Fightin' the funk...

I been feelin' the funk the last week or so. The funk is for me what menstrual cramps are for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. My super special secret warning system. In fact, it was the recognition of this system that led me to begin this blog. So, naturally, my antennae immediately went up and I asked myself what it was I wanted that I was ignoring. Suddenly out of nowhere I was hating my jobs, I was worrying about money, I was super stressed and breaking out- definite symptoms of getting off course. Just as before, I found that it was the fact that I had not been giving enough time to my artful endeavors. To be more specific, I was feeling the itch to explore.

When I was a kid, my family didn't have your typical planned vacations. Our vacations consisted of us packing up a weekend bag and jumping in the car headed to nowhere. My dad would drive, stopping by "Burger Biggie" for a snack and looking out for the next tiny town. Ok, so maybe he had a general idea of where we were headed, but who knows if that was where we would actually end up. We visited Cedar Key, Micanopy, Mount Dora- small towns throughout Florida. We'd walk through the town exploring antique shops and restaurants and occasionally hit a state park. Once we even tried canoeing as a family, a big mistake we found out when we got stuck in some growth and a passing canoeist informed us that we were in the damn thing backwards.

Nonetheless, I believe that this is where I first inherited my urge to be surrounded by the unfamiliar. I love to explore places and make them my own. And, what's great is now that I'm older I have found a means for exploring them- through photography. Photography is my super power because it allows me the unique privilege of noticing the beauty in the ordinary, the tiny, and the mundane.

So I packed up all of these realizations in my camera bag today and used my one day off to get the funk out. My husband and I got on google and pointed our virtual finger down on the map, landing on Brunswick, Georgia. That's the great thing about living in North Florida, we get to partake in both states. Neither of us had ever been to Brunswick, so we loaded up our ipod and hit the road.

Brunswick is beautiful for those of you who have never been. It is on the water, so we visited an old ship yard where we met Michael James. It is filled with old abandoned railroad tracks (my favorite kind), where I had a private photo shoot with an old rusted Norwalk and Western railcar. It is home to the Lover's Oak, the 900 year old oak tree which served as a kind of makeout point for the Native Americans. It also has a main street lined with oldschool storefronts, complete with a cozy little book store where we spent about an hour browsing through classic novels and photography books.

The thing is even if all of my photos had turned out horrible, I still would've felt better. Getting out of my comfort zone and being out in the beautiful world is such a renewal for me. It's like being born again. You know how people like to say you should live like you're dying? Well, I like to live like I was just born. Like the world is a new place I've never seen. Being in touch with that awe and curiosity inside is my way of reminding myself that being here is a gift, not a burden.


Puttin' on the Ritz. A historic theater in the middle of town. It was built in 1899 as an opera house, which later turned to a vaudeville theater before moving to motion pictures. Although its roof collapsed, it was renovated in the 80s, but the sign is the original. The theater now showcases concerts and film screenings.