1. I went to the dentist today, and had a tooth filled. Luckily, the “groove” was shallow enough that I didn’t need any novacaine for the drilling. It felt a little strange, but I gladly accepted a few minutes of mild discomfort rather than experience that horrible post-novacaine pins and needles and drooling. Definitely a plus.

2. Mr. Martini and I go to the same dentist. While looking at my chart, the assistant said:

“Now, who is Mr. Martini?” (Remember, we have different last names.)

“He’s my husband,” I said.

“Now it says we just saw him a few weeks ago, but I can’t seem to remember who he is…”

“He’s about my age, with brown hair.” The assistant shakes her head, so I continued. “He’s something of a character.”

“I remember him! Of course, Mr. Martini! Oh, he IS a character!”

Yes. yes, he is.

3. Speaking of Mr. Martini, I haven’t really mentioned this much here, but he’s been job-hunting for quite awhile since he was laid off from his last job. But patience and persistence have paid off, because today he started a new job, just a few blocks from my current workplace. It’s temporary right now, but it sounds like there is a possibility it could become permanent if everything works out. Any job is a blessing in this economy, so we’re maintaining a cautious optimism that everything works out. If it does – hurray! If it doesn’t – we’ll keep plugging along, like we always do.

But let me just throw a little “Yay!” out there, because this forward momentum feels awfully darn good.

An entire year of taking my picture Every. Single. Day. I DID IT!

I finished on Saturday, and took my final picture at about 12 noon. I uploaded it that afternoon, and did a happy dance. Because this project was fantastic, yes. But I also couldn’t wait for it to end.

The funny thing, though, is that on Sunday? I had a really neat idea for a self-portrait, with my new Liberty of London coffee mug. Old habits and all that, I suppose.

This project has really and truly taught me so much. In fact, the last week’s worth of photos illustrate the different lessons I learned from the project, including:

1. Some days you get it right on the first shot. Other days, not so much.

2. I am not a fantastic photographer, but I loved documenting a year of my life in photos.

3. Seeing photos of myself every day for a year didn’t magically inspire me to lose weight or wear makeup. But it did help me accept my flaws, and be more comfortable with how I look.

4. I learned that I have the tenacity to do a project like this, which I hope will translate into other goals I have.

5. The people in the Flickr groups I frequent are amazingly supportive and encouraging. A project like this could devolve quickly with just a few “hot or not” type comments or disparaging remarks about “you’re cute, but would be cuter if you lost a few pounds.” Not once, NOT ONCE have I seen that from any of the folks in the 365 Flickr groups, which I find amazing for a space as public as the internet.

So there it is! A year of self-portraits, complete. Wow. I really didn’t think I’d last more than a month. Go, me!

The last photo. Yay!

Oh, and the puking. That’s a lovely noise to wake up to at 4 a.m., definitely.

I’m one of those people who needs sleep. I function best on about 8.5 hours, which I know sounds like a luxury to most people, especially those folks with kids. But I’ve learned that this is an ideal amount to restore me to my best capacity, so I do my best to get those 8.5 hours on work nights when my functionality is most necessary. Also, when I know I won’t be able to nap (and napping is frowned upon at work, definitely).

Which meant that yesterday I was not functioning at peak performance. It didn’t affect my work, but it did affect my well-being, to the point that I got the worst stomachache I’ve had in awhile. By the time I went to bed, I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep without some assistance. Rather than suffer, I turned to my good friend, a tiny pink pill:

Ah, Benadryl. Not only do you keep allergies at bay, you also knock me out on those nights like last night when I know I’ll keep myself awake from the stress of being overtired. (I know that last sentence doesn’t make much sense, but trust me, when I fret that I won’t get enough sleep? I fret myself into insomnia.) I don’t have to turn to you very often, but when I do? I know you’ll be there for me.

I slept like a log last night, and feel SO much better today. The cats didn’t bother me at all. For all I know, they spent the night cuddled like they did when they were kittens:

Or even if they did run around like the crazy freaks they are, I didn’t notice.

I know that a lot has been said about the band, and about the engineers at Syyn Labs that created the amazing, incredible, fantabulous Rube Goldberg device that filled a three-story warehouse.

I just wanted to take a moment to commend the camera operator(s) who were able to film the entire machine from start to finish. Maybe I’m just not seeing it, but I didn’t see any camera tracks along the floor, which makes me think that this was filmed with a Steadicam held by a camera person. Which blows my mind, because the timing of the camera movement had to be so well synced as to not miss any of the vital movements. To me, that is just incredible.

Maybe it’s because I’m spending more time behind a (still) camera lens, but I couldn’t imagine how hard it would have been to navigate through this space and capture every single moment so precisely. And not bump into anything, thereby ruining the elaborate machinery. I know I would have.

Well done, director of photography and camera operator. Well done.

My 365 photo from last Monday. See how excited I was about my bright idea?

Almost immediately, though, I started looking for the down sides. Started thinking that it might not work, that it wouldn’t be possible. I even wrote about my concerns in my last post.

This weekend, I did a lot of thinking, and thought it might still be worth pursuing. I figured that I’d find ways to make it work, and decided that this week I was going to be less negative, and just focus on what I could do, rather than what I couldn’t do.

And as luck would have it, what did I find in my inbox this morning? An e-mail from Cass at Cass Just Curious, telling me that I had won a gift certificate to the latest Mondo Beyondo course. Mondo Beyondo is an online class about dreaming big. It’s a course I’ve been wanting to take, but couldn’t fit it in the budget. Cass is taking the course, and bought an extra seat which she gave away, just because she knew someone would like it. How amazing is that?

Can you say serendipity? I swear, it’s like the Universe knew I needed something like this right now. I’m so excited to take this class, and the timing couldn’t be more perfect. I’m so, so excited.

Thank you again, Cass, for your generosity in giving me such a gift. I really appreciate it.

Last week, I stubbed my toe hard. Really hard. Like, had to sit down, take a deep breath, and remember if swearing out loud actually helps or not. (For the record, it does.) It hurt that night while I was falling asleep, and it hurt a little bit the next day, but after that, it stopped hurting, and I didn’t think about my toe.

Until today.

Today, my toe is sore, and a wee bit painful. Kind of like it needs a good massage and maybe a toe chiropractor, because it feels like it needs cracked, almost. I keep wiggling it around in my shoe, trying to find a way to ease the tension and pain a bit, but nothing is helping.

I didn’t think I broke it. But maybe I did. Which of course makes me think about that episode of House with Mira Sorvino, who’s an explorer trapped in the South Pole, and getting sicker and sicker, and finally has to have another explorer drill a hole in her brain when it turns out that the reason she’s so sick is that she broke her toe and bits of inner toe workings (bones? marrow?) are getting into her bloodstream and SLOWLY KILLING HER.

Now I’m totally convinced I’m going to have to call a fictitious diagnostician to help me with my toe. Because obviously the pain in my toe means I’m DYING.

Or maybe my new shoes don’t fit.

I rented a van from U-Haul. To haul the chair from the furniture store to the new apartment.

I know! I know! I was convinced it wasn’t worth it! But Mr. Martini reminded me, “You know, Spacecase, we have a car now. Which means we have car insurance. Which means they’ll probably cover the van, if we need to get one to haul anything.”

Today, I called Rose, our awesome insurance rep. And she confirmed that Mr. Martini was right, that if anything happened while we were in the rental truck, we’d be covered.

So in a couple of weeks, we’ll spend about half of what the delivery cost to get our chair, as well as make a couple of trips from the old apartment to the new apartment with some of our stuff. Which is kind of a good deal.

I still think the Saleslady was kind of a snot, though.

For instance – this weekend, I’m finally using the gift certificate Mr. Martini gave me last Christmas for a local spa. I’m going to get a facial, my very first facial, and I’m both excited and nervous about it. I know! Nervous about a spa treatment that really is meant only to relax me. But I am not a “spend the day at the spa” type, and so I’m a little overwhelmed by the unknown rules and procedures and I’m filled with hope that the facial-giving person (is there a word for that?) isn’t too chatty, because nothing stresses me out more than having to make small talk with a stranger. They also mentioned something about a complimentary robe – what do I wear underneath it? How much undressing will I be required to do? These are the types of questions I have, people.

The person on the phone advised me to arrive a half an hour early to “partake of the full spa experience” including the steam room and sauna. Please see above question re: required undressing. I’m seriously concerned about that.

Really, I have no idea what that’s going to be like. But I’m going to try my hardest to just go along for the ride, relax, and enjoy myself.

Do you think they’ll let me bring along my camera, so I can take a self-portrait for my 365 project?

And please note that if I can, this picture will NOT involve the above question re: required undressing.

B’s so cool, in fact, that last week while I was on vacation, she looked in on our cats and lived to tell about it (she’s a dog person). She even let us know about strange events, like the flooding of downtown, and the fact that our (less-than-awesome) building management had given less than 24-hours notice of an “apartment inspection,” necessitating an early-morning trip on her part to secure the kitties against escape. She rocks.

While I was sunning myself in North Carolina, B also had to put up with watching our awesome BossLady pack her office and mementos for an amazing new job opportunity in Nashville. BossLady (B’s nickname for her, which is perfect) was a great boss, and an amazing lady with a knack for questioning authority without disrespecting it, as well as being an fierce advocate for her team. Trust me when I say it was much easier to come back and see BossLady’s empty office than I’m sure it must have been for B to watch the boxes get packed all week.

Which is why I totally got it when I returned to work this Monday and saw this is my cubby:

It’s hard to read, but those white notes across the top row of glass blocks read: “You have NO idea how much I missed you last week!!!”

One thing I did do before I left was help B. start a blog. She’s done a great job with it in just a few short weeks, incorporating her amazing photography skills with great writing. I hope you’ll all check it out, and say hello to Shutterboo!

We had a blast.

Since I had the “nice” camera, I volunteered to take the formal group shots, even though I had no idea what I was doing. But I put on a happy face, got in my street theater mode to keep everyone’s attention focused and positive, and I think I got some really good shots. I’m really proud of them, actually, especially where I could get people in more candid moments:

Each night we had a group get together of sorts. The first night, my parents gave each of the six kids a memory box with mementos from our childhoods along with DVDs of home movies and slides.

The next night was a wedding reception for Mr. Martini and me, since we had eloped last October. They had cake, champagne, and favors. It was perfect:

And finally, we celebrated Mom and Dad’s 55th Wedding Anniversary a little early, but while we could all be together (it’s coming up in January):

And did I mention it was at the beach? THE BEACH? It was amazing – perfect weather the entire week. Every day I’d get up, eat breakfast, change into my swimsuit, and then go swimming for an hour. Any more than that, and I knew I’d be too burnt. This was just enough to get a tan (yes, me, a tan!) and not go overboard.

It was so, so beautiful there.

I’m only sad that with so many of us in one place for such a short amount of time, that it’s hard feel like you’ve had enough time to visit with everyone. Luckily, that’s why we have e-mail.

Looking forward to Reunion 2011!