The two main highlights of the first week in October are ArtNight and my cousin's kid's second birthday party.  First ArtNight.

ArtNight Pasadena

Last year fame, this year I hung out with the co-workers for a little while.  Then I ditched them.  I can't stand following a crowd for very long.  I get itchy, and feel the need to venture out on my own.  I so wanted a drink after leaving work, but when I was walking back to my car I looked at a bar that I passed and just said "fuck it," and then drove home.  It had been a long day.  I'm not sure how my Glendale job shift is only eight hours, because it feels like eight days.

Birthday party playland

My cousin's kid's turned two years old, and of course she threw a party for them.  The party was fun, and basically uneventful.  The one thing I was struck by at the party is how fat everyone there was.  I told my girlfriend that I want to eat better, and certainly looking at the collection of overweight people made me all the more eager to keep fit.  I see how they roll around, seemingly without very much energy, struggling to even breathe without making a huge wheezing sound, and it makes me want to stay in shape.

It took those who interviewed me thirteen days to finally tell me that I didn't get the job.  I don't know what took them so long.  Ultimately I didn't get my hopes up because I knew that I wouldn't get the job.  Days after the interview I walked by one of the people who interviewed me for the job and she looked away, like in shame.  It wasn't a conscious thing, but that told me I didn't get the job.  Oh well, gotta keep looking.

Not getting that job hurt, but only because I'm strapped for money.  I'm not passionate about working as a library assistant, or library anything for that matter.  I would really rather escape, work on my photography.  While driving home from work on Oct. 13th I came to the realization that this photographic endeavor might best remain a hobby.  Here's an excerpt from my journal.

"I'll continue to share my photographs, but what I have to stop is the attempts to get my work seen.  I think that I'm the only one that appreciates my work.  Perhaps if more people were able to view my photographs they would like them.  Alas, that's not going to happen.  So yeah, time to stop.  Time to quit pushing.  Time to let that dream die."

I can't continue to wish for something to happen with my photography.  I told my girlfriend about my decision and she urged me not to give up so easily.  For her I give myself until the end of the year.  After that, who knows.

Megan and me at the Griffith Observatory

Went up to the Griffith Observatory with Megan the last week of the month.  She hadn't been up there in a long time, she told me.  I wanted to go up there because I wanted to hang out with her in one of my favorite spots in LA.  We walked around, talked, took pictures, looked at the view, all the good stuff couples do up there.  To borrow a few lines from my journal:

I think that the central point in Los Angeles isn't downtown, but the Observatory.  On a clear day one can see all the way down to San Pedro and Catalina.  I've been up there after a rain, when the smog doesn't blanket the city like a dirty shag carpet.  Nearly everyone in this city has gone, or will one day visit the Observatory. It's a building everyone knows about even if they don't live here.  My Uncle from Mexico couldn't stop talking about it a few years back.  All he wanted to do is go up to the Observatory because part of his favorite movies, "Rebel Without a Cause" was filmed there.  It is a quintessential Los Angeles spot.  Seemingly always there, a throwback to a past era, the layers of its history blurred by that always new sheen of Hollywood's bright lights. Perched in the hills, the lights of Hollywood twinkle all the more because of the car exhaust.  I completely love that place... and THAT's why I wanted to take Megan there.  Because I completely love her.

Yeah, that pretty much covers it.  :)

My iPhone project continues, with more pictures taken with my iPhone and filtered though a photo app named ToyCamera.  These pictures aren't intended to tell a story, just to be a showcase for this particular app and my photography using that app.  Enjoy the October pictures, which include pictures taken with my new iPhone.