Practicing for Bigger Things

At dinner the other night, Katie F revealed that she has an extensive collection of books directed at a male audience, on the topic of how to effectively pursue women. She also revealed that she feared visiting friends might mistake her, then, for a lesbian... In actuality, she does not have this reading material so she can get some from her female friends, but rather for research purposes. At one point she had resolved to write a book from the female perspective re: the right way to date -- if you want to date women as charming, intelligent, successful, and of course, ravishing as are we. Friends, I've never claimed modesty as a trait.

Anyway, I naturally was interested in this concept and proposed we write said guide jointly. So, that I'm thinking I want to write this little book, I figure I need to practice my writing again...and now, here we are, merrily typing away.

Not that I have much in the way of scintillating material, esp. given that I spend the past two days on a "photo shoot" for work... We're updating our packaging and need photos of dips with their various accoutrements and splendid looking salads. So from 9 to 6:30, on both Wed and Thurs, I worked w/ a food styling and photography team to finalize 4 dips photos, 3 salad photos, and 1 product glamour shot.

I think to be honest they would've preferred me not to be there. I mostly crept around the studio, nibbling cheese and crackers, draining their bottles of Perrier, requesting crudites after their purpose in life was done, and generally wreaking havoc. Actually, I didn't really wreak any havoc. But I wanted to use that phrase b/c I thought it complemented the crudites munching. Oh, I was also the person in charge of saying "approved!" after each shot was finalized.

I like to think I did add some value. For instance, we almost had this crazy large glob of Ranch on the upper left corner of one of the salad-garnishing tomato slices. I requested they wipe it off. I also re-angled some bottles in the glamour shot, and instructed the stylist my preferred method of cutting the green onion for one of the dip garnishes. Of course, there is no way to validate this, but I'm **guessing** that these adjustments likely will lead to our volume being **about** 30% than it would've otherwise have been.

I also learned some things. Do you know what chervil is? Bet you don't. It's a lacy, delicate looking herb that tastes like anise and is typically used for garnish. Did you know that they often used mashed potatoes as a base materials for arranging other food items to keep them firmly in place and allow for beatific arranging? Yep, true! Did you know...that there are people on this earth who, for HOURS, EVERY DAY, painstakingly arrange various consumables into photograph-conducive arrangements? M indicated that there are very few jobs on earth that would prevent him from dating me -- and this job would be one of them. I guess he wasn't as curious about things like chervil and mashed potato use as me, even though he does love food...
Anyway, I supposed I've gained a sufficient amount of writing practice for the day. Plus, I've spread the art of food styling just a little bit broader. If that's not productive, I don't know what is!! Spread the word that I'm bogging again. And try to restrain your excitement...