I'm disappointed

Yes, I'm disappointed.

I mentioned back in late September that I'd entered a photography contest (check out my "The suspense is already driving me nuts!" post for all the details).

The contest's online rules FAQ page stated that the winners' photos would be published in New Mexico Magazine's January 2011 issue, to be delivered to subscribers around December 10th, and on newsstands around December 15th.

Winners, by the way, would receive e-mails around December 10th, verifying mailing addresses for prize delivery (with prizes being sent out in late December).

So, for the past few days . . . okay, okay, since around December 1st, I've been checking my e-mail a few times a day, just waiting and hoping for one of those e-mails, verifying my mailing address. As the days crept closer and closer to December 10th, I found myself checking my e-mail more often throughout the day.

And each time, I failed to see any such e-mail.

But I kept telling myself that It's not December 10th yet. Maybe I'll get something on the 10th.

Then December 10th rolled around - still no e-mail. I knew what this meant - none of my photographs had been chosen.

However, I still held out hope that maybe, just maybe, one of my photos had been chosen, for Honorable Mention perhaps.

So I ran out to the mailbox in hopes of finding my January 2011 issue.

Nope. I had Christmas cards (for which I was thankful), some junk mail, and that was it. No magazine, yet.

It was only Friday, so I still held out hope that the magazine would arrive on Saturday. You know, because the magazine must be somewhere on some sort of Post Office transportation making its way from Santa Fe, New Mexico to my snow-covered Iowa mailbox. And, because I inferred that the December 10th delivery date was simply an approximation, as in "on or about" December 10th.

But that didn't explain why I hadn't yet gotten one of those "we need to verify your mailing address so we can send you your prize" e-mails . . . you know, since e-mail doesn't get stuck on a truck, or in weather-related traffic.

Throughout the day, I would occasionally check my e-mail, still hoping for that e-mail. But it never came.

At some point that afternoon, I stopped obsessing about it because there was nothing I could do about it.

Saturday morning finally rolled around, and what did I do, first thing? Yep, I checked my e-mail. Still no e-mail.

After Livie and I went out for a bit to get her hair cut and to run some errands, we came back for lunch, and I returned to the computer to . . . yep, check my e-mail again. Nothing.

Then I ran outside in the freezing rain to check the mailbox. The mail hadn't come yet, even though I'd seen the mail truck down the street.

At this point, I finally resigned myself to the fact that it was true - none of my photos had been chosen - and I stopped checking my e-mail every couple hours.

When yesterday's mail finally came, much later in the afternoon, there was still no magazine. 

I began to think back to last year's winners. It dawned on me that while my photos definitely had that, "Hey, that's cool" aspect about them, they didn't elicit a "Wow! That is absolutely spectacular!" response, like last year's winning photos had.

And you know what? I guess that means I need more practice. I mean, I haven't taken a photography class, or even a general art 101 class, for that matter, since I'd been a student at Culver Girls Academy. And it's been just as long since I'd been a part of a photography club, like I was at Culver.

So I guess that once I start grad school (for my M.A. in English), I could maybe enroll in a basic photography 101 class, partly for fun, and partly to refresh my memory. Because I know all those photography skills I learned in photography classes and photography club must be somewhere in my little gray cells, still. Right?

And, in case you're curious, here are the photos I entered.

I took this photo from my front yard one summer day.

Clouds rolling into Alamogordo, before the storm hits.

I took this photo from my back yard, right after moving into our new house in Alamogordo.

A summer storm hovers over the Sacramento Mountain Range, Alamogordo, NM.

This was taken from my back yard on a late December afternoon.

Winter has dusted the Sacramento Mountain Range, Alamogordo, NM.

Here's a famous Santa Fe view, taken when Andrew and I spent a day in Santa Fe.

St. Francis Cathedral Basilica, Santa Fe, NM

Here's a view of White Sands National Monument. I took this photo on a windy, February afternoon.

Sand dune, White Sands National Monument, outside Alamogordo, NM

So I didn't win anything, not even an Honorable Mention prize. And for that, I'm disappointed. 

But you have to admit the photos are cool. Right? 

And now I can at least say that I entered a big photo contest with hundreds of entries.

(And since I still haven't gotten my January 2011 issue yet, (maybe Monday) I'm still curious about which photos did win.)