Wallowing

The last few days, I have found my lack of income distressing me. I have been checking the web for job-listings which might grab me, knowing full when that I will be grabbing one within the next few months (I'm giving my freelance a few more months - see if I can get any birth photography clients, more teaching and lesson gigs, portrait work, etc, then I'm off to the 9-5s.)

I regret nothing, but I can't say I enjoy using my savings. I don't dig that much.

I just put in my Facebook status, "C. has no income. None at all, poeple. None. At. All."

And my dear friend Amanda responded, "But you have lots of love. L.o.v.e."

Insert grateful sigh here.

Latest Project

Introducing Jeremiah

This morning I came home at 3:30 from attending an at-home birth! Linda and her husband allowed me in their home to photograph the arrival of their son, Jeremiah, in return for copies of the pictures.

I am hoping to start photographing at-home births (I will stay with at-home births because most hospitals won't allow photographers in). It's a great way to document an important event for a client, and for me it's more of what I love to do - be a fly on the wall and document life. In this case, the arrival of one.

I received a call from the midwife's student at 5:20 on Christmas Eve morning and headed to Linda's home. About twenty long hours later, after many stops and starts, Jeremiah arrived after just fifteen minutes of pushing. Linda was incredible! Despite there being at least six people in her home at any given time throughout her labor, and despite the slow progression of her labor, she was impressively patient. I never heard her complain once. She never gave-up, either.

Here are a few pictures from the event. I intend to post more once I edit the shoot and clear them with Linda and her husband.

Breathing through the surges (contractions).

Meeting big brother.


The little man of the hour. Born on Christmas!

Hanging Billy 'Til He's Silly

What Mom overheard today in the restaurant...

Kid - "Deck the Halls with Joy and Billy!
Fa la la la la la la la la!
Hang them high 'til they are silly!
Fa la la la la la la la la!..."
Mom (not mine) - "You have got to stop singing that!"
Kid - "Why?"
Mom - "Because when your cousins show-up they are not going to like it!"

Dog Wrestling

WWF Dogs from Cydney Scott on Vimeo.

At Last They Meet

Oliver, this is Snow
Snow, meet Oliver.

You Missed

I make you a nice cushy warm bed and that's how you sleep on it?

Christmas Tale #2

As a kid, I believed in Santa like many. I was between five and eight when one year on Christmas eve, I was woken up by the sound of sleigh bells. I climbed out of bed and looked through a small window at the back of my bedroom. It was a high window near the ceiling and it gave a view of the sky above our backyard.

The moon was full and huge and sure enough, there flew Santa with his eight reindeer in a silhouette across the bright moon. I remember so clearly the profile of his hat, the sleigh, and the way his arms held the reins.

It was years before I realized I'd dreamt it, but I still love the memory of it and am so grateful I had that dream!

Cards

My friend Christina sent me this via email. I think it's funny, even if, like me, you don't have a boss anymore.

Christmas Tale #1

When I was a kid, my grandmother used to come and visit for an extended period of time during the holidays. Every year, my brother and I would place bets on which flying outfit she would arrive in at the airport coming from Michigan. It was always either the pale blue polyester jobbie, or the festive green suit with the fur collar and cuffs. We would giggle in anticipation while peeping out the window as the car puled up with her inside.

When I was eight, we had a Norwegian exchange student living with us for a year. He shared with my mom the ingredients to a drink called Glogg (pronounced "glooooog"). It's one of those everything but the kitchen sink kind of drinks; a whole orange with cloves, prunes, nuts, spices, vodka, red wine, a spatula and the tail of a newt.

We serve this drink, much to every one's pleasure, during our annual holiday parties. Well, one year when grandmommy was still visiting and Christopher and I were small enough to not even remember this incident, she scooped out the prunes from the bottom of the finished-off glogg after a party one night. She placed them in the fridge.

To have for breakfast.

To have the alcohol-soaked prunes for breakfast.

You see where I'm going I'm sure.

The next morning my mom came downstairs to find her mother sitting at the dining table flanked by her two grandchildren. Christopher and I were laughing and laughing, and because Grandmommy's back was to us, mom just thought how nice it was that we were enjoying some time with our grandmother. After a little while of hearing us giggle on and on from the next room, she came into join us and that's when she realized, we were actually being entertained by our hammered granny.

Christopher would lean in and say, "Hey Grandmommy, say 'rutabaga'!" and Christopher and I would laugh ourselves into a tinkling frenzy watching grandmommy attempt to form the word and come no where near close in her blathering.

Mom says she just had to jam pillows around grandmommy in the chair so she wouldn't fall over. Then later, Dad helped move her upstairs where she slept off her crazy morning partying over prunes.

Must See

If you are looking for a good flick to go see, look no further. My friend Helen and I went to see Slumdog Millionaire last night and it was fantastic! Since I'm not a movie reviewer, I won't go on with my "It was really cool and romantic and stuff". I'll just show you the preview and tell you that when my parents go to see it, I'll be going with them to see it a second time. That's saying something considering the prices of movies these days and the fact that I have a limited cash flow right now!

My Dogs Cute

Oliver Does the Charleston

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Snuggling

I over-slept this morning. Then, I was very busy and important for a few hours until Mom and I left to see Handel's Messiah at the Boston Symphony Hall with a family friend. By the time I was back from dinner, Oliver was feeling very snubbed. This called for extra snuggles in the evening.

This is something that started about a month after I moved back to MA. I think it's because he's used to having a couch to lounge on while I'm watching TV. The set-up is different here, and there's no couch in front of the TV. So now he's all about my lap. Tonight, Mom took a picture of him in all his drowsy glory...

Light the Lights and Terrify the Children

Tonight was the Wakefield Center Neighborhood Association's annual Light the Lights event. On the downtown common in Wakefield, the group strings white lights in the trees every year when winter comes. Frosty comes to greet the kids and there are carollers, hot cocoa, munchkins for the munchkins (kids, not little people visiting from the Land of Oz) and a count down to turn on the lights.

This is an event I have always enjoyed since I was a child myself. The organization has been doing this for over twenty years and I have fond memories of it. I remember my boyfriend from high school dressing as Frosty one year. I remember the year when it snowed a lot and when the lights came on it was like something in a movie.

Tonight was different. It seems that in the ten years I have been a way and missing this event, vendors have made there way to the perimeter of the common selling glowing crap to any child drawn in by anything shiny. Which really is every kid. This year, in an intelligent effort to be more economical the WCNA used it's hard-earned funds to purchase new LED lights for the common. Normally when I shoot holiday lights, I have all the light I need once the lights come on, because really those old badboys are bright enough to land a plane (I also normally have feeling in my fingers because I'm shooting them in the tropics. Not so this year!). This time, the lights were very nice but not so bright. As such, taking pictures was a real challenge.

Still, I have attached some of my favorites. Make that, the ones that amused me.

This is just a decent shot which gives you a bit of an idea of the event. Lights, kids, and Frosty.


This is my favorite of the bunch. It would have been better if there were more lights behind these two, of course, but what makes the pic is the kid freaking out at left.

These two are friends of mine, Owen and Pat. What I wonder about is what the woman is saying the child at left, "You will go visit Frosty and you will like it!"

Oh Danny Boy

Thanks to Maureen for providing me with something cool to share on my blog today. I know, it's been a while. I'll try ot be more entertaining soon. In the meantime, kick it, Beaker!

December Masthead