Augusta

Well, minus the “we” part. This weekend was spent in Augusta GA for a wedding. The driving there looked something like a tired person singing off-key with the windows open.

Charley’s Grandmother graciously let me stay at her house since I didn’t have a hotel for this trip. I was a little shy of going to stay with Charley’s grandmother without Charley but it turned out to be such a wonderful thing. I haven’t had to much of a chance to get to know Grandma Scruggs before, but it turns out that we’re kindred spirits after all.

After a long day of work, I came back to the house fully expecting her to be asleep in bed. Instead she was snuggled in a big chair with a  book. Her living room is a dark paneled parlor with deep sunken couches, and overflowing bookshelf with papers and oddments sitting in the shelves. There are stacks of old photographs crammed in the small spaces, and the floor is littered with her little dog’s collection of stuffed animals. She told me that she never could get to sleep early, not since her husband died, so she stays up and reads every night to keep her mind sharp.

And indeed, her mind is still sharp. She is witty and humorous, open to new times and age and aware that she’s seen much. I was quickly drawn into her storytelling as she started with her grandchildren, but then told me about herself. Soon we started comparing our Charley’s (Charley was named after his grandfather) and sometimes they seemed so much the same  person that we’d forget which one we were talking about. God is so wonderful for providing these pockets of rich conversation where we least expect them. God uses people to pass on love and encouragement to one another. Watching Grandma Scruggs talk about how much she loved her husband was one of the sweetest and most encouraging things I could witness as a relatively new married person. She remembers the day they met like it was yesterday, and she remembers all that she’s learned about him through their years together.

We had breakfast together over a pot of tea that she makes in her coffee pot with a pinch of baking soda. It was always her tradition to eat a big breakfast, it was her Charley’s favorite thing to do. I chuckled to myself as she made  Sasha (her overweight yorkie) her very own bowl of eggs and bacon (which FYI egg yolk is bad for dogs). She talks to her constantly. I realized that this would be my destiny if I live to be an old lady.

As for the rest of the trip:

The wedding and rehearsal were held at the Historic Partridge Inn. This wedding stretched me personally in a lot of ways- it was a bit of a tough cookie. One lovely surprise was that the rehearsal dinner was in room that had 0 to none light and even less space to walk around. The ceilings were black and the walls were red brick, the only light sources were the little tea candles around the room. In a photographer’s eyes, this is nearly hell.

Augusta Georgia. Not so much a fan. I like exploring new places on the road but the downtown just wasn’t selling itself too me. That’s possibly because the roads looked something like this  --------------------------------->

It’s a simple and small city, but it has some of the worstly laid out road ways I’ve ever seen. I ran into so many random dead ends and some of the highways don’t even have signs. It seemed like there was construction going on EVERYWHERE.

The next morning the girls got ready at a salon called Halo. I was very impressed by the job they did on hair. All of the girls working seemed very modern and most of them had funky hair colors. The lady to do the bride’s makeup never showed up and that put us way off schedule. That happens sometimes and you just have to wing it and take photos super quickly.

The wedding happened, we all survived. I had one of the most limited and dark areas to shoot in that I’ve ever had before. blech….but if my job were easy, it would be kind of boring right?

Finally after the fake exit and dancing were over I drove back to Columbia.

Mommy made me cookies ! and the cat was lurking in the bathroom, so I took a photo.

Sunday Morning I felt LOUSY. Like a car ran over me. I finally mustered up the energy to drive back to Charleston to find a very excited Juneau waiting for me. I threw her in the car and drove her to the dog park because so her hyper state could be vanquished. Poor Charley had worked long hours this weekend and didn’t have a chance to walk her while I was gone.

She said, “Mom, don’t ever leave me again”.

and I said, “I’ll try Juneau”

She’ll forget all this by next week when I have to leave again.