Hit the Lights
Photographed my final event of the year at the Art Museum this evening. Attendance was great, remarks were short, and spirits were both high and flowing. As swing dancers kept the energy up, everyone was in an excellent mood sipping mixed drinks and making plates catered by the museum.
I’m a bit bummed that this is the final event of the year. Every time I get to work one of these shindigs, I leave feeling really good. Maybe I’ve come to rely on it as a bit of healthy forced extroversion? Whatever I’m mentally grappling with that day is pushed to the distant background when I’m there. Since I’ve been alone a lot lately, I’ve felt disconnected and lonely to a degree I normally don’t, but when I get to go here, it fills up my tank.
I’m not due back until the end of January for Art After Dark. By that point, I’ll have left my Thirties and entered a new decade. Feels weird to know this was the final event of the first half of the 2020s, and the last of an era for me personally. I shot this photo because it felt spiritually relevant; the door isn’t fully closed and locked, lights are off just beyond them, but it’s all still visible. I realized this was the last one before a couple of milestones, and that awareness felt much like the door in this scene—not quite ready to be locked, but nearly there.