What's Up in my life...

Well - if my life was a juggling act, the way it would look right now would be me with a bunch of balls in the air. Some are fun (like riding a motorcycle), some are work (dealing with pictures is consuming a lot of time right now), some are literally work (did you all know I'm the church secretary at my church?), and some are simply what comes with living (seeing friends, spending time with Brad, sleeping, eating etc). Now imagine that I have an incredibly able bodied assistant (because I'm not stupid enough to hire an un-able bodied assistant) who is holding three really big meat cleavers, or swords or flaming torches, (or one of each, what the heck, why not). In two weeks, my assistant will hurl those murderous weapons at my head as fast as possible. One I will attempt to catch is adding an almost full time job (teaching) to my current workload, adding a play with Gallery 7 into my evenings...and my weekends - HA!! For the first three weekends after school (and the play) begin I am consumed with things, one a mere Saturday, the other two full weddings, one of which is in Portland. After which weddings, I will have to once again process all the pictures & put together books & give people CD's and all of that. AUGHHH!!!

Not that I'm worried about it at all. My one concern is, IF (and that is still an IF) if there is a baby in the picture, and my exhaustion returns the way it did last time I was pregnant, then all the late nights and the time consumption and the lack of time to just rest & relax may suddenly become much too overwhelming. And if morning sickness is also involved, well, that would be like my cruel evil and yet incredibly able bodied assistant starting up a chainsaw and throwing that into the mix without me even knowing about it, because he decided to blindfold me first.

So, in conclusion - yes, I plan on being just slightly busy for the next two months, but after that, things will slow down to merely completely insane.

My two requests:
1. Pray (if you're the type)
2. Don't be offended if I don't call you every other night like I usually do, or bring you soup when you're sick, or clean your house on the weekends, or even if the blogging slows down a bit **GASP**, as you can see, I'm busy and can't handle any more chainsaws.

I have helmet burn!

I bet most of you have never heard of that before!! That's right, remember those commercials for the pizza's you watched bake in your oven - and then people would go out with a lovely square on their faces that was burnt from watching the pizza. Well, I basically have a burn in exactly the same place, because of wearing a helmet a lot of the day yesterday, being out in the sun (after it stopped raining all morning), and riding around with my visor up and the sun beating down. It was lots of fun, and I passed my MSA (that would be my motorcycle skills assessment)!! What does that mean, exactly, well... BEFORE the test there were two restrictions on my learners, #10 which states that I can't ride in the dark, and I can't have a passenger and #11 which says I have to have someone who knows what they're doing watching me at all times, and I can't go faster than 60km. Now that I've passed, restriction 11 is GONE, which means I can ride by myself, even on the highway if I like. YAY!! I still can't ride at night, and I still can't take passengers, but otherwise, I'm good to go.

Oh yeah, and for those of you who are DYING to ride with me on a motorcycle, I'd just like to point out that I BARELY passed, so you may want to still give me a little time to perfect my riding before you hop on. BUT a pass is a pass, and that's good enough for me!!

Now, tonight I have my first road ride (what is that, you may ask, well, it's a ride on the road - up to this point everything's been done in a parking lot), and it'll be nice to go beyond second gear - ok, third, but I wasn't SUPPOSED to be in third...oops...and we'll be riding from 7:30-10:30 pm, so not only will we be on the road, we'll be in the dark. BUT we'll all get to ride together, and I think it'll be lots of fun, we've got a good group, and I feel confident about almost all of them riding.

That's all, I've gotta go work on wedding pictures now...

I'M SO TIRED!!!

Well, I just finished my first day of riding training. Some initial thoughts and impressions:

1. We all tend to focus on what we're NOT doing well, and see everyone else's successes.
2. It's fun to ride together and to go fast.
3. I'm good at turning corners, not good at figuring out how to accelerate in first gear smoothly.
4. Slalom SUCKS, but to do better with it you need to imagine it's a waltz ONE-two-three, ONE-two-three.
5. You need to look LEFT, right, LEFT before you start moving your bike every time you stop.
6. I still don't know my lefts from my rights every time (which leads to confusion when the brake is on the right, and the clutch is on the left).
7. Instructors are brilliant at telling you what you did wrong, even if you did everything right. The first time I got through the cones (only once of two times), without knocking any of them down, I was told to turn off my right turn signal. DOH!!
8. You need to stretch and exercise your hands before you start taking lessons (clutching and braking make you grip WAY more than usual - get one of those stress balls and use them).
9. At the end of the day you will be sore.
10. You will mess up trying to apply a brake - even if you've done it many times before.
11. I carry my stress in my shoulders ( They kept knowing I was anxious about what I was doing because my shoulders were around my ears - and it's BAD to ride stressed).
12. IT IS SO MUCH FUN, when you stop stressing out about it and just ride.

FOUR Andy's???

Well, as of Wednesday, I now know four Andy's, and am suddenly in a quandary. If the accepted number of Andy's to know is a mere two, what happens when suddenly your sphere of Andy'ness opens, and you meet more. Do you have to reject some Andy's in order to maintain the balance of two per person per time frame? My teacher's name is Andii at the motorcycle class, and this other guy in the class introduced himself as Andy, and my teacher would say "NO, I'M Andy", every time. It was kinda funny.

It's a weird class to be in. Much of what I've heard I already knew from my Car driving lessons at the tender age of 16, and from common sense, and from my supremely brilliant husband who has taught me both information about motorcycles as well as how to be a better and more alert driver. BUT there's little things that keep coming up and make it worth while. The thing that has stuck with me the most so far is this: When riding a motorcycle, you are worth spending some money on proper equipment, from boots to gloves to jackets & pants to helmets. The dutch in me has been fighting this for many years. Every time Brad would want some $100 gloves, I would cringe. Now I think: hey, if it's the difference between him having fingers or not having them, get the gloves! It becomes really REALLY obvious. SO - because of that, I've gone shopping - got myself some nice leather boots, and am going to buy gloves, and eventually a jacket too (although I'll probably wait for the motorcycle show in February for those) that are high visibility so that I'll be harder to miss on the road.

Tomorrow I start training on the actual bike. THIS should be when it gets a little more interesting!

Two Dave's...and Two Andy's...

We are shooting 7 weddings this year and we're shooting two Dave's and two Andy's!! That's 4 out of the 7 weddings have guys with names that match. It's a little odd - especially two Andy's - I think they're the only two Andy's I know right now, and we shot them within less than a month of each other!!

That's a...shooting with cameras of course...

Today is Tuesday...

Which means tomorrow is Wednesday, which means that tomorrow I start my MOTORCYCLE course. What am I excited about? Learning to ride - having the confidence to go out on the road on a bike (I kept hearing bikes as I walked around town today and kept getting a little thrill going "That's going to be me soon!!") What am I nervous about? A few things. I don't like not doing well in a class, and seeing as this is a practical application kinda course, I have the potential to not do as well as I'd like (I generally like being in the top percentile of the class, or I'm not happy - and there may be much more experienced riders taking the class with me). I'm also nervous because it's a lot of responsibility to ride a motorcycle - there's a lot of potential to get hurt on a bike than a car. I'm also nervous because once I'm done my course, I will need to take my biker's test with ICBC to see if I get my full licence, and I'm worried I'll fail. Of course, then I watch all the doofuses on the road who ride bikes, and I go "Hey, if that irresponsible idiot can pass this road test, then surely I can". Of course, if I fail, what does THAT say??

More details tomorrow!

Baby News...Not ours...

Well, I'm super excited for these people, but I figured I would wait to spill it to the world until at least they did, SO...HERE THEY ARE!!

Way to go guys!! We joked last August that when one of us got pregnant the other would too, so our kids could be close in age - and I laughed because you didn't know we were talking at that point already about trying. Well, then we got pregnant, and told you guys to start trying, and you did, and now you're going to have the first baby (and only one so far). So, congrats, and I am SUPER SUPER excited for you both, because you are going to be great parents, and my only regret is that I live so far away.

YAY!! Babies are great!


(oh yeah, and to find out who I'm talking about, you have to click on the link...)

Such Fun...

Shooting weddings is a lot of fun and yesterday was wonderful. Andy & Cheryl were a great couple, and it's just fun to shoot people who both love getting their pictures taken, and know how to be goofy and serious, beautiful & serene and joyful and insane. It's great to be a part of things the way we get to be when we're taking pictures, to be able to help out during the day, and not just attend. I enjoy being able to be "back stage" and see all the behind the scenes stuff that goes on (perhaps that why I enjoy directing more than acting as well). The unseen work comes AFTER the wedding, just like in plays. The toughest jobs are the clean-up jobs, because everyone else thinks the play is over, and you KNOW there's still a lot of work to do, but the motivation to do it diminishes significantly. So - here's to the motivation needed to put ALL these weddings to rest!!

Motorcycle Lessons...

I keep thinking about all the stuff that's going on right now for me, and basically hit the wall with the wedding we're shooting today, BUT, next week when that's over, I've signed up for a motorcycle class (basically drivers ed, but with two wheels). I think in some ways Brad's more excited about this than I am, what I'm looking forward to is having the confidence to be able to hop on my bike afterwards and take off and go somewhere, rather than feeling a little overwhelmed with the largeness of me controlling a 400cc motorcycle all by myself. I know I do better with a little bit of head knowledge behind me (that's why I like learning in a classroom setting so much), it gives me the confidence to do the practical stuff. SO, this should be a good course for me, and I'm looking forward to it a lot. I'm sure I'll have more stories next week!
Gotta go take some pictures!

Why are we getting Married?

Sometimes it's easy to lose perspective in the midst of the insanity of trying to pull together a wedding. It's easy to get mad at the people you love the most in the world because a THING isn't working. I re-read my wedding vows today, they're cool. They're also all about the WHY of a wedding - love, devotion, having someone to walk through life with hand in hand - whatever that life brings. THAT is why people get married. Here's hoping the couple we're shooting tomorrow keep that perspective - I know they've talked about wanting to keep it - I hope they've surrounded themselves with people with whom they can.

Should be fun - they're a beautiful and fun couple (and they read this blog - which makes them cool and fun).
Adios

Three Down-ish...

We're in the middle of wedding season, Brad and I. This is how things look as of right now:
Step ONE - Completed Weddings:
Tiff & Brynn
Dad & MaryAnna
Beth & Andy
Mark & Renee
Upcoming Weddings:
Cheryl & Andy (in two days)
Sherrie
Paulette *is it bad we don't remember the guys' names??)

Step TWO - Giving the couple a CD of their stuff:
We've given CD's to:
Tiff
MaryAnna
and Renee
We owe one to Beth and very soon to Cheryl & Andy

Step THREE - editing their chosen pictures and getting them printed:
We're still waiting for pic's to be edited from Tiff & Renee, and just got Dad & MaryAnna's pictures this week.

Step FOUR - Printing the pictures, putting together books & FINALLY being "done" with the weddings.
NONE!!!

Digital weddings take a lot longer, and have a lot more steps than other weddings. Fortunately, the procrastination isn't only on our end, once we get the CD's out, the proverbial ball ends up in the other people's proverbial court, and we get to wait for a while before the ball gets hit back at us again. MY concern...that all the balls from all the wedding will be hit back in our direction at the same time (if the picture requests get turned in mid-September when we've got two other weddings to do, and the booklets all need to get made). THAT would not make for a pretty "Back to School" for me.

Sigh - good weddings though. And Brad & I do take wonderful pictures, when it comes down to it.

G'night all.

A Sensory Experience

She walked onto the train with
Confidence
Talking on her phone she sat and her smell
Wafted
towards us. Strong, not unpleasant, but unmistakably there like she wanted to be
Unforgettable
She was well put together, manicured, dressed, make-up
Beautiful
Her presence was a sensory overload, smell, sound, sight
Undeniable

Confidently,
she walked off the train, still talking on her phone

to nobody

Due to unforseen circumstances...

Your holidays will be changed from a weekend away in Seattle to a day trip to Ladner. (Similar in quaintness to Lynden, but on our side of the border, and with nothing open). A sweet day, and no wait at the border, who's complaining?

How to Train an Assassin

So, Brad & I went and saw the Bourne Ultimatum, and it was exactly what I expected. Choppy camera work (as per usual in that series of movies), great action, an interesting plot, and an assassin with amnesia. I got what I wanted, which was a relief, when dealing with a three-quel. Afterwards I had a quick chat with a friend's dad who had seen the same movie. He got me thinking. We talked about all those movies that deal with people who have their minds altered so they become deadly assassins and then they end up deciding not to follow orders anymore... Bourne, Manchurian Candidate, Kill Bill - in fact, the more I think about it, what interest would an assassin movie have if not for them not following orders. They start questioning WHY they need to do these things, they start seeing the faces of the people they kill, whatever it is that throws them over the deep end (now there's an idea, a killer going over the deep end...), SO they stop. My friend's dad said "They keep forgetting that these people have souls". That really hit me. If you view people without thinking of the spiritual elements of their make-up, then when suddenly what they are doing comes up against their spirit, they need to make a choice, BUT most movies won't SAY "oh, it's because in his soul he knows it's wrong". They just think he's gone crazy.

So, in conclusion, in order to truly have control over an assassin, you need to not NEGLECT their soul when you train them, make murder a spiritual experience (as per DaVinci's Code) and they'll be ruthless without feeling ANY twangs of guilt or remorse that may come back to bite you in the butt (that's remorse spelled B-U-L-L-E-T).

In Memory of Fluffy

Fluffy - what a great hamster you were. I remember when I was in Kindergarten I would make castles for you out of my brother's diapers. One day I let you play in the castle while I went and did something else, and for some crazy reason you didn't stay in the castle like I thought you would want to. A few months later we found you making a nest behind my other brother's bed. I was so glad to have found you.

I remember how in Grade 2 you used to keep me up as you ran and ran and ran around your wheel, and how I used to have to clean your cage.

And then in Grade 7 when we went on that family trip to Europe - how you met the Queen, even though the rest of us didn't get that close, and how it was a near death experience for you. But that's not the greatest memory I have of you. That was after Grade 12, when we went on that rafting trip across the river and almost got run over by that steamboat. Yeah, and then we ended up in Australia. Oh, the memories.

And then, there was your tragic end. You were so young, you still had so many years left, and then Brad...*sniff* Brad accidentally chased you around the house and *sniff*

Oh it's just too much to bear, Fluffy. I miss you so much, and I'm glad to know that there will always be a little part of you with me.