Reality, for better or worse

One of the things I most enjoy about photography is its ability to capture those moments that are absolutely and unequivocally real.  No fake smiles and skinny-arm poses; no huddling together waiting for a flash; no opportunity to look at a tiny screen and say "aw, that's cute."  I get to use plastic and glass to share the genuine moments that people would love to forget, but can't deny that they happened.  

That's it.  The rest is up to the viewer to decide.  That's where the "reality" of pictures like this gets interpreted, reinvented, and flat out fabricated to suit the viewer's own point of view.  Time to make up your own story for why these two are passed out on the bench.  

And before you go laughing at somebody else for how they look while snoozing, remember that you most likely resemble a slobbering infant yourself while you sleep.  I certainly do and there's proof thanks to unnamed a**holes that commandeered my camera one night. 

Kings of keeping me awake

A full night of uninterrupted sleep is a gift only the occasional weekend can give. I do enjoy that wonderful feeling of nodding off with little on my mind and an unset alarm clock. I even enjoy those brief moments of waking, where reality is distinguished from dream just long enough to check the clock and make sure I don't have to stay conscious. Ahh, the sweet serenity of slumber.

Of course, I almost never get that feeling. Living in the south, even with regular spraying those ever resilient cockroaches still breach the walls of my apartment to scuttle around after the lights go out. Since they typically shy away from us big apes in the light, I probably wouldn't notice or care as they crawled around after hours. More often though, I'll wake at 5:00 a.m. to the crashes of my cats throwing their ample bodies around the room with complete disregard for their surroundings.

These cats are the undisputed kings of their three room jungle, although I don't quite understand their hunting habits. On all the nature shows I've seen, the predator normally goes for a quick incapacitation of the prey. They don't play games of catch, injure, release, catch again, paw around, release, retreat, stalk, pounce, release. I end up having to intervene and offer a merciful death by vacuum to the tortured insects. Even after the hunt is over I don't get to go back to sleep. The cats seem to think that prowling around howling for the next half hour will cause more bugs to appear for their entertainment.

Next time I'll follow them with my camera, so for my lack of sleep I'll at least have some nice cockroach pictures to post rather than whatever bugs these are. ***Yawn***