Candid

Candid.  And candidly, I've got nothing new to say.  It's all been said before.  I'm sad and I'm tired - what else is new, right?  I'm living two faces because most people don't want anything to do with my sad face. Both of my faces are genuine, they're just very distinct.  Good thing I have such a good sense of humor (I think, anyhow) because IF has not stolen laughter from me, at least.  But whatever they say, laughter doesn't cure anything.  It does at least take some of the edge off though.  

 Week 8 of Photo 52: Candid

Anyhow, here's my candid photo submission. This is Sor, Ar's daughter. She's lovely!  She treated us to lunch this week - best sushi I ever had!  This photo is her intently sharpening her chopsticks for the battle.  You'll be glad to know that she won.  We all did.

This is a real photo, but I don't feel comfortable putting the actual photo on here. I had her permission to use it on Facebook, but I didn't ask her about using it on the blog - which, she doesn't even know about - so this was converted to a pencil sketch for a small level of anonymity.

I was happy to get this photo early in the week, because I wasn't sure what I was going to do.  I mean, I take many candid shots of Ar, which are wonderful, in my opinion, but I don't want to post Ar all the time.  Well, I honestly wouldn't mind, but I'm sure people would get sick of that pretty quickly.  I also don't feel comfortable posting people's faces without their permission, so I felt a bit limited.  Social media is a whole new animal, ya know, and I just like to be careful.   I really liked this photo I got of Sor though, so that worked out well.  It's very, very her!!

However, since I had really nothing to do today except get a pair of pants mended, buy eggs, and survive, I let myself get a little lost looking for some nice photo opportunities. I did feel content at times, while wandering, but...  Well, to be completely candid, looking for more bonus candid shots of strangers kinda stunk...  I'm sorry that it's true, but it is.

There are an awful lot of adorable shots of parents and kids. Like, you know, everywhere I looked. There was one in particular in the mall that made my heart just melt - a father and son.  So sweet.  Why can't that be Ar?  Why can't I be tailing Ar taking adorable photos of him with our boy, instead of creepily staring after strangers?   Or the mother gently pulling on her baby's hat, while dad held the little one in his arms. Well, soon as my pants were mended, I hightailed it out of the mall.  I drove around a while, winding around the big, beautiful park nearby, where I discovered more father and son action.

After moving on from stalking them, I discovered this tree.  I guess it's a candid. After all, it didn't know I was admiring and photographing it.  Admittedly, it looked way better in person, but at that point I didn't feel like getting out of the car and tromping around to get a better picture.  I love trees.  Trees always lift my spirits, so I sat there admiring it for a while. 

When I left there is when I got lost, but not very.  Happily, I ended up in a wonderful little neighborhood, which I haven't been to in ages. Conveniently, there is a little Finnish bakery and bistro right there on the corner.  Granted, I'm far from being Finnish, but it still would have been wrong to not stop in.  So... after showing off my killer parallel parking skills - it's ridiculous how good this old country girl is at parallel parking - I walked over to the bistro and saw this elderly couple trudging along arm in arm, all bundled up. I very much like to see elderly couples. They were a ways off, so again not a great picture, but I was being aware, at least. The problem with awareness is that it's hard to make it selective. 

Wouldn't it be nice if I could just focus my awareness on trees, nature, elderly couples, and people whose happiness doesn't hurt my heart so much?

Anyhow, the Finnish bakery was quite charming, and the almond kringlette quite delicious! A nice little treat.  I also stopped into the gift shop next door - just to browse.  I wasn't going to buy anything... famous last words, right. Well, they had this CD playing, which was rather unique and soothing. I decided to buy it for Ar. We don't really buy each other actual gifts very often.  Our rule is to never buy each other a gift just because we're supposed to - so we don't really worry about birthdays, Valentine's, or Christmas gifts for each other.  We only buy each other gifts when we see or think of something the other would likely enjoy.  I think he, and his lumberjack tendencies, will like it.

I also couldn't resist this bottle of locally made spice.  Get this: sea salt, lemon peel, basil leaf, and lavender buds.  Mmm.  Can't wait to try it.

So, those were my adventures today.  Mostly I felt heavy hearted, but there was some niceness to round it out.

Last, but not least, I'm posting this just because I love it. It's one of my favorite candid shots.  It was taken in Utila, two years ago.  This is Ar's ma and his cousin. I think it's so cute!