and she said.. "how you interpret the dream is probably more important than the dream itself"

Okay, so you're all wonder where the hell I've been for the last week. You're wondering if I got mugged or just gave up and left town or if I've been in some drug coma for the last 96 hours. Well, fear not.. I've been here the whole time, I was just swamped.

Swamped with school work and the early-semester chores of setting your course registration complete and getting a student id card and setting up a bank account and and.. one nasty machine learning assignment.

Don't worry, i haven't been ignoring you. I've been checking in on you at night to make sure you're all getting along nicely and I'm happy to say it's been a pleasant surprise this little sabbatical experience. Besides the guilt, I could do it I tell yah, I really could.

But the guilt of leaving all you nice people to the likes of this alex character, why, it's more than this one man can bear so I'm back and I even have something to show you.. since I know you were all so excited to find out what this secret plan was that I spoke of before. Well, I've spoken of numerous plans but the one I'm referring to right now had to do with those sky/foliage pictures from earlier and a little someone I sometimes like to lovingly refer to as the girl or if I'm in a particularly good mood, my cross to bear. Anyhow, the birthday is coming and so I mulled over a few romantically heady ideas before I plunked down my penny on this one. A picture. Or pictures, as the case may be. It actually came together with very little concious thought.

I was strolling around campus a few weeks ago inbetween classes looking for a nice place to snooze and I found it, under some trees next to an older middle-aged guy sleeping on his side. I pulled up my backpack and rested my eyes for a bit, just taking in the sounds of a bustling late-summer day at university. When I opened them back up I saw a deliciously rich blue sky, some deep green foliage, a few straggling leaves already heading towards red, and white white puffy clouds sailing slowly by. Two girls came down from the path, one of them a young teenager and the other one a bit older - a freshman maybe. The older one came over to the man sleeping on the grass and shook him lightly. It seemed clear they were his daughters and he rubbed his eyes and they sat down and he talked to them. The older one smiled. The younger one looked around and took in the sights and sounds. I looked back up at the trees and nothing seemed more just right than that sky and those trees right there at that moment.

So I whipped out my camera and snapped a photo. And another. Adjusted the settings and took another. The clouds moved slowly across the canvas of my mind and I set the color to black and white and I took another. At one point almost the entire field of view was clouded over yet the sun still shown down on me from over my shoulder and I took another. When I was finished I tried on more drastic measure, the angled-across-the-body combo shot with five pictures to be stiched together back at the studio.

It really didn't occur to me that they'd speak to me at all, these pictures, I was just sort of having fun taking them. Yet when I got home I couldn't stop staring. There was something in those simple curves of the tree branches, something in the green glow of the leaves, something in that deep deep blue of the sky..

I don't know if I knew what I was up to right away but at some point over the next couple of days the plan just sort of coalesced in my mind without much prompting from me.. The project was born, sort of. It was just that - a plan - for a solid week at least as I procrastinated the inevitable and avoided the work that lay ahead but this last week I finally set the plan to action. Trips to the photo lab, stops at the dollarama, visits to the hardware store.. It took more time than I ever wanted it to but now, finally, tonight, after hours of labour over this love of mine, I have a finished project.

After all that talk it doesn't seem like much and it's certainly no masterpiece and there are things I would have done differently if I had the chance all over again but I don't and this way is just perfect anyhow because it's not perfect at all. It's slightly crooked and not all of the pictures fit the frame quite right and the wood finish could have been more finely sanded and the cardboard backing is less than professional but you know.. yeah, if you know me at all you know - nothing is perfect. I'm not perfect. Life is not perfect. This world isn't even perfect! It's not a proper sphere, yah know - it's an oblong spheroid. A spheroid! Our earth is a spheroid. It's as if the bad planets got together and came up with a hurtful playground name for us; ugly little spheroid. But we take our licks and keep on keepin' on and you know, that's okay.

It's the thought that counts - a real thought, not a thought of a thought but a real honest-to-god thought, one where you feel the need - not the obligation - it's those kinds of thoughts that count and I know, selfish or not (for we shant lie here and pretend it's not personal), I had a thought just like that.. and so I took that thought and I put it in this and I can think and breath now. Life is back to normal.

Almost.