1. I think I have finally accepted the fact that aside from the tree, things aren't going to get decorated until Monday.
2. I think if I'm going to rock this to-do list thing a bit better, I'll need new notebooks.
3. I think a blog that's not from my BYW course that I'm really enjoying right now is Under the Tulip Tree. I'm still thinking about this walk that Julie wrote about.
4. I think of course I met my new neighbors on a day that I'd been working like mad, had no make-up on, my hair was what my grandpa used to call "stribbley" and I was late to get Callum from school. Of course.
5. I think I can't believe I'm going to write this. In a couple of hours, after I drop Callum off at school, I am leaving by myself to travel to Charleston, South Carolina to take a one-day photography workshp with Helene DuJardin. It is not the photography weekend that I talked about missing out on earlier, but in some ways, for me at least, it's better. When I was taking photography classes at the Contemporary Art Center in Virginia Beach (which is now called the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art), my instructor Jackie recommended Helene's book to me. It's called Plate to Pixel. I love this book. I love still life photography of all kinds, but especially food photography, and Helen's book really taught me so very much. After devouring her book (get it, har har), I started following her blog, tartlette, and every time I read it, I am so captivated by the recipes and visual images. When I emailed about this class and she emailed me back, I felt like I was emailing a rock star!

My mom and my aunt are taking good care of me and putting me up in an amazing hotel. I can't wait to take pictures and tell you about it. Every single piece of this weekend feels important to me. The drive, the trip to one of my favorite cities in the world. Making this journey alone. My aunt was, sweetly, gunning for me to bring Neel and Callum (Can you believe Neel hasn't been to Charleston?) but when I suggested it, Neel told me, "This time you need to go alone." We'll all go together sometime. After this, I'll make sure of that. I haven't traveled alone anywhere since Callum was two. That's a long time.

And there's the photography. Well, you can probably guess how I feel about that. I don't have enough words.

So I'll see you Monday, I suppose. I'll be checking in all weekend through twitter, instagram and the still+life facebook page (go Like me!) if you're so inclined to see if I survive it all.