These are my thoughts; though they may be public domain, please have enough respect and understand that they are mine and are not for the use of your own deviant agenda.
Monday, July 27, 2009
So since my last post, life has been filled with non-stop adventures! Gotta love that right? But that means LOTS of pictures (as usual)! So I guess the first announcement might as well be the biggest…
Weight Loss – So I’ve lost a total of 27 pounds as of today! Better yet, I’m able to fit into jeans I haven’t been able to wear for over two years! I love it! Oh and I have lost a total of 27 inches all over! Yup, I feel great! I’m so close to my first goal! I’m proud of myself. And I have no desire to falter or cheat. Ok so there are those days but they haven’t happened in a while. I want to lose the weight at a healthy rate. And, I haven’t been working out as consistently as I would like to but I’m still very happy with my success!
In my last post I had to run off and didn’t finish explaining the wedding and the busiest day of the month last month.
6.19.09 Terrance & Holly’s Wedding - I can’t share the pictures of the wedding because I haven’t given them to the bride and groom yet. I’m waiting on them for something so I don’t like sharing until they have access to them first. So it should be sometime next week.
6.20.09 Toni Michels Funeral – Well there is nothing good about funerals. I will say it felt like a reunion of the old Aspen Street Crew, though I wish it was under different circumstances. Toni had a big impact on my youth. It’s hard to imagine I won’t see her, on this earth at least. Steve had written his thoughts out because he knew he wouldn’t be able to make it through talking about it. His brother read it for him. The one statement that stood out to me is that every time he goes to bed and wakes up he will feel the sorrow of her loss the most… Wow! How true and real is that? I went to school with Shawn and I got teary a lot during his talk, but it wasn’t until his oldest daughter got up to speak that the tears flowed. She talked about how her Nana always said she loved her more then the universe and broke down in the middle and Shawn had to finish for her. It was so tender... She ended it saying "Nana, I love you more then the universe". Yeah, not a dry eye in the place.
She passed away from Breast Cancer so the entire family wore pink of some sort which I thought was fitting. The women wore brown dresses with pink ribbons in the pattern. The guys wore black shirts with pink pin stripes and pink ties with a breast cancer sweat band on their forearm. All the grandkids wore pink of some sort as well.
After the service I got a chance to talk to the family and it was an emotional morning. Toni will be missed.
6.20.09 Sasha's Going Away Party - I left there and had to rush to get lunch and head down to Sasha’s going away party in Yucaipa. Here are a couple of my favorite shots. It was a nice time. I didn’t get to hang out with Sasha that much but it’s always so relaxing at the Clements’s home.
6.20.09 and Poet Sky @ Old Towne Pub Pasadena – I made my way out to Pasadena to make sure I would get there in time. The drive was relaxing. I was looking forward to the show and the venue has so much character I was looking forward to taking more pictures there again. I had a great time that night! Poet Sky was on fire! Their last show at this venue was a bit of a disappointment for them but this one I think more then made up for it. And it was a late night!
6.29.09 Laguna – My sister and I had an appointment in Irvine again. And since we were both going down together for once, we decided to spend the afternoon at our favorite beach afterwards. I love Laguna! I found it difficult to just sit and relax. I wanted to be exploring, taking pictures or walking around. Heidi on the other hand enjoyed reading and lying on the beach.
I posted a status update on Facebook and a friend called me and had a recommendation for where we should eat for lunch, Sun Dried Tomato. I was laughing but he took care of everything! Made the reservation and even suggested what we were to eat and where to sit while we were there. And we got there and decided against outdoor seating only because it had gotten chilly and we also decided against his food recommendations because of the day’s specials. It was yummy! All-in-all a great day!
7.1.09 Monthly Worship Concert – My church, The Place, is putting on monthly concerts the first Wednesday of every month. This was our very first one and I am thrilled to say it was a success! We even had a hotdog cookout because it was so close to the 4th of July. We had a great time! I’m looking forward to the next one!
7.4.09 4th of July – I normally don’t get out to the fireworks but was happy to be able to this year. We met up with some family friends and I was impressed with the show.
7.10-12.09 Santa Cruz – My sister was hired to do makeup for a wedding up in Santa Cruz. They paid for the cost of her travel, her hotel room as well as paid for her time. Since I don’t have a lot going on, she asked if I wanted to join her. Of course I said yes! How cool is it to experience a trip up the coast at no cost to me other then food!? So, we decided to take the scenic route which was the 101 to the 1 since we were leaving Friday and had the time. It was such a great time with Heidi and I, we had so much fun being silly and listening to great music.
It was such a beautiful drive! I had a hard time not stopping every few minutes to take pictures!
Saturday was the day of the wedding and while Heidi started work on the bridesmaids I had made arrangements to meet up with my friend James. James and I have been friends for years (10+ easy)! He usually has to come down to Southern California for us to hang out so this time I was actually able to meet him up in his territory! We’d always ended up at Santa Monica Pier when he’d come down and he’d always say it was nothing like Santa Cruz Boardwalk. And sure enough he was right! I loved it there! We had a great time walking around, talking and catching up and of course me taking lots of pictures!
I got back in just enough time to get ready for the wedding that evening. James stuck around so that after the ceremony we went back to the boardwalk and then went to Downtown Santa Cruz and walked around. It was a great day.
Sunday we took the boring route back down the 5 Fwy because we were on a time crunch. My brother’s band, Poet Sky, was playing and we had decided to be the hard core fans and drive 5+ hours to go see their show in Pomona that night.
7.12.09 Poet Sky & AMP in Pomona – Before the show I wasn’t sure I had the energy to make it through but as usual once I start snapping pictures I was energized! The show was originally supposed to be in a bar but there was some confusion and luckily they were able to play out in a courtyard which I thought worked out better!
It was a long crazy weekend but nothing compared to what was coming the following weekend!
7.17.09 Camp Schultz Practice – Andy had asked me if I had time to go take pics of his band while they practiced for their show the next day. It was a short practice and early enough that I was able to stop by for about an hour and take some shots. I was pretty happy with how they turned out.
7.17.09 Club E (a Gothic Event) – My good friends Joe and Erica had put on a big Gothic party for Erica’s birthday. They wanted me to take pictures for it and were generous enough to pay me for my time. I had a great time shooting pictures and enjoying the nostalgia of my old wannabe Goth days just out of high school. It was a bit of a reunion as a lot of the people there were friends from that time.
7.18.09 Pasadena Photo Walk – The only bummer about my late night out was that I had already agreed to be in Pasadena the next morning at 7:30! Yeah I got like 2 hours of sleep, but I don’t often get out there and take artistic shots of random places. But that was the point of the event and I took advantage. Sadly we were all supposed to meet up after a couple of hours but the location they set wasn’t opened for another hour so everyone just kind of went their separate ways. I was looking forward to checking out what other people shot.
Anyways, we got done and with the lack of sleep and being out in the hot sun, I was definitely losing it. I needed sleep bad! I got home and took a nap for a few hours and had to get ready for my final shoot of the weekend.
My friend James had been the one to invite me to the event and we stayed close while taking our pictures through Old Town Pasadena. We plan on going back out on our own August 15th and we’re going to invite anyone who wants to go to join us. If you’re interested let me know.
7.18.09 Camp Schultz and others with CJ Ramone – So Andy and Chris were pretty excited about their show with CJ Ramone who was going to be playing all the old Ramones songs. My other friends, Voting with Bullets, were there as well so I knew a lot of people at the show.
At some point in the evening I lost all gumption. I believe it was the lack of sleep catching up with me because I got unreasonably moody. I struggled to even want to be there. I felt like I knew everyone but that there was no one there that I could hang out with. Everyone I knew was in the bands playing so they were too busy. By the time CJ Ramone came on I just wanted to leave. Mike from Camp Schultz convinced me to stay because when was I going to get a chance like this again? I was glad I did stay but I didn’t close out the event, I stayed for about half the set.
Job Hunt – So I had a pretty big let down this week. I interviewed for an Admin II position for the Pharmacy at Kaiser in Victorville on Monday. I felt good about the interview and sent out my thank you letter as soon as I got home. I found out Friday that they went with someone with Pharmacy experience, which makes sense but I was pretty down. She told me I did great in the interview and thought the thank you letter was definitely a nice touch (thanks Russ!).
I have another job I’m still waiting to hear back from but it’s been dragged out because of some issues beyond their control, so I’m not sure when that one will be confirmed one way or another.
So it’s taken me over a week to complete this post! Hopefully it won’t be this long before I can post again. I really need to start writing less or posting more often. Not sure.
I've been doing a lot of reflection. Or I should say I've been avoiding my responsibilities. Being unemployed sucks. I am a person that likes order and schedules. I find it hard to function without them. I've said it lots of times, I thrive on chaos. When I have an open day, or MANY open days, I find it hard to stay motivated to stick to a schedule. I get bored easily. The week before last was almost a little too busy but I'll go into that later.
Today I woke up determined. I didn't realize it until I saw that I woke up when my alarm went off, something my body seems to have been rejecting any other day. I accomplished a lot before 10am.
I have been finding comfort in coffee for once. I normally have to have fufu coffee but since I'm on a diet and can't have sugar I'm stuck with plain old coffee, cream and sweeteners. With the heat, add some ice and you've got a refreshing drink that feels like a treat. Either way, I got out of the house. For the first time I went and sat down at a coffee shop, did my devotions, wrote in my journal, and read some of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (I want it read again before the movie comes out). It was oddly relaxing. Sure it was hard to block out the sound of people talking, debating how our country could mourn the loss of a pedophile (which I'm inclined to agree, sorry to those readers and friends who are actually mourning the loss... I can't seem to bring myself to feel sad at all). But people came and went through the coffee house and there was plenty of time for quiet. I enjoyed it a lot! I think I will do it on a regular basis.
As I sat looking out the window at The Grind (the coffee house), a sudden rush of appreciation filled me for the fact that I live in beautiful Southern California! And that I have no idea where I will be in the future, even the near future. My future is completely unwritten. And I felt for the first time a sense of anticipation rather then dread or fear about what’s going to happen next! I have no idea what God has in store for me. It's totally open! But knowing that even in a few months my life will not be what it is today is no longer scary but exhilarating! As I wrote this, a song came into my mind...
What's that song?... Unwritten - by Natasha Bedingfield.
I am unwritten, Can't read my mind I'm undefined I'm just beginning The pen's in my hand Ending unplanned
Staring at the blank page before you Open up the dirty window Let the sun illuminate the words That you could not find Reaching for something in the distance So close you can almost taste it Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin No one else can feel it for you Only you can let it in No one else, no one else Can speak the words on your lips Drench yourself in words unspoken Live your life with arms wide open Today is where your book begins The rest is still unwritten, yeah
Oh, oh
I break tradition Sometimes my tries Are outside the lines, oh yeah yeah We've been conditioned To not make mistakes But I can't live that way oh, oh
Staring at the blank page before you Open up the dirty window Let the sun illuminate the words That you could not find Reaching for something in the distance So close you can almost taste it Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin No one else can feel it for you Only you can let it in No one else, no one else Can speak the words on your lips drench yourself in words unspoken Live your life with arms wide open Today is where your book begins the rest still unwritten
(Gospel) Staring at the blank page before you Open up the dirty window Let the sun illuminate the words That you could not find Reaching for something in the distance So close you can almost taste it Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin No one else can feel it for you Only you can let it in No one else, no one else Can speak the words on your lips Drench yourself in words unspoken Live your life with arms wide open Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten
The rest is still unwritten
Sometimes we get so preoccupied with worry over the unknown that we forget the unknown should be looked at with excitement! Today can change the rest of my life depending on what happens next!
I think being unemployed has its advantages. How many people feel like their life is so repetitive? They feel like they are going through the motions with nothing new and exciting to report. The same old job day in and day out. I'm not saying they too couldn't look at their life with anticipation but not even knowing what your next job is going to be, who you will work with, where you will be living, etc. is quite unnerving for some people. Lately, it's been scary to me. I have been filled with dread that I would fail. Not be able to find a job before unemployment runs out and be stuck dealing with horrible finances. Wow... What a depressing picture huh? But today I'm filled with the possibilities of what God can do! I am excited to see His plans unfold and what He plans on bringing next in my life! I want to enjoy this time off as much as I can! Because when I do have a job, there may come a time when I feel stuck. So I am going to try to experience each day with anticipation and excitement for what God has planned. I guess reading this, it seems so obvious. I didn't hate life before, or think every day was horrible, but I did feel dread and fear. I no longer want to feel that way. The idea of not knowing what's coming tomorrow is bringing a smile to my face rather then worry!
Ok so I barely survived the busiest week of the month! Lots of emotional ups and downs and the worst day (Saturday, June 20th) was the biggest emotional roller coaster of them all! So at this point I haven't even gone through all the pics so they may or may not be attached to this post.
Weight Loss - So I've officially lost 15 pounds! Yay! I feel great and have only experienced a couple days of hardcore cravings. I'm realizing they are more emotional cravings which I knew my problem was emotional eating. I haven't measured in a while. I normally wait till Monday to do that. But my last measurements put me at losing 12 1/2 inches all over! How cool is that!? I went to try on clothes and am practically a whole size down! :D I don't know if it's noticeable to anyone else. My brother said he could tell (which is cool cause he's a guy! lol), but no one else has said anything. I think I need to lose my first goal before people will start noticing. But I'm halfway there. :) I haven't cheated either. Once you get the hang of it, it's not too hard to figure out what you can and can't eat.
Jam Bernardino 6/13/09 - So I went down to check out my friend Jimi play. He is quite the talented guitar player! I had never had a chance to see him live. I was able to hang out with him, his new girlfriend and his friends back at one of his friends beautiful mansion! I had a good time.
It's funny that I found myself in unfamiliar surroundings and around unfamiliar people (aside from Jimi and Sasha) and I was actually a bit shy! I guess it takes me to be in my own surroundings to be myself. :) But I had a great time. Jimi's friends were cool, down to earth people and I really didn't feel too awkward around them.
Disneyland! 6/15-16/09 - So I was able to make it to Disneyland one last time before my block out dates started! It was quite crowded as I'm sure everyone else was attempting the same thing. I went down with Linda, Vicki, Emily and Stephanie. They got a room and asked me to spend the night. I, of course, couldn't pass that up. :) We took our time getting down there the first day. And it was cool because Stephanie hadn't ever been on some of my favorite rides, so it was fun to experience that with a first-timer. I am finding that I like California Adventures more then Disneyland. Probably because I've been to Disneyland so much the rides are classics and California Adventures is all still new. We even got a chance to watch the Electric Parade. After the parade we met Jerret who came down to take Stephanie home since we were all spending the night.
The next day it was REALLY hot and WAY more crowded. I think we went on a ride or two but ended up heading out early. But I had a blast! I was so glad I was able to go with them!
House sitting 6/16-18/09 - So when I got back from Disneyland I had to house sit. I was a little tired but found it relaxing to be at the place I was housesitting. There were a lot of animals with specific instructions but all-in-all it worked out pretty good. But this meant I hadn't spent the night in my own bed from Monday - Thursday! I was thinking it's a good thing I didn't have a job!
Rehearsal Dinner 6/18/09 - Holly wanted me to take some pictures of her and her fiancé to be printed up for a frame at the wedding. She was pretty stressed out but I didn't mind. I was down at Edwards Mansion and scoping the place out for the wedding day. Our original goal was to take pictures before the rehearsal but we ended up doing it afterward. I specifically didn't want any landmarks in the pictures because I didn't want the guests to know it was the same location. I picked a pretty green spot and took maybe 100 photos. Here are a couple of my favorites.
Also on the way home the sky was so beautiful I had to snap a couple shots. I had a car pull up next to me checking me out while I blindly shot pics out through and out my window. hehe
Ok so I was going to continue on the rest of my busy week but I have friends bugging me to get to a BBQ... I'm off for now... More to come...
Terrance & Holly's Wedding Shoot 6/19/09 and Toni Michels Funeral, Sasha's Going Away Party and Poet Sky @ Old Towne Pub Pasadena 6/20/09
How often have I started my blog posts with something like "Life is good"? And even though I have no job, struggling to even find places for me to apply to, I can honestly say life is good!
Though I find it difficult to understand why I don't update my blog more now that I don't have a job. The funny thing is, time flies for me now that I'm not working. Before I know it the day is over and I don't have much to show for it. I consider it a productive day when I get at least ONE item on my "To Do" list completed. But I will say this week I've gotten a couple items each day. It feels good to have completed items that have been on my list for the last 3 weeks!
There are a lot of changes going to be taking place in the next few months. I know this even without having a clue where my next job is going to be. I had an interview a couple weeks ago and honestly I'm quite hopeful. I was told I should hear something right about now so please keep praying.
God is doing a lot in my life right now. I feel closer to His call on my life then I ever have before. Or I should say more able to hear where He is directing me. It's been a long time since I've felt even somewhat close to Him. And I think there is a maturity with it that makes me more aware of even the minutest voice. I love it! I am not saying I'm where I need to be, far from it actually... But it just feels so good to have that closeness again.
I'm getting involved in ministry again. The Care Place is an umbrella organization for the church. My dad put it on the back burner for a few years and amazingly the people in the church have come together with their individual ministries which make up the entire mission statement of the original Care Place and some of these people didn't even know about The Care Place. So it's like God is opening the doors to start something big! I'm really excited! We have our first official meeting June 20th. But it looks like we'll be doing a worship once-a-month, hopefully starting a soup kitchen, making blankets for the people in the community, and lots more. But those are the things we feel we can start pretty much right away.
June Chaos - This month is going to be quite busy. But as I always say, I thrive on chaos. These are the events I have on my calendar as of right now.
June 2nd - Camp Schultz Live shoot Chris and Andy from Poet Sky are in another band called Camp Schultz and I went to take pictures of their show. They are quite good! I was definitely impressed and I'm not a big "punk" music fan. Here's a couple of my favorite pics from the night! June 4th - Lunch with Rachel and Rashaell for the latter's birthday. We hung out at Rashaell's for most of the afternoon. June 5th - Dinner and the movies with my friend Jeremy. We went to go see "My Life in Ruins" and I hadn't even seen the previews before he mentioned it. It was a cute movie.
June 6th - BootieLA with my friend Andie. Ok so I've had a lot of people ask me "Bootie whah!?". So go to this website, www.bootiela.com. Basically it's a club where the dj's do mashups all night long. The music is awesome! Everyone should experience it at least once! But if you can't make it to the club then download the Best Of mp3's they have on their website. Best of Bootie 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008. I think 2006 is my favorite. Anyways it was so fun dancing and letting loose. It was their 4th anniversary in LA. I missed having Russ there, because he's the one who introduced me to it. But I still had a blast and can't wait to go again! Hopefully Russ can join us next time. ;) Oh and my sister did my hair and makeup. I had fake lashes on and everything. :) You can see the progression of how the hair and makeup held up with all that dancing around and sweating! lol June 7th - My parents 40th Wedding Anniversary!!! Talk about setting a great example for me. :) They went up to Big Bear for the weekend so I didn't have to do anything for them but it's still a definitive landmark!
June 10th - Operation Blankets Some of the ladies from the church put together some of those easy fleece blankets for the needy children in the community. We're going to be getting together once-a-month to make them.
For the rest of the month:
June 13th - Jam Bernardino to check out my friend Jimi perform a short acoustic set.
June 15th - Disneyland!!! I'm sneaking in one last Disneyland trip before my blockout dates start. Linda has asked me to go with them a few times and every time she asks I was busy doing stuff. So this time I'm hopeful it will work out. :)
June 18th - Rehearsal Dinner shoot. The couple wants me to come to the rehearsal dinner and take pics of them. They want these pics ready and printed the next day so I'll shoot, go home, play and send them to the bride Holly so she can get pics printed for the wedding.
June 19th - Terrance and Holly Wedding Shoot The wedding is in the evening at Edward's Mansion! I've been there one other time for my friends wedding and it's a beautiful place. I'm looking forward to how the pictures are going to turn out. :)
June 20th - Busiest Day of the Month! In the morning I have the first official meeting of The Care Place which I'm running for the office of the Secretary. That afternoon at 4pm I am going to Yucaipa for a Going Away Party for my good friend Sasha. It's a bittersweet thing because I'm sad she's going but happy for her achievements and she's following her dreams. I then have to be in Pasadena at 9pm for a Poet Sky show at the Old Towne Pub. It'll be a lot of driving that's for sure.
June 26th - Jr and Brandie's Wedding Shoot They are getting married in San Diego in the morning and the place looks very pretty. This is a small wedding. They will be having an intimate beach lunch as their reception. I love the beach and taking pics should be a lot of fun!
June 29th - Irvine then Laguna Beach with Heidi. Heidi and I are going down to Irvine for an appointment and we both like to go to the beach afterwards. :) I usually go alone so it'll be nice to spend time with my sis.
Toni Michels Funeral - A good friend of mine, Toni Michels, lost her battle with cancer. She passed away on Wednesday. I know she's in a better place and out of pain but it's hit me quite hard how big of an impact she's had on my life. She was such a good listener. And to be quite honest I've been avoiding thinking about her death because I had felt the need to call her for the last couple of weeks. Every time I would think to get my phone and get her number something came up. Right now I regret that more then anything! (sigh) :( They had moved and I lost touch. The funeral is in California sometime in the next week or so.
Weight Loss - I've started focusing on weight loss again. I've been walking more regularly but now I'm sticking to a lifestyle change (I hate the word diet). I will admit the first two weeks are more like a jump start but I am determined, nervous and excited about it. I'm ready for the change. I'm ready to start feeling better and having more energy. So hopefully in the next two weeks I'll have significant weight loss.
I want to lose 32 pounds as my first initial goal. I know better then to set the big goal. I won't be weighing in again until next Monday.
I've had a productive week. Actually I've been pretty busy the last couple of weeks, but I consider productive as doing the things I've had on my To Do list! Since being unemployed I've struggled with the constant battle of keeping a positive attitude and being motivated. I've failed at times. But this week I've been pretty successful at keeping a positive and upbeat attitude. I'm going on 3 months being unemployed. It sure doesn't feel like it though!
Movies (And my reviews of them hehe) - In the last few weeks I've been going to a lot of movies. I have been really excited to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Star Trek and Terminator Salvation. I will say I was slightly disappointed in Wolverine. I wouldn't say it was a bad movie just not as good as I had expected. I can't say enough about Star Trek! I've seen it twice in theaters! I loved each of the characters. I am hoping that because of the fact that it's an alternate universe they are going to continue making the series with the group they have now. I have a huge crush on Zachary Quinto as it is. And he was an excellent Spock! Yup, one of my favorite movies recently! I've had only two friends say they didn't think it was that great but most of my other friends agree with me, it was an excellent movie! And Terminator Salvation obviously hasn't come out yet. So hopefully that one won't disappoint.
I went to a couple other movies at the request of other people. My mom invited me to go see Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, and not that I had any expectation of the movie to begin with, I wasn't at all impressed. I felt the concept had been done too many times for it to be interesting. You knew how it would end. And it just wasn't that funny. I left thinking "eh..." and that's it! One movie that did surprise me was 17 Again. On Mother's Day it was decided that the girls would all go to the movies and let the guys stay home and relax. Megan really wanted to see the movie since it had Zac Efron whom I've never thought much of. But I was highly surprised and quite entertained. Even if the concept had been done before there was something redeeming about the movie. It's possible that because I had absolutely NO desire or expectations of liking the movie that I was pleasantly surprised but I've heard good things about the movie since I went to it. My favorite character is Ned Gold the rich geek best friend! So there ya have it. The movies I've seen recently and what I thought of them.
Missing Alliance - This last weekend I realized how much I miss my old job. I had lot of conflicts with the people, but towards the end, I'd say even a year ago I was well on my way to LOVING my job and the people I worked with (well with maybe one exception lol). At the end I was thoroughly enjoying the challenges being brought before me. Sure studying for my AAP was a lot of pressure but I find that I like that. I miss it. I miss the people I worked with, even though we all do our best to keep in touch, it's just not the same. It's hard to imagine where I'll work next.
The Future - I've been taking a personal inventory. I went to my parents and my old supervisor and asked them what they saw as my strengths and weaknesses. It was interesting the feedback I got and helpful on the personal side but I also need to use it for the direction of my future career. I feel I'm at a cross roads. Really I have a lot of different directions I can take in my life. The question is what direction do I feel God is calling me to? He's given me my strengths and interests for a reason. Now how can I use that to my benefit? Every job I've ever had I've just kinda landed in.
I finally heard back from the Pasadena job, they can't afford me and I'm not willing to settle for less especially since they expected me to move down there. So we'll see what God has in store.
A Chair's Photography - The other side of this unemployment is that my photography seems to be going somewhere. I took pictures of a wedding May 2nd and was asked for my business card a few times. I didn't have any made so I should look into that. The other thing is I've had to borrow my friend Ludek's equipment because I don't have some of it to make shooting easier. Until now, with some of the money I got from my last wedding shoot I bought all the items I'd been borrowing! An external flash, diffuser, an extra battery and a tripod are all on their way. I got a great deal. Everything was A LOT cheaper then I had anticipated. My next big purchase is a new lens but that will be a while before I can afford something that pricey.
Here are a couple of my favorite shots of the wedding on May 2nd for Brad and Randi at the Redlands Temple, reception shots are in someone's backyard in Apple Valley
Jesse - So the 3rd anniversary of Jesse's death was Wednesday this week. He's been on my mind quite a bit. I've actually been reading the blogs I've posted (listed below) of when it happened. 5/13/06 5/14/06 5/17/06 I wonder at times what our friendship would be like if he were still alive. I know I let go a lot of the pain and resentment of our relationship at the funeral. I have gone to Disneyland a couple times in the last few weeks and I couldn't help but think of him. We had season passes when we were dating. I really miss him.
Disneyland - So yes, I went to Disneyland back on May 4th (with Andie) as well as May 14th (with Ron)! I had a blast both times. I love Disneyland! And with the passes you can enjoy a fairly cheap day of entertainment! Andie and I have a lot of the same interests at Disneyland so it's always fun with her. It was the first time I went with my friend Ron and was amazed at how different my Disneyland experience was! He showed me sides of Disneyland I had never even heard of! It was fantastic! I can't wait to show Andie! :) Mostly it was performers but I was thoroughly impressed. And on top of that I learned of a new talent of his! He plays the piano phenomenally! My jaw dropped to the floor when he played three of my favorite classical songs beautifully! And then he shared a few of the songs he's written himself! ... Amazing! It was great to get to know him better. And we're for sure going to Disneyland again after my blockout dates have passed. So here are a couple pictures of my two trips.
Santa Cruz - Heidi has been hired to do makeup for a wedding I believe the second weekend in July up in Santa Cruz. She's asked me join her. The gas and hotel are being paid for by her client, which is freakin awesome! I'm soo happy she invited me! I can't wait! And I will get to finally visit with my good friend James in his neck of the woods. :) All at relatively no cost to me! :D And I'm so excited for a new place to take pics!
So... I'm finally on the down side of a serious upper respiratory infection plus ear infections! It started Monday. This cold took me out! I kept hoping I'd move past it but by Thursday the pain was unbearable. I couldn't swallow and my ears felt like someone was cutting them with knives! I went to a clinic that my friend Tom works at since I didn't have insurance. I was told I had a temperature of 101. After the doctor saw my ears and throat he seemed very concerned that I would be around anyone because he said I was highly contagious. He was concerned mostly about anyone that lived with me. Of course my first thought was Brian who's already on Prednisone which breaks down his immune system! Anyways, I got a shot of antibiotics in the keister and a 5 day dose of pills. I went home hoping for the best. I made sure to stay in my room and got a can of Lysol to spray around anywhere I was so I wouldn't spread it. My dad and mom had come over and anointed me with oil and prayed over me.
After a very restless night of sleep, and serious pain I woke up physically drained from everything and broke down. I was scared. The pain hadn't gotten better but worse! I thought maybe it was because the antibiotics were fighting the infection. But I didn't think I could handle the pain any longer. I literally cried to God to take it away. I forced myself to take a shower and a steam bath, I took my morning antibiotics and consulted with Tom and my family who all thought it might be time to go to the ER. I decided to wait until Tom could consult with the Doctor who saw me the night before. Within the next couple of hours, about 10am, my body started to feel better. My ears were no longer on fire but felt like they were filled with water. My throat was bearable. I could swallow without feeling like someone was stabbing my throat.
I'm not 100% or even 75% but the pain has reduced so much that I feel so thankful! I can't talk much because when I do I still go into coughing fits which still can be somewhat painful. My chest is still tight. My throat is sore. My ears are achy but not bad. But I can deal with this pain so much more then the pain in the last few days! I’m so thankful!
The below was written earlier in the week...
Dear Lord, will this cold ever go away!? I was actually pretty sick for about two weeks a short time ago. Then Sunday night I had a migraine that wouldn't quit and I wake up Monday to yet another nasty cold! This BITES! I'm totally achy and exhausted. I've slept most of the day away. I was so energized last week too! I was non-stop all week! I stuck to my daily routine and accomplished all sorts of things with my week. I guess I might have pushed myself too hard. Either way, I'm tired of being sick and not sure why my immune system is not fighting these colds off very well.
So in the last month I've been on an emotional rollercoaster. I am dealing with unemployment better then last time but it is seriously difficult to deal with the emotional toll it takes on a person. I know I'm not the only one out there that struggles staying positive and even motivated! It hasn't help that I've been sick!
Since I'm not feeling so hot, I won't really go into much explanation. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.
4/13/09 - Easter - I went over to my parents after church and enjoyed a good home cooked meal. We hung out and talked which was nice. And I stayed later then expected to watch the movie "Mama Mia" which wasn't that bad. I'm a big fan of Colin Firth and was impressed with Meryl Streep's energy for the film at her age. I didn't take too many pictures that day. Here's one of me and my sister, and my mom and Bailey at church.
4/14/09 - Movie Screening - So my good friend Sasha decided to take me out to the movie screening of "How To Be" down in Santa Monica. I wasn't sure what to expect but it ended up being a cool film. The best part was afterwards when they have a Q&A session with the director Oliver Irving and one of the actors in the film who wrote all the music, Joe Hastings I believe. It was interesting to hear how he came up with the idea for the film and how he got it where it was. After that they were in the lobby and we were able to talk to them one on one. We didn't stay long enough to do too much of that. Sasha did ask Joe Hastings a question. All in all it was a very interesting experience and I would definitely recommend seeing the film!
And I stumbled across this video of the screening I went to checking out the movie website. I'm not going to make an effort to point me out in the crowd but I can see me. lol
Since we knew it would be a late night, Sasha offered to let me sleep in the spare room, which worked out rather conveniently because I was meeting some of the old Alliance crew for lunch the next day.
4/15/09 - Wahoo's Lunch - It was a last minute plan to meet everyone so the crowd was smaller then we'd hoped. I'm hoping to plan another one in May so more people can come.
4/16/09 - Andie's going away party - I met Andie and some of her work friends Thursday night for her going away party. It was quite entertaining to watch them. We ended the night at a dance club. I was disappointed in the music and it made me realize how awesome BootieLA is and how I desperately need to get back there! Anyways, they are a fun group of people and I had a good time hanging out with them.
4/18/09 - Bailey's Game - It's not often that I get to go to my niece and nephew's games but I made a point to go and realized it was a great opportunity to get some pictures. And I got some great shots of Bailey. :) He's a lefty so he throws off the pitcher. Anyways, isn't he a cutie?!
Anyways, that's all of an update I can give for now...
So I'm surviving on only 3 ½ to 4 hours of sleep. I got home at 4am and got out of bed for church at 8am. But I had an absolute blast last night at the Poet Sky show at the Old Towne Pub in Pasadena! I will definitely share pictures. There is just too much to share before I go into that! :) And there will be things I skip, a lot has been going on!
Possible New Job - I guess now is as good a time as any to share the possibility of a new job. I didn't want to share until I knew it was more certain and sadly it's still very up-in-the-air. I applied for a job out in Pasadena about the end of last month. A friend of mine had the owners email address so I sent over my resume' not knowing what would come of it. After a few communications and a very successful interview I was confident of being offered a job. So what's the issue? I was told during one of our conversations prior to interviewing that they only had one concern, they didn't like my commute and that if the position was offered, they would expect me to move to Pasadena!
I wish I could be more excited but there is so much I'm still waiting on. I got an email from the owner last week stating that they are planning on hiring me (yay me), but that it was just a timing issue at this point. They would hire me to head out a new department and they have a lot of logistics to work through in getting that department set up. Now, you would think I would be ecstatic but there is still so much to consider. Even if I was offered a position it doesn't mean I will take the job. I have no idea what they are willing to give in compensation. The cost of living in Pasadena is significantly different then living in Apple Valley.
But I have to say this... when they first approached me about the position I was thrilled with the idea of moving to Pasadena. I immediately looked up cost of rent in the general area, talked with my brother about moving out there together, and started getting SUPER excited about the idea of such a minor yet drastic change in my life. I've always loved Pasadena! I would go out there just to visit and get away. Even my family took the news of the idea of me moving really well! But then I reached the bottom line I started to get concerned that the salary offered wouldn't be enough to make the move feasible.
So at this point, my future is in a bit of limbo. I know what I'm going to ask for salary-wise and if it's God's will then what they are willing to pay will match or be reasonable enough that I could work with it. My friend James is concerned I'm going to settle for less then reasonable and to be honest I'm slightly concerned about doing the same thing myself just because I love the idea of moving to Pasadena so much. I don't want to put all my hope in this job and have it not be a viable solution to me needing a job, and not just a job but one that I believe I would enjoy utterly and completely!
I have had to keep handing it over to God. I keep trying to take it and figure it out. And to be honest there are too many coincidences for me not to see His hand in this. So if it is what God has planned then no matter how much thought I put into trying to figure it out, it doesn't make any impact on the final outcome. I also have to realize that if it's NOT God's will then I can't be too disappointed (which in all honesty I would be).
Goals and Plans - So I have decided (along with continually handing the Pasadena job back over to God) I will keep up the search for work (which can be pretty depressing), and keep going on with life as my unemployed self has been. I have a lot of goals and projects I want to work on and I will say with the concept of being unemployed, I have been a bit of a slacker in doing anything truly productive in a search for a job, or completing projects I have around the house. But the last couple of days and even confirmed in the message at church today, I feel the conviction of getting over this lazy mentality. I'm done procrastinating. I'm going to set goals, make plans and keep a normal routine. I'm not going to put things off any more. I'm going to start getting up a little earlier then I have been, walk, do my devotions, look for work and by then it should be lunch time! So I should have plenty of time to get projects going in the afternoon. Even my brother has plenty of webpage side projects he’s gotten from clients. Now that I’m not working I can complete them quicker then when I’m stuck working nights or weekends on them.
Elaina’s Adoption! 6/11/09 – So Rachel and Tom’s adoption of Rosie finalized FINALLY! It’s been 4 long years and I’m sooo happy for them! I wasn’t going to miss being there for anything! I took some pictures and the whole thing was pretty awesome!
Visiting with D'Arcy 3/16/09 - Facebook has connected me with a lot of my friends from when I lived and went to school in Alaska. One of those friends being D'Arcy who updated her status one day to say she was enjoying her sister’s bakery in California! D’Arcy lives on the East Coast so I immediately asked where she was and we made plans for me to drive down to where she was staying so we could visit! It was awesome chatting about the last 15 years of our lives. I got down there at about 1pm and didn't leave until after 8pm.
Here is a pic of us I believe in 1992 (poor quality) and below that the current picture of us!
Poet Sky at the Old Town Pub in Pasadena 3/21/09 – So I had been looking forward to this show since I was told about it! At least I was until the day arrived. I started my period and was in the general funk of pmsing. I was looking forward to getting out, dressing up and having a night out on the town (a town in which I hope to be working soon)! Yes, I’m sure this is tmi but I was bloated and felt pretty miserable about the idea of going out. The last show I struggled with emotionally for some reason and the fear of that repeating was severe. Luckily I talked to my mom and my sister and all was well! I felt cute despite my monthly nuisance.
I was finally hopeful again that a night out with my brother and sister could be good fun. My friend Brandie’s friends flaked on her last minute and we had an extra spot in our car so we decided to take her along with us. We got there and were early enough to stop off at a small pizzeria for dinner near the pub. It was great. I enjoyed the atmosphere of a Saturday night in Old Town Pasadena! When we arrived at the pub things didn’t change. There was a very cool atmosphere and attitude of everyone that night. I had a blast talking and hanging out. I was enjoying myself the ENTIRE night. The only bummer was that Poet Sky was supposed to go on at 11pm and didn’t end up playing until 1am! And not only that their set was cut short. LAME! Anyways, without further ado, here are some of my favorite pictures! If you want to see more you’ll have to be a friend on facebook or myspace.
I'm in my 3rd week of being unemployed. The week after I got laid off was pretty uneventful. In fact, I don't really remember what all happened. But last week was pretty crazy busy! I've got a lot to share and of course loads of pictures to go along with everything!
February 20th Dinner - So for the 2nd week in a row Andie came over to help me learn how to cook. We made breaded chicken with bowtie pasta, sun dried tomatoes and sauteed asperagus in an alfredo sauce and seriously orgasmic garlic bread. lol
February 21st New Hair / Tango Kilo - I got my hair done by Heidi and it's quite a bit blonder but I love it. My sister was too busy to style it so another girl Randi took some time to curl my hair. I thought it was cute, a bit more curls then I like but I was going out that night so it worked out nicely.
So my friends band, Tango Kilo, was playing at a local dive bar, the Marina Lounge in Spring Valley Lake. My brother and I went. I had a lot of fun! I don't go to too many local shows so I was surprised by how many people I knew. It was a reunion of sorts. I enjoyed hanging out and talking with my brothers friends. My friends Andie and Barbara came as well. It was a late night but I had a great time!
February 22nd Poet Sky @ the Universal Bar & Grill - Well this whole night was odd for me. First of all I look at the pics and realize it was a great night, and I really did have a good time. Though there was another side to that show, my internal emotions were miserable! I struggled and looking back I'm STILL not sure what was up with me that night. If you look at the pics you can't really see it either. But it was a bitter sweet night for me. But check out the rockin pics!
February 23rd LA Meeting - So I drove down to LA for a meeting with the payroll company and it was incredible. I had only gotten 4 hours of sleep because of my brothers show, but I thought I looked presentable considering.
This company was already awesome in my book but the owner took me out to lunch to discuss options to get me a job and I was blown away by how nice he was and how hard he was trying to make it work. The bummer is, without traffic it took me 2 hours to get down there. So we left it as I was going to take a week to think about it. In this week we both came to the conclusion that I'm a great fit for the company if I lived closer. I'm still considering a sales position which would let me stay local for the most part. Just waiting to see what God has for me.
It was rough to try and stay awake because I was so tired. But this is towards the end of the night...
February 24th Pasadena Class / Alliance Crew Lunch / Dinner with Berrys - You got that right! I was non-stop that day. I drove down to Pasadena for aWesPay ACH class that I was already signed up for before I was laid off. It was from 9 - 12:30. The only awkward thing was they recognized me and asked me to stay afterward to explain what took place with Alliance. It wasn't too bad. The person I talked to said he was hearing two stories and wanted to know what the correct one was. I told him about having troubles looking for a job and he introduced me to someone who then asked me to email her my resume and she would pass it around. So that was cool! And I ran into another lady I met back in August when I went to the conference in Vegas. She also had me email her my resume. So it was a good networking venture.
Alliance Lunch - After the class I drove to Rancho Cucamonga to Wahoo's where I was gonna meet a bunch of the crew. I was actually really happy to see everyone. And it made me realize how much I missed seeing them every day. Here's a picture of the group that made it.
Dinner with the Berrys - I hadn't hung out with my friend David in a while so I had arranged for us to meet for dinner since I was going to be down there. He sadly was laid off by linkLINE, yet again, because of the Alliance fiasco. Apparently linkLINE couldn't afford the lack of income that Alliance paid them for their servers etc. Anyways, it was great to see the kiddos before me, David and Erin went out to dinner. Their kids are getting sooo big! Here's a pic of the group of us.
More Updates - I have a lot more to share but I'm out of time. I'll post something in the next couple of days.
To Share: Dinner Party - February 27th Megan's Birthday - March 1st Visitor from Africa - February 28th - March 5th A Chair's Photography - February 28th New Glasses Possible new job with big changes
For those of you curious as to what happened with my job, I will explain but let me start by sharing an awesome poem Eric wrote about it. I will go into more detail below.
Eric's Poem - Read with the timing of "The Night Before Christmas". This was written February 5th, 2009 the day after Alliance's bank terminated our services.
The Night Before We Were Cancelled by Eric R. Gavin
Twas only just yesterday, when all through this place It was business as usual, not a single sad face Kaycee was working, her keyboard a blazing Margarita was cooking and it smelled amazing
Tony unboxed some shiny new gizmo Charity was giggling as she so often does so Hector was reading, researching and looking That strange burning smell meant Mike Ross' lunch was cooking
Eric was typing at lightning fast speeds Tina put a third coat on, so she wouldn't freeze With Josh dressed in black, and Darla in pink We opened our E-mails, to see what's the stink!?
Even Jody was shocked, and she's seen it all But Stephanie had to answer another phone call Jena sensed danger, she's exceptionally wise Mike Roth saw that terrified look in Eric's eyes
We all gathered round, the letter held high We had just been cancelled by our O D F I All Alliance was silent, you could hear a pin drop Nobody was talking, even Eric had stopped
What does this mean, all of us then inquired Are we keeping our jobs, are we gonna get fired? When all of a sudden the answer came clear The bank gave response and what did we hear!?
No debits, no credits, no transactions we'll send We're holding your money, yes this is the end That was all there was, no questions no fuss... They said, "All of your monies are belong to us."
So to every one listening, to all of my friends It's been an honor to work with you up to the end No job has been cooler, no place felt so right To all at Alliance, to all a goodnight.
The Story Behind Being Laid Off - Remember how my last post I talked about Hell Week. I said I didn't think it could get worse if I recall correctly... Sadly it did. It was a whirlwind to the end though. We did our best but it all came to a sad end last Friday, February 13th, 2009. I'm not sure what to explain, or if explaining is really all that important. Just that the last week and a half of my employment were some of the toughest in my history at Alliance.
Just imagine this... We debited clients on Tuesday (February 3rd), we had credits scheduled to go out on Wednesday (February 4th)... BUT the bank stopped processing for us, AND put all the money in the account on hold! This didn't just affect a certain portion of our clients, but ALL of them! Can you imagine the calls we got!? We were frantically trying to figure out how our clients could get their money back. The bank wasn't much help to us. Most of the clients were understanding but extremely frustrated. I only dealt with a few belligerent merchants. I heard a couple death threats for the owner. We don't have a lot of local clients or we may have had some show up at our door. It was just non-stop.
The moment I heard the bank terminted Alliance's services I went back to my desk and went to biblegateway.com and the scripture of the day was
I love you, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
Which I repeated to myself every time I felt overwhelmed.
The day after the bank terminted our services, all the girls in support came in at 6am - 6pm so we could field all the calls. We knew it was going to be chaos. It was a LONG day. Friday was just as bad. I prayed every day walking in to work that God would give me the strength to deal with what lied ahead for that day. Every day was an emotional rollercoaster, a possibility of making it through, then not, new hope, then not. This continued through Wednesday (February 11th) of the following week . I went out to lunch with my coworker, Mike(#2), and came back to find out that the other girls in support were being laid off and that the salary employees were going to stick it out till Friday and hope that by then the company had a leg to stand on.
Thursday (February 12th) I woke up with a heavy heart, to the point of it choking me. I called my parents for prayer and they gave me the support I needed. During my dads prayer a song came into my mind which I repeated until the heaviness lifted.
Be strong & courageous, for the Lord my God is with me. Do not be afraid, do not be dismayed. I'm going to walk in faith and victory!
As you all know, Alliance never got that leg to stand on and I was laid off on Friday. I am not afraid or dismayed. I still walk in faith and victory.
Here are just a couple of the pics with me and my ex-coworkers - now friends that I will miss seeing every work day... I didn't get pics with everyone because as you can imagine most people weren't up for pics.
Aftermath - I've been oddly calm about this whole thing. I feel slightly numb. I haven't cried and I don't think I will. I remember with linkLINE I was devastated about being laid off from my job, I was an emotional wreck. I know my walk with God is much different then it was then. I'm thankful to have this peace in knowing God has a plan and a good future. There are moments I've stressed about finances, and as quickly as the stress hits me, it goes away knowing God is in control.
Jobs - Looking out there, the economy sucks for finding work right now. But I have thankfully had a couple job offers. One is not ready quite yet, the other, is a drive to the heart of LA. The commute would be a killer. It's for a payroll client I always enjoyed working with at Alliance. I'm meeting with the owner Monday to see if a job is even feasible with the commute I'd have to deal with. I'm not making any decisions. I'm keeping an open mind and praying that God will show me what He wants me to do. I'll keep you updated.
This Weekend (Cooking, Tango Kilo and Poet Sky) - In the meantime life continues. I'm actually having a lot of fun. Last weekend the band came over to practice two days in a row for their show this coming weekend. I had a good time with the guys. Here are a couple shots from them hangin out and practicing...
At some point during the weekend my brother mentioned my new plan to cook every Friday night with my friend Andie. (She knows I don't know how to cook and figured since I'm in my 30's its about time I learn. haha!) So Chris plans on joining us! If he actually does it should be quite entertaining. Saturday my sister is going to do my hair and my friend Dave's band, Tango Kilo, in playing at the Marina Lounge, which is the first local show they've had in a while. So my brother and I are going to that. Sunday my brothers band, Poet Sky, is playing down at Universal Bar and Grill so I'm going down with him to that.
I hope to visit some of the Alliance crew Tuesday. So hopefully I'll have more pictures to share for that.
This so isn't fair... I was sick... goodness, like a week or two ago and this morning I woke up to yet another cold! what da eff?! And I'm someone that rarely gets sick. What sucks is that it's been like 80 degrees down in Ontario all last week and it's like 20 degrees cooler up in the desert. Hmmm no wonder I'm sick. My body isn't able to adjust to the extremes. I don't look forward to driving down the pass tomorrow with an already stuffed up head. That's the worst! And to top off having a cold, I was totally nauseous all day! I have no idea why. I started to feel better when I got some food in me but my stomach has been touchy even through the evening. Bleh!
Anyways, there have been lots of good things going on since my last blog post. It’s hard for me to take the time to go over it now. But I will say this. Thank you to those of you who responded to the post before via one medium or another. I'm doing MUCH better. God showed me a lot this last week and confirmed it over this extended weekend.
But because of the time I'm gonna post some pics of my AAP Celebration outing.
Kaycee and Stephanie
Jena and Margarita
Jena, me and Tina (with Eric trying to sneak in looking oh so macho in the back)
Mike, Cindy, Eric and Mike #2 aka Tom
Jody, me and Mike
Me and my brother Brian
I love this pic! Mike, me and Keith lol
Sheri, me and Hector
Brian and Andie
Keith, Andie and Mike (look how short she looks next to them lol) waiting to go in for bowling
Mike and me at the bowling ally
The group that went bowling - Mike, Crystal, Andie, Sheri and Keith
Finally an update! But not just any update... A gigantic update mostly of pictures! Those of you who have my myspace or facebook have seen most of these pictures. For those of you who do have my myspace and facebook, there are new ones towards the bottom. :)
Where oh where should I begin!? There's just too much and I have plenty of pictures to go with. Maybe I should just let the pictures tell the story.
11.2.08 : My CEO's wedding - Yeah that was back in November! I was really happy with how the pictures came out. I think I've determined I want an outdoor wedding. I love all the green in the pictures!
11.21.08 : Twilight Geeks - Yup I'm a huge fan of Twilight. So a few of my friends went to see the midnight showing of Twilight. :)
11.27.08 : Thanksgiving - I've explained my Thanksgiving on a post below so here are the pictures from that day.
11.29.08 : Brown Family Portrait - This is my second year taking pictures for the Brown family. :) They are a beautiful family so it's not hard to get great shots. But this is in their backyard! Talk about a beautiful view!
12.3-5.08 : My Vacation / Disneyland - I have a Worldmark Timeshare and decided since I didn't have a lot of cash I would go on a local vacation. I went to the resort in Anaheim for a couple of days and also went to Disneyland. One of my bestest's, Andie, came down and went to Disneyland with me. Then we met up with my friend Brandie with her daughter Lexi (first time to Disneyland) and her friend Kari. Good times at the Happiest Place on Earth. :)
12.6.08 : OURS @ the Roxy in Hollywood - So my friend Jimi got me hooked on the band OURS. The first time I saw them perform, a band called Plain Jane Automobile opened for them and the lead singer Duke was just an all around cool guy. He posed for a picture on stage and asked me to send it to him. So this show since I felt I knew him to some extent I sent him some of these pics and he liked them so much he posted a folder on the bands myspace giving me credit for the pics. :) That was so cool!
12.11.08 : Alliance Gift Exchange / Brunch - Because our traditional Christmas Potluck included significant others, Alliance decided to have a brunch the day before the potluck so we could do our gift exchange without the significant others feeling awkward about it.
12.12.08 : Alliance Potluck - We had to get a table for 23. Quite the interesting setup. It was quite relaxing to just sit around and enjoy lunch together. The department directors got up and said nice things about their departments. The CEO got up and talked about the company and was sweet enough to pick me out of the crowd and told everyone how much I've "blossomed" in the company. It was only slightly embarrassing, I felt pretty special actually.
12.13.08 : Gregory & Tawnay's Wedding - I took these pictures as a wedding gift for Tawnay. I was dissapointed in all the lighting and weather and tried to make the best of what I had. I didn't have an external flash which I think was the thing bugging me the most. Anyways, these are the ones I thought turned out ok flash and all.
12.13.08 : Poet Sky show in Pomona - Right after the wedding I was rushed down the hill to go watch my brothers gig... The first time Poet Sky performed since they have gotten back together. So of course we had to go to that! Heidi, Andie and I stopped by one of my favorite places, Wahoo's, for dinner. Then we met my brother and the band local bar near The Wire where the show was at.
12.14.08 : Free Hugs - In 2006 we did our first ever Free Hugs, click here to go to that post. We decided Christmas is the best time to do it so we went again. Sadly this year it didn't get as positive a response. We think it had to do with the cardboard signs and the shopping carts near us. lol People thought we were homeless or something. We'll know better for next year. But here are a couple pics of the troops.
12.16.08 : AAP Certification - It came in! So it's official! I can sign my name Charity Ring, AAP. lol I will say that it felt more fulfilling to have the unofficial pass then when I got the piece of paper. I guess because I had already gotten my promotion and raise. So it didn't change much having the piece of paper. But as my mom pointed out, if I didn't get certified then I would have felt it! I plan on going out with a few of my coworkers to celebrate. We had it planned for Wednesday but with the snow we have to put it off. And with the holidays I didn't want to stress out about figuring out a good day for everyone. So we're hoping to go karaoking January 9th or something. I think that would be fun! Here's a pic of my certification and the card everyone got for me when I passed the test, and you can sort of see the box with my pin in it. :) yay!
12.17.08 : Snow... LOTS of snow! - So it snowed on Monday in the pass and I wasn't able to get to work. But Wednesday I actually attempted it before finding out they just closed the Cajon Pass. Here are some pictures of our snow day! I've never seen this much snow come down in such a short time while living in California! Craziness!
12.19.08 : A random Friday - Like most Fridays, went to Wahoo's but this time Joshua joined Mike and I to celebrate me getting my certification (since Joshua would probably not be joining the group that goes out in January). But here are my two favorite guys at the office. :)
And that evening I met with David and Erin. Great friends of mine that I haven't hung out with since I started studying for my AAP. I got to meet their 6th and final little one, Matthew Elliott. He's such a sweetie.
Holy cow that's a lot of pictures! I'm sure it's more then most people care to check out in one sitting so I'm sorry about that. Hopefully you enjoy them. I'm off to decorate the house with the little that I plan on putting up for the Christmas season. It'll only be up for a week so I'm not doing much.
I wasn't too sure I'd blog even after I was done with my AAP exam. But here I am... Oh and I'm now no longer a blond! I would say I'm a brunette but it has quite a bit of red to it too! So far people either love it or think I make a better blond. No one has said they hate it. I will gradually go back to blond but it's nice for a change.
Poet Sky 10/11/08 - So I took some pics of Poet Sky. It was seriously a 10 minute shoot and I thought the shots turned out pretty good. And it helps that the guys in the band are all good looking.
AAP Exam 10/29/08 - So... Short Version - I'm happy to say that I passed my AAP exam!!!!!
(Long Version) It's an "unofficial pass" though. So I'm not exactly sure what that means. I've narrowed it down to a few options.
This is the first time they've done electronic testing so they may say its unofficial just in case there is a computer error and they can confirm everything processed correctly.
The certification is handed out based on how many applicants pass, and if there are a lot then they pick the top scoring applicants.
They just want to make us sweat it out till we get the official certificate in the mail! lol
No clue which is the right answer. I was told they *may* be grading on a curve. So if that's the case then idea 2 is most likely the answer. So I won't know if I'm AAP Certified until the end of November. But my goal was to pass the test and I did that! A huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders! This test has been looming over my head for the last 5 months and has been in the forefront of my mind for the last month! I have no idea what to do with myself! No constant nagging of how I should be studying, doing flash cards, taking practice tests or reading. I can go home and veg GUILT FREE!
I've had so many people praying over this test and my confidence would waver back and forth on whether or not I could do this. I decided my best bet was to worship all the way down to the test so I could keep my mind off of it and on God. And it helped, every time I wasn't fully submersed in worship my stomach was in knots. I knew God has brought me this far, I had so many people praying for me and I truly had done all I could to study to the best of my ability so I felt there was nothing more to do then just sit down and take the test.
Anyways, the day of the test I got there WAY early. The testing center was in Riverside. I sat at the computer station and read the first question and went into panic mode. I took a deep breath and said another quick prayer for God's help. The test was completely different then I expected. I had been given warnings that it was a tough test and that they word things in such a way as to trick you (or I should say make sure you truly understand the concept of ACH payments). But I was shocked at how seriously close each answer was! I went through each question answering to the best of my understanding, marking the ones I wasn't confident about (which was like half the test!). Once I completed all 120 questions (20 of which are pilot questions that wouldn't be scored) I went back through the ones I marked being sure to read the question very carefully. I was happy I went back through because as I took the test I got more comfortable with the type of questioning and wording and I picked up on things when I went back through. I kept most of the same answers but a couple I knew without a shadow of a doubt I needed to change my answer. The test took me 2 hours and 15 minutes.
I went out and waited for them to print my results and honestly I wasn't sure what to expect. I really was waiting to hear I had failed and that I would have to explain to my work that I didn't pass. But the girl said congratulations, you passed. I practically fainted! No joke... I got weak and a bit teary eyed. I've wanted this so much. I've focused all my energies on this for so long I was in shock that it was over and I got a great outcome to all my hard work.
I immediately went outside with a HUGE grin on my face and called my supervisor to tell her the good news. She said she knew I could do it and congratulated me. I made all the necessary calls and text messages on my way back to the office.
Here's the coolest part! So I walk in to my office. I wasn't sure what to expect but I said hello and walked to my cubicle where I was greeted by my entire department jumping out at me yelling "Congratulations!" with streamer poppers flying at me, camera taking a picture of my reaction! I was shocked! They even had a banner congratulating me and decorated my desk with candy and little streamers. There was a card signed by the entire office! I was in shock! I felt so completely and utterly special! I mean seriously!? How awesome is that to have happen!? I'm gonna remember that one for a long time! :) Here are a couple snapshots from my cell... I am patiently waiting for Tina to send me the pics she took from her camera.
Wedding Shoot - So I have a wedding shoot tomorrow! The CEO of Alliance is getting married and asked me to take the pics! It's a paying gig too. I'm really excited and nervous at the same time. It's at Thatcher Manor in Perris Ca. Sadly it looks like it might rain tomorrow. So pictures should be fun! (Um... yeah) But the place is rather pretty so I'm hoping the weather cooperates!
Thursday 10/30/08 - I had to open so I was up at 4am to leave my house by 5am to be at work at 6am. The day was busy. I got off work at 3pm and had to grab some food on my way to the rehearsal. I got there an hour early but asked if I could come in and get the layout of the place for photo ideas.
Here are a few of the pictures I took.
Here are a couple pictures of the happy couple
I was thrilled I was done so early. I called my friend Ludek on my way home. He is so awesome. He's lending me all his fancy camera equipment so I can get the best possible shots for the wedding tomorrow! He has my same camera model so I am able to use his external flash and gigantore lens! I was so happy when he said he had no issues with me using it. He's such a generous person. I'm thankful for his friendship.
I was heading home sooner then I expected so I stopped by my friend Andie's house to come up with a last minute costume for the Halloween Potluck at work. I got home at about 8:30 and started baking cookies till 11:00pm when I finally decided it was time to crash.
At the Moment - As I'm typing this there was a sudden downpour of rain. And I really do love the smell of rain! And my mom just overloaded me with some sugar. Bleh! My parents and sister are staying with me for the next week (possibly two). They had to be out of their place yesterday and the new place they are renting isn't available until the 5th at the earliest. So right now my parents are staying in my brother’s office. My sister is sleeping in my office. She wasn't supposed to have her kids this week but her ex-husband had an emergency with his other son. Derrek is in the hospital. It seems so strange that he's no longer part of my family. So for the night Bailey slept on my couch in the living room and Megan stayed with her other Grandma. My brother Brian has conveniently stayed out of the house during this entire transition.
A benefit to having my parents staying with me is that my mom is a fantastic cook! I'll get awesome home cooked meals for the first time in ages! And my dad has always been so willing to help me put stuff up. And one of the things I've neglected since moving into this new place is actually putting up all my decorations! My dad said he'd be happy to help but I'm not going to bug him this weekend. He's been through enough in having to deal with a transition placement at my house! I really do feel bad that my parents have to go through all this at their age.
Alliance Halloween Potluck - This potluck was a lot of fun. I'm not sure if it's because we actually took time to sit and talk and enjoy the conversation or what. Normally it feels so awkward, but I enjoyed myself.
Here are a couple pictures of the day. :)
Life after the AAP Exam - I need a vacation. I've spent so many months focusing all my extra energies on studying. Work has been a bit crazy because we're understaffed and I have had added responsibilities. Which has been cool but it's made every day at work a non-stop chaotic environment for me, just trying to fit it all into a routine and get everything done in a timely manner on a daily basis. It's always been a laid back job so it's not like I can't get over it. But yesterday after the potluck I started to lose it. I felt like if I didn't get peace and quiet I would scream! I think it's just that I've been telling myself... As soon as the test was over I would have time for myself and that hasn't happened. I've been almost MORE busy, taking pictures of Paul's rehearsal, baking cookies for a potluck, planning a costume, meeting up with Ludek to grab his equipment, helping my parents move and get situated, and then dealing with the concerns of taking good pictures for Paul's wedding! If it wasn't for my completely lazy day today (which hasn't been fully lazy as I have company) I think I would just want to shut down. I emailed my supervisor on my way out of work Friday and asked her to consider allowing me to take some time off. With the lack of help I know it's going to be difficult but I'm finding it difficult to concentrate and get things done.
And who knows, maybe all I needed was a day like today. A bit lazy and somewhat quiet (definitely not used to kids being in the house! haha My niece is running back and forth outside my room window playing with the dogs, not that it's bothering me, its just not ... quiet). I think of how my parents must feel though, living in limbo for a week or so and how annoying and uncomfortable that must be for them. I have NOTHING to complain about. So I'm trying to be as obliging as I can for their sakes.
Anyways, it’s taken me longer to add pictures to this post then I thought and I want to go help my mom with dinner. I know this is an extensive update. But hey, it’s been a month! What do you expect from the blogging addict? Bye for now…
Take a picture of yourself right now. Don't change your clothes. Don't fix your hair. Just take a picture. Post that picture with no editing. (Except maybe to get the image size down to something reasonable. Don't go posting an eight megapixel image.) Include these instructions.
Fender Bender - So I got into an accident this morning. Luckily the damage was minimal and to my car only. I met Mike at Starbucks this morning and was backing out. There was a delivery truck in my way so I was being careful to not back into it. Sadly this girl was on the side I wasn't watching as carefully. I barely bumped her but she was a total bitch about it. I guess she honked but I wasn't able to hear her because of my music. And honestly it wasn't that loud! But I felt horrible. I looked and her car was perfectly fine. I saw a slight scratch on mine but she said she could feel something fold so she checked her entire front end. She was exasperated! It ended up that my bumper got pushed out of place. I was totally shaky. She wasn't very nice about it even when she realized I had the only damage. I pulled back into my spot and Mike checked it out. He knew it was something he could push back into place. Mike agreed the lady was a little oddly pissed off considering I had the damage. I felt a little better but honestly this was the first accident I had gotten into in YEARS (I got into one a year or so after I got my license but it was the other guys fault) and this was the ONLY one that was my fault! I think that's what made it so hard to let go. I knew I looked from all angles before backing up but I was so cautious about that delivery truck and the idea that I couldn't hear her honking really bothered me. So it took me a few hours to let it go.
Anyways there's a lot to share! So I will probably just give quick updates.
My Birthday - My birthday was pretty awesome! On the actual day I was so surprised at how many people made an effort to wish me Happy Birthday. :) I felt totally special! I went to work and after work went to my parents for a special birthday dinner.
Saturday, September 6th BootieLA- I went out to dinner at Red Robin with my sister and Andie. Rachel sadly couldn't make it because she was sick... I mean REALLY sick. I felt so bad. And I was bummed she wouldn't be apart of my birthday celebrations like she has been pretty much since we became friends in Jr High. After dinner we drove down to pick up Russ and made our way to Echoplex for BootieLA. Yet again I had an absolute blast! I love that event! I will be going again soon!
AAP Conference in Vegas September 8th - 11th - This was my first business trip and I was oddly nervous about it. But it was actually A LOT of fun! We got to Vegas at about 5pm and my friend Debbie met up with us and we went to dinner. After dinner Debbie and I decided to go hang out and catch up.
Tuesday I was able to sleep in a little since my first class didn't start till noon. I was one of the only people in my class taking the AAP test this year and so the teacher called on me a lot. I was happy to say I knew all but one question he directly asked me. After the class they had a reception dinner. It was interesting to be able to talk to people who have taken the test. I felt more comfortable. After the reception dinner I called Debbie to come meet up with me again and we just hung out at the hotel. We ended up hanging out at Toby Keith's bar in the hotel. It was pretty rowdy and they had a band playing country music, and normally I would say that wasn't my thing, but I was highly entertained by it all.
Wednesday was my long day in classes. It was a lot of information but I was able to talk to more people about the AAP test during our breaks and in one session we broke into discussion groups and at lunch one of the people in my discussion group said I seemed knowledgeable! lol that made me feel pretty good. :) And the end of the day I just wanted to get out of there. My brain was fried. I went to dinner with Jody and my friend Armando met me at the hotel at about 9 and we went out to bowling and then to Freemont Street. He kept asking if I'd done different Vegas things, most of them I hadn't. He was bummed we hadn't been able to hang out before that night but that's how it worked out.
Thursday I was able to sleep in a little because my teleseminar didn't start until 10am. I had to be packed before the teleseminar because as soon as it was over we had to check out. We left Vegas and stopped off at State Line to grab some lunch. I didn't get home till about 5pm. But was thankful for all the information I got and also for the opportunity to go!
Photoshoot - So my friend James came up with this cool idea for a photoshoot. It wasn't the first time I had heard of the concept and thought it was a great idea for a photoshoot. Basically it's been said if you take a fluorescent light and stick it in the ground under power lines it will light up. There are a few different factors that we knew by the article James read. So we decided to test it. We met out in the Oak Hills area and we stopped at a spot and stuck a fluorescent light into the ground and sure enough it started to glow! We decided to try another place that's a little further out that James remembered off the 395. It seemed brighter and we made the choice to set up a photoshoot, but there are a lot of technical things we need to work out so I'm not sure how soon this will be happening.
So I'm sitting with my laptop on my new (yard sale deal) futon in my office waiting for my pictures of the weekend to download on my desktop machine. I have a ton of pictures to post! This weekend I drove all over the place! I put over 400 miles on my car! But it's been a good weekend. But let’s do things in chronological order...
Written Friday 08/08/08
I know… I know... It's been a while. Life has kind of come at me fast and I'm trying really hard to organize my priorities and blogging is sadly low on the list. And so much has happened in the last month I'm not too sure what to really update. I seriously can't believe it's been this long since I've updated!
Vacations - With all the stress going on in my life this topic has crept into my daydreams a lot as of late. This morning on my way to work I thought about scheduling a vacation away by myself, maybe Solvang like I've been wanting to, just take pictures and get some quiet time. But that will have to be next year as the timeshare I have is booked up months and months in advance for Solvang. Though I can go just about anywhere with this timeshare I really think it would be nice to go somewhere unique. My work has told me I'm required to take at least a week off by the end of the year. And right now that sounds really nice but not possible till November.
AAP Examination - I've officially scheduled my AAP Exam for October 29th at 10am! I'm sooo nervous and excited at the same time. I'm concerned about my lack of time for study but I have found that things are starting to sink in. I'm remembering more and more. I do know that the entire month of October I'm going to be studying my butt off! No life for me till the test is OVER! Sorry friends... don't take it personal. I just have a goal!
Events - Ok so I just looked through my calendar and realized how many different events I went to and most I took pictures that I can post!
Edify's first show 6/28/08 - I took a ton of pictures so I'll make sure to go through and upload them. I was very proud of my boys! The band did very well!
OURS show with Jimi 6/29/08 - Jimi, a friend from myspace, had a spare ticket to see OURS down at the Glasshouse in Pomona. It was the first time we got to meet face to face. Jimi is a really cool guy! And he was first in line! Before we were allowed in Jimmy (the lead singer to OURS) came out and I was immediately impressed with how genuine he seemed. He was friendly and didn't seem like taking pictures with fans was a waste of his time. In fact, Jimi asked if I wanted a picture with Jimmy and I decided I did. I felt a little silly and even said sorry and Jimmy was like, there is no reason to say sorry and it may sound odd but he wasn't afraid to get close for the picture. I know some people that barely even let you stand next to them. He put his arm around me and smiled for the shot. And well he was definitely my type so that probably made liking him all that much easier! ;) I was impressed with him and hoped I would enjoy the music.
It was the first time I ever heard OURS. I was really glad I went! All the bands were pretty awesome! The show started a lot later then scheduled and we were wondering if it was because the turnout didn't seem that great. The first band was Plain Jane Automobile and they were great! (Jimi still has yet to send me some of their music from the cd he got while we were there :P) Duke was a really nice guy. He saw me taking pics at the show and asked me to make sure he got copies of them. One shot in particular is my favorite, him singing, looking down and pointing right at me. Though I hadn't quite got my camera settings adjusted for the low lighting I still think the shot turned out cool. The second band was God or Julie which wasn't particularly my style but I got a lot of great shots of the band. Then OURS came on. I was mesmerized within moments. I was very impressed and immediately a fan!
Go hereto see the video to my favorite song "God Only Wants You"! If you want to read Jimi's review of the show Go Here. Not sure how well that will work if you don't have myspace.
Here is my favorite pic of Duke from Plain Jane Automobile
Here is the pic Jimi took of me and Jimmy before the show
Here are some of my favorites of Jimmy from OURS
Movie Night @ church 7/2/08 - No pictures, but we got together to watch "Thou shalt laugh" and I got a kick out of it. A couple of the comedians were really funny!
Fun at the Park 7/13/08 - We all met for a picnic at the park. I had a great time and had lots of fun taking pictures! My boys, Eric and Jerret, were so sweet! If they were just a little older! ;) haha
Ladies pool party 7/19/08 - Again no pictures, mostly because a bunch of ladies, at a pool, usually don't like their pictures taken. I enjoyed myself though. I truly relaxed!
Game Night 8/1/08 - I dreaded going. I was tired, had a rough week at work but decided to make an appearance. I'm so glad I did! Ron from church made up a list of words based on books, plays/theater, movies, tv and songs that the two groups (my team and my sisters team) had to try to get through them as quickly as possible. The first team through the words won. My team was great! But we got stuck on "Avenue Q" and "Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite!" which NONE of my team had ever heard of before! lol We got 5 words behind but in the end we were behind by 1 word when my sisters team won. Sure we lost but we almost caught up! I was impressed with that! Anyways, it was a lot of fun!
BootieLA 8/2/08 - So my friend Russ was the one to introduce me to BootieLA last year when we spent the day driving around taking pictures. He had a Best of BootieLA cd, it was an awesome mix! From that point on I attempted to get down there and go with Russ at the first Saturday of every month. Attempted up until last weekend when I finally got to go! I met him at his place and we got there a little late. But I walked in and immediately wanted to get out on the dance floor! That's always a good sign of great music! I had a blast! I let loose! I had been having a rough day. In fact I had been having a rough couple of weeks. Getting out on that dance floor I let go of it all. It was very therapeutic and fun at the same time! It was exactly what I needed! I had a great time with my friend Russ, who sadly is moving to Montana next month. But I plan on going back down for my birthday next month!
Updated 8/10/08 -
Church Pool Party 8/9/08 - I went to the church pool party Saturday. It was relaxing. Michelle and I played pool which made me want to buy a pool table for our extra living room so bad! I haven't played pool in a while but it was fun! Michelle was a really good teacher, as it’s been a while since I've played I needed reminders of how certain shots would work. I won the first game and she thought I lied about not really remembering how to play. hehe Anyways, it was a good time. I didn't really get into the pool, I sat on the edge and put my feet in and that was about it. But it was nice to get some sun.
I didn't stay long because I needed to get home so Rachel and Tom could drop off the futon I bought from Rachel’s mom. I am really happy about it. So far I'm enjoying sitting indian style with my laptop (on my lap)... lol I really wanted a couch for my office but I wanted one that I could use as a spare bed if I had company. But I couldn't afford the one I wanted from IKEA just yet and this one was only 25.00! I couldn't pass it up! And it's in great shape!
Tupperware Party w/ Dixie Longate 8/9/08 - Darla at work invited us all to go to a Tupperware party. But not just *any* tupperware party… A tupperware party where the consultant is Dixie Longatea drag queen! I invited my friend Andie because I know she'd get a kick out of it. And it turns out this was Dixie's last show as he/she is taking her character to Broadway (I think)!
Anyways, Andie and I got down to Corona a tad late. Dixie looked just like she did in her pictures. It was awesome! I laughed the whole time! I got some great pictures and amazingly she did actually sell the product! Of course she was a bit more vulgar then I think any regular consultant would be able to get away with but I had a blast! And I got to hang out with Keith who I don't get to see nearly enough! :)
Meeting up with James 8/10/08 - So most of you may remember my friend James (Mopmonster) from Northern California. We've been friends for years and whenever he's in Southern California we try to meet up. So today after church I went down to his hotel in Burbank and from there we went to Santa Monica. We just walked the pier, talked about lots of stuff, had dinner at Wahoo's and then made our way back. We were both tired from our long weekends so we decided to call it a night and I was heading home before the sun went down. I am glad for this little bit of time to veg before going to bed.
Ok so hopefully it won't be another month before I update again! Night
I think it's high time I wrote an update with pictures! Of course I won't have pictures of the event I shot tonight but at least you'll get something!
I just got home from Edify's first concert. They are my churches band. They so rock! I'm so proud of them... They are all my boys from youth and well Tom's my best friend’s husband so he's practically family and Michelle is just an absolute doll! It was fantastic!
Here are some of the pics of the photoshoot I had with the band earlier this month. It was a lot of fun!
Edify 6/8/08
AAP Certification - Anyways, I've been on an emotional rollercoaster the last couple of weeks. I have found that I have been stressing WAY too much on this AAP examination in October, almost to the point of self sabotage. I'm just trying to take deep breaths and take it one day at a time. I think the part that is disconcerting me is that I'm an intelligent person, I pick up on things fairly quickly, but these ACH rules are a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo and I'm struggling to grasp a basic concept just because the verbiage is so wordy! But I've been persistent. I took that AAP Preparation Class in Pasadena and felt completely out of my league. Mind you, the person heading up the class made it clear that it wasn't meant for beginners. So I had a teleseminar last Thursday on Risk Management Strategies and I was reading the Rish Management Handbook all week before the class and again struggled to comprehend what it was I was reading. Then I take the class and was blown away by how much I understood and how easy it seemed. I think I am just struggling with processing the ACH legal jargon. Either way, after taking that class it did help me calm down quite a bit about the class.
Also I'm going to Vegas in September with my Supervisor for an Operations Conference dealing with the AAP stuff. It will be my first business trip for Alliance, well actually for any company I have worked for so it should be interesting. I think another thing that is putting the pressure on for passing this test is all the money that Alliance is putting out on my behalf. I don't want to disappoint them. These classes, workshops, teleseminars, etc aren't cheap. Failure is not an option! My friends are awesome though... they have faith in me and are all so encouraging and uplifting.
A Chair's Photography - Sometimes I'm so surprised at how many people are so willing to hire me to do their photos. Joshua says I'm professional since I've been paid more then once. It's hard to look at myself as a professional photographer because I still have sooo much to learn! I assisted with Susan Whitney for that wedding down at Kimberly Crest Mansion and it was an absolute blast! Like I said in the post about that event, I was sweaty, tired and non-stop and I still felt like it wasn't work... I had too much fun! Photography is definitely a passion. I get lost looking through the lens. I forget about all the troubles and focus on another world. It's awesome! So tonight at the concert I saw my Political Science teacher from college and we got to talking and he saw me taking pictures and he said he would like me to take the pictures for when he and his wife renew their vows. They asked for a card. This isn't the first time I've been asked if I have a card. A great friend of mine Annette has a bakery Sweet Addictions and when she saw my engagement shots of Daniel and Mary she wanted cards to hand out to her clients that come in for wedding cakes.
Yet shooting with Susan I realized how far I am from being ready for any kind of professional business in wedding photography. I'd love to work with her again. I'm hoping she will call me for future weddings. I don't know how rude it is to ask if she liked my work well enough to actually use me again. I finally got the pictures back from her. Our schedules were never meshing and I was quite discouraged by the time I actually got them all, which was last night. I finally looked through the ones she liked and felt comfortable with her critique of my work. She had valid points. I know there is so far to go. But sometimes I don't think it's going to take very long. Meaning I may still have so much to learn but life will carry me from one thing to the next with this whether I feel prepared or not. I was just thinking back that my first real photography job was for Brian and Rashaell Fischer's wedding. That was back in March! That was only 3 (almost 4) months ago! It's been a whirlwind. I can only imagine what the next few months hold!
For those of you who don't have my myspace page I apologize, you don’t get to see the pictures as soon as the people on myspace. I just realized I never posted the pictures of the Steampunk Treehouse! Or Turtle's Reception!
So without further ado...
Steampunk Treehouse 5/1/08 - A select few... I have posted a small slideshow so if you would like to see it go to Steampunk Treehouse Slideshow
Random Shots 4/08 - I just ran into a bunch of shots I took in April and never uploaded them. Some of them are really rather cool...
Turtle & Amber's Wedding Reception 5/17/08
And I can hardly believe I'm actually able to do this but here are some of my favorite pics from the wedding!
So I’m taking a bit of a break from unpacking. Honestly I feel like I’ve accomplished A LOT! But when I look at how many boxes I have left I feel a little disappointed. The old place was so cluttered I’m doing my best to avoid clutter. I’m getting rid of things I don’t need. Rachel would be proud! I’m such a horrible pack rat it almost bugs me! I figure if it’s something I haven’t looked at in the 3 years I lived at the old place I *really* don’t need it! Though, I do have two chests full of things from my childhood that I do plan on keeping.
I also finally got my pc connected to the internet so I’ll be able to post all those pictures I’ve been excited to share! It seems so amazing that I’ve lived here since May 10th and am JUST now getting through the unpacking process. I’m so grateful that it’s a long weekend!
So now for a few pictures…
5/4/08 - The Three Musketeers – Out for Andie’s 30th!
Cute one of my two dearest friends! I love these girls!
5/9/08 - Out with the old! It’s such a sad looking yard.
A pretty flower picked for me near my old place so I wouldn’t feel left out when Tom and Brian brought back a bunch for their wives.
5/11/08 - In with the new! I love the new place! It’s awesome!
On my way to work after my first night in the new place
5/24/08 - So Rachel called me right when I pulled up at work and asked me if I would be interested in going to a Dodgers game that night. I’ve never been but have always wanted to so I said yes immediately!
Blurry shot of me and Rach snuggled up in the back seat
Me and Rach bundled up at the game
Brian (and me peeking into the shot hehe)
Brian, me and Rach (Tom and Jacob were there too but none of the pics of them turned out that well)
Me and Rach when the rain started to pour! They put the game on rain delay at the bottom of the 9th inning! Cardinals were up by 1 so we figured it wasn’t worth fighting the crowds. By the time we made it to the car the rain stopped but we were SOAKED!
More pics to come of the Steampunk Treehouse and Turtle's Wedding!
I can't believe how long it's been since I've updated! Things are going really well!
The Move - I have yet to start packing for the move. I stopped by our new landlady's office to sign some papers this morning. She seems genuine, which is a good sign. She's fairly laid back. The community we're moving into might be more uptight then we're used to but the rules don't seem too outrageous compared to some of the communities I've heard about. I'm excited about this place. It's really nice and has so much space. I’m looking forward to getting over there.
My Weekend - I'm not even sure if I'll get a chance to post this since I only have a few spare moments to post this blog. Friday I got home at a reasonable hour. I enjoyed a leisurely evening because I knew the rest of my weekend would be non-stop. I stayed up later then I would have liked because a friend needed some advice. I have also been working on the engagement shoot pictures so that I can post a couple! I got to bed around 1:30.
I got up this morning and went tanning, rushed back home to go with my brother to meet our new landlords. Dropped Brian off and went over to Coco's to have lunch with Brandie who had brought Alexis up for the day! Alexis is adorable! She's so sweet and very alert. I had a great time catching up with Brandie. It was great to see her and the baby.
After that though, I came home truly exhausted. I really needed to be working on some graphic work for my brother but I couldn't keep my eyes open. I took an hour nap! I got up at 3:30 and started my graphic work for Brian. Amazingly enough the task only took me 10 minutes tops! Who rules? I do! hehe That was a pleasant surprise!
Now I have some spare time and I decided to update everyone on the happenings. Tonight Andie and I are going to the play Guys and Dolls at VVC. Ron and Amielle, a couple from the church are in it. I believe Jerret (my adopted little brother) is going to join us. I've heard the play is really good!
Sunday after church I'm heading to a family portrait shoot for my coworker Margarita. It's down in Rancho Cucamonga in their backyard which I hear is beautiful. After that I plan on heading over to spend the evening with my friend Sandeep who lives in Northern Cali but is going to be down here for a training class for work. I'm looking forward to hanging out with him. I don't get to see him enough. Then it’s back to the daily grind.
This Week - I have to start packing in the evenings. I'm taking Thursday off to go down to take pictures of the Steampunk Treehouse. James decided to go with me. Though I just found out this week that he's taken a job down in Santa Monica! I am actually pretty bummed! It's been nice to have a coworker that enjoys photography as much as I do. He says we'll still try to get together for our photography group but I'm sure him living down there will make it a little more difficult. Though I am happy for him and any time I'm down in Santa Monica I'll be sure to stop by and say hi. Anyways, my friend Drew wants us to stop by his place in Palm Springs the day we go to Indio. So that should be a full day. And Drew likes photography too. We'll see how the day works out.
Daniel and Mary Engagement Shoot 4/20/08 - Some of you have been asking to see some of the pictures I took of the couple last Sunday. I have not had any time to sit down and sift through them until yesterday and that was only because my plans Friday night changed to my benefit. So here are some of my shots. I took close to 550 pictures the whole day! These are a few that I like. Let me know what you think!
What a week, what a week! It's Saturday and I've had a very awesome day! I slept in, ran an errand or two. The day was gorgeous! One of those days when you drive with your windows down, the music blaring and you're just so happy to be alive!
Later in the morning I started to finish up some cleaning in my bedroom when I heard something fall in my shower. I walked in to see a plant my parents had gotten me for Valentines Day had been blown off the windowsill by the wind. At that moment I decided to transport it into a bigger pot, I've been wanting to but just hadn't taken the time. I went into the garage and found my potting soil and picked out the new pot. I have a few. I started with two that needed to be put in larger pots. It's a very therapeutic feeling to have your fingers full of dirt! I didn't hold back, allowing myself to get fully submerged in the task. Before I knew it I had every plant I owned outside and repotted, and my jeans were totally soaked! Sitting on the ground with a hose will do that. hehe I went through two bags of potting soil. But I'm thrilled to have it done! It was a great feeling! I felt so domesticated! hehe Mike wondered where they all came from, apparently he doesn't go into my room too often.
Yup! I'm even posting pics of some of my plants! My favorite is the 2nd from the left
Here they are, these are the ones I repotted
I just looked down to see the wedding invitation to Turtle's wedding. I'm very intrigued by the idea of a Gothic Wedding. I am excited to go. Not sure if I'm going to ask someone to go with me. I can't imagine any of the guys I could bring as my date really wanting to go, but what guy wants to go to a wedding ever? We'll see. I have to RSVP by mid April. I should know by then. I'll probably just go alone. That way I can enjoy the wedding through the lens of my camera. I will have people there to keep me company but I'm somewhat of an outsider in my old goth crowd. I do love my friends, especially Joe and Ericka!
I’m listening to Bright Eyes. It totally fits my mood. I’m very reflective at the moment. I am looking forward to just spending the evening dusting and enjoying my redecorated room. I plan on toning down the knickknacks. I find that I don’t like the type of clutter that I have going on right now. I’ve wanted to go through the stuff in my garage and maybe do a garage sale, but I know it’s not going to be a big one, so I’m not sure what I should do. I have a couple great items from PartyLite that I’m sure people would really want. I’m just not sure if I’m ready to get rid of them. But what am I ever going to do with a chandelier? It's beautiful, I really should just figure out how to put it up!
I’ve been doing some research online. It started with Drew and I looking up “Easter Bunny” on Wikipedia at the midweek bible study. Wikipedia rocks! This week I’ve found myself researching anything I’m unsure about. Last night I even researched a very taboo topic that I just realized a friend of mine is into. I’m intrigued at the reason behind it. He hasn’t shared much with me, nor has he confirmed (nor denied) I’m accurate in my assumption. But I chose to research it anyways. There are a lot of misconceptions, and I’m glad I looked into it myself. All the questions and reservations I had are no longer there. It’s still not something I’d be into but interesting none-the-less.
Going back to the fact that I’ve been researching more and more lately, I think something just hit me. Oddly a situation with another friend which I wasn’t very happy about at first may be the main reason I’ve taken to research. Interesting, I hadn’t thought about that! Early in the week I was talking to a friend and I felt I was spanked (and not in the fun way!) by him for not understanding certain things like the stock market. I was so not expecting it, it came out of left field and at the time I felt attacked. Since then we’re ok, he called the next morning apologizing because he felt bad I misunderstood what he was trying to say.
And the topic in question that day STILL doesn’t interest me. But it did open me up to realize I probably should put some energy into learning about the things (even financial things) I don’t understand. I always avoid the unknown, especially when my circumstances (or should I say… finances?) are so bleak. In some respects I know what took place that night was not my friends fault. He only cared about me enough to share his advice and concerns. I think I was already doing everything in my power to avoid the unknown with my finances and well he figuratively slapped me on the face with it quite unexpectedly. That night I took some much needed quiet time with God. It’s the first time I’ve taken any quality time to share my heart and cry out to the Lord.
The next morning I happened to visit my friend James blog and guess what was linked just that morning? Yup, financial advice! Anything I was questioning listed in this resource page he posted. So I guess my researching actually started with that! Crazy how God works huh?
Well I’m going to go enjoy more therapeutic activities. Hope everyone has a very Happy Easter!
Poet Sky is in my living room practicing. Eirik is here with his drums. I must admit its quite loud being out there but sounds really good in my room. :) It's the first time Eirik has set up his drums and played with the boys, usually it's just Foe, Strav and Brian. I sometimes feel like I've stepped back in time since Poet Sky was originally formed back when I was in highschool!
I just got back up the hill from going to see Brandie and her new baby. Alexis Antoinette is sooo beautiful! She was born March 15th @ 12:56am; she weighed 7 pounds 12 ounces and was 19 inches long. She's doing well but still in ICU. She and Brandie both had an infection. I was not able to hold her, but she's absolutely beautiful. They are hoping both Brandie and her will get to go home tomorrow sometime. Brandie seems to be a natural mother. I took some shots with my cell since they wouldn't let me take it with my camera. :( I'm looking forward to the photoshoot with little Alexis and her proud parents. Here's one of the only clear shots I got with my cell...
So when they said it would snow this weekend I kinda of chuckled thinking, yeah maybe in Phelan, but yesterday as I sat in my car in the Stater Brothers parking lot in Victorville, sure enough large flakes were coming right on down! Pretty crazy!
I've been taking more and more random pictures in the last week or so... A friend of mine in Utah has started the Project365 and I've always wanted to do something similar. I'm tempted to start. I am worried that I will get sidetracked and stop shortly after starting. I'd really like to challenge myself to take a picture every day but maybe what I could try is a picture of the week? Or maybe best pics of the week? Because I tend to have a hard time picking just one favorite shot when I'm in the artistic mood. Hmmm... I think I like that idea better then every day. What do you guys think? Should I make a "best of" post every week? Or should I challenge myself to post a new picture every day? I have a livejournal account that I don't use much.
If you don't have myspace you haven't seen a couple of my recent pics... Specifically Rashaell's wedding, the rooftop of my work building and other random stuff... Here are a few...
This picture is completely illogical but I still love it - 2/12/08
Fischer Wedding - 3/2/08
Rooftop of the Alliance building - 3/7/08
Beautiful blooming tree in my front yard - 3/8/08
I have started placing my bonsai tree in the windowsill of my bathroom window so it gets morning light. This particular morning as I was getting ready I noticed a neat shadow of my bonsai tree on my bathroom door. I couldn't help but take a couple shots while getting ready. 3/12/08
This was taken in my neighborhood today - 3/16/08
That's about it for now. :) Hope everyone had a great weekend!
So some of you have been asking about the pictures I took of Brandie and her pregnant belly. I wasn't sure how I felt about doing this photoshoot. Brandie and I have been dear friends for years, but some of her choices have caused a strain on our friendship. But in the end I love her no matter what. I want to see her happy and well she's very happy and that's all that matters to me!
The cool part is Brandie called me tonight and told me that when her mom went to Costco to print some of the shots I took, they gave her a hard time and said she isn't allowed to print professional shots without written consent from the photographer! Ok so I know the employee at Costco isn't the best judge of quality but hey! They thought my work was the work of a professional! That made me feel really good. :)
Here are a couple of my favorites. Let me know what you think.
So I pull into my driveway this evening and was finishing up a conversation with my mom when I noticed my brothers flashers flipping on and off like someone was playing with his truck alarm remote. I looked back and saw no one coming out of the house. By the time I got out of my car I noticed not only were his truck flashers flashing but his friend Eirik’s truck was doing the same thing. I wasn’t sure what to think but I have grocery bags in hand and come walking up to the front door. I turn the corner and see Brian and Eirik pressed up against the wall chuckling at their cleverness. And I couldn’t help but smile. It was almost cute. Actually, it was absolutely adorable! As I put away my groceries I was thinking about how childlike they looked as I turned that corner. I could almost see their junior selves playing a joke on their little sister waiting for her to come around the corner, giggling standing close to the wall not to be seen. Take away the beer and cigarette Eirik had in his hands and it would have been a classic Norman Rockwell scene. But honestly I think that’s what made it all that much more adorable. It reminded me of the fact that boys will always be boys and it brought a huge smile to my face.
Life has been good. Kept extremely busy with events as well as fulfilling some goals I’ve set for myself. After my busy extended weekend I went back to work. This week has been just as busy as last, if not more so because we’ve experienced more technical issues then usual. I enjoy staying busy. I feel so much more productive when I have a lot of stuff to do then when I have minor tasks.
Anyways, I’ve enjoyed waking up early and spending some time taking pleasure in the start of my day rather then rushing around frantic to be out of the house by 8. I spent one morning watching the sunrise in one of the new patio chairs I bought. I read my bible and wrote in my prayer journal. The next morning I decided I really wanted to go for a morning walk. It was sprinkling but it still felt awesome to get out and walk a mile before work. I take lunch walks but it’s just a half a mile and it’s really just to get out of the office and get some fresh air. Speaking of which, I’m going to go do a bit of a workout before bed.
So I’ll leave you with a couple of the pictures I took of the lunar eclipse yesterday. Click on the image to see the larger view.
Valentines Day - I had a very nice Valentines Day! I wasn't expecting much. I was looking forward to a work potluck and that's about it. But the whole day was full of little surprises, a bunch of text messages and calls from everyone wishing me a Happy V Day. I got to work and my dad had dropped off a gift from him and my mom, a cute little plant.
And with the potluck it felt like it was a Friday. Potlucks tend to make for a relaxed atmosphere around the office. I, of course, took pictures and everyone moaned and groaned. But it was a good time. The whole day was a lot of fun and everyone was in good spirits.
After work I planned on heading home to veg but Russ called when I was leaving work and invited me over to have dinner at his place and watch a movie. It was a pleasant surprise and the traffic wasn't bad. And it was nice to do something outside of just going home. He even had a gift for me! Not that it was a valentine’s gift but something he had bought for me but never got a chance to give me, a cool Harry Potter movie poster. It was really sweet. And I was very glad I went.
Later that night I got a text from Peter, who had been texting me throughout the day, asking if any of my valentines surprised me. I'm thinkin... What valentines? hehe So he sent me this picture with this caption. Awh... Too sweet!
So its only a pic, but now u cant say u didnt get flowers today (from a guy other then family)hehe
I wasn’t sure what to expect for Valentines Day. I’ve never been really big on it, even when I was dating someone. But the day was filled with great surprises and I couldn’t have asked for anything more! It was a great day all around. I really do have some awesome friends.
My Weekend - Tonight I went to Sheila's birthday party. I was drained from the week and today was a hectic day at work, especially considering it was Friday (usually I'm twiddling my thumbs but not today)! I guess it's a Friday before an extended weekend so I really wanted to have stuff done for when I return to work Tuesday.
Tomorrow I plan on sleeping in and I need to make a run to the store to pick up some necessities and I plan on cleaning ALL weekend! Rachel's stepson is turning 13 and they are having a big coming of age party for him in the early evening. Sunday I don't have any plans other then more cleaning. Monday I plan on finishing up my cleaning and that evening I have a bridal shower to go to for Rashaell. And then it'll be back to the grind.
So my site was down for a day. Not sure what happened as I never got a reply to my email I sent to the webmaster. Either way I really just need to get my site transferred over to 1and1.com but I've just been dragging my feet to get it done. I know my site will be down for a bit and I'd have to upload the entire thing to the new server and that's not an easy task... My site is quite extensive with all the pictures I post.
My last entry I mentioned posting a couple of the random pictures I've taken recently... Here they are
Odd perspective of my nephew Bailey in my back seat
Bailey trying to duck the camera
Just a pretty view on my lunch walk in Ontario
Just liked the sign
Closeup
3 faves - lines, texture and perspective (the coloring is cool too)
I had a fantastic time in Santa Monica with my friends Andie, Rachel and Tom! I really needed it! I got away from the every day drama. The weather was absolutely gorgeous! And there was nothing in particular that happened to make it special but it was a memorable day.
Here are a few of my favorite pics...
Architecture is great for lines
I actually liked the richness of the colors in this shot
Sunsets are always amazing
I loved the mist in this shot
Carousel on crack! hehe
Sweet moment between Rach and Tom
The next shot
Real mature guys! hehe Ok so I made you do it hehe
Awh... I love my friends
Tom suggested they pose "mad sexy"
Laughing about their "mad sexy" skillz
Great pic of us girls, go Tom!
Rach took this pic, I liked how it turned out
My best friend turned 30 today... Happy Birthday Rach!
Rach and I got on the subject of how amazing love actually is, that people can truly love you, even with all your faults. I think lately I’ve seen a lot of relationships that aren’t based on love but rather convenience or a need. I admire Rachel's marriage. It's had its rough times but it's only gotten stronger because they chose to make it work. And looking at their relationship now, it was so worth making that effort! So many people think love is only a feeling but it's also a decision!
I find it fascinating to see the different dynamics that cause people to be drawn to one another. Sure physical attraction is involved but there is so much more! I’ve always enjoyed hearing how people get together. In my recent dating history I've met a lot of different personalities and realized some traits I don't think I could live with, and some traits that I really admire and am drawn to. One being: independence. It really bothers me when a guy can't be alone for any length of time. Possibly because I am fairly independent myself and would hope to find someone that I could spend time with but also have my independence. A needy guy just wouldn't do that. Also I tend to view a guy who can’t be alone as someone who doesn’t know who he truly is, and requires a relationship to define him. I say this referring to guys but it works both ways, I feel the same about women that can’t be alone. Yet there are some guys I've talked to that really like a girl to be a little needy and dependent. I’m not saying I don’t have my needy moments. Insecurities bring out the worst kind of neediness in me. But with some of the serious self evaluation I’ve done over the last year and a half, I’ve come to realize quite a bit about myself and truly feel that my next relationship will be nothing like the others because of the changes deep inside.
I know I’m beautiful. Sure, my body isn’t what I would like it to be, but it’s not like I’m not doing anything to change that. I’ve come to appreciate what I look like. It took a long time to get over the seriously warped view I had of myself in high school. I still sometimes see that ugly reflection when I look in the mirror. It’s surprising how blind we can be to our own beauty.
Being Creative - I've had a very creative week. I've spent most of my evenings working on graphics and logos for friends and family. I have a job updating (one of my brothers client's) Medeiros & Associates website to match their yellow pages ad. I helped Jason with a header graphic for his churches website and he also asked me to work on the logo for the place his girlfriend works since their current one was pretty outdated. Tonight Poet Sky was at my place practicing and Foe and I talked about me working on the bands "Our Alackaday Ways" album cover, possibly even adding some of my photography. I'm looking forward to it. I love Foe and Strav. They are like my extended family. Total cuties too!
Strav and Foe
Poet Sky - Strav, Foe and Brian
With all this graphic work it's made me motivated to get my own photography site up! I'm going to make it happen. It's felt good to get back into graphics. I forget how fun it is to see things come together from nothing. I'll make sure to link to my photography site when I get it updated.
So my last post about photography actually brought about some amazing stuff! Joel Eckman Maus read my blog! The best part is he said to let him know if I'd be interested in helping out at weddings!!! Um... YES!!! I'm so incredibly excited! I think it would be so amazing to watch him work. What better way to learn then to be an assistant to someone I admire and look up to!
Also along the same lines of creativity, Rachel and I went in together to make Brandie a diaper cake for her baby shower gift. Stephanie had showed me the idea at work and the moment I saw it I thought of doing it for Brandie's baby shower. It was a lot of fun to make and it got a lot of attention at the shower. It's a unique gift. Rachel and I have decided that from now on this will be our thing to bring for any baby shower we go to. Here are a couple pictures of it.
Before all the extras
After all the extras
Jaw troubles - My jaw on the left side is swollen and tender to the touch like it was Christmas Eve. Not sure if I ever explained what happened but Christmas Eve I went to work and my jaw hurt really bad and it was swollen so I thought I might have some kind of ear infection. I go to the doctor's and they tell me that it's not an ear infection and it must be that I'm clenching my jaw causing a form of TMJ, or grinding my teeth. I've never known myself to be a teeth grinder so the only thing I could think of is that I clench my jaw. My doctor said it is caused by stress. I think its a bit silly actually but I may very well be clenching my jaw without realizing it. Why only the one side? Anyways, just an annoying little tidbit I thought I’d share.
Random - I've been on a U2 kick. My brother got me the limited edition U2 iPod a couple Christmas's back. It came with the whole U2 collection. I've been listening to it on random almost every night this week and I'm still not through the whole thing!
This is a video I specifically looked up because of a conversation Joshua and I had at work. I figured I'd share since it's a great song and brings me back.
Well the old linkLINE crew got together tonight. It was fun to see everyone. We went to Red Robin and it was crowded and way too noisy! But all-in-all a good time. :) So I mentioned that I'd post a pic of our last get together and one of tonights... Here you go...
December 15, 2006
left to right - David, Erin holding William, Tim, me, Nancy and Carlos
January 11, 2008
back row - me, Nancy, Carlos and David front row - Tim, Sasha, Doug and Erin
Annette was there but requested not to be in the shot as she had a rough day at her bakery which is called Sweet Addictions. Their website appears to be down otherwise I'd be posting it here.
Anyways, good times with good friends... I'm off to bed.
What an unexpected day all around! Full of emotional ups and downs. I had a fairly mellow day at work. I had some projects for accounting to do so I was able to focus on those since it was so quiet. My friend James met me for lunch! It was great to see him. It's so odd to have only seen him in person twice but to feel I know him so well! I guess 8 years will do that. I was bummed when my time was up and I had to get back to work. I really appreciated that he came out of his way to meet up with me even if it was only for my hour lunch break. Thanks James!
So I've been struggling with some insecurities in the last few days. Not sure that I want to share them at this time, but I'm too awake to get to sleep even if it is 1am. Mostly it’s about feeling rejection from a number of people in my life, and yes mostly men. I have been fighting some negative thoughts about how I feel the people in my life view me. I'm tired that I don't have someone for me. Yes, I stood in my sisters bathroom tonight thinking to myself, damnit how selfish can I be?! I felt like I was in a full on pity party (ok so I was). Yet, it's true. I have people in my life that enjoy my company, yet aren't really there for me. I am the one pursuing the friendship or I feel interrupted when I try to share or that what's going on in my life is trivial in comparison to what's going on in theirs. It’s something I've suppressed for a while with these certain individuals. I guess today was the straw that broke the camels back.
I want to be valued, appreciated, even to know that I'm someone of interest to others. I know it's their loss. Sadly most of them I can explain away. I make up excuses for their behavior... repeated behavior! But I know I'm worth something. I'm worth making an effort to get to know. I'm interesting and lovable and have a lot to offer. I'm not talking about a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. I'm talking just in friendship! Again, it's their loss. I want to say well that's it, I'm done trying, but being the silly people pleaser that I am, I don't see that happening but I do plan on making some changes.
I'm ahead of myself. So after work I head up the 15 through holiday Vegas traffic. I'm a little frazzled as I have been all week driving with a bunch of people that decided never to drive on the roads until Christmas comes around and have forgotten how to drive! Yes, I admit I have a road rage problem! But anyone that commutes knows my pain! Christmas sucks because it brings people out that aren't very used to freeway driving. I thought driving with a bunch of commuters was bad, nope! Non-commuters are the worst! They screw up the flow of traffic! Oh yes, I could go on a mile long tangent about the stupid drivers of the world but that isn't what I feel I need to get off my chest with this post.
I get to my parents place for the Christmas party and walk into hell! That straw... well it opened its mouth the moment I walked through their front door. Sadly I lost it. I was pissed and really just wanted to leave. I went up to my sister’s bathroom and just started crying... all the fear and rejection came flooding to the surface. Not from that one person but the others before. All the horrible insecurities I'd been trying to fight the last few days, maybe even weeks, boiled to the surface and I sat there wishing, hoping, for anyone to show any sign that they cared about me... Cared what was wrong, why I hadn't walked in my normal jovial self. No one came. I didn't give them much time. I was fighting to suppress the tears as quickly as they came. I went downstairs and even tried to let it go. It didn't work! I wanted to scream and tell someone to come rescue me from these emotions. Come tell me that I'm loved and accepted just as I am. Tell me how these stupid little people aren't worth my concern.
People tried. Rashaell made a valiant effort to let me know I was loved. But God knew what I needed. My best friend Rachel came to my rescue. She came over, gave me a hug, let me vent about the silly little things on my heart that I just wanted someone to listen to all the way through without interrupting with their own issues, someone to care enough to be there for me and not themselves. She was the one. Silent, in agreement in all the places I wanted to be backed up on my thoughts and frustrations. My sister prayed with me and suddenly my heart finally felt peace. From the moment I walked into my parents house that night I felt an inner rage, my heart was tense and angry and I did everything in my own power to make it go away but nothing helped but prayer.
I came back in and those that looked concerned I gave hugs to and let them know I was doing much better. People did care. I was just so angry no one knew how to approach me. Sadly no one knew how to approach me to help. I love my church family. They are like my immediate family. I felt loved in return. Dale was the tenderest of them all, he was so concerned and expressed how he doesn’t like to see me so upset. I almost started crying all over again.
Why is it that we can feel so alone sometimes in a room full of people that love you? I love writing. This is not where this post was going when I sat down to write it out, but it’s where it went. Writing is very therapeutic for me. I understand this may be a bit more “real” then people are used to from me but I’ve been on a kick of being uncharacteristically honest with some people.
I found out once that an ex of Sam’s found my blog and called me emotionally unstable after reading it. (This is of course when Sam and I were dating) I was always wondering how she could think so since I write from the heart and most people would agree they have felt something similar to what I’ve shared above. I usually don’t write when I’m sad anymore. I never like to focus on those feelings. But tonight I needed to work through some thoughts. It’s now almost 2am, I really should be in bed.
Oh but the night hasn’t even begun to be explained! After “miracle worker” Rachel helped me I found myself rejuvenated to help others. To care again about how or what they are going through. It’s not that I want it always to be about me, it’s just that sometimes the people I’m there for aren’t meant to be there for me. Eh, I’m still working through all the thoughts. Not too sure where this is all going to go. But the night went on as if nothing happened. All the strain, the pressure of pushing the emotions down, was lifted. I was my usual jovial self.
I stayed the latest and spent some time talking with my friend Brandie but when my mom was heading to bed I realized it was time to head out. Some friends from my wannabe goth days were having a Christmas party and really wanted me to stop by. I had already said yes prior to this insanely emotionally draining evening, so I decided to make an appearance. It does feel at times you walk through a portal of time, but time that allows the people in it to age. Hehe I walked in and felt at home! I haven’t seen some of these guys in years! Joe and Ericka made me feel so welcome. I was even thrown into a gift exchange without having brought any gifts! They bring extras apparently! I took a few pics, caught up on everyone’s happenings and then made my way home at a bit after midnight, which was much longer then I expected. I left actually thankful I made the stop.
And now since I took some time to look through the pics it’s nearing 3am! I must go to sleep even if tomorrow is Saturday! I have a lot to do tomorrow!
So my extended weekend came and went. I’m sitting at my cluttered desk. I am doing some laundry, did some dishes, and have taken the earlier part of the day easy. Brian and I went to see American Gangster down at Victoria Gardens earlier this afternoon. It’s a decent movie, pretty stinkin long though! My friend Jerry didn’t think Denzel played a convincing gangster, I thought he did alright. I should be cleaning my desk and working on some graphics for Jason. Maybe I’ll get to it later tonight. It feels much later then it actually is.
Drive to Montana - Right now my brother Shawn is chatting with me about our trip to Montana. Turns out he and his family are driving up from Texas to Colorado Saturday, spending the night at my cousin Joey’s and then making the rest of the trip up to Montana. I can’t afford to take any more time off work then I already am. This means I can’t leave till Monday night after work! So I think I’ve mentioned that I’m going to be driving up to Montana with Brian, Heidi and her two kids. We did this back in November 2005 and it was not easy. But it’s my grandpa’s 90th birthday and the flights were just too expensive. It was originally going to be just Brian and me but Heidi was able to make it and to our surprise the kids are coming too! I’m excited she and the kids can come but it does make the plans a little more complicated. Either way, Shawn originally wanted us to drive through Colorado and meet up with him and we’d all caravan. But now that he’s going up earlier we’re trying to calculate what the best route is. If we don’t go to Colorado Brian is saying we have to make the full trip without stops. I’m trying to convince him to still meet up with Joey in Colorado and finish up the rest of the trip together. Joey wants me to keep her company on the drive from Colorado to Montana (her husband Nate will have to fly out Friday after thanksgiving). My niece and I could go with Joey and that would leave more room in my brother’s truck. It’s a thought. And I’m pretty sure I have Brian convinced that the extra tank of gas is worth it to be able to stop and sleep.
I’ve also found out that they are planning a family portrait… A HUGE family portrait since we’re ALL going to be there! This is the first time my entire family, including my brother and his family are going to be in Montana at the same time! Actually the first time we’ll all have been together since the family picture we took on Easter 2005 in California! I’m excited. Also my cousin Joey asked me to join her in volunteering at a soup kitchen in Billings, MT. Thanksgiving morning. Yup, the drive is going to suck no matter what and I just need to accept that. But the trip itself should be good. I can’t believe it’s only a week away!
PMS sucks! (Pardon the topic male readers) - I realized the emotional rollercoaster I went through Tuesday was the precursor to the dreaded "monthly bill". The rest of my week went fairly well. No major complaints. What I dislike is the emotional instability during a period. Most of the time I don’t feel as hormonally challenged as I have this month. I feel bad for women that experience the emotional stuff this bad every month!
Last week – I had a busy week last week. This week should be mellow. We all know my Tuesday sucked. Wednesday was the complete opposite. After work I went to mid-week service.
Thursday I went to dinner with Jerry. We talk on the phone a lot but our schedules rarely allow for us to hang out for very long. Last Sunday I was supposed to go down there and hang out, go to the movies or something, but I misunderstood the plans and we had to reschedule for a weeknight which never leaves for much time to hang out since we both commute. But oh well. We always figure something out.
Friday I went over to David and Erin’s to have pizza and watch Ratatouille. It worked out great because I was able to catch up with them and skip the holiday weekend traffic!
Saturday I slept in, watched tv all day! My Pampered Chef stuff came so I went through and put everyone’s orders together and washed all my stuff so I could use it! Mike came home with Jerret from unloading his storage unit and putting his stuff in our garage. He and Heidi were celebrating their 1 year anniversary and he was running late so I told him I’d take Jerret home so he could go take a shower and take Heidi out. Apparently this won me some brownie points with Mike. Hehe Jerret ended up keeping me company while I baked cookies for a church meeting the next day. We had a good talk. I’ve pretty much adopted him as my little brother.
Sunday was a full day of church. I went to church in the morning and we had a meeting at my parent’s place at 3 and I didn’t leave there till 7.
My Dad’s book - I have my dad’s book! It looks great! I haven’t finished reading it. This is the first edition. He signed it for me, wrote a little dedication too. There are only about 100 printed so far. He has some minor technical errors he wanted to fix and then the publishers will send it in for a reprint which at that point it will then be available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon in time for Christmas orders! I’m excited for him and so very proud of him!
New Hair – I got my hair redone last week. I loved my hair the day my sister did it. She styled it and everyone that has seen the picture of it just loves it! I also have a picture of how it’s usually styled. It’s definitely darker but it’s more my natural color. So far I’ve had only positive reactions to it, accept for my mom. She says she’s so used to my blond hair it’s taking her a while to get used to it. It’s not that she doesn’t like it. I really like it!
Link to Poet Sky's Reformation. Basically pictures of them practicing at my place on Sunday afternoons. :)
For those of you that have seen a lot of the pictures posted to my blog, well those were the few from many and now ALL the pictures of those events have been posted to my online Album. I haven't updated my album since Easter of this year. So there are a lot of new pictures. Go check them out… My 2007 Album
Bright Eyes 9/29/07 - So I'm listening to a random selection of their songs as I'm composing this and catching up on laundry for the week. My brother Brian and I had a great time at the show at the Hollywood Bowl. Having the LA Philharmonic Orchestra performing with them was a pretty cool experience. We had awesome seats and it's a great venue, that was my first time there. Scarlett Johansson was sitting a few seats away from us. When I saw her I immediately looked around for my brother who had gone off to get a drink. She was just as pretty in person. Surprisingly when Brian found out she was so close he was like, sure enough, that’s her. But after the show he admitted that if she wasn’t “Scarlett Johansson” then he wasn’t sure if he’d give her a second look because there were so many other hot chicks there. Haha Gotta love my brother. Anyways, I really enjoyed hearing them live. I know the lead singer is an acquired taste but you can't deny his ability to express through words. I'm gonna have to say they are one of my favorite bands at the moment.
So here are a couple pics and I'm attempting to upload more then just this one video... blogger couldn't upload the other 2 files because it was too big so I'm testing out Google Video, if it works I'll post them.
Big Bear 10/8/07 - Monday I had the day off so I took a drive up to Big Bear and back... I needed to get away by myself and it's a beautiful drive so I packed a picnic lunch and my cameras and took off. It was absolutely gorgeous up there! Here are some of the pictures I took throughout the day...
Random Thoughts - I was chatting with my friend Tracy. He was lamenting about being out on the dating scene again. I told him I have had a lot of guys interested in making a go of something in the last year but they never keep my interest very long. And the guys I find myself attracted to are either older or set in their ways = not interested enough to make any effort, or even worse they are married. Then it hit me, maybe I don’t want a relationship if I'm only finding myself drawn to unavailable men. They are the safe ones because I know it will never go anywhere and I'm not likely to get hurt. Hmmm.... Interesting...
But speaking of being drawn to someone I discovered something rather amusing. I have recently gotten to know this guy that intrigues me more then I would have ever expected him to. I say 'recently gotten to know' because I met this guy last year but didn't really get a chance to talk to him much. As things go, circumstances can bring you closer to an individual, even if it’s only to get to know a couple more details about them. So that being said, anyone that knows my taste in guys knows I like ‘em to have a bit of "geek" to them. Not sure what it is, but a guy who knows his way around a computer, well that just gets me all excited. ;) (Please note the slight sarcasm in the excitement) Either way, this individual has some geek to him. Now also be aware there is a BIG difference between geek and nerd. hehe (refer to "White and Nerdy" video by Weird Al) But he also has tattoos; Interesting combination. Not sure why this intrigues me so much. I drove home Friday I realized that I was drawn to this guy. I laughed when I realized it started when I saw he had tattoos! WTF?! haha Then it hit me! He represents both sides of the spectrum of my two long term serious relationships. Jesse, the "bad boy", full sleeves, kids, ex-wife and played drums in a hardcore band. Then Sam, the "geek", computer guru, total sweetheart and my first true love. I'm guessing that's why I'm drawn to this guy. Not necessarily in the desire to have a relationship with him, but just would love to get to know him better. But knowing he fits both of my "types" I think I'll let it be. :)
Grandparents 10/10/07 - So Wednesday night I drove down to Westlake Village with my family to have dinner with my grandparents who are visiting from Minnesota and staying with my cousin. (Sadly I never really get to see my cousin, we've never been that close.) Either way they flew my grandparents out so they could see her new baby. Well last night was the only night we could all meet up with them because the rest of their visit is planned out. My mom, brother, sister and her kids met my dad and I in Ontario and my brother and I took my car out there and the rest of the family drove in my sisters car. I haven't seen my grandparents for at least 8 years! We met at Claim Jumpers for dinner. Here are some pics from the night. I actually let my nephew, Bailey play with my camera and he got some great pics!
Wow... Life has been chaotic! I had a post started about my birthday excursion but it's outdated now. I really wanted to share early on about the entire day and how I felt but it seems that it would become one of the longest posts I've written so far! There are just too many things to update. But I will do my best to sum up. I am currently at work composing the bulk of this blog but I also think I will have to do most of the finalization at home. Who knows when this post will actually get published!
My Birthday Excursion 9/8/07 - Rachel and Andie picked me up in Rancho where I was housesitting with Starbucks in hand! I got to Andie's car and saw that they had decorated the windows with 'Happy Birthday Chair' and a big old '30th Birthday' sign on the passanger seat so everyone could know as we drove around! hehe It was cute. I get in the car and find out that I would get clues (more like riddles to figure out) where we were going next.
The first stop I figured to be a garden. Descanso Gardens to be exact. It was beautiful there! And it helped that the sky was particularly clear all day! I took tons of pictures. I felt completely special that the day had been planned around my love of photography!
Next clue led us to the Griffith Observatory! We had a bit of a hike up there but we laughed, had a good time and got our excersize in at the same time! I loved the Griffith Observatory and will make sure to go back when I can spend a day there! We were running short on time apparently and the girls stopped at one point to figure out which of the remaining stops we needed to skip.
The next clue took me a while to figure out, but it was the Mann's Chinese Theater and we realized it was a place I've been to plenty of times and we chose to skip it. The next clue should have gotten us to a cemetary called Hollywood Forever but ended up being an accidental skip since we drove right past it! It looks pretty cool so I'm gonna have to go back and check it out sometime. We ended up at the Huntington Beach Pier! Andie had NEVER been! I was quite surprised but we walked the pier. It was more crowded then I've seen it in a LONG time and I think my moodiness with crowds made for a short stop.
Apparently my sister was going to meet up with us at the last stop and we needed to head back. I was given my last clue of the day which was spelled out for me. :) We were going to Dave & Busters for dinner! The traffic back kind of sucked so we were late in meeting Heidi. I got to Dave & Busters and saw my sister who said she put our name in so after a quick stop to the restroom we'd go to our table.
Turns out in the end they did plan a surprise party for me! I had suspected it but as the day progressed I thought that wouldn't be happening. I walk through and my sister brings me to a table filled with a bunch of my friends! I had a great time hangin out! My friend Russ was even able to make it, he and I rarely get to hang out. I felt so special! Rachel and Andie really knew how to make my 30th a memorable one! I found out while we ate all that had conspired to make the day happen! Including Rachel stealing my cell a couple months prior to write down all the numbers she needed to invite people! I had NO CLUE!!!!
The entire day was all about me!! A full day of photography and an evening hanging out playing games with my friends! I can't think of a better way to spend my birthday! Rachel and Andie, you made me feel very loved! Thank you so much guys!
African Benefit Dinner 9/15/07 - The dinner was a success! But lets not get ahead of ourselves! Once we resigned ourselves to the fact that we would only have about 100 people there, the rest of the planning of the dinner went relatively smoothly. We already have people interested in when the next one is going to be. I heard only positive feedback, at least from the people that mattered. hehe They loved the decorations, which I was happy with as well. They enjoyed themselves and were entertained. My church had gone down to Faith Community Church in Buena Park which is a Kenyan church. I met Henry Karis who was an amazing guitarist! After the service I went up to him and asked him what he was doing the next saturday and booked him to play a couple of his own songs in Swahili. He did an amazing job and I hope he'll be able to come up for our next dinner. He and my brother hit it off and I knew they would. I specifically sat them at the same table. I only had one issue and that was with the photographer. Maybe it's because I was expecting something different and so was she. But our personalities clashed a bit. And to be honest I was a bit dissapointed. But other then that the night was awesome!
Later we found that we had a profit of over $2,500! My friend Jerry was impressed because he does the taste of Arcadia and the first year they had 600 people there and made 3000 profit. As the years have passed they have increased the profit but also the number of people in attendance. We only had 100 people there and made that amount. I'm nervous about planning the next so soon but we have the interest for it. People were impressed and we want to keep up the momentum. We can't wait another 3 years to have another dinner. But it's something I can chalk up to experience. When I get married I'll be prepared to plan the reception! hehe
Alliance - I've started training for some tasks in the Accounting Dept. It's a slow process because the lady training me only wants to train me on one portion of my future tasks a month. Also this month I had my 1 year anniversary with Alliance! A few things have changed in a years time... Mike is one the newest employees at Alliance. He's pretty cool. I've enjoyed getting to know him. He just got married earlier this year and they both have never been married before and are in their late 30's. They are an adorable couple too! Both are good looking people, it was nice to hear how they connected. Gave me a bit of hope of a late courtship being possible, one worth waiting for.
Reflection - Once the benefit dinner was over I thought I would have all sorts of time on my hands. This whole week has been filled! Something going on every evening! Saturday is the first day to relax in what feels like forever! I was already invited to dinner at Ludek's and I'd love to go but I'm feeling like I really need to get a full day of "me time".
I've done a lot of reflection in the last week. I spent a little time working through some thoughts and insecurities that arose in the last week or so. There are phases where God reveals things that need to be changed. One being that I tend to enjoy flirting and I find that in some respects I get my affirmation in the amount of flirting that is done. Whether with one individual or multiple. The flirting is not the issue, but the concept that I get my affirmation based on how much I flirt is. This is a slightly odd revelation but none-the-less true. There has been a lack of men to flirt with in my life, at least ones that I'm crushing on. Yes, there is a difference when there is an attraction involved. Part of the old me started to surface with wondering if I was attractive. Its amazing how an old part of me can still sneak in there. I'd love for a guy to let me know how attractive I am. It's been a while since I've heard that. But I need to accept my beauty for myself.
Another thing is my finances. I've let them get out of control. I paid off all my debt while working at linkLINE. When I was laid off I didn't change how I lived. I continued to live like I had no debt and could buy anything I wanted. I'm living beyond my means right now. Especially having bought a newer car this year. I finally sat down and went back to a strict budget. It's not fun but for now it's what I have to do. It's only for a time, it's not permanent, I won't be here forever, this too shall pass. Yes, sadly I have to keep reminding myself of that when I want to go out and buy something. I was in a similar situation when I worked at linkLINE and it didn't take me very long to get out of it. So I know I can do it now.
And finally time management. I've come to the conclusion that I am going to have to schedule "me time" every week. A night where I can do what I want! No phone calls, no guests, nothing but time for me. I can update my blog or online album, organize/clean my room, watch movies, read, whatever! Also I have started doing morning devotions. It's been nice but it hasn't given me that quality time to meditate, time for me to hear that "still small voice". I know I'm hearing God, even in some of these revelations/reflections this week. I know He's been a big part of the revealing aspect. But my heart is draw closer, to hear His voice more clearly. I also have a few projects that friends have asked me to do. I may use a night for those types of projects as well as my own, like achairsphotography.com which has been majorly neglected!
Sunday Update 9/23/07 - Well a lot was accomplished in the last couple of days! I found out Friday that I get a raise starting next pay period! Seems like perfect timing now that I decided to stick to a strict budget. I still plan on sticking to the budget but it just means my debt will get paid off faster. How cool is that!? Also Saturday came and went and it was wonderful! I used the day to clean the entire house. Yes, Mike, my roommate, seemed unsure of how that constituted as something I'd want to do with my first day off. But it was sooo rewarding to see how clean everything was when it was all said and done! My brother Brian has a jammin session going on with Forrest and Strav and I'm not embarrassed of how the house looks. In fact I'm proud of the way it looks. And cleaning is so theraputic! I put on Anne of Green Gables and cleaned away. Brian and Mike had some work they had to do so they were out of my way the whole time! I turned my ringer off and even left a message stating I would be away from my phone. I am looking forward to making a habit of that!
*Ok so this post was ready last night (Friday the 10th) but FTP was wiggin and I couldn't upload all the pics till today (Saturday the 11th)*
So I think I'm finally off of Fiji time. It took a few days to get back on a normal sleep schedule. I came back Monday and couldn't sleep till 2am and slept in till noon Tuesday. Tuesday night I forced myself to climb into bed at 2am but twiddled my thumbs till 4am and got up for work at 7am Wednesday! So Wednesday night I expected to crash early but I ended up talking to Mel up in Washington till almost 11:30! So much for going to bed early, but in the end I think that helped me switch my sleep mode.
I came back from Fiji and hit the ground running. Tuesday I ran errands all over the place. Wednesday I went back to work and had bible study that night. Yesterday I met Jerry at Starbucks after work and we talked till about 10 or so. Jerry was surprised I didn't bring my pictures to share, some day I'll get a laptop and won't have that issue. Tonight I went straight home after work and vegged. Tomorrow I plan on cleaning cause the house desperately needs it. I have agreed to go on that "date" tomorrow evening. I don't really know the guy so I'm feeling a little bit awkward about it.
Benefit Dinner - I came back from Fiji feeling the heat about getting everything ready in time for the benefit dinner. The trifold isn't completed but my friend Leonard will print them at his cost but it'll take 7 business days to get back. I'm trying to keep everyone motivated but there were some issues that arose with certain individuals when I was gone that I am not sure how to address or whether I even need to. Also the church has fewer people to help out with the projects so people have to take on more then they had to for the last dinner. But I just gotta keep it up in prayer and God will take care of the rest. It's hard not to get overwhelmed at times.
Fiji - Fiji was absolutely amazing!!! It was gorgeous and an absolute blast! I remember taking pictures thinking the shots didn't do it justice, but now I look at the pictures and see only beauty! So just imagine even the best shots didn't capture the true beauty of the place! I had a hard time leaving! I had to remind myself that I was living in luxury while I was out there and that if I stayed or lived there it would not be as glorious as my time out there was. Shawn and Brenda made it all possible. They paid for everything! The room, the cab rides, the food! All I had to pay for was the ticket to fly out there and the souvenirs I brought back! I keep asking myself how I'm ever going to show my appreciation to them for helping me experience Fiji! I've been trying to figure out how to explain the trip and show a portion of my 1500 pictures! I can't post all of them obviously and it would be too hard to pick through them. I think I'll pick a favorite or two from each day and throw in a couple showing the highlights or where I stayed etc.
Friday July 27th - My parents picked me up from work at about 6:30pm and we made our way to LAX. I'd been sick for the last few days and that day was no different. My parents and I sat in a row together. The flight was oversold so no luck on getting a row with an empty seat. :( I had intended on reading Harry Potter but was too tired to focus on reading it. I had a hard time sleeping though. But slept on and off and watched a portion of The Shooter.
Saturday July 28th - lost somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. :)
Sunday July 29th - After a 10 hour flight we landed in Nadi (Nandi), Fiji sometime before dawn. I walked down the outside terminal and was blown away at how beautiful the moon was! We were greeted by a group of Fijian's playing their island music. Apparently a lot of flights from LA arrive at the same time. It took a long time to get the luggage. Shawn, Brenda, Amber, Sierrah, Jackson and Gabriel were all there waiting! It was Sunday so all the shops in Nadi were closed. It was quite odd and looked a bit like a ghost town. But we did get some veggies from the small open market and I had the best cream buns ever at a store called the Bread Kitchen which was also open! I learned that "bula" (Boo lah) was how you say hello and "vinaka" (vee nah kah) was thank you. According to Google though the pronunciations I was taught are incorrect... hehe oh well. After the few stops we made our way out to the Yatule (yah too lei) Resortat Natadola (not ten doh lah) Beach. I was lucky enough to get my own Bure (boo-ray). I met High Chief Ratu Osea Gavidi who was the connection that got us the beautiful bure's at the Yatule Resort. He was a totally sweet, down-to-earth man. As soon as I got in my room I changed into a bathing suit and got into the ocean. It was beautiful! Natadola Beach is ranked one of the top 10 beaches in the world! I could see why! Remember my pictures didn't capture its true beauty.
Monday July 30th - I woke up early to try to take pictures of the moon setting on the ocean. I spent the day enjoying the beautiful beach, I did some snorkeling. I spent most of the daylight in the water, took pictures of the sunset and hung out with the fam in the evening.
Tuesday July 31st - I took another try to get pictures of the moon setting, spent the day in the ocean and took more pictures. It was a bit cloudy but still beautiful. We left Natadola Beach and made our way to the WorldMark Resort which is apart of Denarau Island Resorts. Denarau Island Resorts was home to a lot of luxury resorts and WorldMark was on the far left. Port Denarau Layout/Masterplan That evening I was shocked I didn't go exploring. I just stayed in the room and tried to relax.
Wednesday August 1st - Brian arrived in the morning around the same time our flight came in. It was raining so we (the girls = my mom, Brenda, Amber, Sierrah and myself) decided this would be a good day to do our shopping in Nadi. It was great to experience the town. I spent lots of money. My favorite store was Jack's. We went out to eat atNando's for lunch. Good grub! That evening we spent time as a family. This was the night that my brother Shawn decided to tickle-wrestle me to the ground! He was in a mood for sure! He kept pestering everyone! It was quite funny and Brenda got a video of it and I felt like I was a kid again, wrestling with my big brother. hehe
Thursday August 2nd - I spent some time swimming in the pool, walked up the beach. The Denarau Island Resort complex had what they called the Bula Bus that stopped at every resort and made a full circle of the complex. It was about a 20 – 30 minute ride total, or you could catch it just right from the Sheraton Resort next to The Republic of Cappuccino and it would hit only two resorts before WorldMark, catch it wrong and you went in the complete opposite direction and it would have been faster to just walk. Amber and Sierrah went with me to The Republic of Cappuccino and we met up with my dad and two brothers. They offered free wifi internet so this was the first time I actually touched a computer since the Friday I worked before flying out! And I wrote a bulletin on myspace and a quick email and I was done. I had no desire to be on more then that! Shawn and Brian did their email communication for their work, and my dad was writing more of his book. That evening we decided to go out to dinner at the SeaFront Restaurant which was at our resort and on the beach. Later we just played cards.
Friday August 3rd - Considering I took 1500 pictures during the trip clarifying that I took pictures each day is kind of counterproductive, so yeah I took pictures ALL the time! But I had gotten a little too much color on my upper thighs the day before so I avoided sunbathing but took the opportunity to get some shots of the family enjoying the pool. I also took some pictures around the resort and was able to meet Isei the security guard who had been on duty each day since I had gotten there. He and I hit it off and we decided to meet up and walk down the beach later in the day. I found out during our walk that he wasn’t really allowed to go off with guests so he said if anyone asked he was escorting me to some photography spots. We laughed and had a good time. He said he was going back to Suva to spend time with his family for the weekend but wanted to meet up Sunday night if at all possible. (I never got a chance though). After I got back to the resort we watched Amber's performance as the cowardly lion in her last school play. She’s awesome and definitely needs to stay in drama!
Saturday August 4th - It was Brian's birthday this day. I went down to a timeshare meeting with Shawn, Brenda and my parents. I got free breakfast with Repeka, who was trying to sell me on the timeshare concept (She and I had a lot in common, being the same age and loving to travel, both being interested in older men, her being Methodist and having family members in church leadership). At first I was thinking it was insane but by the end of the presentation I ended up signing up for a WorldMark timeshare! I got a gift certificate for Jack’s so the girls decided to all go shopping again but we discovered there was a Jack’s closer to home and didn’t have to take a cab drive into town but instead just take the Bula Bus to Port Denarau. As we were on our way we met Brian and Shawn who were going out to lunch for Brian's birthday so we decided to join them. We went back for the boys because we discovered a pizza place Mama's Pizza at Port Denarau too! And we had wanted to get pizza for Brian's birthday dinner so it worked out perfect. And as an added bonus they had Fijian Fire Performers in the center of the shopping area. All-in-all it was a great day!
Sunday August 5th - Brian had wanted to go kayaking for his birthday but since our timeshare meetings took so long they rescheduled to kayak this day. I had thought it was just going to be Brian and Shawn but Shawn came back up and told me to get dressed because they were 2 man kayaks and they wanted me and Brenda to join them. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I’m afraid of the ocean. I was shocked I got in further then I could touch the bottom out at the Natadola beach but some of the best experiences are when you are spontaneous and don’t think too much about it! I had a good time. I was a little uneasy on the kayak but still enjoyed myself. My brother Brian was the mellow one, Shawn kept trying to get his kayak to ram ours! Stinkin older brothers! Then I was told they were going on a 4 person catamaran and wanted me to go. I loved it! We only had an hour so my turn with Brian was only a short 10 minutes but we rented it again for later in the day and so I went and enjoyed the pool while we waited. It was windier then it had been all week so you could say it caused for a more interesting experience sailing. When it came my turn again Shawn took me out and we were pretty far and then he told me to take over the sail and rudder! We switched spots and he directed my steps. It was cool! I was nervous but could feel the control I had over the catamaran! It was an awesome experience! The closer we got to shore the water just got sooo choppy and I got a little panicked and made my brother take over. After we all showered from our salty experience on the catamaran we made our way back out to Port Denarau, because my dad had discovered the “best pot pies he’d ever had” at the Bread Kitchen next door to Mama’s Pizza. When we got back to the resort we watched a family movie and I went to bed knowing it was my last night there and became a bit melancholy.
Monday August 6th - My last day. Amber, Sierrah and I went to the Republic of Cappuccino to check the girls email and I popped onto myspace to let everyone know I was heading home. We caught the bula bus but it happened to be going the long way around and well we weren’t in a rush so we decided to enjoy the ride since this would be my last opportunity. When we got back to the resort we convinced everyone to come together for a family picture, once we were done with that I walked the beach one last time and was very heartbroken about leaving this place that I experienced so much out of my comfort zone and was all so positive! We said our farewells and on the cab drive to the airport my eyes started tearing up. It was definitely an experience of a lifetime! My Fiji experience with (most of) my family will always hold a special place in my heart.
Once at the airport we found out our flight was delayed and then completely moved! We had three flights combined on one huge plane. (My dad would be able to tell you what plane it was and how many times he’s successfully flown one on his flight sim game hehe.) Either way it made for yet another full plane and this time I was in the window seat and it was an uncomfortable flight home. We landed in LAX on Monday at 1pm. That was quite the oddity since we didn’t leave Fiji till Monday night at 11:50pm! It took us forever to get through customs and Mike was there to pick us up. We had to drop my parents off first which really sucked but I got home to my place at about 8pm. Yeah LONG day.
So there you have it! A (not so summarized) summary of my trip to Fiji!
Oceanside - So last weekend I went down to Oceanside. It was an absolute blast! I was non-stop the whole weekend but it was too much fun! Friday morning Rachel and I drove down to Holly's place in Vista. We drove around and then went over to the Del Mar horse races. I'd never been and won 30 bucks! $5 on one race and $25 on another. Now with how much money I put out I think I broke even but still it was a good fun!
Saturday we slept in and took our time getting ready. Holly had to work so Rachel and I drove around. I went to pick up the new Harry Potter book at Barnes & Noble, we went out to lunch and went to a few more stores. We ended up at the coast and took pictures. It was fun because we had to do a bit of climbing and we had the giggles at the same time. hehe Made for a fun time!
After Holly got home we went out to dinner and then to a bar where they had live music. It was cool, it was an older blues band.
Last night - I went down to my laser appointment in Irvine. And then made the extra trip down to Laguna beach. It's so beautiful. I've recently realized how much I love the beach! Jerry had planned on joining me down there all week but alas his work didn't give him the opportunity to leave the office till 8:15... I was looking forward to hanging out with him before I went on my trip. And I know he really needed to get away... The timeframe I usually get there is the best part about the beach! The sunset! So he wants a rain check for when I come back from Fiji. I didn't mind going alone. (I have done it before when I met Kyle and Michael who seranaded me - see June 13th post) And the beach is so theraputic! Jerry called me when I was at the beach and I couldn't help but rub it in that I was there and he wasn't. hehe I know... I'm evil. >:-)
This time I brought my camera. So here are a couple good shots...
Fiji - It's been a hectic week getting ready for my trip to Fiji. I've been non-stop on the go for a couple of weeks now. Thursday night I went out with Jerry. We had a great time. The next morning I drove down to Holly's and Sunday drove straight over to my parents place for my moms birthday. Monday after work Jerry stopped by the office and I showed him some tips on adobe photoshop and dreamweaver since he's interested in getting a website up. Tuesday I was able to get all my laundry done for the trip. Wednesday was midweek service and a trip to the new SuperTarget for things I needed and also a few things Brenda asked me to bring since Fiji didn't have them. Last night I went down to Irvine, then Laguna beach and on the way home stopped by my sisters so she could cut my bangs since they are WAY too long. I spent a few hours prepping my stuff to pack and then got to bed after midnight.
So I leave for Fiji tonight! My parents are picking me up from work tonight at about 6:00 and we head down to LAX. Our flight is at 11:15 this evening and it takes about 10 hours. Apparently we will arrive in Fiji at 5:45 on Sunday morning. How odd is that? hehe I was up late last night packing and getting everything ready. I am pretty positive I have everything I need.
A Date - I know Law of Attraction works, but for some reason I'm still amazed at the fact that I got asked out on a "DATE" by someone who doesn't read my blog! haha (well at least I don't think he reads my blog!) What a trip!? For those of you who aren't regular readers, a couple posts ago I wrote about men and my slight annoyance that they don't just ask me on a "date" they label it as a "hang out". Anyways, thought I'd share that.
I think I'll be able to get online now and then in Fiji so hopefully I'll be posting updates!
**Did I say tomorrow? ;) I meant whenever I get around to it!! haha Sorry it's been crazy busy and I actually tried to upload pictures the next day but blogger was having issues uploading. And well I have a moment since our phone systems at work just blew up. hehe And since you've been patiently waiting I think I'll post WAY more pictures then I should to make up for the delay! Enjoy!**
Life is good isn’t it?! Right now I’m at work and I don’t expect that I’ll have a lot of time to write up this post. But I have a moment to spare so I’m going to at least start it. We’re understaffed today. One girl is on vacation and another had to leave early because of some flight issues. And later today I have a training class. Once all that is done, I honestly hope things will mellow out some.
Birthday - So my friends must love me! Rachel called me this morning to see if I was free September 8th. I told her yes and then asked what for. Apparently she and Andie have planned a surprise day out for my 30th birthday! I’m excited! And I feel special! So all I know is that I need to be ready by 8am and expect to be out till midnight. I’m looking forward to it! You guys rock!
Well like I said I didn't think I'd have enough time to finish a post at work. I’m now at home. Man today started out so dismally and now things are so different! Lots of great things are in the works!
Fiji - The main thing is the possibility of my entire family going to Fiji! Can you imagine!? Well my brother Shawn who lives in North Carolina is moving to Texas but has a lot of work to do in Fiji over the summer and he's decided to pack up his family and let them hang out in Fiji with him over their summer break before making the move to Texas. So it was mentioned that it would be great if we could all go out there! I thought for sure it was just one of those passing thoughts that never come to fruition but apparently today I was asked to put some serious thought into going. Financially it would be a burden. The tickets are pricey. My brother has connections so he’s going to see what he can do about getting cheaper tickets. But if it came down to my family going out there whether or not I could afford it, well I couldn't afford to miss the opportunity really. This is FIJI we're talking about here! One of my first thoughts was being in 7th heaven taking pictures. I have seen some of the shots my brother has taken and I know what I could get! haha Cool huh? I may have another place to mark on my map of visited places.
Passions - Lately God has been showing me a lot about myself, especially my passions. You’d be surprised as much as I love photography I’m realizing my passion is not completely in that, which may change. But right now my passion is people! I *love* people! I enjoy meeting new people, learning more about them, laughing and interacting with them. I’ve been putting some thought into how I can use these passions in a career. I know my current job is not the career choice I had in mind. But I genuinely LOVE working with the customers. I find myself laughing more and more with the customers. I’m not sure what type of career to get involved with that allows a lot of interaction with people. I don’t think there is a lot of money in customer service/support. At least not that I’ve seen. I know there is joy and pride in the work I do with my customers. I just honestly can’t afford to keep working for what I get paid and I’m just not sure what to do about that. I would really enjoy being able to interact and take pictures of people but I find that I’m not a good portrait photographer. At least not that I’ve seen in my current collection of pictures. So, I’ve come to the conclusion that though I may realize that I have a passion for people, at this point I have no idea where God is going to take me in that.
Luau Aftermath - So I survived the luau! If you have myspace you’ve seen my pictures. If not then sorry it’s taken me so long to post any! It was an amazing night! Non-stop craziness but oh so much fun! I can’t wait till we do a whole church one! It was a great time with all my friends. I was snapping pictures all night. I ended up staying over at my parents till about 12:30 in the morning talking to my friend Andie. We haven’t hung out in a while and its funny cause we always seem to be experiencing similar things at the same time. But really it’s hard to explain the whole evening so I’ll just let you see the pictures (which will be coming soon).
Vegas Aftermath - I stayed up later then I would have liked for the luau but I still got up early for my drive to Vegas Saturday morning. I was on the road by 8:15 but had to stop by my parents to pick up stuff I forgot over there the night before and then had to fill up with gas and was actually on my way by 8:45am. I was shocked how easy of a drive it was! I remembered it being so long the last time I went. But honestly that was before I had gotten accustomed to a 45 min commute to and from work daily and 1 ½ hour commute on Friday nights because of “Vegas Traffic”! I’m just glad I didn’t go Friday night! It was smooth sailing when I went Saturday morning. I got up to the Jeska’s place at about 11:15. So it only took 2 ½ hours!
It was so nice to hang out with the Jeska’s. They have a nice place and I found myself easily relaxed there. The weather was gorgeous! Debbie and I went and ran a few errands and decided to go to a mall out there. It’s kind of crazy because we haven’t really hung out since we were kids! But we seemed to click and we had no issues keeping the conversation going. Hehe Later we ended up hanging out with her parents discussing all sorts of things! We didn’t end up getting ready to go to the strip till after 10pm! But I didn’t really have any desire to go gambling or anything. I just wanted to see the fountains… We stayed in front of the Bellagio for about an hour or so and then went back.
I got up the next morning and slowly made my way out the door. It was a bit more crowded on the roads so it took a little longer then 2 ½ hours but not too much and I even stopped to help someone on the side of the road!
Father’s Day – I made back in town Sunday at 2pm and looked over my pictures. I went over to my parent’s house to spend some time with my dad for Father’s Day. I ended up going out to Best Buy to get him the 5th season of Seinfeld. I started to get them for him but stopped at season 4 so I now have a good idea of what to get him for the next few gift events, his birthday, Christmas, etc. hehe I was happy to see he’s still really into the Microsoft Flight Sim X game I got him a while ago!
Well it’s actually later then I’d like it to be. I have to get up early for work. I’m supposed to be at work between 7 & 7:30 because we’re understaffed and need the phone coverage so I was asked if I’d be willing to come in. And well I am… It’s Friday. It shouldn’t be too bad. Just means I should be in bed right now! So goodnight and I’ll post pictures tomorrow.
Meet Kyle and Michael... Two men that made all the troubles of my day melt away!
Ok so today's been a bit draining. I had to take care of some personal matters so I called into work to let them know I wasn't coming in. I was running all day till about 3pm and then only had a couple hours before I had to drive down to Irvine for my laser appointment. I drove down and noticed my cell was already low on battery because I'd been on it more then usual.
Let me start a little further back. I was talking to my friend Jerry about the stresses of my day and he knew I was on my way to Irvine and he said I should stop by the beach to reward myself. At least I'm pretty sure that’s what he said. If he didn't, it didn't matter because that's what I heard and the idea stuck with me. I knew I'd be done with my appointment at 7pm, sunset was around 8pm and I knew Irvine was close to the beach so I made the decision to stop by the beach before heading home. As I made this decision I realized I would be needing help to get there as I had no clue what freeways to take (I'm horrible with stuff like that), but since my cell battery was dying and well I was going to be making the trip up to Vegas I thought a car charger would be a wise investment.
Once I got to my laser appointment I asked if they knew where the nearest Best Buy was. The girl was cool enough to do a search and print up directions on how to get there. I was getting my laser treatment done when I asked the girl how far the beach was from where we were and she recommended that I take the 133 all the way because it dumps me right at Laguna Beach. I was familiar with the 133 because this is how I get down to Irvine to begin with. And this makes the return trip all that much easier to find. Anyways, as I suspected I was out of my appointment at 7 and made my way to Best Buy and got myself a car charger. That put me behind schedule a little but the sun was still up but not for long.
On the way I kept thinking to myself oh please make it before the sun sets, oh please. But then it hit me, the adventure was me even making the drive. I chose to then enjoy the trip itself because it was the experience of it all that makes it special!
I made it to the beach and was glad to find out that this is the same location we went for my birthday last year and I was fairly comfortable with where I was at. Everything went great! I parked and found that the parking meters stopped metering at 7pm. So no extra expenses to make this trip. I found a great spot and got out of my car quite honestly surprised at how easy of a trip this had been and how I couldn't believe I haven't been making this extra side trip EVERY time I've come down to Irvine, which happens to be every 4-6 weeks!
And when I got there I was blown away by the beauty of it. The rocks, the view, it was breathtaking! And there are so many great photo opportunities! And yes, I could have slapped myself for not bringing my camera. I was stuck taking a couple snapshots with my cell.
Here they are…
Then I met Kyle and Michael. Both were just jammin’ with their guitars and welcomed me to join them. They played a few songs, but Kyle sang and played “No Woman, No Cry”, and Michael picked a song he said was just for me “Am I Dreaming”. It was such a cute little song and he really did sing it *to* me… I was smiling ear-to-ear being serenaded to for the first time! I stayed as long as I could but it was only about 20 minutes with my new friends. I climbed back up to my car and as I put on my sandals I looked back to see Michael looking up at me and I waved goodbye thinking to myself, stuff like that doesn’t happen every day!
It wasn’t till I got in my car and I started thinking about the whole day and how this moment, this special 30 minute window, felt like it was God’s way of saying “I love you Charity”! I was overwhelmed with gratefulness. I started getting choked up because today really had been a difficult day for some reason and it was an awesome way to end it! First with me doing something completely spontaneous and independent, then meeting those guys and enjoying my short time at the beach! It was awesome! I do plan on going back to the beach every time I make that trip to Irvine but this visit was special.
Well it’s Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers out there. Right now I’m feeling a bit melancholy thinking of Jesse’s mom who’s celebrating mother’s day on the year anniversary of his death. I can’t stop thinking about how hard it must be for her today. Not knowing what exactly I could say or do to even express how much I wish I could help or show how much I care.
After I got back from my moms house I just felt like I needed a walk. I just got back. But as I walked I felt heavier and heavier. Right now I’m just sad. Not sure what’s all on the brain to make me so down but I am.
I found out that none of my pictures at the fair had ribbons on them and to be honest I am slightly bummed about that. But that’s ok. Now I have four of my prints nicely mounted for display in my own house.
Anyways I don’t want to dwell on all that.
Mother’s Day is a great day to honor our mothers! I took my mom out yesterday to a movie and out to lunch. It’s been so long since we’ve had the opportunity to spend time together. Today after church I ordered pizza and took it over to my parents and we watched “Music and Lyrics” which of course is a chick flick. Hehe It’s a really cute movie.
Then my niece and nephew had a plan for Heidi so we wanted to have the house clear but I ended up sticking around to help setup. I was glad I did! Their plan was adorable! They picked everything out! They set up a candlelit dinner with a French theme serving cheese sticks, taquitos (?sp), salad, bread, spaghetti and meatballs and moon cake for desert. They wanted to be dressed up like waiters and serve her. Bailey requested to specifically have three long stem red roses and three sunflowers. It was too cute. I think my dad was thankful I was there to help out. He kept saying they would not have been able to do it without my help. Here are a couple of the pics from their efforts.
Also I talked to Brenda and they got family pictures taken as her mother’s day gift. I think they turned out great! Check them out. My nieces and nephews are getting sooo big!
Well I feel better. I have a lot that I want to accomplish this evening so I should get going. I’m going to clean my bathroom and clean off my desk, ship off a couple items that I’ve been meaning to get in the mail for a few days now and hopefully get some quiet time in.
Updates are pretty scarce these days aren't they? I've spent a relaxing day working on the Assemble Fiji site, watching tv, doing laundry and being a lazy bum all at the same time. hehe Not sure how that works. I guess sleeping in till 10am will make you feel like a lazy bum! It was amazing though! I wore comfy clothes, no makeup and only left the house for dinner and came right back. I took my time working on the Assemble Fiji site and still felt like I accomplished a lot! I just finished watching Superman Returns. Good movie... I bought it when it first came out on dvd and I hadn’t sat down to watch it. A friend referred to a line from the movie in a chat the other day so I decided to watch it. I’m currently waiting for a load of laundry to be done so I figured it’s time for an update.
So I turned in my prints to the San Bernardino County Fair. I opted to volunteer on a Saturday for a couple of hours so I got a free ticket and parking pass. I guess I'll be going to the fair for the first time in years! I think the last time I went to the fair was with Jesse. (Speaking of which, the anniversary of his death is coming up and he's been on my mind quite a lot. That and running into his brother at Starbucks the other morning didn't help. It's a bit hard to realize someone so close to me is gone and has been gone for almost a year.) For those of you who don't know, I entered my first ever photo contest. It was quite process let me tell ya. I entered just in time and wasn't sure what pictures I wanted to enter so I picked 2 divisions and 2 classes each that I knew fit my style of photography. This proved to be more difficult then originally planned. I had my friend Leonard help me print up the pictures I picked. He was a Godsend! He helped me crop and print at the best quality. He opened up his own business called Cracked Egg Graphic Design Studio. I met him on a web/graphic design job quite a few years back, he was working at a printing place at the time. Anyways, we’ve kept in touch off and on through the years but I was happy to hear from him a little over a month ago and we met up so I could check out his studio and when he heard my dilemma with getting my prints done he offered his services. Anyways, here are the four I turned in...
Top left - Color Misc: Desert Sunrise. Top Right - Black and White Nature: Cherry Blossoms. Bottom Left - Black and White Misc: Journey. Bottom Right - Color Nature: Tears of a Flower.
A Chair's Photography - Having entered the photo contest my friend Jason encouraged me to get at least a bit of a splash page up before I turned them in so that whoever saw my prints (which have my url along side my name) would be able to check out my site. So here it is everyone! www.achairsphotography.com ! A work in progress but something is actually up. I got a bit of a vision for what I want to do with the site and surprisingly enough it’s going to go away from my personal sites look and feel.
Assemble Communications - As I stated above, I worked on the Assemble Fiji site today. Yes, they have commissioned me to do more work for them. It’s been hectic but I’m thankful for the extra cash that it will bring.
Dentist - I had a dentist appointment last Friday and found out my referral for my wisdom teeth extraction came back approved! In some respects I’ll be glad when it’s over, but right now I’m like a little kid that hates the dentist! The idea of being put out scares me and of course because my teeth are impacted they want to put me completely out. Not sure if I’m more afraid of what I’ll say as I’m coming to (I’ve heard embarrassing stories!) or just the thought of actual surgery… in my mouth of all places! I remember what it felt like when they took out some teeth to make room when I got my braces on. Not a good memory. Anyways, I have almost two months to fret about it! As the oral surgeon isn’t available till June 28th! Oh joy!
Travel - I talked to my friend Stephanie up in Oregon the other day. She wants me to come up for a visit. I think I need/want to! I have been trying to figure out where to go for my birthday. Maybe this is what I should do. But I also want to go visit family in Montana as there are a lot of events that are taking place there. One: A family reunion on my mom’s side. People I’ve never met in the entirety of my life! This has already been set as lowest priority to the other events. Two: My grandpa’s 80th birthday! What a milestone! Definitely want to make it out for that. Three: grandparents may be moving and will need our help. But we’re trying to not have this happen as my grandparents have lived on the farm since I believe they were married. So the family is trying to figure out a way for them to stay there. But going back to the decision to go to Oregon, the decision is made, it’s just a matter of when.
April 7th - Jason's Play and dinner: my long time friend Jason called me or I called him. I can’t remember. But he had a play he was in for Easter and wanted me to go and he wanted to hang out afterwards and catch up. My friend Andie and I went. It was a great play! I was impressed. Jason didn’t have a main role but he did well in his performance. Afterwards we hung out at Red Robin with his uncle who was also in the play. Here are a couple pictures.
April 8th - Easter and makeup: Easter was mellow. I went to church, got to test drive a 2006 BMW 325i!!! Holly and Daniel came to church and they are Rachel’s in-laws. It was Holly’s new car. I was lovin it! Here are a couple pics from church.
After church I went over to my parents’ and had Easter dinner and then watched the Passion of the Christ and of course cried. I have a hard time watching that movie and not tearing up. After that my sister wanted to use me as her canvas for her makeup class. And I was quite shocked at the difference but here are some pictures! What do you think? Hehe
April 10th Tax return! - I went over to my dads the week taxes were to be turned in. Nothing like procrastinating to the last minute! I knew I was going to owe because my severance package from linkLINE was not taxed and neither was the money from the work I did for Assemble. So I was dreading another bill I had to figure out how to pay. My dad helps review what I’ve already entered and helps me answer the questions I wasn’t sure about on turbotax and in our review he noticed I hadn’t claimed my tithe. I told him I never claimed my tithe and he asked why I hadn’t. I guess it was because when I was younger he told me I didn’t make enough for it to matter and well now that I’m older and making more money it is enough to matter… So since he is the keeper of the tithe records and turbo tax allowed me to go back to 2001 I was able to claim the exact amount I’d paid in tithe every year. I got a little over 1,200.00 back!!!! I’ve never gotten more then 600.00 since I’ve been doing my taxes! This was such an unexpected surprise! Of course it’s all gone to pay off debt but that’s the way it should be right? It’s just a bit of a bummer I couldn’t use that money to do more for my business like get equipment or something. But that’s ok… It was a huge blessing and I was never more grateful that I tithe! Haha
April 21st - Hector’s Surprise Birthday Party: Hector is a guy I work with at Alliance. Keith had invited me to his surprise birthday party for Hector’s 40th birthday. It was a hoedown theme. I had a good time. Got to see my friends Jess and Marc who drove from Wisconsin to be there! I leave you with a bunch of pictures from the day.
So my friend Jason and I stayed up talking till way late Monday night. But the conversation was awesome! We were having a lot of fun discussing all sorts of things and before we knew it we had been on the phone a few hours and it was really, really late… or early however you want to look at it! Like I said in my last post, I was surprised I did so well on 3 ½ hours of sleep! And honestly the conversation was needed and I wouldn't have changed that.
Mission: Accomplished! Where do I begin!? I mean there were so many goals and plans and events over the last month or so! All took place, and I'm left feeling like if this is an idea of how this year is going to turn out… I have a lot to look forward to! I am going to attempt to share some of the things I've been up to this past month. Life has been amazing. The internal change has made a big impact in my life and how I relate and look at things.
March 10th : Hanging out with Russ – I went down to Burbank to hang out with my long time friend Russ. We've been friends for a few years but since he lives so far away we've tried to make a day of our hangouts and getting a full day together has been hard. We had an absolute blast! I would say probably one of the best times I've had hanging out with him thus far. I met up with him at his place and he took me out and about around Burbank, Hollywood, Marina Del Rey and to his work. Here are a few pics from the day
March 13th : Hair cut – My sister has been going to cosmetology school and she felt I would look great with side bangs. So I gave her the chance after some reluctance to cut my hair the way she wanted to and… I love it!
March 15th : Final breakdown on freeway – I wrote about this in my March 19th post so I won’t repeat myself. But while I waited I snapped a couple shots of the traffic playing with exposure settings. Here are a couple of the good shots.
March 16th to 18th : Vegas - I was supposed to go to Vegas and go see Evanescence with my friend Armando but because I was having so many issues with my car I opted not to go. I was going to see if I could barrow my mom's car but she wasn't too willing to let me considering I'd be driving up to Vegas for the weekend by myself. My mom seems to have built up a new fear of me being independent even at the age of 29! But I had to cancel on Armando and my friend Debbie. At least until I could get a new car.
March 16th : 24 Elsinore @ Drapers – Because I didn’t end up going to Vegas I decided to go to my friend Eirik’s show. It was cool hanging out with them. It’s been a while. The last time I went out with them it was for Jason’s show and he threw up on stage and called my name out in one of the songs. Good times. Hehe Here are a few of the pics
March 20th : Meeting James in person – My friend James and I met online back in we’re guessing 1999 or 2000. We have been friends since then and every time we’ve tried to meet up something comes up or we can’t get over to the other person. So James had a class down in LA, so I chose to take off work a little early and meet him down there. We went down to the Santa Monica Pier. It was a trip being friends with someone for so long and just meeting in person after all these years! We had a great time. It was only odd in the fact that we had yet to meet in person. Here are a couple shots
March 24th : Bought a new car! – Yup! Decided the last time I broke down on the side of the freeway that it just wasn’t worth it anymore. With how much I commute I just needed to have a reliable car. I decided against the 2006 because the cost was just too far out of my range. I did my research and found a 2005 Honda Civic LX with 32,000 miles and bought it for $13,800. I went down to Kaiser Brother’s Honda in L.A. Spent a good portion of a day working out the details and drove away with my new car! This dealership is awesome! They treated me great! Though it took a while to get everything done they made up for it in other ways. A few days after I bought the car I got a $20 Starbucks card in the mail from them! My dad was really impressed with them too. Check it out! Here’s my new car!
March 25th : Bonsai Exhibit – I went back to the Huntington Library for a Bonsai Exhibit they were having. I unfortunately only stayed a few hours but I got some great shots!
March 29th to April 1st : Shawn and Brenda – Shawn and Brenda were out in Fiji for business with Assemble Communications. They were flying back to the states and had an overnight layover in California. So we got to see each of them for a day on seperate days. :)
Ok so if you can believe it I have a few more events to post pictures about but I think the month of March is a good enough start. :) And if you did get through all of these I hope enjoyed them. I'm posting this before I start writing too much more.
Hello All! I think I have some time to actually write an actual update! Things are busy, but most of you know how I thrive on chaos! It keeps me out of trouble… most of the time. ;) Uh oh… Just reviewed this post and there are a lot of pictures ... I'm sure you won't mind.
So where to begin?
February 18th - I took my best friend Rachel out to dinner and a movie. Our traditional place to go is Red Robin. We’ve done it for years. We went to see "Music and Lyrics", total chick flick but I loved it! Here are some of the pics.
February 19th - I drove down to Pasadena to take my Nikon in to get cleaned. While I was there I just took some pictures up and down Colorado Blvd. with my Sony Cybershot. I was happy with how it turned out and really had a good time taking pictures by myself while listening to my iPod. Below are some of the pics I liked.
February 22nd - Here are some pictures of a dinner with the girls… We are all going to Indio in August so this was a “planning meeting”. It was fun and a good excuse to get out.
Photography - A few posts back I asked my friends to set up times to take me to unique places in California for one: so I could experience new places/things and two: to take pictures along the way. Well for the first three weekends in March I have/had events planned.
March 3rd - Yesterday I went out with Brandie and Drew to Huntington Library. All three of us are passionate about photography and its always fun to take pictures with people who love it as much as I do! And I’ve missed hanging out with Brandie. We have both been so busy. It was also nice to see Drew again… We were acquaintances back in the day and thanks to myspace we’ve been reacquainted. Anyways the Huntington Library was beautiful! We only had a couple hours and I ended up with 250+ pics and only a small percentage that I liked and only a handful I love… But that’s how it always is. Below are some of my favorites!
One thing I have to say about the Huntington Library is that they had amazing bonsai trees! I would have loved to have spent more time there but we were kind of in a rush so I could only take some quick shots and admire them later. I will definitely go back when I have more time and just check out every single one of them! It makes me want to go out and pick up my own bonsai tree.
March 10th - I’m going with my friend Russ up Pacific Coast Highway. And for those of you that keep up with my blog, yes, we had that planned for the last weekend in February but circumstances beyond our control made us decide to postpone two weeks. So I’m looking forward to that.
March 16th to 18th - I’m driving up to Vegas to visit my childhood friend Debbie. She lives in Utah but her parents live in Vegas. I originally was going up to Vegas to go to an Evanescence concert with my friend Armando (and I still am), but since I was making my way up there I decided to see if Debbie was up for a weekend trip out to Vegas and she is! I’m really excited! It’ll be the first time we will have to actually hang out since she found me on myspace last year.
Mission Lesotho - The church is planning another mission trip to Lesotho in September and being part of the leadership group I just found out that I will be responsible for the Benefit Dinner. I was a bit overwhelmed with the thought because last time I only had to worry about the invitations and setting up a photo-op. So… I have a planning committee that I put together for Tuesday and we’ll go from there. But the last benefit dinner took A LOT of work. And I’m not sure if I’m ready to take on such a task. But I do know that I won’t have to do everything and hopefully I will just be more of the person to keep things moving forward, at least if I play my cards right. Hehe
I’m still not sure if I am supposed to go on this mission trip. I have not felt as strong a calling to go as I did the first time. I know I will go back to Lesotho again but every time I’ve prayed about it I have felt that if this trip happens in 2007 (which it looks to be) then I will not go, but if it gets postponed to 2008 I will be going. My dad has told me there is another mission trip in the works for another part of Africa. It will be interesting to see where God takes me.
Free Hugs – We have another free hugs event planned for March 11th. I’m looking forward to getting back out there for that. It was such an awesome feeling and people were so surprised there was no hidden agenda or expectation with it. I am hoping we can take video and do something similar to the original Free Hugs Campaign Video. Speaking of which, I just took a moment to watch it again. It’s such a great inspiration! And even though I posted this video in one of my blogs back in November I am posting it below so you don’t have to search for it. Be inspired!
Well I think this is a good enough update for the time being. I hope everyone enjoys the pictures. Let me know what you think of them of course!
I ended up having a productive day! And I still have a few more hours to go. After my walk this morning I went for my cup of coffee and drove to the bank and read a book while I waited for the bank to open. Once I took care of that I went back to the house and straightened my room (while watching Grosse Pointe Blank), went through the pictures of the morning, cleaned my bathroom, organized my online album for an approaching update, took a nap, input some of my tax info into TurboTax (which was a bit depressing), watched Man Vs. Wild while I ate dinner (which is a great show! But that guy drinks elephant dung! Eww/awesome! haha) and now I’m updating my blog. It’s been an awesome, relaxing day!
So updates… short, sweet, to the point… There is only one because I'm not really in the mood to write. hehe
Contacts – My optometrist told me not to give up on my contacts, which I pretty much had by the time I had my follow-up appointment. He decided to try a couple other types of contacts. And I put the one pair in and was blown away by the difference! I mean they still dry out but not nearly as bad and my eyes don’t hurt! This current pair is what I expected getting used to wearing contacts would be! But there are still some issues and he gave me two types to try so this next week I plan on trying them.
And here are more pictures… But this time I put them in sets rather then chronological.
Sunrise set
Scenic
Um... Not sure what to label these... Light and a Bush
Focus, lines, textures, etc.
I took an exploration walk on Christmas Day and saw some beauty in the desert. So I went back out January 15th and took the pics below.
I just got back from an hour and a half walk. I don't know how far it was but I was in the mood to explore! I had explored an area around my neighborhood another time and I guessed it was about a mile and a half in one direction. This had to have been at least 3 times that distance. But oh my gosh! Talk about cool stuff to photograph! I didn't bring my camera on purpose. I really wanted to enjoy the walk. The prior exploration walks I got an idea of what I wanted to photograph and the time of day that would be good to photograph it and came back. I will do the same for this route. But I did like some of the imagery so much I took a few pics with my cell. If they turned out even half way decent I'm sure I'll post them below.
And I know… I should have at least updated with a quick "hello, I'm back safe"… But things have been a little strange since being back from Colorado. I'd say hectic but it hasn't really been. I guess I've had other things I'd rather be doing.
Ok so this is gonna take me a bit to get posted but I should get it posted by this evening.
Colorado - So, as most of you know I had an absolute blast in Colorado! I definitely need to get back there, preferably when it's a bit warmer and I can see some more of the nature other then just white! Though I will admit I was surprised at how easily I handled the cold! I guess being dressed for it helps.
Thursday - I actually worked a little over a half a day. My flight left in the evening and I got into Colorado at about 8pm. My cousin Joey picked me up and brought me back to her place.
Friday - Was up and ready for the day by 7:30 and went with my cousin to take her daughters to school. She and I went to breakfast and then met her friend Layle (?sp) at the mall. They got their ears pierced together. My friend Jason met up with us at around noon. It was the first time meeting him in person. It’s amazing that you can be so close to someone and have yet to meet them in person. Anyways, it was great meeting him face to face, as well as his kids. My cousin Joey and I had agreed to help Jason pick out some stuff to decorate his living room, so that was our goal for the afternoon. After shopping at a few places I think we finally ended up picking out some great items at Cost Plus World Market. Joey had to pick up the kids and drop them off for Nate to watch that night while she, Jason and I went out.
We met back up with Jason and went out to dinner to this authentic Japanese place that Jason loves. It was good food! I even had a Japanese soda which was quite an interesting experience. The bottle itself kept me intrigued. Hehe So I took a few pictures of the dinner but then this is where I made the biggest mistake of the evening. Joey wasn’t into getting her picture taken. She seemed quite moody about it actually. So when we decided to take the light rail to downtown Denver to go to the movies I figured I didn’t want to lug around a camera when all we were doing was going into a theater. BIG MISTAKE!
I actually would have liked to take pictures on the light rail and there was a tunnel on the way to the train that had neon lights and when you passed them they made cool chime sounds… It would have made for some fun pics. But then again we were rushing to catch the train so I wouldn’t have been able to take a lot of time to get the pictures I would have enjoyed getting. So like I said, even on the train would have been kind of fun to get some pictures. We were walking to the theaters and Jason saw the horse drawn carriages and ran over to ask how much it was. So he paid for us to go on a carriage ride. It was freezing and Joey and I were bundled up under the blanket while Jason had to bear the cold in just a jacket. It was great though… I was bummed when Jason pointed out that a picture of Joey and I bundled up in the blanket would have been classic! It would have been. I was torn between missing out on getting great pictures and also being able to experience the moment without constantly thinking of the pictures I could get with my camera…
After the horse carriage ride we looked at the movies and didn’t see anything good playing but saw a bowling ally so we decided to check it out. It was a great bowling ally! Nothing like the white trashy places you usually see. This was like a full on club! Great bar area and it played loud music and had the neon lights. We got a lane almost immediately and I had a blast bowling though I have always sucked at bowling, I still had an awesome time! I laughed a lot and thoroughly enjoyed myself! There was this one guy from the lane next to us that kept teasing my cousin. It was hilarious and I don’t think I could describe any of the incidents’ without writing another novel. But it was good times for sure! We made our way back to Jason’s and ended up setting up the stuff we had bought for him that day. It looks good. I think I got to bed around 2am.
Saturday - My cousin Joey had a hair appointment at 11am that I went with her. I took some time to journal and got a call from my mom and sister asking how my time was so far. Later that night we met her friend Tish at her place at about 5pm and the night started from there. One thing I was surprised about was that everyone we rode with seemed to get lost! I was thinking most of these people live here, why are they getting so lost? Haha We finally got over to Rio Grande, a bar in Denver and met up with a group of people. I met my new friends Bruce, Nicole (Tish’s sister) and Deseree. I really enjoyed Nicole and Des. We hit it off and had a great time chattering away about lots of things. I took a few pictures. We made it over to the Comcast belated holiday party at about 9pm… It started at 7pm. Hehe It was at the Aquarium. This place was awesome! The whole thing, set aside for the Comcast party. So I of course made my way through the aquarium part of it and took pictures all along the way. We left that party at around midnight only to go to another bar and close it out. I was tired. But we even made our way to Denny’s after closing out the last bar. I didn’t get into bed till 5am!
Sunday - There was a blizzard warning so it was emergency travel only. So I was able to recuperate from the night before. Hehe And I was actually able to watch the game between the Patriots and the Colts. A very good game considering I don’t much care for football. I went to bed at about 10pm, fairly early considering the other nights I was in bed well after midnight!
Monday – I went with Joey in the morning to work and Jason was going to pick me up and “babysit” or “entertain” me all day. We ran a few errands, went to lunch and then went to see a kid appropriate movie since his kids were with us and then went back to his place for the rest of the time. Joey had to work late so she needed me to work out meeting up with Nate so he could take me to the airport. Jason was nice enough to drive me all the way back to Joey’s. Joey ended up calling me to tell me she was ditching work and she made it in time to see me off. I landed in Ontario Ca. at about 10:00 and my parents were there to pick me up. I had a good time and can’t wait to go back.
A Chair’s Photography - I’ve meant to write about this for a while but I think because I’m a bit nervous to put it out there I’ve avoided it. But the decision is made… I am looking into getting a photography business going. There are so many aspects of it that I’m not sure in what direction to take it. But the defined plans are putting up a site, selling prints, and offering my services for events, family portraits, etc. I have been encouraged by a few of my friends. I think Jason was the first to get me to think about it seriously (since he knows I can put up the site and he’ll help me market it) and as soon as I had made the decision in my own mind, without really telling anyone I suddenly had a lot of people randomly suggesting that I sell my prints, or offer my services and many of the things I had already been mulling over. Hmmm? Yeah, I think someone upstairs is trying to tell me something. Hehe Each person offered either confirmation or even another perspective of what and how to go about it. It’s been exciting!
Photography - Last night I was textin Jason about wanting to go to China Town and then I realized that I always feel so excited about going out of state to take pictures of places I’ve never been, but there are plenty of places here in California that I haven’t been to that would be awesome to take pictures of! So as I drove home I started to make a mental list of places I would like to visit or revisit, taking my camera along. The cool part is I already have plans to make most of these trips!
Here’s what I have so far…
Santa Monica Pier / Promenade PCH and the surrounding areas China Town Bishop Redwood Forest San Francisco Fresno
My friend Russ called me last night (he is one of the many to suggest I start a photography business without knowing I have already been thinking about it). He was really encouraging about my photography skills and getting the business going! And for our next visit he’s going to show me around PCH (Pacific Coast Highway for those of you who don’t know what that is) and some of the surrounding areas. He says there are some great spots for pictures. I’m really excited! We’ve made plans to meet the last Saturday of February. We have a hard time hanging out since we live so far apart. But I plan on driving down to his place and we’ll make a day of it! I am looking forward to it. He said it might be prettier in the spring but with how hard it is to commit to a date we should just stick with February. Hehe And I agreed, if I need to I can always get together with him again in the spring!
My brother Brian said he’d take me to China Town. He says the one in San Francisco is better though. And I’m like, heck… if you want to take me to San Francisco lets go for it! Haha But I’ll have to set up the date and just tell Brian he’s taking me. But I think I’ll shoot for March or something. If I went up to San Francisco then I’d add a few more places to my route! My friend Sandeep lives in Fresno I’d have to visit him! He has a farm and I think it would be cool to take pictures up there. Actually he’s asked me if I’d be willing to take pictures of it for him. He’s another person that has encouraged me to start a photography business. And of course San Francisco! And then I’d have to stop by and see my friend James! Gosh… maybe I should plan a trip to go up North! I could drive up Friday night and stay till Sunday night so it wouldn’t be taking me away from work. I’d eventually like to get up to the Redwood Forest!
Santa Monica Pier is a place I can go on my own… Though I think I would like someone to go with me, especially someone that enjoys photography as much as I do. Hehe But if I go alone it might be kind of interesting.
So I just got off the phone with my friend Andie. She said she wants to take me to the Arboretum in either LA or Pasadena. And then she came up with a great plan! Since most of my friends are taking me to awesome places to take pictures and to experience new things… I should put it out there that all of my friends pick their favorite unique place to go and we’ll set it up to go together… So, how about it friends? Help me experience the more interesting places of California! Anyone interested? Let me know!
My Drive - So I am actually sitting at work with a moment to spare... maybe even two. I just finished a big project and am quite relieved! It’s one that has consumed every moment off the phones since last Thursday! My drive into work this morning was a bit disconcerting. I was feeling good. Even got on the road a little earlier then expected from my contacts appointment. Which by the way, I am currently wearing contacts on a trial basis. Today I was only allowed to wear them for 4 hours. Thank god it was only 4 hours because my eyes were totally dry! I don’t have drops which I think is a must to continue. Anyways, back to my drive into work. I was testing out my new headset, the other one I purchased with my new cell phone didn’t seem to work too well, I was chatting away with my friend and suddenly I was stopped by a wall of traffic. I had heard the roads were bad because of some snow and ice and the clouds looked pretty harsh in the pass. As I inched forward at a crawl I considered the choice of turning around before it was too late. It took me 45 minutes to get from 395 to the top of the pass! I won’t bore you with details… But my full trip took 2 ½ hours. I was a little surprised to see snow all the way down to Glen Helen. And along the way I saw about 3 cars on the side of the road that looked to be pretty banged up. So apparently accidents were prevalent this morning and I just got stuck in the residual effects from them. Yay for the Cajon Pass!
Stuff - This morning was filled with good and bad. The drive took a lot out of me. For some reason I was not in the mood for any of the cds I had in my car and I was anxious because of the stop and go and lack of knowing or being able to see what was causing the traffic. Yeah it’s the control freak in me, I know. Hehe So I got my contacts this morning, which was a good thing. I got a call from my optometrist shortly after leaving their office telling me my second pair of glasses is in! Luckily I’ll have time to get used to them before I go on my trip. (Below is a little better picture taken again with a camera phone of the first pair to come in, my Calvin Klein glasses) I got to work an hour and a half late but finished that project that I was stressing about. My supervisor wanted me to take a half an hour lunch at least so I took a walk and did my gratitude list. It totally changed my outlook.
My Room - So the other day I took some time to do some serious spring-cleaning in my bedroom. It’s needed it for a LONG time and I finally got around to doing it last weekend. I love my room! I love specific design elements of my room. It’s a great retreat for sure! When I keep it clean that is. And so far so good, I’ve been able to keep it clean. So here are some pictures I took after it was clean and I was enjoying it to its fullest! And my room isn’t always this filled with burning candles, though as most of you know, I do love my candles. Hehe
Ok so this is actually the living room but this amounted to our Christmas Tree this year. :)
I love my boxes
Awesome lamps from IKEA
A painting from my sister and my awesome lamps from IKEA My window Candles Lights on Lights Off (and yes that is myspace hehe) My favorite corner :) Candles One of my favorite pieces More candles Lamp and candles My window at night :) Hanging candles
I’ve debated on writing out New Year’s Resolutions but to be honest I haven’t come up with any. I’ve been on the road of change since October and really don’t know what goals I have for the full year. I know I have a lot of short term goals. Things that I hope to accomplish in the month of January in particular. And maybe that’s what this year is going to be all about. A bunch of short-term goals and will end up being amazed at how the year ends.
Game Night New Year's Eve 2006 Edition - So last year ended on a good note. I was at Game Night New Year’s Eve 2006 Edition. I love games nights! We had a good time. We had different groups playing different things. I played African Uno, Pit and Pictionary. Below are some of my favorite pictures of me from the evening! Or Click Here to check out all the pics of the evening.
I had Uno but Heidi had a "7" in her hand! :(
I love the looks on our faces as we're trying to figure out what Rashaell is drawing Me being goofy
linkLINE Crew - A couple days prior to New Years, the old linkLINE crew got together for dinner at Bombay Bistro in Claremont Ca. It was my first time eating Indian food, good stuff! It was quite an interesting experience looking around the table with only a couple faces missing, meeting up with a group of people I loved at one point in my life. I still love them. They were a big part of my life. This connection seemed surprisingly stable even after all this time. I hadn’t realized how much I enjoyed this season of linkLINE until I was there enjoying the people again. linkLINE had a great group of employees, it’s too bad they didn’t appreciate what they had when they had it. But as Sam always said… “linkLINE will always survive despite itself.” But I no longer care what was done by them, in fact I thank linkLINE for laying me off, it was the best thing that happened to me! And for the time that I was there I made a great group of friends that has gone above and beyond the office environment. It may take another year for us all to get together (hopefully not) but still good times…
For those of you who don’t know… I uploaded a BUNCH of pics to my album a day or so into the New Year, so if you haven’t already go to My Album and check em out! There are so many pictures of Bishop that is the one album I have yet to complete. I’ll be sure to announce when those are up.
Plans, events and happenings – Goodness, like I said in the beginning, I may not have goals for the whole year but I sure as heck have short term goals and plans.
Glasses - I recently purchased two new pair of glasses. I knew I wanted to replace my current worn out frames but they are no longer available so I was forced to make a change. Forced is probably not the best word, it was a requirement but one that I was all too happy to oblige to. I know my life has changed and therefore why not make a change to my highly visible accessory such as my glasses? I hadn’t realized how long I’ve had these current frames for until I happened upon some pictures of Jesse and me and I was wearing the same frames! That was 6+ years ago! I definitely think it’s time for a change. Another thing that hit me is why haven’t I ever thought of buying more then one pair at a time? (Well financially it was probably an issue.) With more then one pair I can mix it up. Play with my mood. So here’s a sneak peak at the frames I bought. (pics taken with my camera phone so they are not the best quality) Can’t wait to get feedback!
Appointments Galore – [side tangent] The word “galore” always reminds me of the Cure, is that odd? I think that’s odd. [/end side tangent] So I finally got past my 90 days at Alliance. Go me! Thus meaning I get insurance and all that good stuff.
I made the eye appointment because I knew I wanted new glasses, sadly vision was not covered or maybe it was and well I stick with Dr Newton no matter what just because, well he’s family in some distant way. His son is married to my sister-in-laws sister. HAHA yeah… distant… very distant. So they treat me good there, not that I get any family discount or anything, but that’s ok. I also have an appointment to give contacts another try. I attempted contacts back after highschool and my eyes couldn’t deal with the dryness. So I figure it’s been almost 10 years, they probably have better contacts to chose from. Now how odd is this: going from 1 pair of glasses for the last 6 years at least… to having 2 pair of glasses and contacts to chose from!? That means every outfit has 3 choices! This is gonna be fun!
I have a dentist appointment a week from today. I had some fillings that came out a while back and I can only imagine what damage I’ve done to my teeth since! Oh well… I couldn’t stand the dentist I had with linkLINE and when I finally got around to changing it, I got laid off. So I’m glad to finally be getting somewhere with it, but not looking forward to the scolding I’m going to receive about the shape my teeth are in. hehe
Colorado – I’m heading to Colorado in 9 days. I’m really looking forward to it! I need the change of scenery for a bit. And who am I kidding; it’s another place to mark on my map of “visited places”! And I’m excited to hang out with my cousin Joey and my friend Jason. Turns out Friday I’ll be hanging out with Joey and Jason. Saturday Joey’s office is having their belated Christmas party, and she’s made arrangements for afterwards. Hehe See, the night I made cookies and was rocking out in the kitchen listening to U2 Vertigo Live in Chicago (see prior blog post), well I realized I needed to get out and go dancing. I had made the decision to ask Joey and that was exactly the plans she’s made for me prior to me even really suggesting that we should go out dancing together. So I am looking forward to getting out and she’s a hoot when she’s out having a good time. Hehe Though I don’t party or get drunk so that is the only apprehension I have about the evening. Sunday not too sure what she has planned. I wouldn’t have minded checking out Jason’s church but I don’t think I’ll be anywhere near his place Sunday morning. Monday my cousin is still not sure that she can get the day off so I’ll be hanging out with Jason I think. I should probably plan to come back out when the weather is nicer so I can get up to the places like Hanging Lake, or Garden of the Gods.
It’s amazing how you think, wow there isn’t that much to write and once you sit down to write you realize there is a buttload to write about… The following is one of those added topics!
Assemble Project – I’m still working on the project for my brother. In fact, I ditched the project so I could update my blog. I was sitting here fretting about getting it done and wishing I could make time for me when I realized, well then why not make time for me? So I made a selfish decision and well I am happy I did. Anyways, back to the reason I chose this topic. This project is extensive and will probably last quite some time. I’m looking forward to the extra income but it has been slow in coming. I finalize one phase of the project only to start on another. But it’s all going very well.
Well I suddenly lost all gumption so I think this is a good enough update. Took me long enough I know… I hope you’ve all survived the absence of updates. Hehe
I love you all!
P.S. Just so you know, comments do actually work on these blog posts! Click on the Date and Time stamp of that post and at the bottom of that page you can click on "Post a Comment"
Hello All! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Today's been a very relaxing day! I was able to sleep in, clean my desk and organize paperwork (which has been bothering me for weeks now) and now I'm on my way to go make cookies for the rest of the evening! Can't wait for tomorrow! I love Christmas! And Christmas Eve has always been the big day for my family. :)
So Thursday night my sister came over and we went to Longs and picked out decorations for our gingerbread house... I .... LOVE.... it!!!!
With the help of coconut, sour rips (the roof which I think turned out the best!), nerd rope (great as Christmas lights and a wreath), nerds, dots, candy canes, jolly rancher suckers and rocks, sour punch straws, classic mints, lifesavers, and jujubes... I give you my very first ever decorated gingerbread house.
Thank you, thank you... Isn't it just awesome!? I couldn't have done it without the help of my sister! She was with me the whole time, our creative minds working together! Oh and I also couldn't have done it without Mike helping me find the electric mixer for the frosting! ;) HAHAHA
Either way, it was a blast! I was up WAY too late... I got to bed at 1am and then got up for work at 5:30 the next morning. I was tired. I got to work early because they were letting us leave early. I didn't take a lunch so I didn't really get any free time. The day was full of voice authorization calls. I guess everyone paying their bills at the last minute. But I was able to leave work at 3:30 and finish up my last minute shopping. I got home and wrapped all my presents...
Well I'm gonna go make cookies... I hope to start getting pictures ready to upload tonight and tomorrow.
Another fun filled weekend past… I love Christmas! It means so many wonderful parties, events and hustle and bustle. I thrive on this kind of holiday chaos! Although Sunday and Monday I was still recovering from my drive up to Bishop and back on Saturday. I woke up at 3am and my friend Brandie and I were on the road by 4:30am! I had gone to bed at 11pm the night before because I went out to dinner with some friends from linkLINE.
This morning has been full of great surprises. I went to bed at about 11:30pm because I was on the phone with a friend. I was able to get up and go for my walk. I am starting to realize that I don't need as much sleep as I thought. I used to think I had to be in bed by 10 to get enough sleep to wake up and walk and survive the day. But I seem to do well with just 6 hours. I woke up this morning and it was a bit more chilly then the other mornings I've walked. The sky was beautiful and the sun hadn't made its official appearance yet. I have a new route that I take. You have to spice it up a bit to keep it interesting, don't you? I said my gratitude list which seemed to come easier then other mornings. I was smiling even though my cheeks were so cold it hurt to smile. I weighed because I had forgotten to on Monday and I wanted to see what damage had happened from the weekend food consumption. And to my surprise I had lost a pound from Fridays weigh-in! How cool is that?! As I got ready I was reminded of all the small blessings I've received over the last few days, even when I was in a funk and dead tired, I was still blessed. I love that I am a changing person. I am aware that I still have a lot to work on but it's been amazing to see the transformation in myself internally and externally!
Well the above was written yesterday and today I’m unable to spend a lot of time so here’s the skinny… ;)
Dinner Friday Night – I went to dinner with some old friends from linkLINE. None of us work for linkLINE anymore but we all became good friends while working together there a few years back. My friend Tim came to pick me up from work and we got to Red Robin and to my surprise Carlos, Nancy, Erin and David were already there waiting! We had a good time. Chatting, catching up, and hearing interesting stories about where we work now. Annette was unable to make it which was a bummer but all-in-all a good time. I took lots of pictures so those will be posted along with this.
Bishop – My friend Brandie and I had this crazy idea of waking up WAY before the buttcrack of dawn to drive up to Bishop and take pictures! I had gotten to bed at 11pm the night before and woke up at 3am to be ready by the time Brandie got there. I ran a little slow and we were on the road by 4:30am. We enjoyed talking and catching up and realizing we were in the middle of an adventure and how glad we were that we decided to be insane and do this excursion.
The point of this trip was to take pictures so we stopped along the way at different sites we saw that looked interesting. One in particular was a field of horses. These horses were amazing! They were very friendly and came running up for attention, pushing their way by each other to get closer to us. I took a lot of pictures of them. They were awesome! We stopped by on the way back home as well.
Once in Bishop we stopped at Erick Schat’s Bakery and had breakfast and went over to a nearby park to take some pictures. It was a nice little park. It was about 20 degrees, possibly colder, but I enjoyed taking pictures. We drove up to the mountains and got as high as they would let us, apparently they close certain roads in the winter. On our way back down, stopped off at the bakery again and had lunch and went over to Mountain of Light Gallery and I was impressed with what I saw but it also inspired me to get out there more, to get my photography site up, I’ll explain more later.
We decided to make a drive up Mount Whitney through Lone Pine and were met with snow! We didn’t get that far when we realized Brandie’s little car couldn’t drive too much further. It was great to experience the snow. It’s been so long and there were huge flakes and it was sticking and before I knew it the ground was white. I loved it!
We drove home and made our stops along the way. Over the course of the day I took just above 500 pictures! I know… Crazy. But most were testing settings and will not be usable. It was a great experience and I will definitely go back when it’s warmer!
Christmas Shopping – This year has been a downer as far as Christmas shopping is concerned. I think I’m used to picking the perfect gift and sadly I didn’t put enough thought into it and ran out of time. I still have yet to find my mom something and everything I’ve thought just doesn’t grab me and say “I’m the perfect gift, pick me.” Usually I’m the one that goes all out for Christmas. So I’m a little disappointed. *Update* - well on my lunch break I went to go pick up something small that I knew my mom would like, on the way an idea popped into my head, a great idea! And I’m happy with it! So my mom is covered… woohoo!
Candlelight Service – Tonight is the Candlelight service at The Place. We have a little kid’s performance and then we do our family tradition with the story of Christmas with the use of candles. I love the tradition and love that the church has adopted it. It’s a great visualization of what Christmas is all about.
Gingerbread House – Tomorrow night I am going to decorate my first ever Gingerbread house! I bought a kit up at Schat’s bakery in Bishop and have asked my sister to join me since she has never done one either. It should be fun. I’ll make sure to take pictures. I have a lot of fun, creative ideas. Heidi is going to come over and we’re going to take a look at the size and then go to the store to pick up little candy add-ons to make the house more fun. Though the kit comes with some, I’m sure it isn’t what I have in my imagination.
I have determined I've been on a natural high for probably a month or so now! I have my moments, but that's just it, they are moments, not days, weeks or even months! Life is simply amazing!
I've been hoping to update every day this week and have not gotten the opportunity to. Work has kept me busy and after work I'm working on the Assemble project for my brother. Last weekend was pretty incredible! Lots of parties and good times!
The Place Christmas Party (Friday, December 8, 2006) - The church Christmas party was a lot of fun! I left work early on Friday to get up the hill by 4pm to take pictures of Rachel and her family at the local park. Once that was done, I rushed home, got my hair curled, grabbed my outfit and rushed out the door with enough time to grab a gift certificate from Starbucks for the gift exchange before the party.
I looked good. I felt good. So when I got there I was glad to get pictures with Rachel and Heidi. It turns out velvet was the common fabric of the evening! Three of us girls were wearing it and I made sure to get pictures of us together. They will of course be posted shortly. I may edit this post and add a couple to it.
The Chinese gift exchange turned out to be a good time! I always like it when people are running around stealing gifts from other people. Haha I ended up getting exactly what I was hoping for.
Alliance Christmas Party (Saturday, December 9, 2006) - Saturday I was able to sleep in and then I worked on the Assemble project for my brother until it was time to get ready for the Alliance Christmas party. I drove down to Rancho, before making my way over to Yucaipa, to pick up a gift for my secret santa person, though I was pretty sure he wouldn’t be at the party, I decided it wouldn’t be good to come empty handed if he happened to show up.
I got there and was impressed with how nicely Keith’s house was decorated for the party. It turns out it was all Jessica’s doing. I know the people I work with, and most I knew through linkLINE. But this was the first time I was hanging out with my coworkers outside of the office since starting to work for Alliance. I felt a bit awkward and out of place. I found myself getting in trouble texting my friend too much and Jessica took my phone away! I thought that was funny. Keith was sweet and asked me to join his table. I enjoyed hanging out with Keith and playing the games. I got a $50.00 AMEX gift card! And my secret santa got me a Partylite jar candle! I thought it was great!
The only downer was that something was said at one point in the night that caused me to be extremely insecure. I thought it might be a joke, but it was something I couldn’t shake. I tried really hard to just enjoy my time. I figured the party wasn’t the time to sit down with the person and find out what they meant by it.
After the party, since I was just blocks away, I stopped by Sam’s parent’s house to say hi. It had been a while since I had seen them and had talked to Robin beforehand to see if it would be ok. It was great to see them. I love that family! Doug was there with a newly bought race car so I got to check that out. I stayed for about an hour and then decided to make my way home.
The drive home was a bit intense. The rain was pouring and the roads were a bit slick. I was still unable to shake the insecurities of that one comment. I called my dad who prayed for me, yet I still wasn’t doing well. Everyone I wanted to talk to wasn’t available since it was so late. So I just got home and went to sleep hoping that the next morning I would be able to wake up with a new day and new perspective.
Free Hugs (Sunday, December 10, 2006) - Sunday I got to church and found that I was feeling some residual insecurity from the night before. Crazy how one comment can affect your core fear to that level. I had to take a bunch of pictures for the church roster. So I grabbed as many people as I could and tried to take the pictures in different locations so it didn’t look like it was all the same place.
After church our Post High School to 30-Something group planned to meet at the Best Buy / Toys R Us parking lot in Victorville to give out Free Hugs. At first I was completely nervous and unsure of what kind of response we would get standing outside a store holding signs that said “Free Hugs”. But I soon found out that people were very receptive to it! It was a complete and utter blast. Within minutes the guys that were skeptical of even doing it were having the time of their lives! It was cool to see people’s reactions to us offering free hugs without any strings attached! People would look at our signs with utter confusion on their face! It was great! Originally we thought we would only be there for an hour, but we were having so much fun and had so much positive feedback that we stayed for 2 hours! It was a perfect location. I was even thanked a couple of times because the person really just needed that hug! It was such an awesome experience! People stopped and got out of their cars to get a hug! We hugged through windows, though I tried my best not to stop traffic because it was a busy location!
We only had maybe 10% of the people have a negative view of what we were doing. But for the most part people were amazed that we were just out there to spread hugs! I gave out sooo many hugs! I would say about 40-50% of the people that I offered hugs to, took me up on the offer! I had no idea that it would be so well received. I was smiling ear-to-ear and in the end felt that I had been apart of a pretty amazing thing! I was so high from the experience I couldn’t stop talking to everyone about it! One kid thought it was such a great idea he asked if he could take the idea to his church group at New Life!
After our two hours my arms were tired! I was physically exhausted giving out that many hugs! I noticed when offering hugs that kids were more excited to give and receive hugs then their parents. It was sad when parents wouldn’t let them stop to hug. Though I know hugging strangers is probably not the safest thing to teach kids.
But all-in-all it was one of the best experiences in my life!!! And our group plans to meet again to give out Free Hugs, hopefully before Christmas because it seemed to be so appropriate that we were handing out hugs during a season when people can be at their worst! I had someone tell me that they really needed my hug especially after coming out of Toys R Us. So I will keep you posted on any future events! Maybe you can stop by and get a free hug!
Marc & Jess’s Family and Friend BBQ (Sunday, December 10, 2006) - After the Free Hug event I drove back down to Keith’s house in Yucaipa for a BBQ for Marc and Jess since they were flying back to Wisconsin this week. I wanted to make sure to get in one last hug before they left. I walked in and realized that I knew even less people there then I knew at the Christmas party for Alliance the night before. I wasn’t sure how comfortable I would be and how long I would stay.
But before I knew it I saw Rob, Marc’s brother, who used to work at linkLINE and we had fun talking about our views of linkLINE. I was introduced to Marc’s dad and sister who both said, “Oh *you’re* Charity!” haha I just joined into conversations and had a lot of fun. Robin, Doug and Sasha happened to show up while I was there so I got a chance to catch up with Sasha which was nice. I don’t believe I’ve seen her since her birthday dinner in early October. I stayed for a couple of hours and then made my way home.
Christmas - I got home early enough to get Christmas decorations up. I love Christmas! Every morning on my gratitude walk I can’t help but be grateful for this holiday! For what it means, what it stands for, and what it does for me. When I think of Christmas I think of warmth and comfort, family and friends, beautiful decorations, cinnamon scents, snowflakes (even if I live in California!) and hot chocolate! I love Christmas!
Hello all... I finally got some pictures posted to my album. If you haven't already seen them, here are the links to the individual events below... Or just Click Here to go to My Album.
I am doing great! There is so much going on in my life. I'm really excited to see where I am going to go next. :) Yes, there are moments of sadness and frustration, but they are happening less and less and all-in-all life has been really good.
Weigh In - 11/10/06
I lost another pound this week for a grand total of 33 pounds! Go me. :) I measured myself for the first time in a few months. I have lost 9 1/2 inches here and there for a grand total of 35 inches lost since I started taking control of my weight! That made my day. Realizing my body has changed that much! No wonder the last few weeks I've seen a drastic change in the shape of my body. I'm more motivated to keep it up. I feel so much better about myself.
Voting with Bullets - I have been getting out more lately. It’s been kind of nice. I went to my friend Turtle's show and took pictures of his band playing at the Ponderosa on 10/21/06. Turtle has been an acquaintance since my wannabe Goth days ages ago! Truth be told, he was my first kiss. Hah! Here are a couple shots from the show.
Turtle
The rest of the band
My friends Erica and Joe
Walks - Here are a few pictures of what I see on my lunch break walks by my office. Beautiful huh?
New Coworkers - Here are a few pictures of my new coworkers.
Keith
Cathy
Stephanie
Sandeep, Eric and Hector
Sandeep's last day, he just moved to Fresno
Disneyland - My sister and I had a blast! We met a lot of cool people. I have never had so much fun talking to complete strangers! We even made a couple new buddies who hung out with us for the first half of the day, a young guy named Dillon who goes to UCLA and his little brother, Jordan who came out for a visit. We met a couple other ladies who were totally awesome and of course I took pictures all along the way.
A cool worker on the Tower of Terror Ride
Jordan and Dillon
Jordan, Dillon and Heidi
Proof I was there haha
Heidi, Hannah and I can't remember her moms name :(
Friendship - It's strange how friends can come and go during different chapters of your life. I’ve been more cognizant of it in the last couple of days. I have made a wonderful new friend named Jason, someone that challenges me to be a better person, someone that I can trust with my feelings, someone that I can have a good old fashioned wholesome conversation with (the sad part is aside from my long-time friends I have found this to be rare!). I am grateful that God brought him into my life… with the help of my cousin. ;)
Dating - Well I have gotten back out into the dating scene. It’s been an interesting experience. All my relationships have started with friendship and then blossomed from there. But for the first time in my life, I have multiple guys interested at the same time. I’m not sure how I feel about it all. Most don’t share my faith so that stops things from going any further. I figure at this point I’m not ready for anything serious so I’m enjoying it while it lasts. I have never been one that *had* to be in a relationship. So I’m just going with the flow.
My Hair - I went to my sisters place today and she cut and colored my hair. I absolutely love it! The after picture has my hair curled and I rarely curl my hair. But I can't wait to see what it's like when I style it tomorrow. Anyways, it's awesome that I can now go to her to do my hair. :) She did an awesome job! I know she was nervous but I'm soo proud of her. Here are the before and after shots.
Before - 11/10/06
After - 11/11/06
Well I know there is plenty more I could share. But for now I think this is enough scrolling... :) Hope you enjoyed the pictures. I have tons more from these events that I will upload to my album eventually. hehe
I’ve been home since Tuesday and I haven’t even fully unpacked yet! I just started a couple loads of laundry while I got ready this morning. My room is a disaster! It’s been a busy week back home. I plan to spend the day doing laundry, cleaning and getting the pictures of my trip ready to upload. Tonight my friend Turtle’s band “Voting with Bullets” is playing late and I am gong to try to get out there to see him. Tomorrow we’re having a family birthday dinner for my dad. It’ll be the first time I’ve seen him or my sister and her kids since I’ve been back!
Weigh In - 10/21/06
Well I haven't been focusing as well as I should but I am glad I've done as well as I have under the circumstances! I've lost 32 pounds! woohoo!
My trip to North Carolina – Well you pretty much have an idea of what the typical day was like for me out there if you’ve read a few of my prior blog entries. The kids were perfect! I had absolutely NO issues and enjoyed spoiling them on Saturday before their parents came back home! It seems that the little one (Gabriel) considered me a threat once his mom got home because he threw a couple attitudes towards me and I wasn’t quite sure where they came from. But all-in-all a GREAT trip!
Moving to North Carolina – That got your attention didn’t it? Well I went to North Carolina with no idea of moving there. It wasn’t until I was there a couple days and had worked with the people at my brothers company that I started to think about it. There was one girl, Crystal, who I had been working with the most on the website project. She flat out asked me to move out there and said I would be a great addition to the team. I kind of laughed it off but my mind was never able to let it go. I continued my trip not letting anyone know that I was even thinking about it. I decided to keep an open mind and keep praying for God’s guidance and confirmation of whether or not I was supposed to move. Things kept coming into my mind. Currently I have no ties to California. My life has been uprooted over the last few months and I’ve always wondered why. This would make sense. A semi-temporary move to North Carolina might be just what I was supposed to do. The thought of moving out of California scares me, but I’ve been praying about it. I still don’t know. By the end of the week I told my brother and a few people and asked them to pray for me. Shawn told me he would not put *any* pressure on me because my parents would kill him but he would love it if I moved out there. I had ran into an old classmates dad at my brothers church and as I mentioned why I was out there I also joked that people wanted me to move there. He said that some people are given options. That there isn’t just one path they can take, that they will still be in God’s will for their lives.
When I was on the plane coming home I wrote in my journal of all the thoughts going through my head. One of them was, is this just a wake up call? Is it that I’m not supposed to move but just realize that I need to push myself for something better? I really have endless possibilities for what my future can be. This has caused me to reevaluate a lot of areas of my life. It’s possible that is all it was intended to do and it’s also possible I need to push myself outside of this comfort box I’ve built around myself or even d.) all of the above. So I’ve decided not to make any immediate decisions and I’m letting the flow of life determine what steps I take. I think the most impacting moment was when my mom picked me up from the airport late Monday night, I opened up about my thoughts on moving and she was calm and said that if that’s what God wanted she would not hold me back but that it would be really hard on her. I really didn’t expect that positive of a response. I had prayed and asked that God would reveal it to my parents so that I could have confirmation. The fact that my mom wasn’t completely against it shocked me. I have asked for them to keep praying about it. And I am asking my friends to keep praying for me as well. The longer I’m home the more I feel I’m settling back into my comfort box. But time will tell…
Some pictures of my trip – Below are some of my favorites from my trip. My friend Ludek recommended a batch resizing program and I was quite surprised I hadn’t thought of it before! I downloaded a couple and noted a big difference in the quality of downsizing and purchased the one that I was more impressed with. I was in shock! I had been going through and resizing my images one by one! What was I thinking!?! Haha I have all the pictures resized and am organizing them in my album and will upload them tonight. My brother Brian is into the new Battlefield 2142 and he plays online and uploading will not work while he’s playing.
Click on the image to enlarge
Me
Me just outside blockbuster
Family Pictures
Gabriel the first night I got there
Amber before church
Amber and Jackson in the car after church
Gabriel waiting for Sierrah to get out of school
Sierrah and Jaylen just out of school
Jackson playing "Cars" on the xbox
Amber
Jackson and Gabriel
Jackson looking adorable
All the kids - Sierrah, Amber, Gabriel and Jackson
A great picture of my brother Shawn
Shawn, Brenda and Gabriel
Shawn
Brenda
Sierrah
Brenda and the kids
Shawn, Brenda and the kids
Shawn, me and Brenda
The Evelys
Scenic Pictures
A crazy huge bee! It was the size of my thumb down to its nuckle!
The neighborhood as I saw it at 7am walking Sierrah to school
The trees and I liked the clouds
Shawn and Brenda's house, no matter how I tried to take the picture it just didn't capture the size!
Artistic view
The houses in the neighborhood
Yes, that is a cement block :)
And have I said how much I love lines?
Lawn ornament
Trees
Random Observations – As was getting ready this morning I was listening to a random selection in my iTunes and was struck by the lyrics of some of the songs, and not in a positive way. There are a lot of people out there that sing about settling for someone who doesn’t want them. It made me want to put in Alanis Morrisette or something to balance it! Haha I guess that’s a little too bitter for my taste at the moment! Ha! But I found it strange that these are songs I like and never really paid a lot of attention to what they represented.
Well if you got all the way down then YAY for you! Congratulations! I know it's a lot of pictures and I have a ton more coming. But I think I'm gonna have to say goodbye for now.
Man, today was a busy but great day! I think I overdid it a little being sick and all.
I woke up at about 9:00 and got ready and had to be over at my sisters house at 10:30 this morning to go down to SC Village Paintball Park for my nephews birthday. I was planning on playing until Friday when my cold not necessarily making me feel that sick but just took a lot out of me. I felt physically and mentally drained all day and night Friday and was left with sheer exhaustion and I didn’t want to overdo it with playing paintball. So I decided to go down and take some pictures with my new camera so I could kind of be involved without playing.
It was a lot warmer then I expected it to be. I got some great shots but by the second game I felt weak and tired. I decided to go back to my brother’s truck and write in my journal. I had already played paintball at this same place with my old company linkLINE last year so I kind of knew how it worked. I knew there were only a couple fields I could get decent shots from outside the boundaries. But when I went to write in my journal I was so physically drained I could barely hold the pen! I wrote about a page and gave up and just enjoyed the solitude and the breeze and went into a partial state of sleep where you’re constantly aware of all the sounds around you.
Everyone took a lot longer then I expected to come back to the cars, and when they did the day was over. So I took some end of the day shots and started to feel revived from my nap. My brother and I drove home; he rushed to take a shower. (I sometimes wished I was a guy, he was done in like 5 minutes!) We had to get back over to my sisters place for Bailey’s birthday party. But being the unprepared aunt and uncle that we’ve always been we had to make a quick stop off to Target to pick up a present.
Side Tangent:
So I told Brian I needed to pick up a hairdryer (mine decided to take a dive this morning) so he decided to head to the toy isles while I went to find the hairdryers. I was walking up an isle when I saw this lady and her daughter were taking up the whole end of the isle. I was a little frustrated that even though she saw me making my way down the isle she made no effort to move aside or tell her daughter to move the cart. I pardoned myself and squeezed through. I realized I missed the isle I needed and had to backtrack and sure enough the isle I needed the same lady had just moved into. And what would you guess? She’s again taking up the whole isle allowing her daughter with the cart to wait directly in the middle of the isle while she is on one side. At this point I’m sick, rushed and not in the mood for being polite so I yet again squeezed by her cart but this time without any pardons. As I pick up what I needed she says rather loudly… “Excuse you” and at this point I was so frustrated I replied “No, actually it’s more like excuse you.” Rarely do I give heed to rude people like this. Not sure if it was because I was sick, or tired or just not in the mood to let it go. Either way she continues by saying “you just ran over my daughter” and I turned and faced her slightly chuckling and said “No, I did *not* just run over your daughter” and she then kept going with “no, you were trying to.” HAH! I flat out laughed at this point and repeated again that I did not even *try* to run over her daughter and left the isle. Sure enough as I was walking away with my back to her she called me the “C” word! Can you believe it!?!?!?! I just kept walking and shook my head, laughing. Crazy!
End Side Tangent
Ok so Brian and I get to the party. I started to feel run ragged at this point. I try to eat pizza. It felt like the noise was exploding in my head. I couldn’t seem to get my voice loud enough for people to hear and when I finally did get it loud enough for people to hear I was so exhausted I could barely finish what I had to say. There were lots of people there and lots of kids screaming and running around and everyone wanted me to go and take pictures of this and that. If I had felt more alert and less exhausted I would have jumped at the chance but everything started to become a HUGE chore. I endured as much as I could and got home at about 9pm.
Of course since I had taken so many great shots my sister wanted to see the ones she could post on her myspace. There were a lot and we couldn’t just pick one or two. I really do love my new camera. One thing I noticed with my new camera on the flash shots is the complete lack of red eye that I always seemed to get with my Sony Cybershot. I know it’s only a point and shoot and I’m not quite sure what technology is in the new camera to take that out without doing the triple flash that most point and shoot cameras use to get rid of red eye. Anyways, it was a lot of fun taking pictures with it today. It responds quickly and I still catch myself expecting to have to wait once a shot is taken with a flash before I can shoot again. So far I’m extremely pleased with my investment!
Here are some of my favorites of the day taken with my Nikon D70
My dad is so cute. He is going to have me take pictures of the families at church. I will have from mid-October until early December to complete it and we are going to put together a roster with family pictures included. It will help me with my portraits and who knows some families may really be blessed to have them. I’m looking forward to it. I definitely need to invest in a tripod before that time though.
I also took some pictures of a parade that my sister and her kids were in with Jeff’s family minus Jeff. Tonight I saw a video of that same parade that my dad put together for my sister and her in-laws (at least in-laws until the divorce is final). My dad did a great job of putting the video together and added some of my pictures. I was actually quite proud of how my pictures turned out and felt again the urge to make this photography thing more then just a side hobby. We will have to wait and see what happens.
Here are some pictures of the parade. These were taken with my Sony Cybershot... Still a great camera!
I went to Drew and Heather’s wedding a few weeks ago and one of the many unique ideas she came up with was her sign-in book was a hard cover book of pictures of the two of them in their relationship. I was quite impressed with the book and felt I could really make a cool portfolio book or even a few portfolio books that way. I am going to look into what it takes to do that.
Well it’s late and there is so much more I want to rattle on about but I think this should do it for now. I really need my rest. I am tired and really want to get over being sick.
I have had a wonderful day! The first wonderful day I’ve had in a LONG time. I am filled with a genuine happiness. So much has changed. I’ve been hurting for so long I’m not sure how to handle it. Something happened to me the other night, something unexpected. I went to bed feeling like it would never end; the pain, the sorrow, the hurt, the tears… In the midst of yet another sleepless night filled with an indescribable ache; I woke with a new found freedom; a joy; a hope. I have not felt overwhelmed or sad or even emotional since that night. It’s only been a few days and I only keep feeling better. The heaviness that has lifted is incredible! I fear that it is only temporary. But I am not going to feed into that fear. I am going to believe that the battle is over. A new life has begun.
It’s amazing to see God’s hand in all of this. I feel truly blessed! The people He has put in my path. Friends that I hadn’t realized I even had have been encouraging me and giving me advice. Not all of them giving me godly advice but their advice still brought me closer to God. Today I took a “Gratitude Walk” as my friend Jason called it. And it was invigorating! What I was instructed to do was to take a walk and say everything that I was grateful for in my life and I did just that! He also mentioned that I was quite down on myself and forced me through random moments in our conversations to name 5 new things I like about myself each time. That can be really tough. But the thing is, after only a few times I really do see a lot more about myself that’s good and that I’m grateful for. In all of the rejection I’ve experienced lately I kept feeling like there was something wrong with me, or that I had done something wrong. I now am starting to realize that in some cases it wasn’t me at all and in other cases maybe the other person was the one that had something wrong with them. And that whatever they were dealing with, I shouldn’t take as a personal attack on me.
I want to thank all my friends, especially those of you that have not allowed me to let any negative thoughts fester in our conversations. I am feeling so alive and free; I’m extremely excited to see what the future holds!
Oh and I GOT MY CAMERA! I love it! I take it with me EVERYWHERE! I take pictures of everything! I can’t wait to get some photo shoots set up. I’ve been offering like never before. I sometimes wonder why I never invested into a camera sooner. It wasn’t as expensive as I thought it would be, but then again I know this is only the beginning! Luckily this is a beginning I can live with for a while. Anyways, I leave you with some of my first shots with my new camera.
