Dear Diary

   

Not bad for a first time wedding photographer, huh?

I started my new job in the big city this week, and boy is it just grand!  All of the people I work with are so nice and friendly, just like I knew they would be.  Most of them are of African descent, and were born and raised here in New Orleans or nearby.  The way they talk is so fascinating!  Every day they shake hands and exchange greetings like they haven’t seen one another in months even though it’s only been a day.  Sometimes when they get to visiting and laughing I have a hard time understanding what’s so funny, and sometimes I wonder if one even knows what the other is laughing about!  But I get along with them all just dandy, and they seem to like me, even though I’m not from here and didn’t “come up” the way they did.

It’s tough getting up before ol’ Mr. Sunshine and driving across that big scary bridge, but I’m sure I’ll get used to that.  We meet up at the warehouse early in the morning and then head out to different stores to work.  And when we get there, the “good mornin”s and “how you doin”s start all over again!  There are all these sweet older African-American ladies who make you feel like you just walked into their house for dinner – and boy would I love to actually do that some day, because you know I love Southern home cooking!  Speaking of food, I discovered the neatest thing about my job is that a few times a day when we get to talking with the nice men who bring in the bread, potato chips and these delicious locally made fruit pies, we can trade soda pops with them for food!  Not only that, but in the back of the grocery store it always smells like a spicy seafood boil.  It’s really hard not to be hungry all day, but if I’m lucky I’ll be good friends with Mr. Hubig Pie man in no time!  The only thing I don’t like about it so far is that it gets real hot down here.  But it’s cooling off, and I’ll tell you a little secret, Diary: we don’t actually work all that hard. Shhhh!
On my way home from work, I drive right past the place where the local football team practices.  I actually saw them the other day kicking the pigskin around!  I guess they’re kind of a big deal around here, because they won a big tournament a couple of years ago and everybody has their stickers on their cars and wears their shirts all over town.

Another really great thing I got to do last weekend was making pictures at a wedding for my dear friends Josiah and Angela.  Not only was it just a super fun wedding – they are really wonderful people and I couldn’t have imagined the ceremony any other way – but I think I did a pretty bang up job.  It was a whole new experience, and I feel honored that they trusted me enough to do it for them.  I might even consider trying to do it for money.  After all, making a living out of a hobby was one of the reasons I always wanted to live here.  It also got me pretty excited for my own wedding, which is still pretty far off, but that just means we have plenty of time to decide who’s good enough to take pictures for us because I sure as heck won’t be able to!

Alright Diary, thanks for listening again. I should probably wrap this up and get outside to enjoy some of this beautiful weather!

You can see more of my photo skillz at http://500px.com/SeanSolo