** happy **

It's been a few good days - starting with Sunday, of course, when I saw Tim Holtz.  Sorry.  Did I not say that loud enough?  TIM HOLTZ!!!!  Nothing short of *wow.*  It all started when I was waiting to go into the back of the store.  I had my iPhone out and was talking to Tanya about an app (or something) and then, all of a sudden, this guy starts chiming in about these must have apps.  holy hell, batman.  IT WAS HIM.  I did it though.  I played it calm, cool and collected.  He was just an average Joe who puts his pants on one leg at a time.  Inside though, I as screaming and twitching and mentally catching my breath.  I mean ... IT WAS HIM!  *sigh*

His classes were awesome.  He is an amazing teacher.  Always happy.  Never annoyed.  Eternally patient.  I have always loved T!m products (and Tim himself) but now I love (and him) them even more - in part because I have lost alot of that intimidation factor.  I am itching to get in their and do some grungey goodness getting my hards dirty.  What a great feeling of satisfaction.  Not to mention that large amounts of alcohol ink and acrylic nails are still allowing me to enjoy that dirty process right at this very moment.  I do have some pictures to share but they are still on my camera so I will post at a later date.  In the meantime, I will continue to bask in my creative world until I can create again.  I am truly inspired.

Monday found me heading off to my first photography class at Algonquin College.  Basic Digital Photography.  I am complete excited and in love and know I am in the right place.  What a great feeling.  Of course, the evening was full of that dry and technical but necessary stuff.  Aperture, shutter speed, what the icons on the dials mean, etc.  Alot of it I knew a little about but now have a bit of a deeper understanding about it although still not 100%.  I learned how photographers get those wonderful Canada Day shots and now I am impatiently counting the days for July 1st.  I may not even be able to wait.  I think I am going to have to run out and buy my own fireoworks to try this new technique.  We touched very lightly on our assignment.  There is only one throughout these next 7 weeks but it seems like it is a doozy - alot of components handed in through multiple photos.  I have a million ideas in my head ... now I just have to hope that I can capture it through the lense.  My mind was going so crazy last night that I couldn't sleep and I am very eager for tomorrow night's class.  Even as I type this I am full of giddy-ness waiting to see what tomorrow has to offer.

On a software note, I got some fabulous news.  When K and I talked about this, we both knew that there was a bunch of I was either going to have to upgrade (or buy) if I was going to do photography as a side job.  One of those things being software.  I cringed at the thought of spending an upwards of $1000.00 for new Photoshop goodies however, we were enlightened yesterday with some very exciting news.  Because we are photography students, we will get to purchase Photoshop CS 5 Suite(have you seen it?  I saw it a few weeks ago via Jeni Boisvert's blog and let me just say WOW) for a fraction of the price.  Very cool.

So, as you can hopefully feel by reading this, it has been a very excited couple of days.  Things are about to get mega busy at work.  Between field trips, Jump Rope for Heart (I run it), Floor Hockey Tournament (I run the canteen),  our CPS track and field meet.  (i do this too) and our County meet (me again) and whatever else pops up, this photography thing may be a great way to regroup and enjoy myself.

Enjoy the day.  I know I will.