I dreamt I was walking up a crowded Manhattan avenue, and made some comment to neighboring fellow strangers crushed together with me -- part attempt at wit, part talking to myself -- I got the name of the street wrong, and that's why they chuckled, but they were still friendly. I was calling it Central Avenue, but that was the center of the jazz scene in Los Angeles in the 1920s/30s/somewhen around then (I realized after I woke up). Just up the street a ways, the crowds thinned some, and I was in a neighborhood of oldish (I'm from LA, it's hard for me to judge) brick and stone townhouses, mostly. Of course I had the Nikon, and was taking pictures. Up on a corner I saw a group of older folks with amazingly interesting faces. I started photographing them -- while getting closer, and I did ask their permission once I got in speaking distance, and they were OK with it -- and I was so happy, to have found such wonderful faces, and even though their skin colors were relatively dark, I was getting the exposures right, and everything was coming out wonderfully, in super close-up face-fills-the-whole-frame portraits, with smile-crinkles around the eyes and glints of sunlight off tiny beads of sweat, for it was a hot summer day.

And then I woke up. But even though I don't have any of the pictures, I can still sort of remember one of the faces. That whole dream made me happy.

I think I came up with some of that from reading this article in the NYT yesterday about an actor couple whose other source of income is buying dilapidated properties, renovating them, and renting them out. That particular article is about their latest purchase, a building in Harlem which is in the worst shape of any they've tackled: the insides are completely falling down, stairs, floors, and all. The husband plans to do as much of the work himself as possible, aside from the specialized things like electricity and plumbing. That strikes me as a way of making a living that would be lots and lots of fun, if one had the skills.

Of course, in addition to skills, one would need capital to get the merry-go-round started. So, while a provocative distraction, this idea does not obviate the need for one to write something and finish it already. nice try though.

copyright 2003 carrie lynn king.