It's just Photoshop, dear

I spent ages coming up with a cover for a new project of mine. Lots of photoshopping to make it stand out, cleaning it up, adjusting lighting. It was a montage of several images, down to the shirt, the fingers, and the vegetables in the background.

I was told not to use the image because it is AI.

For real!??!

I hate this. I hate this. I am really good at photoshop. And now everyone is doubting my skills. So I have to use crap photos that are under-resolution that are 'approved' by a committee, so I have lost my creative control. And the project looks worse.

This got me thinking to my first sleepover birthday party.

I think we watched Beauty and the Beast (or the Little Mermaid.. i don't know) like four times, did a scavenger hunt, had some games and whatnot. At bedtime the girls stayed up and tried to tell ghost stories.

I don't remember any of the other ones. I am pretty sure none of them were memorable anyways. But I'm so proud that seven-year-old barachiki told a story so scary that one of the girls woke up from nightmares and had to go home early.

I remember it was about a girl (maybe our age) who was running from a Frankenstein. She was being chased by the monster, who was giant and mean, and she was tripping over branches and whatever. Then she fell off the cliff and died.

That was the story, all of it.

Anyways, yeah, the girl (i think it was my friend's cousin) was so terrified that she got her mom to pick her up from the birthday party in the middle of the night.

There was a counter-protest of about 25 old white people that we saw on our way back to the car. They had a microphone and were shouting some miserable shit.

We passed by them, smiles and joy, and this guy with his dog stopped to greet us. He smiled to us rolled his eyes at the protesters, and we nodded in agreement.

I said “Well it is obvious who’s having more fun!” And the guy had the best huge belly laugh at that. I mean, they were crotchety old people with police officers patrolling them to make sure they didn’t do anything (not that they could, most had walkers and were a million years old). They could NOT crush our spirit for the day.

I actually had never been to one before, and I was really looking forward to it.

We had a lot of fun, it was sunny, and really full of good energy.

I had a big tulle rainbow skirt, with a rainbow wrap to keep the sun off. I was giving away flags and rainbow leis and other rainbow items to basically anyone I saw who clearly were there because they wanted to be, but didn’t think to dress up.