GlossyVeneer

Our five-year anniversary is approaching and I decided that we should probably get a professional portrait taken. The photography issue is a tough one for us. Neither of us like to have our picture taken. We rarely take photos of each other, I usually control the camera so pictures of me are even more elusive and we don’t have any photos of us taken together since, oh… our wedding. I guess we did get our picture taken at Kevin’s younger sister’s wedding, but even that has been a couple years now. Seeing as how we’ve changed, I figure it is probably time to get our photo taken again.

So I went to the yellow pages to find a photographer. No, I don’t use the actual printed yellow pages. Have you seen the size of the Las Vegas yellow pages? They’re huge and weigh as much as a labrador. That’s probably due to the hundreds of pages devoted to adult forms of entertainment. I use the online yellow pages. I pay good money to go to a gym to break a sweat, I’m sure as hell not going to do it by using the phone book!

When looking through the yellow pages, I have a very methodical approach to finding businesses to patronize. First, I will not use any business that names itself by repeating the letter A at the beginning. So anything that is “AAA Affordable” or “AAA Aardvark” or whatever is discarded. If your business isn’t strong enough to work with a real name and you are just trying to slap yourself at the top of the listings for a certain subject, I’m not interested in you. Second, I do pay extra attention to big ads. That is exactly what the business is hoping for when they pay for that ad, but it also impresses me that they spent a little extra time and effort on their business to come up with an ad, especially if it is well-designed and informative. Third, I look for businesses that have websites mentioned in their ad.

Once I’ve narrowed down the businesses with a web presence, I peruse their sites and the elimination process begins again. If the site is really ugly or consists of only 1 page, they are usually discounted. If their site has obviously been developed by somebody with even a minimal level of skill, then I will keep looking through the site. If the site was designed to resize my browser window, only works in one specific browser or trys to jack with my basic browser functions (back buttons, scroll bars, etc.) I leave the site. That’s just rude web development. If the site has a lot of legitimate information (restaurant: menus, hours of operation, directions; services: description of services provided, galleries of work examples, about their background or experience) then I’m more inclined to give them some consideration. Lastly, if I can request assistance electronically via their website, we usually have a winner. If I can request an estimate for services or schedule a reservation/appointment online, we’re gold.

So I was looking for a photography business. Several had ads and I realized a very prominent type of photography in this valley that I had never seen advertised before. Boudoir and semi-nude photographs. Just for regular folk. Pages and pages of services that offer these types of packages. It was almost difficult to find a company that just offered regular portraits and family photos.

So if we get photos taken for our anniversary and we somehow end up semi-nude, don’t expect the pics to be posted here unless I start offering paid subscriptions to certain content!

Weather Check: 60°
Song Playing Now: Sukie In The Graveyard by Belle and Sebastian

The spouse and I have always had grand ideas for large home improvement projects or talks of exotic vacations. Whenever any of these subjects come up in discussion, we always think that the projects or trips are too pricey to do at the moment, so I’ve always tacked on to the end, “Yeah, we’ll do that… When we’re 30.” For some reason 30 always seemed to be the magical number in which I would truly be an adult and ready to take on projects of this nature or have the finances to go on a really good vacation. But, 30 isn’t so far away now. In fact, Kevin will be 30 this year.

After a weekend spent talking about how we want to redo our master bathroom, and replace our kitchen cabinets and countertops, and get a whole closet system installed in the master closet, and re-landscape our back and front yards and so on, I made the typical remark about waiting to do everything until we’re 30 and Kevin said, “I guess we need to start doing stuff then, huh?”

The thing that I realized is that age truly is only a number. Reaching a certain age won’t change the fact that I’m a tightwad and have a really difficult time spending money to accomplish any of these items. Turning 30 won’t suddenly make me feel like a grown-up. Maybe all those articles that say “40 is the new 30″ or whatever, are truly realistic. Yeah, they may be talking about appearance the majority of the time, but don’t you look younger by feeling younger inside?

I almost feel like I need to decide what I’m doing with my life because I am approaching 30. But I am feeling more uncertainty about career and family and life at this point than I ever have in my whole life. I thought as you aged you were supposed to gain more clarity and satisfacation with who you are and life in general. I think I get more confused every day.

Weather Check: 57°
Song Playing Now: Private Idaho by the B-52′s