All Wasilla: study of the young writer, Shoshana; the girl who walked away from the school bus; raven hops off dead tree

It has been a long time since I have run one of my universe-wide famous Studies of the Young Writer, Shoshona - so here she is:

Study of the Young Writer, Shoshana, #1,000,003: she stirs my Americano.

This is the girl who walked away from the school bus. The temperature soared to 44 searing degrees today (6.7 C). Snow is melting fast.

I spotted this raven perched atop this dead tree. I stopped and waited to see if it would hop off and how it would look when it did.

Sure enough, the raven hopped off. And this is how it looked when it did.

And be sure - I have at least two more White Mountain Apache stories coming and at least four or five more from India. I intend to finish them all before the end of next week - but none tonight. 

Physically, I still feel very strange. It is still hard for me to function. It is just about 11:00 PM right now - still pretty early for me, but I cannot keep my eyes open. I cannot think. I cannot write. I will go to bed soon. Then, if tonight proves the same as every other night that I have been home - almost one week now, I will fall asleep almost immediately - a rare thing for me, but something I have done maybe every night. Then I will wake up sometime between 12:30 AM and 2:30 AM and I won't be able to go back to sleep. Tomorrow, I will once again feel like hell, just as I did today, as I did yesterday. I take Melatonin almost every night, but now it occurs to me that I ran out of Melatonin after I reached Phoenix, before I returned to Wasilla.

Maybe that is why I can't adjust.

I had better buy some Melatonin tomorrow and see if that makes a difference.

I test out my new iPhone 4s camera as I make one last delay on the Loft missionary post: baby and mom, cat, me, four young writer studies

I received advice from two grandmas today, both in response to the fact that I had twice delayed the post I was making to cover what I experienced as I attempted to do a photo essay on Mormon missionaries working in New York City for the David Alan Harvey Workshop.

GrannyJ said this in a comment left on my last post:

"Writing- especially writing that is so close to us- takes as long as it takes. You cannot rush the process. And I love the daily moose, dog and shoveler - while I wait."

Grandma Nancy wrote this to me in an email:

"I too process things through my fingertips -- my mind just works that way. Sometimes it gets incredibly long, and sometimes I simply have to stop because it gets too painful to continue."

I decided that these were words of wisdom that I could take comfort in to justify my delays - especially because I am going to delay one more day. I am almost there, and I could have pushed it and completed it before I went to bed tonight.

But I don't want to push it. So I am going to delay one more day. Instead, I will show you the first test shots that I shot with my new iPhone 4s. The very first image that I took with it was of Lynxton in his mother's arms. I shot it this morning in Anchorage, right after I drove Margie into town so that she could spend the week babysitting.

I am certain that you have figured it out already, but it is the image at the top of this page.  

The second image that I shot with the iPhone 4s is this one immediately above, of the cat Chicago, resting on my chest. The third is the same scene, from the opposite angle. I am also trying to rest, because I have experienced one of those infamous "writer's block" moments and I think maybe I can break it with a short nap. For this images, I used the second iPhone 4s camera - the one that allows you to frame yourself in the monitor. I like the feature, but was surprised to see that it produces a much lower resolution image than does the main camera.

Even though I don't think I ever really fell asleep, I believe the little rest did help, because I was able to produce something right afterwards, but it didn't help enough. So, at 4:00 PM, I left my computer, went outside, damn near froze, then jumped in the car and headed for Metro Cafe to see if a cup might bring me around and help me get more done.

I damn near froze because it was - 17 F (-27 C), I had on only the lightest of jackets and a stiff wind had suddenly come up. I knew the wind had been forecast to pick up, but it was also forecast to bring in warmer air, so I was a bit surprised. Here is study #12 of the young writer, Shoshana.

It was amazing to watch the temperature as I drove toward Metro. It stayed at -17 all through the flat down where we live, but as soon as I started to go uphill, it began to rise, fast: -13, -10, -7, - 4, 0... of course it did it one degree at a time, but when I pulled into Metro it had risen all the way to +3. (-16 C). 

So here is study # 1001 of the young writer, basking in the warmth as she prepares my order.

 

Study of the young writer, Shoshana, #2002: She opens the window.

 

Study of the young writer, Shoshana, #671: one day, she and I will make a book together - you watch and see.

I took my time going home, so I could listen to all the speculation and news coming out of New Hampshire. When I got home, the temperature had climbed all the way to +4, right here at the house. It looks like this latest cold snap has come to an end.

Hopefully, there will be another coming soon.

I like the camera in the iPhone 4s. 

I think it is going to change my life.

I guess it already has.

David Alan Harvey Workshop, entry 5: I determine the location of Mormon missionaries; I take a break to shoot a "young writer study" and drive to Anchorage to get Margie

As my apartment mates and I prepared to head to the loft Tuesday morning, I felt a certain dread. We had all had one shooting day to work on our essays. David now expected us to come back with an edited selection of no more than 10 images to project in contact sheet mode onto the screen, then he and our workshop mates would critique each take, reject most of the images but maybe hold on to one or two - at least temporarily.

My first day's shoot had been a disaster. I had nothing to show - not one Mormon missionary picture for an essay on Mormon missionaries. I did make a couple of selects of the Angel Moroni statue, but I knew they would not make the cut. I did not even want to show them - but I had to show something.

I wasn't at all certain that I had even made the best Moroni selection. The monitor on my laptop had gone bad. Instead of presenting clear images, it subjected the eye to a brain-destroying lightshow of flashing and jumping lines, solarizations, negative colors and lightning flashes.

It was impossible to edit pictures on a such a screen. I had brought my iPad with me, along with an ap I had paid $10 for so that I could enable it as a second screen. I soon discovered that it did not work well at all. In fact, it also proved impossible to work with.

So, after downloading my pictures, I put the compact flash card back into my camera and scrolled through my Moroni pictures, editing them off the camera monitor. When I picked one, I would note the number. Then, with difficulty, I would study the chaos happening on my screen until finally I could pick an image number - until finally I could find the number that matched the one on my camera LCD.

Then I would pull that number into the edit folder. This was not really a good way to edit at all.

In the morning, I again started calling Mormon numbers and soon I was successful at reaching a human being. I told her what I wanted to do. She told me that it just so happened that right now every Mormon missionary in the city of New York was gathering at the LDS Stake center, housed in the same building as the temple, for a mission conference. She told me they were already going into session, but would break for lunch sometime between noon and one.

So I joined my housemates in a cab. The driver took off, I saw this lady looking out this window, shot three frames and shortly afterward walked into the loft for the morning session.

I informed David of the conference. He said I should get down there right now, and not wait for lunch. He did not want me to waste time walking to the subway and then making the long ride from Brooklyn to Uptown Manhattan. He pulled what money he had out of his wallet, asked for further contributions, got a few, then handed me somewhere between $25 and $30 and told me to take a cab.

So off I went. I missed the morning's presentations, I missed the critiques; I did not have to subject my miserable take of the day before to a critique. Perhaps I could really get something today and then have something good to show tomorrow.

For now, I will leave it right there, because on late morning of this day, Friday, January 6, 2012, I had to drive to Anchorage to pick Margie up from her week of babysitting and bring her home. We did not return until early evening. 

So I am going to hold off and begin anew tomorrow.

On my way to Anchorage, I stopped at Metro Cafe and bought a cup of Trail Mix instand oatmeal. As I was eating it, a young writer study materialized right in front of me:

Study of the Young Writer, Shoshana, #22,742: she chats with a customer at the drive-through window.

Here I am, stopped at the light on the corner of the Parks and Palmer-Wasilla highways. I took no more pictures after this, because my battery died right here, at this light. Once I got to Anchorage, I called Stewart's Photo and asked if the batteries they have in stock would have any charge at all in them.

"Yes," the salesman told me, "about 25 percent." So I drove over and bought one - but, when I put in in my camera, it had no charge all.

That's okay. Otherwise, I would now have to edit a bunch of pictures of Kalib, Jobe and Lynxton - but now I can't, because I took no pictures to edit.

So I am done for tonight. I can relax with Margie. She has been gone for a whole week. We will catch up on "Hell on Wheels" and eat popcorn.

Tomorrow, I will return and show you what happened once I found the missionaries.