"I Want to Quit the Gym"

You know that episode of Friends where Chandler tries to quit the gym but can't because the gym manages to convince him to sign up for another year? And then Ross tries to help him quit the gym but he also gets suckered into joining as well? That is what buying pictures is like at Portrait Innovations.

I had every intention of keeping my order small ... a manageable amount of pictures. I knew going into the studio that we were going to buy two poses ... three AT THE MAX. I was determined. I had will power.

We get there and they're running late ... again. Then we get started and Brandt wants no part of sitting nicely and posing for his pictures so he's off and running. We manage to get a few good shots of the three of us and a few of him. Then we went to the next room with the different background. We got some more good family shots and then the photographer decides it would be cute to have Brandt sit on a block with the number 1 facing out ... you know, since it's his first birthday and all. Well this is where the fun begins. I put Brandt on the block and the photographer uses a stuffed toy to get his attention, but the photographer then puts the toy right in Brandt's face. We'll Brandt grabs hold of the toy right as the photographer pulls it away, so down Brandt goes ... head first onto the hard wood floor. Crying. Red mark on forehead. Great.

After the chaos of the taking of the pictures it was time for the choosing of the pictures. Ah, yes. This was the part I was ready for. I was prepared. We sit there and choose our favorite pictures, which end up being like 19 different poses. I keep narrowing it down, but for some reason I still have a bunch of pictures. I finally decide on 5 poses, which doesn't sound too bad and I feel good about my selections. We leave the picture place and I feel proud of myself for choosing such good pictures.

Then the buyer's remorse sets in. I realize I could have eliminated two more pictures and then we would have been down to three poses, like I had originally wanted. Instead, we ended up with too many pictures and not enough people to give them to. Argh! At least from now on I only plan to have his pictures take twice a year, so we won't get overwhelmed with millions of pictures.