TMS

It's Monday, here's what's happening:

It is the end of July and like clockwork for the past 30+ late July's of my life I develop a severe case of TMS.

Too Much Sunshine.

Symptoms include:


unexplained anger; short-temperedness; debilitating fatigue; sudden onset road rage; crying jags; wild, uninhibited shopping sprees for items such as blackout curtains, awnings, beach umbrellas, dark sunglasses, ridiculously wide-brimmed hats, etc.; and plenty of alcohol for self-medication purposes.

I already hate the sun.  That's a year round thing for me.

Combine incessant, oppressive, glaring-through-my-soul sunshine with excessive heat and humidity and that's a perfect recipe for me to Find Comfort In The Fetal Position In The Darkest Corner Of My House. I have been known to becoming almost hysterical and melting down (no pun intended) in times of TMS when it hasn't rained in awhile. I have witnesses.  Ask my long-suffering husband and daughter.  Poor things.

I am a Summer SAD (Reverse Seasonal Affective Disorder) sufferer which is the opposite of the more well-known Winter SAD, for which sufferers get relief from increasing their sun exposure.  I need to decrease my sun exposure...drastically.  Right now what I really need is about a week of steady rain. Cloud cover.  Some Summer SAD people love cold and snow.  That's not me.  As the temperature steadily works its way toward the 100-degree mark as I write this, I am not wishing instead that there was a blizzard outside.  I like mild weather.  I like being outside.  I like not being encumbered by layers of clothing. I just hate the sun.

Check back with me in October.  This should pass by then.

 

Midsummer(ish) Update

Wait, is it really midsummer?
Technically it isn't.  In fact, summer isn't even a month old yet.  But summer to me runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day so mid-July is midsummer.

Anyway...
here we are at mid-July.  I've been in the house a lot, hiding from the sun since I break out if I spend longer than 5 minutes in sunshine.  Not minding being in the house, by the way, since I hate humidity and southern New Jersey has been thinking it's in the tropics lately.


We finally finished working on our swimming pool.  Hallelujah.
When we bought this house six months ago we knew the pool was 'as is'.  JP can basically fix anything and he saw that as a challenge.  I saw it as a money pit and I didn't care one way or another if we had a swimming pool or not.  Alas, he won that battle and went to work making the pool right.
Unfortunately for some really weird and unknown reason we couldn't get one iota of information from the former owners about the poor pool which made things all the more difficult.  Not sure while all the secrecy; we were already under contract before we even started asking questions about it.
People are weird.

We had to paint the pool.  Have you ever painted a pool?  I have and it's the direct opposite of fun.
Of course we painted the pool when it was hellishly hot out and I am not ashamed to admit that I did my share of pool painting in my underwear.  A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.  Thank God for privacy.

Here's what we started with:

You can see the stain marks that all had to be patched and repaired.  Funnnnnky!

And here's where we're at now:

Phew, it's done.  And while I am spending lots of time indoors, I do actually leave the house to swim in it and now there's a movable umbrella (not pictured) so I can sit under it from inside the pool and still be protected from the sun.  Our yard is super shady so the sun is only on the pool for a few hours in the afternoon anyway.  Perfect.

My little shop is doing really, really well!

We are selling a ton of stuff including JP's distressed furniture and my hand painted signs.

I have to say that it is really nice to be taking a break from the photo art for a little bit.  Switching gears is always a good idea when things get stale, right?  It's just a bit of a slowdown right now since I could never ever not create photo art.

Taking pictures in the summertime is weird and I think that's one of the reasons for the need to step away a little.  My stuff tends to have a stark look about it and all the trees and other green stuff of summer sort of conceal that beautiful rawness that I strive for.

This is really weird...I started to notice that a few of the people who were followers of my photo art - and in particular my Facebook page devoted to it - had some kind of expectation of me...or of a version of me that wasn't me at all.  It was like they thought I was some sort of Pollyanna who drove around the countryside in my gingham dress taking pictures of farm life.  I have to admit that I bought into that for awhile and it messed with me bad.  I would have these thoughts that I had to keep up their image of me so that I didn't lose them as followers.  Ridiculous, right?  For the record, I am pretty much the complete opposite of a Pollyanna.
For example:
Sometimes I curse on a regular basis.  I have tattoos and a pierced nose. I love wine, regularly. I dress in black every single day (not goth, just love black).  I'm a born and bred New Jerseyan and everybody knows that you would be hard pressed to find a Pollyanna in NJ.
I'm not two people. I'm one salty person who sees beauty in things that a lot of people overlook.  Yes, I drive around the countryside almost everyday with my cameras taking pictures of as much beauty as I can capture...and sometimes while I'm doing that I say
"%$*# you" to the person behind me who is tailgating me.
I've been a walking contradiction my whole life.
Not gonna hide that anymore.