My friend Kim and her husband Adam are the talented pair of photographers behind the Seattle based La Vie Photography. For a long while I have watched them grow into an enviable pair of artists. Together they capture some of the most divine shots and moments in time, lives and celebrations. I realize many of you all already know about La Vie, but I really want to share their work with those of you who might not…

The above photo is one of my favorites from their fashion collection shot in France last year! I highly recommend you click on their link and pour over their work…

Salud to you you both! (and I hope you don’t mind that I posted this shot)

On Sunday night I flew up to San Francisco and spent the night at my brother’s house. He cooked me my favorite of his dishes, called Hashish Parmetier (but I have no idea how to spell it). It’s a bunch of vegetables and spices cooked up and then stirred up with mashed potatoes, then you spread that delicious goodness in a casserole dish and cover it with thin slices of gruyere cheese. Finally, you put it in the broiler until the cheese melts and then…oh yum-o!

We ate dinner on the floor in the living room and we talked and talked. I am so glad for our openness with each other when we can actually find the time to hang out together one on one.

On Monday I woke up and took the bus (yay!) to the SF studio to do some work and then I spent a too-short lunch with Jenni. And I got to meet Kiki, the cutest girl puppy ever. The day was cool, crisp and clear and perfect. My heart is so full when I visit San Francisco…

Well, I am not altogether better, but I am not nearly as depressed as I was yesterday when I wrote that post…and my Dad told me that, yes, when sick, we are bound to feel sad and hopeless and overwhelmed.

So I slept 1/2 the day again, which was great! I can’t believe how much I have been sleeping. I mean I always sleep when I’m sick, but this is way more than usual. I kind of like it, but sometimes my brain tells me I’m being lazy. But I’m not, dang-it, no, I’m just healing.

Then late in the afternoon I went into work for some short meetings which turned out to be very superfluous and that kind of irritated me.

But then…(insert drum roll here)…my work made a nice gesture. And I am hoping the gesture will ease my stress a bit and help me organize my gargantuan workload. ‘Cause really, I know I have the ability, I just need some coaching and guidance from our fabulous COO, who is helping us all so much!

Thank goodness for very observant people in times of need! And thank you all for the well wishes and kind words for a speedy recovery. I’m on my way, now I just have to make sure I don’t jump out of bed so quickly that it comes back…

In Houston, a really mean bug finally took me over. I was working my tail end off with a 101 degree temperature. I finally had to shirk my Monday duties and fly home early. Talk about feeling miserable. There is nothing like having a fever and having trouble breathing while staying at the Holiday Inn in Texas. Luckily, the guys in the restaurant were very nice and brought me some chicken noodle soup and grapefruit juice to my room. (I ordered it, of course, but it still felt nice of them).

I am back home now and feeling so utterly sad and hopeless. I am hoping it’s simply due to my feeling so under the weather, but I can’t help but wonder if my emotional state is more authentic due to my weakened state. Overwhelmed is an understatement for how I am feeling at my job right now.

And I still have no pictures because it seems I have lost my camera battery. I looked up buying a new one online and they cost so much I might as well just buy a new camera, seeing as mine has so many problems anyway.

Any suggestions for a new digital camera? I don’t need a ton of bells and whistles, just a nice, zoom in, zoom out, point and shoot, upload.