Like an old photograph

My mom went back to work today.  It's strange to be in this house by myself... I kind of feel like she is just out running an errand and will be back in an hour, so that we can watch Family Guy re-runs together and laugh about her ma.tch.com matches :)  I'm glad she's going back to work, and regaining some normalcy in her life, however, this means that I need to find something to do!  I'm working on organizing something for me to do, but I'll just have to wait and see if that pans out... for now, I'm staying curled up on the couch with a blanket, apple cider, and Full House.  I'm still trying to kick some sort of bug that I came down with at some point on Sunday night/Monday morning.  I feel much better than the last two days, but still not 100%.

This is Em's cousin's child, Jordan.  While I was at her house over the holiday, I got to play with Jordan and her older sister, Mia.  Jordan is very clingy towards her mom, so I played more with Mia- who enjoyed climbing all over me, putting ice down my back, and beating my butt on the Wii!  They were both super cute... sometimes it was more fun to play with the little ones than the "big kids"!

So, I have a few questions left that I haven't answered yet.  I'll take care of those this week.  Here's one though:  "What's a skill and/or hobby that you wish you had or that you'd like to study/get better at?" -Lindsey

When I was in high school, I took photography and loved it.  I really liked actually photographing, but my favorite part of the class was developing the film in the darkroom.  It was like magic!  I have a portfolio of my work that sits on a bookshelf in my bedroom in NC.  Sometimes I pull it out and look through it and I can almost smell the chemicals used to develop those photos.  That's something I would really like to study more and get better at - developing my own photos.  I know that now I use a "digital darkroom" (aka...Aperture, haha).  But, I recently acquired a camera that will require an actual darkroom...

These are photographs of the camera my grandmother gave me last weekend.  A little background story - My grandmother was born in 1926 and had one older brother- Wayne.  She loved Wayne soo much.  He was two years older than her, and they had a very loving brother/sister relationship.  In April of 1942, my grandmother turned 16.  On her sixteenth birthday, her brother gave her this camera as a present.  It cost him $4.25.  A few months later, Wayne turned 18 and joined the Air Force.  He died 6 months after giving her this camera, while training to fly.  The engines failed and his plane crashed into a field.  So, this camera meant a lot to my grandmother.  It was the last thing her brother gave her before he died.

It's a Eastman-Kodak Six-20 Brownie Flash.  They started making them in the 30s- same camera but without the flash.  They made them with the flash from 1940-1942.  After that, the camera was updated and the trapezoidal shape was changed.  The camera that I now own has the flash, but obviously needs a bulb.  I am currently researching where I can find the cheapest bulbs/film for it.  It's still in working condition, however the lens needs to be cleaned and I'm having trouble opening the film compartment - two problems that can easily be fixed if I take it somewhere to someone who knows what they're doing.

I'm excited to see if I can actually start taking some photos with this 66 year old camera!