Day 124

I got to talk to Kelsey today and it was great.  Minus the internet which kept dropping our call.  All together we talked for about three hours.  Man, I miss her.  Sometimes all I want to do is call her up but I have to wait till we're both online.  But it's something. 

So, thanks for chatting Kels.  Love you.  Miss you.

Day 123

This is the kid I am watching now.  She is adorable and super well behaved.  I don't know how I feel about watching kids again though.  I'm working through it.  Maybe it will be a lesson in humility.

Day 122

Took engagement pictures today for Megan and Matt.  They were full of ideas and smiley.  Makes for great pictures!  :)

Day 121

Had my first pleasant experience with Tofu tonight.  Couldn't really taste it but that's better than the first time I tried it.  The rest of dinner was great.  Rice, peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, and a bunch of other vegetables that were delicious all fried up together.  Mmmmm!

It looks kind of gross though....

Day 120

Practiced with the boss's camera again.  A 7D this time.  I think I'm in love!  He was also kind enough to let me use his studio.  The subject this time was Amanda.  Luckily she is patient, beautiful, and photogenic.  I couldn't have asked for a better model.  Love her and thanks to her for letting me practice (and mess up).  Hopefully I'll retain what I've learned for the wedding on Saturday.

Day 119

Haven't taken my own picture in a while so there you go.  It's me!

Day 118

Both kids had games today again.  They're playing better and better every time I see them.  Afterwards we did ice cream at Gem.  It's basically tradition.  Ending a nice, hot day, watching Sister Act with my homie.

Day 115 - 117

I had the opportunity the last three days to be out of contact with most the world and it was kind of wonderful.  I visited a couple friends who work at Ghormley (the camp I was on summer staff at two years ago).  It's off of Highway 12 before you get to Yakima.  That drive, even with nearly constant construction is so beautiful.  It's the kind of beauty where you come around a corner and suck in your breathe.  The five hour drive is more than worth it.

While I was there I was able to just chill and relax.  I read a book, watched Jane Eyre (and a couple other movies), helped make tuna noodle casserole and just talked with Trisha about everything from my current state of unemployment to theology.  It was wonderful.  We stayed up till two this morning over a cup of coffee (and water for me) just sharing stories and laughing.  I needed that break very much.  But it ended as all "get away" excursions do.  I'm back in the living room of my apartment diligently searching for a job, posting my pictures and answering the 58 emails I got while I was gone.  So, you could say life is back to normal.  Minus the job part, hopefully that won't become a normal thing or a theme.  Cross your fingers!

Mt. Rainier on the way home.  I could have stayed there all day...

Memo

Just a warning but for the next three days I will be incommunicado, with no cell service or internet.  I will be taking pictures but they will probably not be posted till Friday night or Saturday.  Cheers!

Day 114

My little sister is leaving for school on Friday so I took her out to dinner tonight.  We had a good time and I had the most amazing dish!  Now I am sitting in an arm chair watching her pack.  Takes me back to when I was getting ready for school and the living room was full of stuff as I sat there trying not to panic.

Day 113

Went to a Senior Capstone lecture tonight on maternal morality.  It was a lot more depressing than I thought it was going to be.  As I write that I realize how ignorant it sounds, of course women dying in child birth or shortly after giving birth is tragic and depressing.  What I meant however is that I felt like the speaker went out of her way to try and shock the class.  Unfortunately so does every other speaker who comes to Fox.  Maybe an exaggeration but not by much.  After the lecture I turned to Ariana saying that I feel like speakers with a cause come and work so hard to shock students out of supposed apathy that the students are left callous and uncaring.  Kind of sad really but the shock and awe angle has been played to death.  Seriously.  Instead of caring about what the speaker has to say or the cause being championed the listeners slip into another kind of apathy due to overload.  They stop caring altogether.  I don't know how this can be changed other than people defending a cause need to be real with students and share some of the triumphs too.  (There may be a better answer but I'm tired and I don't know everything, shocking I know...)

My lovely seat mate!

Day 112

From the cupcake shop down the street.

Day 111

Went to Matt and Lizzie's soccer games today.  Kids sports games are so much fun to watch.  The kids are having a blast and the parents are laughing when one of the children runs the wrong way or sticks their arms in the air to stop the ball.  Or at least that's how it should be.

It was raining but that didn't stop the kids from having fun.  Lizzie and a friend built a fort out of umbrellas on the softball fields.  By the time they emerged they were covered in mud and grinning ear to ear.  :)

Day 110

Two things can be deduced from the following picture.  1.  People always say to live in the moment or embrace the moment etc.  This is not always possible when you have bills to pay or a gas tank to fill.  That is almost entirely depressing to realize.  In other words, as much as I would just love to do whatever I want on the spur of the moment I can't.  I would be letting my housemate down if I didn't pay the rent and I would be doing myself a great disservice if I stopped eating.  :)  But seriously, at the same time I don't want to fit in to the statistic that Americans work hard and hate their jobs.  I don't want to be that person who comes home and does nothing but bitch about work.  Now the trick is finding something that will pay the bills and that I enjoy doing.  Either that or find a balance in what I do so that I do not feel the desire to complain every time I get home.

The second thing I can take from this picture is that my car needs a good cleaning inside.  Maybe tomorrow....

Day 109

Had a spontaneous lunch today with Vicky.  There were emergency vehicles parked around in the apartment complex and I couldn't get to mine so I just took off in search of a lunch partner.  Walked in to Chapters, saw Vicky and off we went.  Ironically now that I'm out of school and my schedule is more flexible (for now) I've been able to spend more time with people in a relaxed setting.  In other words over food instead of studying.  

We went to Chipotle.  My first time and turns out the only "Mexican restaurant" I like.  Not greasy or covered in beans or cheese.  Yum!

Day 108

This is were I spend my days.  Though it's looking like Friday will (unexpectedly) be my last day.  I'm too fast I guess that I worked myself out of a job.  Lol fantastic.

Day 107

I didn't actually take any new pictures today.  It was a long and hard one.  So instead here's a picture from yesterday.  Enjoy!  The kids sure did, they think they're training for the Olympics or something...  :)

Day 106

 

This is where I spent the majority of my morning.  It went well I think, not stellar but okay.  We'll see when I get the test scores back in a couple months...

Day 104

The long awaited day 104.  Traveled along the coast with Mark, Kaitlin and Ariana on our way to a party.  And though we got started later than planned and things took longer than anticipated I had a wonderful day.  We took some wedding pictures on the beach.  Some day I would love to get together a couple in their wedding clothes and be able to spend an un-stressful and un-rushed time taking pictures.  This came pretty close but we were still on a "deadline" if you will.  Anyways, it was a good day.  I borrowed a Canon 20D from my boss and it took me a bit to get used to it and it shows in some of the pictures but other than that I was extremely jealous of the quality of this camera compared to mine.  Now I've been infected with the bug for a better camera even more.  :)

Day 105

I know I skipped a day and I'm back to being a day behind but bear with me.  The pictures I took yesterday were on someone-else's camera and I can't find my cord to get them off.  So one will be up soon...probably.  So, I did not skip a day, I'm just having technical difficulties.

The picture today actually has to do with tomorrow.  I will be taking the GRE (Graduate Record Examination).  This is a several long hour test that I am starting at 7am tomorrow morning.  I need to take this to apply and get into graduate school.  I'm not too worried about most of it, I'm taking on the same attitude about tests I had in college, if I don't know it by now cramming isn't going to help.  I'm just looking over what will be on it and types of questions it will pose.  I am a little concerned with the math part.  I haven't taken a real math class in six years and can't remember some of the things on the sample questions.  So, I'm off to brush up on my math then go to bed.  Wish me luck!

 

PS Day 104 probably won't be up till tomorrow afternoon at the earliest but its worth waiting for.  :)

Day 103

Went to a Scentsy party today at Christies house.  They are wickless candle things and they smell good.  The end.  :)

Day 102

Met up with Kaitlin while she was babysitting today.  The kid is wonderful and hilarious.  She accidentally took a swig of Kaitlin's coffee and her face got all screwed up like it was the worst thing ever.  She then stayed sad looking for about a minute before her short attention span allowed her to move on.

Day 101

Today was such a wonderful day.  I got to talk to Becca on the phone and we did a speed catch up.  I miss that woman a lot and it was fantastic to hear her voice.  I also finally got Microsoft Office on my computer, which pales in comparison to talking to Becca, but is still exciting.

Day 100

I had all these grand plans for what I wanted day 100 to be last night.  It kept me awake for a while before I finally gave up and wrote some down.  But turns out today was not any different than any other day.  There was nothing particularly exciting about today other than it was busy and everyone else had it free and therefore was asking if I wanted to do something.  I ended up working, washing my car with Mark and Kaitlin, and then finishing off the day with tea and jello with a friend.  It didn't feel right posting a grand picture on an ordinary day so I will hold off on my ideas for a while.  The car did need washing though.  Kaitlin drove it through an orchard for about 15 minutes so it was covered in filth.  There was at least an inch of dirt on the back bumper at one point and sticks coming out of various places.  So, now that I have a clean car, and a tummy full of tea and jello it's off to bed.  Maybe tomorrow will be more exciting (though I kind of doubt it).

Day 99

Yet another on time post.  Hopefully this week will turn out involving more sleep...

It is starting to get hot again.  Something that goes great in the heat is iced tea, and even better than iced tea is iced tea out of a frog teapot on the porch.  Just sayin.

Day 98

This picture is posted on time, everyone be excited!  I got a whole box of peaches yesterday and I could not be more excited myself.  :)

Day 97

I don't know what's up with this last week but it's been full of late nights and late pictures.  So, once again it is a late picture.  Yesterday was Robyn's birthday but ironically the best picture I have is not of Robyn.  So, while we all take a moment to rejoice in Robyn being born 19 years ago, let's all get a chuckle out of this one.

Now the kid wants one of these for Christmas.  Grandpa would be so ashamed....it's orange!

Day 96

Totally forgot about posting a picture yesterday.  Too busy working on Robyn's birthday present.  :)

Day 95

Day 94

Again this is from yesterday.  I really need to start going to bed earlier.  :)

Went traipsing through a lavender field yesterday with friends.  What a beautiful view of the valley!  It smelled wonderful, was so quiet, and one of the most relaxing places I've ever been.  It was a great way to end a not so good day on a high note.