Today we had a special extended luncheon to honor a paralegal who's been working at The Firm for 30 years. As usual, I was given The Firm's camera to document the event. I was seated at a table with three of our attorneys - one Head Honcho and two Associates - and an older couple who knew the woman we were honoring. As the older woman and I chatted, I snapped the occasional photo. At one point she said to me, "You must be The Firm's Historian." I was taken aback by the phrase for a moment, but recovered quickly enough to reply, "Yes, I am."

It's been a while since I was referred to as a "Historian" rather than a mere photographer, or even "Official Staff Photographer" as I'm called here at The Firm. It was kind-of nice. It also reminded me of exactly how very long I've been doing this sort of thing.

The first time was in High School, when I was the Historian for my F(uture)H(omemakers of)A(merica) group for two years. My title was Historian, and my job was to document our various activities through photographs, and keep them in a book - our meetings, our fund-raisers, going to the state conference, etc. At the same time, I was a photographer for the Yearbook, along with my friend Ho (The word "Ho", by the way, did not mean the same thing as it does now! It was a derivative of Hoser, Hosemonster, Heidi-Ho; that sort-of thing. My friends and I had odd nick-names in High School. Where do you thing Hez came from? ). We went around taking pictures of basketball games, club activities, dances, kids loitering in the halls, and whatever else was going on in and around school that we wanted to put in the Yearbook. I only did that for one year because it was God-awful (but I can't remember why exactly now).

I had a dry spell for many years after that where I just took pictures for my own personal pleasure and use: I documented a few Halloweens at Lerner where we all dressed up, and took pictures at the mall's Bridal Fairs and Spring Fashion Shows, but nothing was done with the pictures, other than they were passed around so those who couldn't attend could still see how things went.

It has just been in the past few years here at The Firm that I've once again become an Official Historian. I have been camera-ready at most, if not all of our activities - baby showers, bar-b-ques, engagement parties, birthday celebrations, retirement parties, tree-trimming and Christmas parties. Whatever, where ever, I'm there, camera in hand.

Reading: You've Got to Read This ed. by Ron Hansen. Actually we're not reading any more stories out of the book. This Wednesday is our final class, and four people (including myself) submitted stories to be workshopped, so that's pretty much all we'll have time for.

Classic Book: Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens.

Previously: Animal Farm by George Orwell.

Listening to: Vanessa-Mae: "Storm".

Writing: Nothing right now. My new story "The Charm Bracelet" will be work shopped along with three others this coming Wednesday. After that, I'm not sure. I'm taking the memoir writing class coming up next month, so I'm sure I'll be writing something again very soon.

Gratitude: Beautiful spring weather.