um, yeah that would be me and T-- but where and when? we don't know

Two things I knew before I invited 125 people over to my neck of the woods for a neighborhood party: they would come bearing cameras. And? Tim Gunn would not be on hand to send me down to the TRES SEMME salon for hair and make-up each morning.

Everybody has a different relationship to the camera, but I feel pretty certain there are some like me who look at pictures of themselves and say, really? that's me? As in my specific case, I imagine myself with fabulous tresses of red-gold hair spilling down my back and soft, easy features that imply a languorous approach to life.

Imagine my surprise then, when each and every time I am confronted not with the soft roundness of a Titian goddess, but with the hard angularity of a drill sergeant who runs exhausted newbie recruits through hours of grueling training without so much as a drop of mercy.

And then, of course, there is the other consequence of all these cameratistas--- the elusive and rarely photographed T would be caught in the snares of their lens for sure.

So I weighed this issue before I ever launched SAW and decided-- fuck it. My ego is just gonna have to go sit in the corner and eat paste because if getting to experience the last 10 days and meet 125 of the most amazing open-hearted people ever-- then fine-- you could post 1,000 pictures of me looking like I just woke up after spending a night on the couch in a frat house where someone sharpied my eyebrows.

In other words, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Oddly enough, we had a bunch of stuff we had to bring home and store here for the 2009 session (!)-- such as those giant hush board panels from Deephaven dining rooom (people who were there know what I'm talking about) and T had to go up into the space above the garage and move stuff around so they would fit and he came down with a handful of old photographs.

Neither of us even remembered them (in fact, I bet that at the time I hated these, too--- stupid ego and all that) but seeing as we have very, very few photos of us together-- they are now treasured snapshots that I thought I would share to offset the beauts that are going to be circulating in the next little while.

Today--wow-- I almost just typed that I was heading off to my "real" job-- but you know what? I have never, ever in my entire life worked on anything that felt as right as SAW. I know what my real job is now-- and boy howdy, am I one happy camper.

Below are some links to people sharing stories from SAW--

Jenica

Brittany

Beth

Swirly

Denise

Deb

Susan

Thea Coughlin

Christine Castro

Judy Wise

Misty

Andrew Borloz

Jess Greene

Linda Esterley

And, as you know-- the blog at SAW will have stories, too-- eventually, once we've all pulled the pine cones from our hair and shaken the sand out of our suitcases.

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