While the new year often brings us the feeling of a clean slate and a feeling of being refreshed and motivated it also brings us stresses from the year before, especially if you are an unorganized person when it comes to keeping track of your personal finances like I am.

Every single year I say to myself, “This is the year I keep myself organized. This is the year when I’ll be able to effortlessly and quickly do my taxes without stress or multiple phone calls asking for a new 1099 or W2 to be sent to me. This is the year when I’ll be able to get all of my taxes done without crying or forgetting to put down a large chunk of money.” Everyone tells me I take on too much but I don’t feel like I do, I enjoy it…except when it comes time to keep it all together. 

Well folks, THIS IS THE YEAR. I am proud to say my organization efforts in 2014 have paid off and for the first time ever all of my required and necessary information is organized and complete. Older people may be scoffing at me, thinking to themselves “how irresponsible” but hey, it’s hard when you’re a procrastinator who is in graduate school juggling six different clients on your own without the slightest inclination to any organizational skills whatsoever. I can barely complete all of my final papers and projects by the due date much less keep track of every single dollar earned and every business expense acquired within the past year. I’ve learned a lot about being self-employed and running my own business this year and it has definitely made me mature and think more into how I deal with others professionally and how I streamline my own workflow. It’s a good thing.

****Apologies for not having posted for two weeks. I haven’t been busy or anything, just tired and worn out. I’ve been doing some reading which is a big thing for me these days – I feel like reading has gotten harder for me to do with the more time I spend online reading shortened articles and taking in information at the speed of light. My attention has pretty much been whittled down to that of a goldfish and it’s time to change that. I used to love reading! Currently I am reading several works by late magician Harry Houdini, “Ariel” poetry collection by Sylvia Plath and re-reading the book Nickel and Dimed. All worthwhile reads if you ask me.

Here’s a collection of photos from what I call “tiny stories”. Tiny stories are just little photo essays that don’t really have a rhyme or reason to them, they are surface value values describing what I did that day. They are neither good nor bad, they are just as they are. I started this to keep myself shooting even when I’m not on assignment.

The last photo here is of the “Exorcist Stairs”. These are the stairs that the priest threw himself down after being possessed by the devil in the movie “The Exorcist”, they were pretty creepy. You can find them at 3600 Preston Street in Georgetown, DC. 🙂

I’ve been doing a lot of assignments this year already. Five so far, at least one a weekend. Expect some previews soon. Hope everyone has had a great kickoff to this year.