polaroid dismay.

i found out recently of the discontinuation of polaroid films. actually, i was told right as i was using up the last of what aitor and i had tucked away to photograph vendors at the valentine's trunk show. my heart sank a bit. i'm no fancy photographer who still proofs with polaroids or anything special. i'm just a lady who likes getting pictures in the mail when my sweetie is away and who also dislikes the disappearance of good things.

it is really is enough to make a lady want to go on her classic rant about how cell phones still don't work as well and land lines after fifteen years. video still doesn't look like film. my friend, the dude, and i were even talking about how flat panel monitors don't work as well as crts - phased out after a few years of existence. how can i sound like an old lady talking about four year old hardware?

for you, dear reader, i'll try to choke back my ire and stroll down memory lane instead. the above polaroid, in all its ill-exposed glory, was taken by aitor in a motel room in carlisle, arkansas, some time in the fall of 2006. we were on our way from somewhere to somewhere and little rock was on the way. since we were on a mission to just plain see as many american places as possible (hence a later visit to toledo), we decided to head for the captial city. it was already dark out and we hadn't even made it to the city yet. aitor was hungry (and maybe i was, too, although i had almost given up on finding nourishing vegetarian food in the middle of the country) so when we saw signs for a barbecue restaurant (nick's bbq & catfish), we decided to pull off the highway. we had recently realized that when you're not in your own big city, you shouldn't assume that you can be served a hot meal in the middle of the night like a couple of vampires and had tried to adjust our eating habits accordingly. it was after sundown so nick's was our place.

carlsile, arkansas, is a small place as far as outsiders would be concerned. only one little strip of out-of-towner relevant businesses. but on the two blocks between the off ramp and nick's we saw a sign advertising a motel for $19.99 a night - the cheapest price we had seen yet. however, the sign seemed to point to a gas station. over dinner, we discussed our options, which really were limitless at the time, since we had nowhere in particular to be for a few days. but options don't feel so limitless when one is sleepy and cold and presumably in need of a shower. we consulted our waitress who told us not to sleep at the gas station and that there was a better (albeit pricer) motel in town that she could endorse.

we were poor so we ignored her and tried our luck at the cheapest motel ever. it really was part of the gas station - a series of trailers (like the "portables" we had in school) arranged in a u-shape out back. to our surprise, there were no bugs or blood stains, the sheets were clean and soft, there was heat, we had cable and we even picked up a free wireless signal from somewhere. it was amazing. we stayed for an extra night and relaxed.

on our second day in arkansas - our free day - we took the back roads to neighbouring lonoke and ate at our frist sonic drive-in (every subsequent visit would pale in comparison). it was unseasonably warm and totally beautiful out. sometimes, when you are clearly from elsewhere and you are visiting a place that doesn't get a lot of visitors, people can be exceptionally nice to be around. they can also be exceptionally xenophobic, but this wasn't the case for us in lonoke. the manager at the sonic talked to us for quite a while about our home and our travels. it was much better than our previous trip through the south of the state where we blew a fuse in the car and aitor was swarmed by rats at the rest stop. this time, it was nice.

i didn't remember the name of the barbeque restaurant or the neighbouring town in recalling this story. i used the internet for that. see? sometimes, we create useful technologies. i understand this. but i still don't feel as misty looking at that comic sans filled website for nick's bbq as i do this little picture i doodled all over.

oh, and the pig nose i'm wearing is some arkansas thing - sports related, i assume. we bought it because we thought it was cool but aitor kept getting squealed at when he put it on. if anyone cares to explain this phenomenon, we're all ears.

and if you like, you can try to save polaroid here. or here.