I'm back from a short trip to visit friends in Amish country, PA. If you've never been there, it is a photographer's dream. Rolling, pastoral hills, lush farmland, produce stands, old-fashioned ice cream parlors, retro signs galore.

I didn't have time to stop and shutterbug, because we were running around preparing to see our friend Charlie hit the stage in a production of Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida. My friend Jen and I sat in the front row, snapping photos and taking video the entire time. The theater was a tiny black box, with no elevated stage, so we had the prime view. Charlie came out after the show ended to tell us that the other performers were backstage hissing, "There are two people in the front row taking picture after picture after picture!" Charlie was like, "Oh, yeah, those are my friends." Then he said to us, "All I could see from the stage was your camera lights blinking and blinking. It was like, 'Orange! Green! Orange! Green!'" Please, like I wasn't going to take pictures? I was so proud, I was like Joe Simpson with boobs.

The last twenty-four hours with Kat, Missy, Jen, Shawn, and Charlie were spent cackling until our sides hurt. I love those tender studs so bad.

I've gotten slammed with comment spam this weekend, so comments are off for a while, until I can get a plugin installed to thwart these fuckers. No, I don't want to eff your MILF wife, nor do I want your diflucan. Go away. You (readers, not spammers) can always email your lovely thoughts to me at joeparadox AT gmail DOT com, though.

ETA: turning comments back on to see if they went away.