Baby time. This past weekend we did a 17 hour day for a wedding in 95 degree heat but then spent a couple hours the next day taking photos of my cousin’s baby. Maybe this baby thing is better than weddings…if a baby turns into a baby-zilla mom/dad just take him/her away and give ‘em something to eat. Doesn’t always work with brides, ha!
Since Cooper never checks my blog I can post nearly anything today to embarrass him. I have many many photos to choose from but I decided to crown him king for a day and pay my respects to his massive head.
Happy Birthday Cooper-tron
Stuff is getting done! Lots to do for all my jobs but things are happening and I love the feeling of things happening. One thing that FINALLY got going: Cooper’s foil stamp machine! The guy bought the machine off ebay to which Ali thought, “fun, but we’ll never use it and never get around to selling it.” Boy was I wrong. If Cooper wants to make something happen he doesn’t give up until he figures it and makes makes it happen. And he doesn’t lose patience like I do. I have a few things to learn from this guy. Here is the foil stamp machine-man and machine in action:
Wedding season is in high gear, or full throttle, we’re in the thick of it…things of this nature. Shoot me now!
Just kidding, I had to say that since the photo corresponds so well.
I still don’t have my “attire” ready for the season…so hard to find really nice dresses that work with my pale Irish skin AND looks classy AND allows for me to literally be able to run in it for 12 hours AND isn’t the same dress as what mom’s of the brides plan to wear (my ultimate fear). I did, however, find a pair of shoes that are soooooooo comfortable: the Cole Haan Air Danni Sandal:
These puppies have Nike Air technology in ‘em so I could probably get back into my long lost track days and run sprints in style. Eh, maybe I won’t do that right now, but at least they work for weddings. Thank you Mr. Cole Haan.
Speaking of these shoes, I have to proclaim how impressed I was with Zappos business. I was wary of buying shoes online but after hours of searching and reading Zappos customer comments I was convinced to give it a shot knowing that I could return the shoes if needed. The comments were SUPER informative and actually turned me away from buying a pair of shoes I tried on from Nordstroms. The leadtime for the shoes was 4-5 business days but the day after my order was placed Zappos sent me an e-mail saying they were giving my order “special priority without charging me” and were shipping the shoes earlier than they promised. Totally the practice of under promising and over delivering but psychologically it worked for me! Thanks, Zappos. If only the design world wasn’t so competitive then maybe we could do something similar. If nothing less, I’m taking notes.
A happy first birthday to one of my favorite almost walking, tooth growing, kind of talking little girls. I know you are still not so sure about me since I kind of look like your mom but I am not your mom…but trust me…soon you’ll be visiting Aunt Assi in California and we’ll go shopping like there’s no tomorrow.
This is what you do if you work from home and have a photography business:
You take a nap at your desk:
Thank goodness for the sleeping mask!
And…you build a fort/bat cave :
That also acts a puppet theater:
Next time I expect to see C-tron in a cowboy outfit shooting at Indians or something.
I’ve had a bit of a difficult week this week…some may call it a funk, others may consider it insanity…all I know is that the Geico commercial with the money and the eyeballs scares me and literally makes me nauseous. I can’t post a picture for reference because I honestly cannot look at the image of the “mascot” without water flooding my mouth and feeling as though I might hurl.
How bad is this fear?
1.) While going for a walk the other day a banner advertisement was flying above me. As soon as I saw what the advertisement was I felt nauseous and Cooper had to steer me in a direction away from the banner for the remainder of what was to be a pleasant jaunt.
2.) I was watching TV the other night, enjoying a few moments of mindless entertainment, when THE commercial came on…immediately I made loud noises to mask the commercial’s theme song (cooper had the remote), Cooper started laughing at me, I starting laughing (it was kind of funny) but then my laughs turned in to solid tears which turned into a serious breakdown. Cooper was scared, not sure what to think about this crazy girl and I couldn’t stop thinking about the commercial and how serious my pain was. Please, to the makers of the commercial, please please change your theme…for the sake of my sanity!
Sweet hey-soos, I realized I almost got away without “journaling” about my Elton John experience. Just for memory sake 29379238 years from now when I am 30493095809 years old I have to record it. Here we go: Elton was awesome. I had never been to a concert before that was truly a one man show like this. Just a man and his piano in front of thousands of people who lusted after him. I have to say I know many Elton John songs but was never a serious Elton admirer, and probably don’t know half the words to most of his songs, but the experience of seeing him in concert was lovely, no doubt.
The two best parts:
1.) After each song he would simply get up, throw his penguin coattails around, put a foot on a speaker, wait for applause, circle around to the next side, wait for applause, circle around to the back, wait for applause, then get back to his piano. Luckily we were on a good side so we could see him each time he circled.
2.) The second best part…not to sound old or anything but the sound was wayyyyyy too loud. Perhaps it was our seats right next to the speakers but it was so loud I couldn’t make out half of what he was saying. At one point my sis/ma caught on that he kind of sounded like a deaf man talking (I know, kind of mean, but it is the truth). In stead of singing “I’m still standing…” it sounded like “Dime dill danding…” Needless to say this caused for some good fits of giggling. Here is what he wore….when he came back for the encore he had did a sunglasses change.
So, we can cross seeing John Elton off my mom’s list of things she’d like to do some day. Next up: the Dalai Lama.
The past week/weekend was intense.
1.) The C-man and I had the honor of shooting a friend’s wedding at the Rose Gardens in Berkeley. If you ever want to get married in a place that has $2938579183759873987938749823 worth of roses that you don’t have to butcher to dress up your ceremony, go to the rose gardens in May. Naturally awesome place. The rose gardens + a birdcage veil + a ridiculously good looking couple + a vespa get away after the ceremony + an INCREDIBLE meal at Dona Tomas = utter bliss.
2.) My dad, Dr. Papa Bruce, came to town for a (hopefully!) final cancer treatment for prostate cancer. He initially had the cancer 10 years ago but the sucker came back. Luckily the cancer had not spread outside the prostate but nonetheless my dad had to undergo radiation therapy. I was his “nurse” so I got to along on all the hospital trips and wait in the family waiting areas. Luckily all went well and my dad met about a dozen nurses and doctors (all of whom were not originally from the states, a fact my dad likes to point out to everyone he talks to), and he told his stories like is so good at doing. When they were taking him away for treatment one nurse said, “Man, he is still telling stories!” My dad is one heck of a tough guy, no doubt.
3.) Finally, my bro and sis-in-law are back from Mexico, but something changed in my brother (besides his hair). He turned into a man/monkey. He got to see our new apartment for the first time and the first thing he did was climb all of the steel beams…
If nothing less, at least now we know who to call when we want to take the god awful curtains down!
I’ve always appreciated the term: “grow a pair”…I think I need to use this as my mantra when I feel shy or nervous.
