I'd rather be shooting

Weekend consisted mainly of M putting up (even more of) our Christmas lights and me trying to stay out of the way. It seems that whenever I wander out there he claims that productivity drops. This results in a much scowling and furrowing of brows, so I did what any self-respecting wife would do in that situation: I went shopping.

Saturday was a girls day: me, Zozo, Mama/Grammy (or Meme, or Hammy, whatever Zoe wants to call her) and Beans/Aunt KK. We ate lunch out, then circled West County Mall's parking lot for about a frillion years before finally giving up and heading to Barnes & Noble for Beans to pick up a gift. We all ended up getting something good there, so it was a great stop. Plus, Mama and Beans got to see Zozo in action in a bookstore. It's like Curly (of the Three Stooges, duh) with tassles; when she's surrounded by that many books she just bonkers out. (This is a super-secret test for Stooges fans out there...only they know what happens to Curly when he gets around tassles.)

Today M went back out while I resigned myself to sticking closer to home and actually, sigh, cleaning. Not exactly tons of fun, but much needed. Having to clean (not organize, mind you, which I love, but actually clean, like, pushing the stupid vacuum around) is a real spirit killer, in my humble opinion. I'm currently working on convincing M that we should look into hiring a cleaning service, but it's not going over too well so far. This, obviously, is because he does not do the cleaning.

He's responsible for the lawn, which for reasons unknown to me, he actually enjoys doing. That's great, more power to him. If he told me tomorrow he wants to hire a lawn service so he could spend just that much more time on the lights, I'd be all for it. See, I'm a supportive wife like that.

So, I would very much expect that my request for a cleaning service that would free up more of my time so I could spend fun time with Zozo and have more time for photography would be met with agreement and even, I dare say, glee.

Not so much.

I say, hey, we're both working full-time. We're professionals who have jobs that, while we love them, contain a fair amount of stress. We have a small child. We have commitments and obligations to friends and family. I, for one, am working to shed this friggin' baby weight and get back in shape (and, don't forget, get arms that are ripped). We make decent money, and we budget well and are quite frugal.

This, to me, is as much of a no-brainer as the decision to (finally) take his dress shirts to the cleaners.

This, to him, is incomprehensible.

So today I puttered around and cleaned and felt sorry for myself and grouched about it incessantly. I sank deeper and deeper into one of those foul moods where nothing is right, and I'm pissed at the world. This feeling only makes me angrier and so then I feed upon myself until I'm pretty much unbearable.

Looking to make someone else feel as crappy as I did, I wandered out to decrease M's productivity before heading to Sam's with Zoe. Instead, I saw it.

I had it stuck in my head going in to this weekend that I was going to shoot our Christmas card before returning to work Monday. This is opposed to doing the card the way I've done it for three or four years running, which is waiting until about a week and a half before Christmas and going, "Oh, shit. We need a card."

The only problem was, I had no idea what to shoot. Normally I get an idea and run with it. This weekend, I had nothing. Probably because my brain was fried from cleaning (yet another reason to hire someone!). I had given up hope of figuring anything out when I saw my shot after I walked outside. Granted, it wasn't perfectly set up or anything. I saw a component of my finished shot and knew, instantly, what it was.

Ten minutes later, the shot was in the can, and my mood was considerably better. After Sam's, I came back in and opened up a can of whup-ass on Zoe's room, cleaning out her dresser drawers and her closet.

So, now, here I sit. The laundry is done (clean, folded and put away), the house is clean, the bed has fresh sheets, and my money shot has been cropped, leveled and sharpened, and is ready for printing on our Christmas cards. Because I picked up that camera today, I'm in great mood.

I think this is what M counts on. "Why spend money on a cleaning service? She'll get over it...just get that Nikon in her hands!" I hate it when he's right. I'm still pushing for the cleaning service, though.

P.S. No, I'm not going to post today's take here, because, well, that would completely defeat the purpose of shooting something special for our Christmas card. You'll just have to wait to see it.