random thoughts: graduations, wanderlust and making plans

Yesterday afternoon, as a favour to Alex's teacher, I was sitting at our kitchen table writing in the names of Alex's classmates on the "diplomas" to be handed out at her kindergarten graduation in a few days.  While I was doing this, the emotions I was experiencing were complicated, but best I could figure, it was a combination of (a) amusement that kindergarten graduations even exist; (b) sadness that my little girl is growing up (do you realize that at age 6, she's pretty much 1/3 of the way out of our home?); and (c) mild bitterness that I never had a kindergarten graduation.  I realize that they didn't really do those when I was a kid, but still:  I'm feeling a bit ripped off.

Related:  I wonder if I could find Miss Saunders on Facebook. I bet she'd sign a kindergarten diploma for me decades after the fact.

* * * * * * *

I'm suffering from an extreme case of wanderlust.  The feelings come in waves:  sometimes it's as intense as a strong desire to move to another country; at other times, I merely wish to drop tens of thousands of dollars to attend a two-week workshop in Myanmar led by one of my photography idols. 

Neither is likely to occur anytime soon.

So instead, I obsessively research cheap vacations to places which are short flights from Houston.   I want to go somewhere, somewhere cheap, just the three of us.  We haven't had a vacation alone, without family or friends, in 6 years. It's time.  And besides, if I don't go somewhere soon, my head might blow clean off my body.

Did I mention it needs to be cheap?

My disappointing news from last week has resulted in eliminating the need for the next book I write to be memoir-y.  This is actually a good thing, and a fact which floods me with relief:  I was never particularly comfortable with writing a book without my images.  So while I'm in the middle of brainstorming creative ways to promote and market my current book between now and the rest of 2010, I also can't help but fantasize about what my next book should look like, what it should be, what it should say ...

... and what images might help me express what I want to express.

Maybe it should be a photo book detailing kindergarten graduations in exotic, cheap locales. 

Or something.

I'll keep thinking.

Images:  Photographs of continued spoils from number 64 of my life list, above, taken with Nikon D300, 50mm manual lens.  Photographed yesterday, on our kitchen table.

Song: Fly like an eagle, as performed by Seal