andipantz

First of all, I’ve gotten word from a couple of people that comments are not working. Supposedly it hangs and doesn’t go through? Is anyone else having problems?

So Monday night’s sleep was quite nice until those damn cleaning people woke me up by knocking on the door at the ass crack of dawn. Those “do not disturb” signs never seem to mean crap. I grabbed some of the free continental breakfast before hitting the road again. Of course, on the day that I am leaving Maine, the weather is gorgeous outside.

I didn’t have to drive too far to Portsmouth, New Hampshire where I was meeting my ever-talented buddy, Rob Sylvan and his lovely wife Paloma for lunch. He also gave me what he calls the “nickel tour” of downtown Portsmouth. It’s a cute little town. Rob is a NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) Help Desk Specialist and you may have seen his column “Under the Loupe” that appears in every issue of Photoshop User magazine. Rob is also writing the book Lightroom for Dummies that will hopefully hit the bookstore shelves shortly after Lightroom 2 is released. You can even pre-order your own copy at Amazon if you so desire. Rob is also a member of iStockphoto and you can check out his portfolio here.

After leaving Portsmouth, I headed to Nashua, New Hampshire to see my good friends Matie and Dave who I haven’t seen for quite a few years. I met Matie when we worked together at Fort Irwin Training Center for the U.S. Army in the Mojave Desert of California for two years as wildlife biologists, primarily doing natural resources conservation and studying desert tortoises…and sometimes doing archaeological work…and sometimes avoiding the flying ordnance. We shared some good times together and it’s hard to believe that we’ve known each other for 10 years! Man, how time flies! Matie and Dave had a cute son who is now 22 months old and quite a smart cookie! He’s definitely going to be a sports pro in the future…you should see him work that hockey stick!

Matie has been boxing for at least a few years now. When they moved to New Hampshire last year, she found West End boxing gym in Lowell, Massachusetts that she goes to a couple times a week to spar. She was planning to go on the night that I was visiting so I had the opportunity to tag along with her! I was thrilled because, though I’d photographed a boxer last year, I’d never been in a boxing gym and this gym was like something out of the movies. We drove up to this huge old unmarked warehouse and went inside. The fluorescent lit gym held two boxing rings, a load of bags, and other workout equipment…along with a couple handfuls of extremely buff and sweaty boxers.

Matie’s sparring buddy is a man named Frenchy. He’s…well…French and fights in the Lowell, Mass area. He has a youtube page where you can view some of his fights as well as sparring with Matie.

It was pretty cool to see them sparring because it’s another thing that I’d never seen. I wish I wasn’t such a shrimp (or a wimp) because it kinda looks fun. Talk about a quick way to get in shape! Matie is one of the most tough girls I know and also one of the sweetest and most interesting. I realized that I don’t get to see my long-distance friends enough. And I also realized that I have some of the coolest friends in the whole world! So thanks to my friends (new and old) who made my trip worthwhile and fun despite the crappy weather. Even though I didn’t get many photos, I had a lot of great experiences and met a ton of great people in such a short period of time.

I drove back to Philly yesterday from Nashua. It didn’t take too long, but I got stuck in a really bad traffic jam (shut the car off and parked) in Connecticut that was the result of a very bad accident. A car ended up in the trailer part of a tractor trailer. It was not pretty. As a result, I got stuck in the beginning part of NYC rush hour traffic.

I returned my rental car today and picked up my own car that was in the shop to get fixed. Dropped a small fortune to get the air conditioning system replaced, but I guess I can’t complain too much since I’ve had the car for almost 7 years and haven’t had any major problems until now. Of course, now that I say that, something else will probably happen. And I got home and somehow my shower is broken, too. It never ends.