Self-Portrait Challenge- Surrounding: Chaos

The mood at my house is (take your pick of the following adjectives) crazy, tense, chaotic, disorganized, maddening, disgusting, or the way it always seems to be when I move! It is amazing that we arrived in Malaysia with a few suitcases and fourteen boxes of books and knick knacks; but now we have procured a twenty foot container and shit seems to be falling out of ever nook and cranny of our jam packed house?

In addition to getting everything ready for the movers next week, I have been responsible for the following activities: selling our washer and dryer, refrigerator, car and other pieces of random furniture that didn't make the cut to be shipped. There was a lot of it.

You may be wondering how I have the time to post this in the middle of this chaos, and the answer is that I am doing it wearily. We are staying at a friend's condo while out house gets through its poltergeist. Let's just say that at one point today, I was dipping truffles at my Father's Day brunch at the Westin, only to be lugging a BBQ up and down a flight of stairs, vacuuming a car, taking apart shelving and touching up paint on the walls of my house, later. It's been a crazy day. Did I mention that it started with my wife and daughter waking me up with my Father's Dy present, an 80GB iPod!

I am not sure how or why, I am writing this right now, but it feels good to stay grounded in my routine of SPC posts before the shit really hits the fan next week and the movers take my life away. Before that however my family and I will spend four days here. That should get me ready for the final push!

What the hell does all this rambling have to do with my portrait this week, well let me show you. I am getting into a really bad habit of not being able to pick just one shot. This week I have chosen a series again. The first is me obviously distressed that I have to spend the first few days of my summer vacation painting my house. Notice the dreary despondency in my lethargic body posture.

But then I decided to have a little fun and play Superman on the stool. I love the way the lighting turned out on this shot. I took little break from the painting and starting playing. I took several shots with different light settings and poses. This was one of my favorites.


The lesson I learned is that no matter house stressed one gets, no matter how weighed down one feels by their possessions, and no matter how overwhelming it all becomes, a little play will clear things up. After my photo shoot, I regrouped had a Zen moment, went across the street and hired some guy to finish the painting so I could get to other things. We are nearly ready to move. Oh! Did I mention that our cat Simon is so freaked out that he is randomly peeing everywhere? Well he is and it sucks!

Oh and for those of you wondering what happened to the beard I had been growing for nearly two months, the answer is, never get your haircut by someone who does not speak the same language as you. There apparently is not a universal sign for just a little trim. Why am I still writing? This post is just as hectic as my life right now. Goodnight! I am off to crash in bed.