Playing Catch-Up

So much has happened since my last blog post nearly two weeks ago.

Jana had a fabulous birthday party at the Yard House in Downtown. Why is it so hard to convince strangers that we giggle that way even without a drop of liquor? There is no better thing in life than laughing hysterically in a corner booth with your best friend until one of you lands on the floor and calls it a night.

The next day was the Dodger’s Home Opener and perhaps it wasn’t such a great idea to just keep pointing at the drink menu at random. The opening day ceremony was amazing, marked by a very special tribute to our very own Vin Scully who is currently in his 60th year with the Dodger organization. The celebration was marred only by the very odd contrast of the fly-over of a stealth bomber and the release of dozens of white doves. A “peace” offering, I suppose, to us liberals who are annoyed by the “traditional” spectacle of American military might during a baseball game. The game was great, of course, and marked by history. Interestingly enough 50 thousand people get to tell one story and two people get to tell another.

Jana and I also went to last Friday’s game against the Rockies. That was a great game. I love watching this team. These boys play with all their heart and win or lose it’s great to root for players who actually try. It’s such a nice contrast over the last few seasons and it is what will make this team a winning team this year.

On Saturday I shot a beautiful backyard wedding in Lakewood. This wedding reaffirmed to me how much I love wedding photography. I absolutely just love being in the center of it all. The couple was so loving and their friends and family were so wonderful. Also, I captured some of the most beautiful wedding pictures to date. I am just in awe of my camera and lens. All it makes me want to do is keep upgrading and adding. My only disappointment about that day was that Jana could not shoot with me. Instead a friend of hers, that joined us in DC, helped as my second shooter and did a fabulous job.

Throughout all of this I have been adjusting to life with a 60 pound pit bull. She is just the most amazing and beautiful dog that I have ever seen. She is constantly charming us with her many quirks and her stubbornness makes me laugh. She is amazing me everyday with her quick ability to learn. She already knows what she can and can’t do and tests those boundaries every day. It is so hard for me to fight the urge to let her sleep on the bed. As to her relationship with the cats, I think they are all finally learning to get along. She ignores them for the most part and they try to keep out of her way. I’m sure they will be friendly in no time, but for now my tiny little cats still aren’t so sure of that giant mouth and all those teeth.

Random Randomness

I have 10 days to grow my nails out so I can paint them dodger blue!

Bella snores like my dad but thankfully not as loud.

It’s nice to have a President who acts like an adult around foreign leaders.

This gloomy weather needs to go away by tomorrow.

I really want to get a Mini Cooper. A blue one.

I need to start to budget again.

I want to go see a movie in the theater.

I hate PCs, they are stupid.

How did I get red ink on my hands?

I wish it was lunch time.

I enjoy being with people but they exhaust me so much.

I’d like to go back to school full time.

I really must stop plotting illegal behavior with a certain someone over the internet.

I find some people’s inability to problem solve simultaneously humorous and annoying.

Thank goodness it is Friday!

Yay for weekends with a dog.

Bellatricks!

Bella

Well, as you can see by the title of this post and the picture this is not the same dog as we were hoping to bring home a week ago. But before I can introduce this angel let me begin by discussing the previous 7 days.

Last Tuesday Petunia’s foster parent emailed me explaining that the adoption foundation had called our building manager and she told them that it was her belief that the landlord was not allowing any new dogs so until that was straightened out Petunia could not come for her week trial. We were devastated, and very upset. As we watched the many dogs come and go in our courtyard our anger kept rising. We, after all, have lived there without any problems for 6 years. We were being punished for bad timing. It was wrong!

We had to wait until Thursday before news came that it was alright for us to bring Petunia home, and we were ecstatic. But we didn’t hear from Petunia’s foster parent until Friday. The email he sent was like yet another rug pulled out beneath us. It had already been a very emotional week and his words were not the ones we were hoping for.

Nevertheless, the more and more I think about it, I can’t escape my reservations. Of the seven dogs I have raised myself, plus the ones we’ve fostered, Petunia is, without a doubt, the most “high energy” in terms of running, patrolling, and play with other dogs (she has essentially retained her puppy energy, even though she is two years old). She definitely benefits from having unfettered access to the outdoors and she chooses to spend the greater part of her day outside. As I mentioned in our phone conversation, I work from home, and I have to say that on several occasions this week I couldn’t help but be reminded how Petunia takes such pleasure in simply sitting in the backyard sunning herself, and it was making me feel guilty thinking that she would no longer have the freedom to do that if we place her with a family in an apartment.

We were so disappointed and so angry. He didn’t understand or even give us a chance to show how dedicated we were to giving Petunia the perfect home.

We spend most of Friday night and Saturday morning brooding. Ryan flat out refused to take back all the stuff he had brought from the pet store. I tried and failed to see the silver lining. Finally, after a good deal of discussion Ryan headed off to the shelter. I didn’t go, those places make me cry.

It turned out to be the same place we got our cat Ashes 6 years ago. They had a lot of American Pit Bull Terriers. The SPCA website listed over 1,300 Pit Bull Terriers for adoption in Los Angeles. That number made me both sad and angry.

Well, Ryan found her, a gorgeous 5 year old Pit Bull Terrier mix.

We brought her home on Monday.

I named her Bellatricks, Bella for short. She is anything but a Death Eater. In fact, she is probably all Hufflepuff.

I believe a lot in fate. I knew it was fate that we met Petunia. It was fate that we weren’t supposed to bring her home. It was fate that lead us to Bella. Beautiful Bella.

Weeks that are Long and Days that are Short

It is finally the end of my week, a very loooooooong week. Compounded by the fact that I worked straight through the weekend. While I will have to work both days this weekend, I think it will be considerably better.

Firstly, I have time to go to the gym both days. Yay! Secondly, I only have a meeting tomorrow with a client and Ryan is off, which means we can spend mostly all of tomorrow together. The meeting is a good excuse for us to get out of the apartment. Sunday is a little more daunting, because Jana and I have a lot of work to push through. But in lots of ways our work days are so much more like having fun than doing work. Trust me, we will get a lot done, but I’m sure there will be lots of laughing involved and how can you beat that.

In spite of this feeling like one of the longest weeks of year so far, the days were incredibly short. Time doesn’t always fly when you’re just having fun, it can fly when you are just incredibly busy. I haven’t been this busy at work in months and while some things are annoying, it is good just to have projects to do to make the days go by faster. I hope it continues.

Going to try to go to bed early tonight. I don’t think that will be an issue.

Happy Wednesday!

A few things that I want to share with you today.

First, if you haven’t already please “Pic” my dream assignment. It takes just a second to sign up. The assignments are first judged by how many “Pics” they receive so please pass it on! While you’re there please “Pic” Jana’s as well! Thank you.

Second,

I podcast the audio version and was listening to it this morning on the bus. Needless to say, I think I scared some lady sitting near me when I couldn’t control my cheers for Professor Dyson.

Third, if you are not listening to The Bugle you don’t know what you are missing!

Lastly, it’s a beautiful day, and although I am stuck inside, I am still going to be grateful for it.

A Celebration of Life

Last night I attending services for my boss’s wife. She was an amazing woman, as the 600 or so guests would testify to. Sadly, I didn’t really know her. I only met her a few times at office functions, but even then she would give the most amazing hugs and her inquires into your life felt so genuine. I did speak to her many times when she would call in to talk to her hubby. As many speakers last night said, she just had a way about her that made people feel special. Just hearing her voice made me smile.

Besides being a spectacular person to her family and friends, she was also a very giving human being. She gave of not only her money, but her time as well. The testimonies to the many causes she championed were countless.

She was truly one of those people whom you do not forget meeting and will remain in my mind as an example of goodness and love in a world that can often feel cruel and cold.

My heart aches for her family, and her dear friends whom I know will miss her very, very much.

Weddings, Sundays and the Future

On Saturday Jana and I shot an 8 hour wedding.  It was, let’s say, a very  interesting day.

We stopped to eat lunch at an Outback and for some reason we were totally giddy. We apologize to our server who might have thought we were laughing at him. I don’t know why we couldn’t control ourselves. Just one of those days I guess.

The location for the wedding was just absolutely gorgeous. A wedding photographer’s dream. I was awestruck at the portraits from my 5D. Finally the quality of the images matches the image I see through my lens.

All in all I think the promotion was a success. We met a lot of great people and a lot of business cards were gone by the end of the night.

I think I finally found the perfect outfit. I was comfortable and had plenty of pocket space. My shoes weren’t bad but I think I could still keep looking. At some point I’ll have to give in and spend the money on really good shoes.

Sunday was a wash for me. I would have liked to have spent some time cleaning and relaxing but I was at my computer the whole day editing pictures and working on my script. It wouldn’t have been such a waste of a day if it wasn’t for the fact that it was my only day off.

This weekend made me all the more resolute that I am doing what I want to do. To have the freedom to plan out my own days. To have no one to report to but myself. To be motivated not by a paycheck, but by my own pride in my work. These are my goals. This has to be my future.

I have lived this dream in my mind many many times: I wake up on a Monday morning, not by an alarm, but by the sun. I throw on my robe and fix some breakfast. I sit down at my computer to check my email and read the news. Then throw on some gym clothes and head to the gym for a nice workout. Head back home, shower, pull out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and head to the office. I imagine that Mondays would be more of a prep day, these are things we need to accomplish this week. If we had a shoot or an event over the weekend, I imagine Mondays wouldn’t even exist.

But until that day comes, and it will come soon, and perhaps just when it is supposed to, here is a little proof that my dream isn’t just a fantasy, it is just a few steps away from being real.

Potholes, a solution.

We all complain about potholes and damaged road surfaces, but do most of us actually do anything about it? We just think the city isn’t doing its job. Well, what are they going to do, drive every street and look for damage themselves?

So, it’s our tax dollars and we have a right to complain, but not if you don’t do your part as a proactive citizen. So if you are in Los Angeles you can report potholes and a bunch of other things to the city using this site www.lacity.org/boss Then if they still don’t do anything, well complain as loudly as you want!

10 Random thoughts

1. I love Harry Potter. I admit it. I’m a dork. I don’t care!
2. I love MyLeaky! I admit it. I’m a dork. I don’t care!
3. February is a stupid month and shouldn’t count.
4. 4 day weeks are better when the day off is Friday and not Monday.
5. Sweaters are great.
6. Lunch time is the second best time of the day.
7. Leaps are great but scary. But sometimes you just got to get over whatever it is you need to get over.
8. I love my writer’s group.
9. My summer is going to be crazy!
10. I can’t wait until April.

The Good, the Bad, and the Cold

This past week I have been pretty sick. I don’t really know what I had/have. I am pretty sure it wasn’t the flu, but boy did it wipe me out.

As much as I hate being sick, in a lot of ways I think it was exactly what I needed. All last week I wanted to take a vacation from life. To just sit in some secluded place and not think of the million things I have to do. Maybe it was exactly because I was mentally and physically tired that I did get sick. But it was a nice vacation from life. Exactly what I think I needed. Cheap too! No guilt, no worries, no stress. It was just me and my body, resting.

Well, now that I am feeling better it is back to reality.