Bleary Eyed

Always check out what you see in the mirror!

This rarely happens to me.  I sit down at the computer with absolutely no intention to make a cap.  In all honestly I was going to play a game and do some mundane web browsing.  But I have my start page as 'iGoogle' where you can have several gadgets.  I have one for the top news stories, one for my email, one for the recent lotto numbers, and one for the 'Interesting Photo of the Day' from Flickr.  I have been inspired to cap from a couple photos, but that normally happens when I am already in the mood to cap.  Not out of the blue, like this photo.

When I saw it, the story hit me like a ton of bricks.  Guy wakes up half hungover and still half asleep and doesn't notice the changes until he look at himself in the mirror.  It was such a strong instinct that I snagged the photo, tossed it into Photoshop, opened up Word and started typing.  On a lark I threw the name Niels in, intending it to be placeholder (I have such a hard time deciding upone male and female names when it isn't made for someone in particular and I don't want to use Calvin/Caitlyn again).  And before you wonder how the name Niels entered my head, it's the masculine name for Martha.  But as the story drew out, I realized this was right in Martha's preferences.  So why not just leave the name and give it to her, as obviously she was lurking in my subconsciousness.

I noticed after I posted it that I didn't explain what was in my head.  I'm sure it won't bother many people, but just to explain I figured Neils was living with his girlfriend Martha.  The 'old hag' he yelled at was a gypsy and she cursed him to look like the woman he had wronged figuring it he would end up looking like her.  But as he had just made out with a cute co-ed (cheating on his girlfriend) he ended up looking like her.  Like Martha.

This cap won't win any prize, but for me it will always be special.  I completed it from seeing the photo, to posting it at the Haven in less than 15 minutes.  That is an all time record for me!