Just Look Natural

This is my inaugural blog post. Wow, no pressure, right?

But lately, I am no stranger to inaugural events. For instance, nearly two months ago, I lost a job for the first time. I had my first experience with downsizing. That day for the first time, I simultaneously ate cookie-dough ice cream while watching an especially-violent Quentin Tarantino flick. It turned out to be an unexpectedly perfect combination, and I might do it again in better spirits.

And now, for the latest inaugural event that has taken place in my life. Don't worry, this is a good one.

For the first time, I'm my own boss. Self-employed. The proud owner of my very own small business.

In high school, if you had told my Consumer Math teacher that one day I would be a business owner, there's an excellent chance she would have guffawed and then continued to use a red pen on my test with gusto.

But nevertheless, here I am, and it turns out that I have a head for business. Previously, I believed my brain to only be a holding place for creativity, puns, cat videos, useless trivia, daydreams, and self-entertainment (among other things: world events, food, the sad-looking animals on that Sarah McLachlan commercial), but apparently, deep down in there, was a smart, savvy, bad-ass entrepreneur.*

And this short history of my newly-minted career brings me to today.

Very soon, my website will be going live. And what does every shamelessly self-promoting website need? Lots of pretty pictures.

Note to self: The night before a photo shoot in which you should probably be looking fantastic, don't go to bed at 3 a.m. Because you were brainstorming names. For this blog. And looking at pictures of corgis.

I asked my Aunt Kelly to shoot the pictures. Not just because she's my aunt. Well, she is a pretty great aunt. Not a "great aunt." You know, a GREAT aunt. But she also happens to be an awesome photographer, too. Here's a shout-out! www.capturedmomentsforyou.com

So, for my shoot, we headed to a library that looks as if it should rightfully be a movie set in a Wes Anderson movie: quirky, retro, unique. In other words, the atmosphere really matches my vibe.

Aunt Kelly and I having a picnic very far away from one another

My mom came along to the shoot as well, and they were great posing coaches ("Look out at the lake! Casually read a book! Pretend that you're writing!") but I discovered something: looking natural in photos is something that certainly does not come naturally to me. Memories of my high school senior photo session came flooding back to me as my face began to hurt from smiling "naturally." 

Luckily, my mom and my aunt are two witty ladies, and when I relaxed, they got me to laugh and my aunt snapped a few sneaky shots.

"Wow, look how awesome I am!"

Sidenote: My astounding punning abilities are clearly genetic. I took some shots with a globe, and there was punning all around, resulting in chuckling that rose above an acceptable library decibel level.

"I have the weight of the world on my shoulders!" (puts globe on shoulders)

"I have the whole world in my hands!" (holds globe in hands)

"It's not the end of the world!" (globe falls over in the car with a thud)

My website will be alive, well, and thriving very soon, and I'll be sure to share that news with all of you. You'll like it. In fact, I bet you'll like it a lot.

In the meantime, here's a teaser.

Stay tuned.

*I should note that an actual entrepreneur does not live in my brain. It's not like Mark Zuckerberg or Oprah is going to spontaneously burst out of my head. I was simply using a metaphor.