Quite by accident, I met artist Marilyn Lindholm in Port Aransas last year while on my annual retreat with girlfriends. She spotted me taking photos of something down on the beach - I can't remember what it was - and said something about my camera and mentioned wanting a photo of a colorful beach umbrella just down the shoreline from us.
At least I think that's how we met, anyway.
What I do vividly remember is promising her I'd send her a photo of the umbrella that I'd already taken and then arranging to tag along with her the next morning for a photo shoot of a piece of driftwood she was going to use for her next set of artwork.
I also promised to send her the photos I took of the driftwood, in addition to the colorful umbrella.
We had a lot of fun rearranging a wine bottle and set of glasses around that driftwood log, snapping away on our cameras.
But...I never sent her those photos.
Oh, I thought about it a lot. I wrote it on my to-do list over and over and over, but to no avail. I've felt so guilty about it all year, but the thing is, the past year zipped by so fast I never even finished looking at those pictures from that weekend in Port Aransas, much less editing them.
I know, poor excuse, but there it is.
So this past Sunday morning when I was returning to the condos after my last morning walk of the weekend, and a woman in a passing group spotted me taking a photo of a bird and told me she had camera envy, that she just had a point-and-shoot, and she was an artist...my memory flew back to that morning a year ago.
"What's your name?" I asked, interrupting her.
"Marilyn Lindholm."
OMG!
And then she remembered me and forgave me for not sending the photos on the condition I send her the one of us below, as well as the others I promised her last year. In return, she'll send me some of her greeting cards that feature her beautiful watercolor artwork.
It was like Groundhog Day: I had a do-over!
So you'll probably be surprised to know I still haven't sent those photos. (Or, maybe you know me well enough by now that you're not surprised at all.)
But it hasn't even been a week yet, and I did send her the one above with reassurance that I'll send the others, um, soon.
I'll keep you posted, and I'll share the photos here, too.
(Until I do, feel free to nag me.)
(In fact, please nag me. I can't live with that guilt another year!)