My Dog Ate My Homework....

We've all heard this excuse and assumed that it was just one of those things that kids say when they didn't remember to do their homework. I'm sure that many a teacher has rolled his/her eyes when kids recounted this poor, sad story of Fido consuming their homework that they'd slaved over for hours. Although I've been out of school for close to 200 years, I'm sure that I've used that old excuse or something equally as out there to get out of an assignment that I was just too dang lazy to complete. Say what you want, I'm now a firm believer that karma truly is the b*tch that she's rumored to be!

It all started yesterday morning. My friend and world's greatest artist/photographer, Amanda Summerlin (of http://www.amandasummerlin.blogspot.com/) had agreed to accompany me to a photo shoot so that she could impart some knowledge upon me and hopefully bring my photos up a few notches. Never you mind the mindblowingly cold day we were facing, I was excited to take some pictures and to hang out with Amanda because she's unbelievably talented and a heck of a lot of fun! So, we pack up our gear and head to the shoot!

We get there to find all six family members looking fantastic and ready to go! The kids look like little fashion models and it wouldn't have been possible for them to behave any better than what they did. They sweetly obliged our every posing request and held sweet smiles when I knew that they had to be entertaining the thoughts of just exactly what would constitute "justifiable homicide". We were outside in 38 degree weather and we'd all lost feeling in our extremities. Still, beauty knows no pain, you have to sacrifice for your craft, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, etc, etc, etc.....and all of that stuff that people say when they are trying to sound smart...bottom line was we'd frozen our butts off but we had some DANG good pictures to show for it!

Amanda and I headed back to my house to start working on our masterpieces. I could barely wait to get all of the pictures loaded because I knew that we'd nailed this one! I actually entertained the thought of skipping our stop to meet Tanya and the kids to eat some mexican food but then remembered nothing short of a flesh eating virus or some terrible natural disaster could keep me from eating. There's no need to go all crazy just because you're excited. What lesson would that possibly teach the kids??? We ate quickly and headed back to the old homestead!

I fired up the computer, unpacked my gear and was preparing to be amazed. I remembered that Jason had some birthday cake left on the counter so I quickly sliced a piece for Amanda and I because everyone knows that your creative juices flow more freely with massive doses of sugar. I walked back over to pop in my SD card and it was gone. I quickly shot a glance Amanda's way because I was sure she was playing some sort of horrible joke on me. She looked as blank as could be so I began scanning the surroundings. I looked under the keyboard. I checked the camera again. I checked the kitchen counter. At about the same moment that Amanda said, "you don't think that the dog has it, do you?", I heard a CRUNCH!!

It felt like ice or acid was running through my veins. My head started to spin and I was sure that this was all a dream. I knew that there was no way that anything THIS ridiculous could really happen. I mean, I'd worked outside in 38 degree weather for THREE HOURS in jeans that didn't allow me to fully breathe out because they were a bit too snug. I'd followed all the proper picture shooting rules. I just had no idea how mad the universe was at me.

If tears would have helped, I would have cried. I said words that would NOT have pleased my mother or Jesus. The thoughts that crossed my mind would never be ones that I would openly share because I'm pretty sure that there are laws against the actions that I was considering. Amanda and Tanya offered sweet, reassuing words and tried to give me some comfort.

After a few minutes (hours) passed, I regained my composure. I put it all in perspective and realized that it wasn't the end of the world. It was a family shoot for one of the nicest families in the world and I was reasonably sure that they would be ok with me re-shooting the pictures again. But, I can't tell you that I felt a great deal of love for our "sweet puppy" right then.

He comes across as all sweet and innocent but I told all of you that he was a homewrecker and no one believed me. I hope that this serves as proof of my claims.

He's plotting against me. No one can convince me otherwise.