First, some weirdly morose looking photos from today.
I know there are a ton of iPhone photo apps out there, and I am not affiliated with any of them, but the one I keep coming back to is Hipstamatic. It just does a good job is all. I know I'm just the one millionth person on the bandwagon (even David Pogue from the New York Times has endorsed them as one of his top 10 iPhone apps) and maybe you disagree, but...I enjoy using it is all.
Well, if we are all in agreement on any one thing (segue!), it's that my hospital staff photograph is the worst photo ever in the history of ever. GUYS, I KNOW! If it makes things any better (or any clearer, at least), I remembered that I had to take this staff photo at the last second and dashed over from the OR to the suite of offices where the official photographer was set up. I had no make-up on because I never wear makeup at work (other people do, and that's fine, but I think it's gross when I see layers of makeup rub off on the inside of people's masks which is why I avoid it myself) and I'd just had my hair crammed up inside a scrub cap all day so it was all squashed so I therefore had no choice but to keep it up for the picture. Also, the photographer forced me to take off my glasses, which were the last accessory that kept me looking somewhat normal. And I know this is all very the-lady-doth-protest-too-much, but seriously guys, I KNOW!! It was so, so bad.
But these new photos, I think they're going to be better. I know that's not setting the bar terribly high, but seriously--we'll look at the new photos and we'll vote and we'll pick a better one for the book jacket. All is well. And if it's worth anything, at least I'm not the kind of person who says, oh, I look so terrible in pictures! and then has a billion pictures of themselves looking gorgeous and dewy and sparkly. I really, actually look terrible in pictures. Not terrible in life, I hope, but photos immortalize some weird stiff self-conscious portion of my soul, such that the only way to get a decent picture of me is to take a truly candid shot (which is barely possible under ordinary circumstances) or just to take a shitload of photos and weed out most of the worst ones. Statistics, people. Statistics.
Wow, if I knew I was going to get so much mileage out of that terrible staff photo, I would have posted it months ago. What makes it ever worse is that there was a choice of two photos for our corporate website, one of me with the white coat (which is the one I ended up choosing) and one without. The other one was even worse.
(I'll let you think about that for a while.)
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SPEAKING of vanity, it seems unbelievable that I've had this blog for ten years and I never considered getting a more streamlined (or at least less porn-y) URL, but I have finally pulled the trigger and for the staggering sum of $10 a year I beat out all the other Michelle Aus of the world and now own the web address michelleau.com. Actually, I don't know...is that less porn-y? Hard to say. Either way, the URL just refers back to this same page, so no need to change your bookmarks or anything. New label, same great taste. Or at the very least, same weird taste that you get strangely fond of, like Red Bull or something.