Tampa really came and went… I slept in a little bit at Couch #5(Jonathan)’s. I finished off the 5 hot-wings from last night, for breakfast. Washed that down with a coke. Image editing went well– finished the couch #2 pics in Adobe Lightroom. I’m fairly pleased with the control that program gives over the raw files. A lot of time was spent trying to make a proper watermark. I had even succeeded in automating it, but that got wiped out later in the day. TIP: Always exit Photoshop after you make something useful (i.e. an action), or it will be lost.

Todd G of David & Goliath Tees was again not available. Too bad, I was really excited about doing a shoot or interview with him. Maybe if I can figure out a good way to do phone interviews…..

Got a call from Droc - he had asked me about Child Photography, and about Camera Bodies. He has a Minolta 800 or something like that. He was thinking about the Canon D30- which is a great camera - but was concerned about the price. My recommendation was to get a Digital Rebel and a bunch of lenses and lights, make some money like that, and then buy a better body. TIP: A better lens will get you higher quality photos than a better body will! He was supposed to shoot a fashion design student today, I offered that for a nice lunch, I can come over, show him how I’d shoot it, but more importantly, let him see what all the lenses do. Minolta might be good quality - I don’t know- but it doesn’t sound very professional when the lenses are referred to as “2 times telephoto.” Give me mm and F-stop any day of the week D-roc then called to say he had a cancellation. This was a good thing, as I had already made plans just before that to go meet my friend Jessica for lunch. It was funny, as I lost her # with my old cell phone in Colorado in September. I called Gretchen the night before and she texted me Jessica’s numbder. I called the number, was greeted by a generic greeting, and left a message. I was not sure if it was the right phone #. Gretchen AIM’ed me today to see if I heard from Jess, and I had not. This brought up a discussion of whether she’s in town still, or in Canada… it was nice when she did call. We made plans for lunch, I packed up my stuff, locked up, hid the key, and took off.

On my way to Jessica’s I had a wonderful chat with Naviigator’s Run Mike. He is such a nice fellow. We discussed all sorts of business, and had come up with a nice plan for me to meet up with him in Dallas, TX, and then leave Monday to celebrate his birthday in Kansas instead of me cutting through Arizona. It’ll be a blast- we get to cross off some things off “The List” - which is a list of cool / extreme stuff we can do when I hang out with him. Currently it includes such things as Drifting, Skydiving, Crossing lakes in Colorado with submerged Humvees, and of course, Bowling. I had mentioned Jonathan’s thoughts on me being on Jay Leno, and how I plan on doing that, and also promoting the Rally. Mike just happened to have the contact info I need to submit to that show…. how convenient.

When I got to Jessica’s I realized I haven’t seen her in Tampa in about 5 years! I did not know this new house. Poor Jess was in pain, and feeling hairy and smelly due to having recently shattered her wrist in a freak in-line skating accident. I did not notice. She was just as pleasant as ever, and I got to make plenty of jokes about the whole thing (and everything else of course). It was agreed that I drive her car, since mine was full of junk, and her arm is in bad shape…. good thing I remember how to drive stick! We went to this Italian place, but nothing struck my fancy, so we went to this Mexican place, Chiuahauah. I swear they must’ve formed after Taco Bell’s “Yo Quiero Taco Bell” Campaign- as they had all these posters of the Taco Bell Dog (or a close cousin of his). The food was not too bad, but not amazing either. The cutest thing was that they serve you the chips and salsa in a giant dog-food bowl that’s made of metal (sorry… no pics! I wish I had one). Upon ordering, I asked if the meat was made from real Chiuahauha, and was told that it was not.

I ate a lot, and the food made me drowsy! Jessica didn’t seem to like her meal too much. So, we left, and I took a nap on her couch. That was good ’cause I was tired, AND now she’s an official couch #6 on my trip. Vance (her boyfriend of 5 years) got home with Trist (her kid), and was being rather anti-social. I did not realize that he was jealous that Jess and I had shared a bed a long time agol I had forgotten about that, but apparently, back in the day, she got an ear-full. That made it pretty awkward, and so I decided to be gone by the time he had come back with food. I made my calls, and could not find another Tampa couch quickly. I wanted to go to Atlanta, and hang with Melissa Lawrence… however I had agreed with her on Thursday, and did not want to “just drop in” I even got to talk to Jessica’s ex, Ryan, whom I know from South Florida…. he now lives in ATL as well, but was out of town, so that didn’t work out. I called Genii, Delilah, and left MySpace mails for K and Kristin. Thankfully, Tim was around in ATL, and said I could crash there.

Upon leaving, I invited Vance to my March 31 party, got into my car, and then realized I had forgotten my Phone travel-charger at Delilah’s the day before. Thank goodness for this AC-power inverter. I had spent much of the trip on the phone. I spoke to Kristin R, who’s now moved to California to pursue her dreams. We spent a lot of time discussing Elias. I was very upset about a gig I had recently got him, and he negotiated his rates further than I had. I wouldn’t have a problem if he had negotiated them to a higher rate, but he kept the same price, but added a lot more work to be done. Sounds like things are going well for her out in LA… which is cool ’cause now I have yet another couch to crash on. She was telling me she may be an extra on Gray’s Anatomy. — I spoke to her later on, and it turns out she did it… bloodied up and everything! She was an accident patient on a stretcher…. I’d love to see it. She’s one of the most beautiful girls, but she doesn’t realize it… which is fine, ’cause she’s one of them cool “one of the guys” kinda girls. I still owe her a photo shoot. We were going to do one in Florida, but we both were too busy, and both left Florida. I’ll shoot her up in Cali.

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