I couldn’t.  But after talking with a few of my co-workers today (none of which are into Twitter or understand the hype), I realized that maybe this break will be a good thing.

I had come to the realization that my blogging dramatically deteriorated after my love affair with tweeting began. I attribute it to the fact that instead of ending the day with a blog post describing things that went through my mind, I was live-streaming them via Twitter. I found myself telling people things and their response was “I know, I read it on Twitter.” That should be some kind of warning sign, shouldn’t it? Kind of like the signs alcoholics get before the intervention?

So I figure… maybe my break from Twitter will spark that need to blog again. (Like my life is so interesting that I couldn’t spare you the details, I know.) I want to fill my time with something worthwhile. In the past three years of being on Twitter, I had tweeted over 26,000 times. TWENTY SIX THOUSAND. People, my life is not that interesting, I assure you. All I could think of today were all those hours accumulated over the past three years that were spent checking Twitter and posting tweets that I could have spent doing something interesting. Something creative. Something that helped me grow. Instead of telling you what I had for dinner that night.

And yet… I find myself doing the same thing, only in long-winded form here on my blog. I suppose you just can’t escape the life that is Jessa for very long, can you?

The One Where The Flowers Bloom

June 5, 2011 at 12:08 pmCategory:Photography | The Happy Stuff

So, again I stray from the 30 Days of Truth project because I feel like I need a break from the prompts and I just want to ramble a bit.

Not that I really have much to ramble about… but that’s ok, right?

 

Peonies in Bloom

I’m so giddy that my peonies have started to blossom. I’ve been watching them grow for the last few weeks… Every morning when we would open the garage to head to work, I would run outside to our front garden and inspect the progress. I had little faith that they would even come back after the winter we had. I am proud to say that they (along with all of our other lovely plants!) are back and better than ever. I may be a bit biased, since I work in a flower shop, but flowers make me happy. Seeing the growth and beauty in a plant is just really serene to me. It’s my little zen garden.

 

A Secret Forest

Something else that has gotten me giddy is my growing level of comfort of being able to just stop in random places and snap photos. I remember when I first got my Nikon, and I wanted so badly to take pictures of all these beautiful things, but I felt awkward and shy. I didn’t want people looking at me, or thinking I was weird if I whipped my camera out and started snapping away at random things.

But I’ve realized over the past few weeks that I am having no problem pulling over to the side of the road when I see a house that I want to capture, or a tree that looks so interesting to me… And just capture it. The above picture is the front yard of an abandoned business complex near Simon’s work. I pass it every afternoon when going to pick him up, and as the grass grew long and the trees began to bloom, I just really, really wanted to photograph it. So, one day I had my camera with me and I did just that. I pulled over, NSYNC blaring, windows down… grabbed my camera and crouched in the midst of all the weeds and started snapping.

A few days later I noticed someone had mowed the lawn, and I was so thankful I was brave enough to take the photos when I did. It seems like such a little thing, but it is just growing proof to myself that I really, really love doing this. Being a “photographer” (even though I still don’t completely believe I fit the title) is something that I absolutely love.

It’s a part of me now, and I really adore it.