" It's a Major Award ! "

- Mr. Parker, ' A Christmas Story '


9:54 p.m.

Just got back from raiding the Nashville Scene paper box.

I can't lie - I tried to play it off.......but I was really, really excited. I'd tried to stay at home this evening busying myself with chores and pitiful attempts at distraction, but couldn't refuse the invitation to see if the paper was on the stands yet.

Jerry and I were there at 8:00 ready to see my photos in print. We circled the building and surrounding iron fence methodically like cat burglars with Doris crooning in the background, " would you like to swing on a star... carry moon beams home in a jar.." (upping the happiness quotient to a point almost unbearable to mere mortals).

I was pawing at his Buick door when the paper box came into my line of sight. I couldn't get the door open and was shrieking like an excited kid who had just been dropped off at Disney World, "Let me at 'em! Let me at 'em!" I dashed up the sidewalk and clutched a hefty stack of papers tight to my chest as if they were Elvis Costello's home phone number. We then flipped feverishly through them to see which one of us could find the contest page first. When I found it (page 24 for those of you playing along at home) a grin canvassed my face that I couldn't make go away. That grin didn't even leave my face as we found ourselves in the tragic, brightly-lit wasteland that is Wal-Mart to purchase the victory ice cream.

The reason for all of this drama?

Four of my photos won top place in the "Icons and Idols" photography contest sponsored by the Scene and the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. I hear that there are some sort of valuable prizes involved but the thing that I am the most stoked about is seeing my photos hanging up in the Frist.

When the nice lady from the Scene called me to tell me I had won, I think my heart went all the way up into my throat. I remember gasping after hearing her phone message, and then running around my office in a panic. When she told me that one of my photos being published was of me in my bunny suit - I must admit that another sort of panic set in...but then I realized that it is a really amazing honor that no amount of costume-wearing ridicule could erase. The first photo contest that I have ever entered AND the first photo contest that I have ever won.

Wow. Perhaps 2004 really is going to be a good year?

At the end of December, I said that my main goal for 2004 was going to be to " have my photos hanging on a wall somewhere before the end of the year." Happily, it happened sooner than I expected.

That means that I get to spend the rest of the year eating cookies, watching Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and reading pulp detective novels. Ahh..... life is good.

Okay..okay...I'm kidding. I might just use this as an encouraging sign and see what else I can get myself into.

My next goal? To play the upright bass at Robert's.

Oh, and no.......I have never played an upright bass in my life.