Beginnings/Busy

This is the beginning of a long, long , LONG line at LL Bean today. It seems they melded returns in with sales, so the end of the line snaked around the store. We had no idea it would be that busy, but John needed some new shoes. He wanted to get out of the house and felt like he could handle the trip.

Camera: iPhone 4s, Hipstamatic app

Complex

My daughter, Sierra, has her senior prom tonight, so I went with her to the Dreaded Mall to get her makeup done. The mall is certainly a place that embodies tne complexity of our society. The iPhone photo was processed in SwankLab. (The young woman who was doing Sierra's makeup at Origins noticed that I kept sneaking out to take picture and commented on it. I told her about the 365 project and gave her the URL to the blog. I hope she checks it out. If she does--thank you: Sierra looked stunning and was very happy.)

Well, we are back from a wonderful three week vacation camping around the Great Lakes and into Manitoba; which ended with Bob, our pickup truck, blowing a head gasket in Oneonta, NY; requiring us to spend the Weekend From Hell (long story) in that area; then renting a car to get out of there and having to return to collect Bob and the camper the following weekend; and then just trying to get Real Life under control. Through it all, I have taken a photo a day. Much of the time that we were away, we had no Internet access. Even the few times we did, we mostly oped out--it was more important to soak up the experiences we were having and to enjoy each other's presence.

I wasn't quite sure how to get back to the business of posting them, but I've decided to start with today to get back into the habit. and, when I can to post the catch-ups. So, today, we shot down to New Haven to IKEA, the huge maze-like Swedish furniture and home decor store. This is the warehouse portion that you pass through on your way to the check-out counters. If you're purchasing anything bigger than what can fit in a shopping cart, you collect it there. Pencil Sketch does a nice job of outlining the details.

I spent most of the day at the Dreaded Mall and other stores shopping for a prom dress with my daughter. Don't ask.

Along the way, I caught this photo of the Starbucks franchise. The Angled Stroke filter with the Pencil Sketch effect at a very low opacity works to focus a random shot into a study of the human activity at a mall.