Proj365 -- catching up (and gaps)

Here's a little catch up, without a lot of explanations or excuses. You may notice gaps in the photo days and yes, there are days I didn't take a photo.

123-365 -- Seen on a bike ride.

 126-365 Airport bookstore. Usually it's just the same ol' best sellers. Not at Dulles, baby!

 127-365 -- More Dulles customer service. Though I must say, I didn't indulge. The masseuses really didn't seem to be enjoying their work.

 129-365 -- A Saturday night out and another cool sink in a club.

 132-365 -- Beach toes. Vince and I took a couple of days and went to the beach. I meant to take some work with me and get a few things done but I forgot my jump drive. Shame on me.

FYI -- the next three photos are totally un-photoshopped. What you see is what I saw.

 139-365 The road to work. Off on another work project and this one is in the heartland. We had to drive more than 8 miles down this road to get to where we needed to be. But wow. Just wow.

 140-365 The prairie. And this is where we needed to be. Miles and miles and miles of stunning America. Holy cow, it's cool.

 141-365 A round barn ruin. Of course, we weren't the first to come around here. This old ruin was out in the middle of it. Cool, eh? Even in this part of the world, a round barn was an oddity.

 141-365 Water pump. And of course, I like to explore and found this inside the barn. (Found lots of other things too but can only catch up with so many shots here.) It was amazingly still and quiet in here. The barn was miles from pretty much anything, anywhere, and anyone. Awesome.

To catch you up a little on our Lifestyle life the fact of it is we've been over run with new friends, new experiences, and new activities. Quite frankly, with the crazy busy work schedule right now, we're having a hell of a time fitting it all in! I want to write more on the topic, or rather, I want to write more about why I'm not writing about it, but the time and the inclination just haven't been there. My blog and my life are evolving once again. A friend suggested that I not worry about the blog so much and just let thing roll; see what happens and how it changes. At the moment, I'm going with that.

Catch y'all later.

76&77-365 Proj 365 (and you ain't gonna believe this!)

Vince and I are off galavanting around the country so posting is going to be a bit sporadic. But since I don't want to get too far behind on Proj365, here are 76&77.

This fluffy fella belong's to friends of ours who we stopped in to visit. He really is excited to see us. This is what he looks like when he's thrilled.

This little (actually not so little; it's about 20 feet long) is a piece of metal art that was just sitting along the side of a road. I think I almost wrecked the rental car turning around to go back and snap this picture.

The next two are from Thurday and it was hard to narrow it down to just these. I had a ton of cool shots but these were the favorites. I'll also include these in my Somewhere in America Series. This is an old corn crib and next to a split rail fence. Like the previous SIA photo of the old home, I do love taking pictures of old things. That doesn't mean I'm nostalic for the past. I'm not. Personally, I think the best thing about the good old days is that they're gone.  But the stuff left behind is still cool.

Nature on the other hand is a totally different story. I'm a huge fan and supporter of maintaining natural places. BTW, this is what the the Dept. of Environmental Protection protects, preserving this patch of paradise is the "wasteful spending" that some folks in congress want get rid of. For those who want to eliminate funds to the National Park System, Fish and Wildlife, and those agencies needed to make sure we keep these natural resources healthy and available to the people, I have two words -- fuck you.

So for those of you still reading, you won't believe this -- Vince and I have been contacted by a unicorn. Not just any unicorn, but a smart, funny, pretty and totally cool unicorn. That's all I'm going to say for now. I don't want to jinx anything. But wow. Just wow.

50-365 Somewhere in America

Thanks for hanging in with me on Project365. I realize that I need to expand my subject matter but for today's shot you get yet another view of the bike trail. Sigh.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I'm adding a series I'm going to call "Somewhere in America." We travel quite a bit and looking through my archives, I do have a few pretty cool shots in some pretty interesting places. All of the photos I'll use were taken by me and over the past few years. I'll let you know what it's a photo of, and possibly why I thought it was interesting, though I'm not going to tell you the exact locations. If you guess, I'll fess up.

This is a shot of an abandoned homestead. All over the country there are dilapidated ruins of someones' former homes disintegrating into dust. I'm fascinated by this. Someone chose the location, procured the materials, then built the structure. They then lived, worked, loved, fucked, fought, laughed and cried here. And then they, or their descendants, left.

My first shot in the Somewhere in America series was in this post and a totally different situation. In the above photo, one assumes the owner/builder wanted to be there; in the previous picture from a few weeks ago, the person who had that home built and the person who lived in it were definitely NOT the same person. In this one, the fact that it was abandoned and falling into ruin makes me feel sad. In the other, knowing the story, I feel happy and satisfied.  

Have a great weekend, folks! Vince and I spent last night with some old friends, will spend today working in the yard, and tomorrow is a trip to the theatre. We're taking the in-laws and the show stars a good friend of ours. And of course, there will be a little sexy thrown in. ;)

41&42-365 Ego stroke

It's been a great couple of days. The kind where a series of unrelated events combine to pump up your ego in rich and meaningful ways.

On Wednesday I had to meet with a client. On the drive I had the opportunity to catch up with a friend who knows not only about Ivey Lane but more the real-life me and Vince as well. It was a great conversation overall and one of the topics turned to ego. The good kind. The kind that motivates and encourages. It's true that I'm interested in sexual adventure (as well as LIFE adventure) for experiences and sensations it produces all by itself, for the freedom of expression, for the individual connections.

But a big part of my motivation has to do with the fact that I want that for other people, primarily Vincent. I take immense pride in being the kind of wife that adds to his happiness, not the kind that harps, and bitches, and limits, and scolds, and generally becomes the proverbial "ball and chain" that so many men (and women) live with every day of their fucking lives.

My ego is driven by helping to make peoples lives fully, richer, and more rewarding than they thought possible, in every way I can.

Which brings me to the photos. This first was taken near my client's office. They are happy. They are very happy. They are incredibly happy with me because after several years of false starts and crappy results, they finally brought Vince and I into the project and are finally getting what they want, what they had a hard time articulating, and what their previous vendors couldn't or didn't deliver.
FYI -- the photo above is a ruin of slave quarters on an old plantation. Vince and I get to travel around a bit and we take photos all over the country. I might start a series and call it "Somewhere in America" and add a few of these to Proj365. This photo reminds me that throughout history and even today, there are people who don't have choices or opportunities; who were and are forced to live lives by the whims and dictates of others. And in the end, it all turns back into dust. If you have opportunities in your life and choose not to take them, that's just sad. But if you disallow others, especially those you profess to love, from experiencing all that life has to offer, especially because of your own fear and limits, because you want to keep what's "yours," then you may be more of an asshole than you realize.

The next day, Thursday, was tax prep day. We met with our accountant to go over last year and plan for this one. She rescues cats. Lots of them. This lovely, FAT, HEAVY baby is laying on my arm, which he did for about 45 minutes. My fingers were as asleep as this guy by the end of the meeting!

But it was a good year and this one is shaping up to be even better. Part of the additional ego stroking is that we are reaping some of the rewards of the years of effort we've put into our work and business. In fact, my biggest concern right now isn't whether or not we're going to have jobs this year, but rather how in the hell are we going to get it all done without killing ourselves! As you can see, the tax cat isn't concerned.

After our meeting we just spent the day running errands, hanging out together as we drove all over town. We ended up a cool little restaurant that had nice entertainment in addition to great food. And yes, Ivey's getting her sexy back! Yes!!

We spent the evening flirting with each other, thinking about other people we may (or may not) be meeting. We chatted about the strangeness of it all as well as the adventure. We talked a little about some of our new friends and how much we enjoy them. We laughed as we thought about the "if they only knew!" quality of some of our older, more established friendships. We talked about possibilities and all of life's adventures that are on their way. Not just sex (though it's a significant part!), but work, travel, life. And I felt damn good. So good in fact that we came home, I put on one of my new sexy ensembles that I bought at Christmas just for Vince. We went up to our little love nest and fucked and laughed and giggled and moaned and kissed and just had ourselves a fine old time.

And this morning, we woke up and did it again. If that won't stroke your ego, nuthin' will.