picture day . . . again

so today . . . i had to have my picture taken. again.

i hate having my picture taken. i am not very photogenic, and i can live with that if the picture is documenting something fun. but studio portraits kill me.

last week it was picture day at school. we have pictures taken in the fall and in the spring. the spring photographer is always the same, and for some reason he is able to take a decent picture of me--almost every time. but the fall pictures are like playing roulette--you just never know.

i always do my best to have a good picture. i style my hair and wear mascara, which i don't do on ordinary school days. i choose a solid top in a color that i hope will look nice. and then i try to sit up straight and smile on cue. but the truth is, it is a school picture and it is going to look like a school picture no matter what--note the hair bump on the right.(i do have to say here, that some of my favorite pictures of my mom and dad are their school pictures. they were both teachers, and i love to look at the sequence of pictures from the years they taught. it is so much fun to see the different clothing and hair styles.)

but today's ordeal was the fault of whoever decided that our church should have a pictorial directory. this meant everyone had to go in and have their picture taken. our turn was today. we were supposed to be there by 4:00, and i don't get off work until 3:30. when we scheduled the appointment, i didn't think it would be a problem--i would just wear the chosen outfit to work and then we would have plenty of time to get there.

and that is where the trouble began--choosing an outfit.

what to wear, what to wear . . .

i couldn't make a decision, so rollie finally told me what he was going to wear. that helped narrow my choices. to black. i knew i was going to have to wear black. it was the only solution, since he had decided to wear a burgundy shirt and black pants. i probably have 20 black tops and 6 or 7 black dresses, so it shouldn't have been hard to find something to wear. but it was.

i got up this morning still not knowing what to put on. i took my shower, towel-dried my hair, and looked in the closet. the clock was ticking . . . so i grabbed a black dress, threw it on over my head, and raced off to school--with damp hair and no makeup.

when i got to school i twisted my hair up and clipped it, hoping that it would dry into lovely waves--(hey, it could happen . . .) i decided the dress i was wearing was too casual for the photos and would need to be changed. i realized i would have less than half an hour to put on makeup, find a different outfit and straighten my hair--just in case it didn't dry into lovely waves. but all that could be accomplished in time, if i just knew what to wear . . . i mentally dressed myself several times during the day, but wasn't happy with any of the results.

i finally decided i was thinking about this way too much. really. it was just a picture for the church directory. so when i got home, i grabbed a different black dress, put makeup on (which takes me all of about 7 minutes,) fluffed my just slightly damp waves, grabbed rollie and took off for the church. we filled out paperwork, they called our names, and we went back to have our picture taken.

we stood where we were told to stand, smiled when we were told to smile, and then the photographer said, "ok, that's it. we are done."

it took me more time to put on my mascara than it took for him to shoot our pictures.

i couldn't believe it. i felt a little cheated. not that i wanted my picture taken, but i had put all that effort into getting ready . . .

i guess hope springs eternal. although, hope doesn't have to deal with my bangs . . .