For Thanksgiving I headed 2.5 hours north to visit my Mom & Dad. When you’re away from a small town for a while, you sometimes forget what it’s like when you don’t exactly look the status quo. I personally think that I’m looking rather tame these days, comparatively speaking, my hair is black, it’s cold so the majority of my tattoos are covered, and I even have pink nails!

But in a small town, even the smallest differences stick out like a sore thumb. Yesterday due to the frenzy of Black Friday, I went relatively unnoticed in the small town of Wrangler wearing, camo covered, shotgun toting folk. My dad asked me if I would be interested in going to lunch with him today and I agreed. I arrived before him at the diner and nothing like the entire room turning to look at you as you are being seated. It was really awkward and slightly maddening. It’s 2012 people. Women can vote, we have a black president, and tattoos and piercing are more common than ever. I couldn’t help but feel the entire room judging me without even hearing a word out of my mouth. Even now, as I tap away this blog on my phone, still waiting for my Dad, I can feel the people sitting around me staring at me. It’s weird.

Sometimes I really miss living in a small town. You constantly run into people you know, there is no such thing as traffic, and the days seem to go by just a little bit slower. But when situations like this happen, it makes me long to be back in the booming city where I am just another face on the street.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving. I personally ate so much I feel like I am set for a while calorie-wise.

Tomorrow I am taking engagement pictures for my friends Shawn and Anna and I am exceptionally nervous. I did a super deep cleaning for the first time since I’ve had this camera (about 10 years, yikes!) so hopefully I wracked up some good camera karma and capture a little magic tomorrow.