The Alien Inside Me...

I think an alien has recently inhabited my body!  No joke.  I'm not sure who I am anymore.  But it's not a bad thing, in fact, I'm really excited about the changes I'm noticing.  Maybe that sounds strange...but, I'll risk sounding a bit insane to explain.

It started over Christmas break.  I began to do things that just weren't 'me'.  For instance, I started this blog.  Understand, I am not a writer.  At least in my mind I'm not (or wasn't anyway).  Then, my husband bought me a $269 KitchenAid mixer.  $269!  For a mixer!  I don't cook, and I certainly don't bake.  At least I didn't.  Then, I started the 365 Project...take a picture a day, everyday, and post it for the world to see.  Hmmm....who is this new risk taker?

I wish I could say that all of these changes, these risks, were well thought out...planned for...anticipated.  But they were not.  None of them.  Oh, I had been thinking, for years even, about  starting a blog.  But who would read it?  What did I have to say that was of interest to anyone? Then one day I opened up my Google account and saw eBlogger.  I  checked it out and I just began to write. True, I had just watched Julie and Julia, and was under the influence of a great bottle of wine (not the whole bottle), but still.  This was not the Marci I knew.

Blogging was one thing.  But the baking?  And I mean silly amounts of baking going on!  Cookies, cakes, candy, pies...some days I was in the kitchen for 8 hours!  Guess what?  Everything tasted good.  Better than good.  My cookies were awesome!  The Dulce de leche triple layer cake was to die for!  I was turning into someone new.  And I liked her!

Blogging.  Baking.  Then came the photography.  My husband is the photographer, not me.  However, I picked up the camera over fall break and started to like it.  Love it, really.   I loved it so much my husband gave me his camera and got himself a new one.  People began complimenting me on some of my pictures.  So I took more.  Along came the 365 Project.  Now I look at the everyday things in my life with a renewed lens.  My husband and I have just launched our photography website.  I'm having a blast!

Maybe 2011 is just my year.  Maybe I have been really insecure and afraid to venture outside my box and have always had the underpinnings of creativity.  Maybe.  But I don't really spend too much time thinking about why I'm changing.  I'm grateful.  I'm happy.  I'm learning something new everyday.  And most importantly, I'm digging this alien!

Here's to creative 'juices' (Robert Mondavi Private Selection, 2008)

http://www.at-every-turn-photography.com
http://365project.org/marcimurray/365

~Cab Lover