Stache-tacular!

The things we do for friends. :)

A mustache themed surprise party! It was a blast. Everyone got really into it and we had a great time. I highly recommend it as a theme if you are looking for your party.

The Stink Eye- Zoological Edition

I went to the Oklahoma City Zoo yesterday to take some pictures. When I got home, I noticed there was a theme. Many of the animals were giving me the stink eye!

I noticed it first with the owl.



Then it became a trend!








Ah well- I'll just take it to mean that they were trying to pose for me.

In other creepy news, these two shots make me literally both gag and get the chills while I edited them.

My Everest- My Driveway

I may have mentioned before that I'm a bit obsessed with Mt. Everest. I absolutely don't want to climb it and think those who do are crazy, but I do love watching documentaries about it.

So, what better time to live my crazy Mt. Everest dreams than during Snowpocalypse 2011? [Un]luckily for me, my driveway is my Everest.

I've talked about my driveway before. This weekend I measured. It's approx 130 feet. 9 feet wide. It is sloped and bordered by a fence. This makes it a nightmare for drifting snow.

But yesterday- day 3 of Snowpocalypse- I was determined to try to get out! My car was in my garage and blocked in. And all that stood between me was that driveway. And the snow. And the lack of a snow shovel. But I did have a large rake and a regular shovel.

So anyway, I set out in 15 degreeish weather. I suited up.


This is what it looked like to start:


Then it looked like this.


Three hours later, it looked like this:


And that's when I wanted to collapse. Suddenly I felt very cold. :) I measured- I got about 50 feet done. I think it was the hardest 50 feet, but still, 80 MORE FEET. Kill me. Not really.

When I stopped, I realized there was steam rising off of me. I tried to get a picture of it. This is the best I could do.


Okay, that's not me, but that's pretty much what I looked like. :)

Today I worked from home. I walked to the store. I'm still homebound and more snow came down today.

If my driveway is my Everest, then I was one of those climbers who decides it sounds so nice to take a nap in the snow. And then dies there. But really, but kind of. :)

Respect the mountain.

Failure, examined

Back on the optimistic day of July 2, 2007, I decided to make a 101 goals in 1001 days list. Turns out that ended last March! Ha! Who knew!?!

I accomplished some and not others, and decided to look at some of the ones that I did not accomplish.

Take dance lessons
No, but I did dance a lot!

Learn to juggle 4 balls
Nope. Other things to do. :)

Read something by Jane Austen
Life's too short to read books you don't like.

Print and bind my blog entries from Japan
I actually started this process. Turned out to be a lot more complicated than I anticipated. It'll still get done one day.

Stop drinking cokes
Oh well. They're good!

Go back to Brazil
Yeah, didn't happen. But I did go to Paris!

Reach conversational fluency in Spanish
Nope.

Begin studying a new language (German, Latin?)
Nope again! I think I'm out of my "foreign language phase."

See the Grand Canyon
Boo, no. :(

Go one month with no fast food
Nope.

Get to know a neighbor
No, but I do know them better than I did 3.5 years ago. :)

Write a poem
Waiting for my muse.

Go camping and sleep in a tent
Nope. I had the chance, but it was raining.

Take piano lessons
Still want to do this!

Go ice skating
I did go roller blading!

Buy the all seasons of The Office on DVD
I don't want to this anymore. I do have 3 seasons of 30 Rock. Much more important.

Re-read the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit
I actually recently started reading The Hobbit.

Watch all AFI Top 100 movies
Nope, lots of other movies though!

Memorize “The Love Song of J. Alfred Pruffrock”
Still love the poem, still haven't memorized it.

Not shop at Wal-Mart for one month
I actually might have done this... on accident.

Go to a rodeo
NO! I WANT TO!

Perfect my brownie recipe
Forget that- I tried a lot, but the box is so much better and easier.

Play bingo in a real parlor
Why did I want to do that?

Compile a comprehensive friend birthday/anniversary/baby’s birthday calendar
Thanks, Facebook.

Read Brother Kazmarov
Again, other books have been read. Sorry Peter, I'll read it one day.

Blog every day for a month
Yeah, you know that didn't happen.

Invite someone over to my house weekly
I'm still a cave dweller.

Learn how to play chess
Why did I want to do that?

Make a pie from scratch
Still want to!

Learn the names of local wildflowers and trees
I'm a lot better than I used to be, so maybe I actually did this. Taking a crazy amount of pics of flowers will do that. :)

Become CPR certified
No. No heart attacks around me, please.

Grow my own tomato plant
Ha, no. I have bought tomatoes from a farmer's marker. That almost counts. :)

Train myself to make my numbers more legible
The keyboard makes this less important.

Throw myself a great birthday party
Nope. Someday maybe. Next year is the big 3-0!

Read John Steinbeck’s entire body of work
I have read several more now. Still not the whole thing.

Learn to recognize 3 constellations
No....

Take a class in some technical field I want to know more about (accounting, web design, medical terminology)
This is probably coming soon.

Become certified to teach Spanish
No way, Jose.

Visit 5 new states
No, but I visited 2! Holla Wisconsin and Missouri!

--------------------------------------------------

I may not have accomplished all those goals, but I accomplished so much more that I didn't realize I wanted or was important to me. Especially the last year has been so full of good things and growing up. Can't wait to see what the next 1001 days hold!

Snowpocalypse ingredients

Things I got to prepare for Snowpocalypse 2011

1. A tank-full of gas
2. Brownie mix
3. Mt. Dew Code Red
4. Bread
5. Milk
6. Sweet potatoes
7. 4 seasons of How I Met Your Mother
8. Crafting supplies to decorate my bathroom

So far, so good!

12 inches of snow. I would love to be out taking pictures, but it is bitterly cold! 10 degrees and -10 wind chill. 40mph wind gusts. No thank you very much!

I made delicious chicken and rice. I also made a scrumptuous blueberry and strawberry cobbler with homemade whipped cream. Mmm! Who wants to come over to share? Haha, you'll have to fight the 3 foot snow drifts surrounding my house!

Urban Prairie

For a fleeting 48 hours in Oklahoma City, we had a preview of spring. Friday and Saturday were glorious! I hit the door running from work Friday because I wanted to take my camera out to enjoy the golden light of the evening and the 70 degree weather.

While I was out, I was accosted by a soggy Weimaraner with a tennis ball in his mouth, with his owner (an older gentleman) following behind. Sophie was intent on playing with me as I was trying to shoot, despite her master's attempts to distract her. At one point I heard him saying, "Sophie, she's out here trying to get some urban prairie photography, so leave her be!"

I thought that was a pretty good way to describe my photography style in general- urban prairie. And the light was glorious! So here are some pics from that day.


















Hope they keep you warm during our upcoming SNOWPOCALYPSE

Getting better

So I took the leap and moved up in the camera equipment world. I put it off for a while because I knew that when I did that, I would need to really commit to learning more about photography to get full of use of the machine.

Now here I be.

Here are some strengths and opportunities for growth (haha) that I think I have to look forward to developing.

COMPOSITION
I think I'm pretty good at composition, in the macro world at least. In fact, I hate having to crop my photos for prints or whatever. But I need to get better at cropping. I also need to do better with taking pictures level. I am terrible- especially in my downtown shots of buildings, with having crooked pictures. Must improve!

THINGS THAT MOVE
I like taking pictures of flowers. Or berries. Or plants. Or trees. Not really things that move. I would like to improve at this, especially taking pictures of people.

WHITE BALANCE
I kind of know what it is, but I want to get better. It effects color quality.

PHOTO EDITING
Today while I was editing some pics, I was just about ready to delete them all. Granted I was just having a bad day, but I really have so much to learn in photo editing, especially in color. I also want to become better at black and white photography.

BOLDNESS
One of the reasons I don't take pictures very well of people is because I feel totally awkward when I do it. I see incredible street shots so often that I could shoot, were I willing to be bold enough to take them. I will say I did take a step in this direction a couple of weeks ago by asking someone if I could take pictures of their fountain.

Onward and upward!

My weird life- Namaste

Sometimes things happen and I think, "Wow, did that just happen?" This is one of those things. The latest in a series of "My Weird Life."

Sometimes I am a bit honk-happy. I live downtown with crackheads roaming the street, I drive interstates to my commute, I'm a take charge girl, so sometimes I honk.

So Saturday as I was driving home, I was behind a car that STOPPED in the middle of the road. No stop sign, no yield sign, just stopped. So I gave a little beep of my horn.

Then an Indian lady (subcontinent) dressed in scrubs came out of the car and started talking to me, but didn't seem upset. She asked why I was honking. I asked if she was OK. She asked why I asked if she was ok. I said, well, people don't usually stop in the middle of the street. She asked if she could turn left at this particular intersection and I said yes.

By this time she was at my window that was rolled down, and after I answered her question, she just lit up like a Christmas tree and said, "Oh thank you! Namaste!" Then kissed her hands and pressed them against my arm. Then went back to her car.

Then I drove home, making sure she couldn't see where I live. :)

Oh my crazy life.

*Picture not related, but another weird Oklahoma thing I recently saw.

Tales from the sick bed

2010 was the year of the lame blogger- me. Wow. 32 blogs for the whole year! I can't say I'll do better this year, but here I am.

What else could drive me to blog? Being in bed with the flu. Day 4. The lack of human interaction is starting to seriously get me down. I MISS PEOPLE. I've never had the flu before, to mine or my mother's recollection. In fact when I went to the doctor, the nurse didn't want to test me for the flu because she didn't think I had it. This is because I didn't have a fever. But here's a fun fact about me- I can only think of one time in my adult life that I've run a fever (including my months and months in the hospital). I just don't get fevers. But alas, positive for type A. Yes, I did get a flu shot. Yes, I will continue getting them. Bad luck this year.

I got a new camera. Canon Rebel XTi. I love it. My first toe into the DSLR world. I've been playing with it and am totally in love.

In other news, some folks know that I like to go to estate sales (thanks to Auvrey for introducing me into this world years ago). I've started trying to sell some stuff online and have had two big hits of good luck. I sold a lovely 1930's Samsonite train case for approx 8x more than I bought it (plus shipping). Also, last weekend (pre-flu strike) I got an antique typewriter at an estate sale.

If I had picked it up before I bought it, I might not have bought it. :) It was so heavy! (turns out it's approx. 27 pounds) So I brought it home and started googling it. Turns out it is an Annell' No3A typewriter from 1922. You can see a vintage advertisement for it here. Apparently it is very rare in the antique typewriter collector world. I've already had an offer that is 10x what I paid for it. I'm pretty stoked, and can't wait to get it off my hands.

Flipping vintage items definitely isn't something I'd want to do full time, but it's a fun hobby.

Ok, time to go lay down again. Blog you again soon, Lord willing.

10 things I did in 2010

1. Jumped out of a plane
2. Turned down an awesome job
3. Stayed at a job I love
4. Ziplined 20 times
   
5. Enjoyed some excellent Oklahoma scenery
6. Shot off my own fireworks
7. Ended an unhealthy relationship with someone I cared about
   
8. Did 60+ push ups in a row
   
9. Broke my leg
   
10. Was employee of the month

10 Things I Learned in 2010

1. The first step to getting help is admitting you have a problem.
2. Life can be really great.
3. Sometimes the first step is the biggest step.
4. Seasons change. Bad times eventually will get better.
5. Enjoy the good times, because that season will change, too.
6. Nothing feels better than making a decision with no regret.
7. If it hurts, don't do it. Related- insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.
8. Survival (emotional, physical, professional) depends on adaptability.
9. A life without happiness or sadness is pretty hollow. Both pain and joy are signs of life.
10. When the right thing is the hard thing, it usually means it is all the more worth doing.

What did you learn?

We're growing up

I just got home from my good friend Blake's 30th birthday party. It was fantastic. Several of our old college friends got together and had a great time and especially great conversation.

It got me to thinking that we really are growing up, my friends and I. We don't always get to choose when we grow up in life. Some people are forced to grow up very young, others are in circumstances that they don't have to worry about things if they choose not to. But by the time you get to your mid to late twenties, the decision to not grow up (or mature) is a choice you've made.

I'm so thankful to have good friends that expand my horizons, challenge me to think deeply, and care about me. Life gets more complicated as time goes on, but I'm thankful to have these friends to grow old with.

Thankful

I'm thankful for colors and light and changing of seasons.

I'm thankful for health and technology and medical advancements.

I'm thankful for work I enjoy more every day and coworkers who make the days that much sweeter.

I'm thankful for cruciblesque times that sift the faux friends from the true. I'm thankful for the abundance of true friends in my life.

I'm thankful that family is always family, and is always faithful.

I'm thankful to be in this place, in this time, with these opportunities.

I'm thankful that 2010 has been a fantastic year. My heart is full and my cup overflows.

I'm a survivor

In case we don't talk often or you don't use twitter, long story short- I have a stress fracture in my leg. This was determined through a bone scan I had done last week. I should note that during the bone scan, there was a complication with the injection and my vein swelled and leaked a lot of blood. The pictures are a bit graphic, but you can see some on my Twitpic stream over the past week. I'm fine now; it was the equivalent of a bad bruise.

Today as I was in the doctor's office, he mentioned that he wanted to do more blood work, but quickly brushed it off and said, "don't worry about doing it today, you can wait a few weeks." But I insisted that I'd rather get it done today and get the results back sooner. He explained that he didn't want to pressure me into doing it so soon given my bad experience last week at the bone scan. I told him I wasn't concerned.

He asked why it was that I had such a good attitude about all of this. I suppose I should have credited faith or God or Jesus or something, but the first thing that came to mind is what I said: "I work in marketing. It's my job to see the good in things." And that's true.

But perhaps moreover, it's because- especially where health is concerned- I believe in principles of survival. I've always leaned towards the fatalistic, but in some ways that's made me optimistic. Let me explain. Bad stuff happens. Bad stuff happens in spite of justice, in most cases. You don't deserve it, but you equally don't deserve to avoid it. Sometimes by accepting that, you are mentally prepared to tackle the situation at hand. It's how we survive. More importantly- it's how we progress and become stronger as individuals and as a society.

What can I say, I'm a naturalist at heart, and these are my rambling thoughts tonight. :)

Signs of maturity

Over the last year I've had to make several difficult life decisions. They've almost all involved doing the right thing that was the significantly harder thing.

And ya know what? Looking back, I have no regrets. I'm proud of each of those.

It's a good feeling.

The theme for this fall is COLOR

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

How my mind works

This morning as I was curling my hair, I thought of my friend who is currently on her honeymoon- a 10 day Mediterranean cruise. Sickening, I know.

Then I thought of long honeymoons, which made me think of lua de mel, the Portuguese for honeymoon.

That reminded me of Latin, which made me think of the origins of honeymoons. Once I think I heard that the longest a honeymoon could be in ancient times was like 9 months. Then I thought that made sense if you were allowing a soldier time to conceive a child.

Then I thought about the word conceive. Then I thought of the word misconception.

How interesting. A mis-conception. Something ill-bourne, then growing. Interesting! So when I have a misconception, I have a serious problem that needs to be addressed before it grows.

Back to curling the hair.

The useless hypothetical

As time goes on, I have less patience for the hypothetical. Perhaps that's a sign that I'm moving from my idealistic 20's into my pragmatic 30's, but pontificating irritates me.

I believe it started by reading this blog, which said, "God only expects us to be holy in real life, not in every hypothetical situation."

I agree with that.

Frustratingly, I've gone through a few months of one of those times in life where your mind inevitably wanders to questions such as "what if I'd done this..." "what if that had happened..." "what if he had responded like that..."

But here is the truth- there is no what if. There is only what is. Or was. At the risk of quoting a pop song, "The rest is still unwritten."

I can't wonder what would have happened, because the truth is that what "would have happened" did happen. Countless forces led me to act as I did, countless influenced him, and then there are those universal forces of situation and time that are beyond our control. Every action is the result of a perfect storm.

It is for this reason that I can't stand it when people insist on how they would respond in hypothetical situations. The truth is that you don't know how you would respond. You don't know what relationships would shape you, what movie would influence you, how fear or love would drive you, or how the wind would be blowing that day. (perhaps it's for that reason that Christians are reminded to not judge)

There is no hypothetical. There is only what is. Conjecturing beyond that seems to assume that you know yourself far better than you probably do.

And that is also why I think it is important to take seriously those things you do decide to do, rather than pondering those you might. Perhaps the world would be a better place.

Raising Up the Dead

Rarely have I felt so strongly about any musical album to dedicate a blog entry to it (in fact, perhaps not since Derek Webb's Mockingbird), but the time has come my friends.

Caedmon's Call. So many evangelicals have run across them at some point in their Christian musical career. They've seen highs and lows in mainstream popularity, and honestly, the newest album, Raising Up the Dead, probably won't do much for them within CCM circles. But boy has it blown my socks off.

Not only is it musically enchanting with a hybrid of folksy tunes and a slight techno edge (a la Derek Webb's latest work), but the lyrics have more depth and poignancy than ever- and this coming from a group that was far deeper than the average Christian band to begin with. As someone who has listened to a lot of Caedmon's Call, I think they're finally using Danielle Young's voice in the style and genre it is suited to.

There are 2 songs on this album that struck me to my core in such a way that I could have sworn they were written by someone who has known my innermost thoughts over the past year. I'll leave you to wonder which 2. :)

I'm sure people will allege that this is a movement away from Christian music and into secular music, but that is a very surface level perspective. I'd say that these songs deal with the deepest issues of faith and the spirit in an incredibly subtle yet touching way.

I'm grateful for this album and it has come at a time when I most need it, so I thought you guys might benefit too. Below you can download 2 songs for FREE. But then you should go ahead and get the whole album. :)

When the summer's gone

Well folks, today is the last day of summer. I have done 3119 push-ups since beginning this journey. I did week 6 day 3 last night (for the second time) and today my neck and shoulders were dying. Knotted up, pinching, yucky. Not the good kind of sore.

Here I am at a cross-roads. I'm trying to decide if I want to continue on. I need to do another exhaustion test, and if I can't do at least 60 there is a good chance I'm going to throw in the towel. No, I haven't done 100 push ups yet, but I've done 3000+! And since beginning I've also started working out 5 times a week.

So... I haven't decided for sure yet, but forgive me if you think I'm a quitter. I just prefer full use of my upper extremities rather than hitting an arbitrary goal. :)

And thus the summer ends. It was a good one. I had a lot of good times and feel like I grew a lot as a person. I hope you can all say the same.

The last sunset of the summer.