‘If You Happen to See My Light/ You Can Stop and

Ring My Bell’
– Ani DiFranco

I agreed to take pictures of myself smoking pot naked for a friend. Doesn’t really matter why. He says because it is something he likes. In an intimate rather than sexual sort of way. Mister couldn’t care less when I made sure he didn’t mind.

I agreed because I find it somehow completely unthreatening. Shit. Naked women smoking pot? All I need is a mirror and I can see that every day.

I made him get explicit permission from his girlfriend. She responded directly to me with the ok. I’m not about to start stepping on toes.

There is more to this story that I am pretty much just too lazy to tell.

I was arranging to borrow a photographer friend’s camera. Then on a whim I asked him if he’d rather just do the shoot. Well. Thought to ask him. Asked his girlfriend first. She immediately said fine. Nudes are good for any portfolio, really. And I had the camera-shy trained out of me years ago.

So this week I’m going to pick him up and let him take illegal photographs of me. Artsy ones, even.

And I was driving home tonight and it suddenly hit me anew:

Friends are for making weird art with.

How did I let myself ever forget that?