It's been a couple of days

Sorry 'bout that! But, I have had my head buried in the Greek language. The thing is? I absolutely freakin' love it!

I remember sitting in algebra class - freshman year in high school. I was doing everything I could to understand matrices. All of a sudden, I saw the pattern and there was no stopping me. I could solve everything quickly. Dad had tried to teach me over and over and that math was a puzzle and if I could figure out the patterns, I could understand it. When I finally grasped that concept, I fell in love with math.

Now ... I was a lazy high school girl and didn't pursue it because I thought I was just going to get married and live a small life somewhere. Why would I possibly need to know and understand advanced mathematics? Argh.

Anyway ... I'm having those same sensations again. I see the patterns in the language begin to open up. It's so exciting! Before I get to overexcited, though, I find that there is an incredible amount of information that I need to commit to memory. I'm trying to memorize vocabulary and all of the forms of the verb 'to be' (no language can exist without that verb, eh?) as well as everything else that is being handed to me.

I'm having so much fun!

I'm still trying to regain some sense of sanity from the time change. Yup ... staying up extremely late again and getting up late in the morning again. Just when I was beginning to regain some sense of normal daytime hours. Oh well, sigh ... not going to complain.

Poor Max. I called him on the way home from a meeting tonight. The moon was so COOL! Shining brightly in the dark sky with a thin layer of clouds in front of it. Just awesome. I asked if he wouldn't like to gather up his camera gear and I'd drive him somewhere that we (he) could take some great pictures.

It was 9:20 pm. The outside temperature was 18 degrees. But, he said, "Sure, let me get my shoes on." I pulled in the driveway, ran in to go to the bathroom, put Leica on the leash and we headed out. We only got a couple of blocks and found a really nice place to pull in and shoot. The moon was between a couple of great trees ...

I sat in the warm Jeep with the dog, while Max tried to get the camera and long lens on the tripod. I saw him getting frustrated and when I rolled down the window, he was cursing. The lens wasn't easily fitting on the tripod or the camera and his fingers were getting cold. He finally asked me to come out and turn the screw to anchor the thing. I did.

He tried to get a couple of shots and I watched him shaking his hands and then shaking his body trying to hold on to warmth. Finally he put the camera back in the Jeep and crawled in to the front seat - frozen. I cranked the heat and asked if he wanted to just come home or try another spot.

"Home."

Well, he didn't get a good shot of the moon. He was just too cold and it was too dark for him to think straight. Poor guy ... I guess I can be a little tyrannical as a photographer's assistant. But, it was such a cool moon! And he's taught me to look for the shot.

Oh well, sigh ... hopefully the weekend will get warmer!