Monotony

Sometimes my mother pays me or Husband $15/hour to do jobs she doesn't want to do, doesn't have time to do, or doesn't know she needs to do. I am currently working my way through boxes of old photos. This isn't a new project; Husband and I started it in the summer of 2006, but we only managed to get through 2 boxes. Scanning photographs takes a fucking long time. I started tonight at 9:37, and at 9:51, I'd scanned a mere 10 photos. My mother has requested that not every picture be scanned, rather I should take a "representative sample" from each box or each envelope within the box. Basically what I do is this:
1. Take a box and check the year
2. Create a folder on my computer that corresponds with the years on the box
3. Choose an envelope from the box and create a sub-folder for the envelope
4. Scan picture
5. Name the picture in such a way that people, events, and/or locations are easily identified
6. Replace photos in envelope and envelope in box
6. Repeat the process
It's half mind-numbing, half fun, half embarrassing. I come across my baby and toddler pictures:








I'm currently working on the 1991-1994 box. I'm coming across pictures of before we moved, pictures of my cat who's now dead, and gems such as the following:


This was taken at my 12th birthday party. By the age of 12, I was deeply entrenched in what is commonly known as "The Ugly Phase." Until I went to college, I thought I was the only girl who went through the ugly phase. Turns out EVERY girl goes through the ugly phase. It starts around 4th grade and lasts through middle school, and in some cases runs through high school as well. During the ugly phase, a girl makes poor choices in terms of clothing, hair, and make up, only she doesn't know she's making poor choices until many, many years later when she sees a photograph from this time period and cringes because she's confronted with images she'd spent 10 or 15 years repressing.
I'm about to quit scanning for the night. I've been working for an hour, and I need to get to bed since it's a school night. I'm only four envelopes into the 1991-1994 box, so there's a lot more of the ugly phase to see. I'm taking wine with me tomorrow. There's too much ugly to confront without wine.