best laid plans and all that jazz

Brooklyn on Sunday morning, via iPhone  cam. Have  I mentioned how much I love mobile Photoshop? 

On Saturday, massive snowstorm approaching & hysterical forecasts increasing, I figured my photo shoot in Brooklyn the next morning would be postponed. So I kinda relaxed a little. I mean, here I'd have an Extra Day to catch up on work, sit by the fireplace and finish the holiday gift knitting, maybe make some cards, do a new year's e-postcard to my clients, answer email, wrap some gifts, do some cookie baking blah, blah bah. I had a Plan B.

By 6:30 am Sunday, Plan B was rolled back to Plan A. The shoot was on, snow and all. There I was trudging with my equipment on the MetroNorth, then to the subway then through the streets, trying to refigure how it'd all work out. And being kind of grouchy about it. Resenting having to shlep my big case through the snowbanks the plows had created at the curbs....when I looked up and realized how really, truly great it all was. The snow was white, fluffy and undirtied, the city was quiet, the skies were brightening, the holiday decorations were popping against the brownstones. I've never seen Brooklyn like that. It was magical and anyone out on the street just then , the handful of us, knew it.

So, where does that leave me? It's past midnight, and as I blog this I'm baking cut-out cookies, swilling a glass of red wine, finishing up knitting two hats, and adding items to tomorrow's list, all at the same time. Tomorrow I'll try getting other stuff left from the weekend done, and I'll knit the last gift on the car ride to DC on Thursday. Fingers crossed. Anyone who freelances knows the best way to get new work to come in is to plan a few days away. This year having been so epically, monumentally sucky business-wise, I figuredI could plan on getting away quietly. Nope! The very last week of the year and new work- good projects- are appearing , all needing immediate attention.

I don't care. Plans, like rules, are made to be...improved upon. Maybe that's the theme for 2010.

Or, maybe that's the red wine. (Salut!)

do handknit socks reduce stress?

You wanna talk stressed? Bridgeport CT is stressed. I still like to look at it though.

Last week a reporter from cnn.com called me, writing about professions identified as being high stress compared to the level of pay. I figured she was looking to talk about the stress of working as a commercial photographer in this cruddy economy. It turns out the stress factors identified are deadlines, crazy, weird or precarious working conditions, unpredictable budgets while keeping clients happy and the pressure of needing to always produce fabulous work.

Really? These are things I like about the job. A little chaos is good, that's my motto.
So here I am as the commercial photographer poster child. When's the last time you saw handknit socks on CNN ?