The Senior Prom

This last Saturday I took some swanky Prom pictures for Ky and his sweet girlfriend. It was a real fun if slightly hurried shoot as another photographer needed the spot for yet ANOTHER group he was doing. I feel like we did manage to get some great shots in the hurricane-esque winds and short time. I'm pretty happy with them considering what I had to work with and the minimal post-editing.

I'm thrilled that I was asked. Its been a fantastic experience watching Ky grow up (He was seven when I first met him!). He has always had such a funny dry sense of humor and a real competitive spirit. He's so his father's son. I'm also glad I got a chance to help out his mom, who if she pops by, I want to say that I'm glad that I finally got to know her. I think she is a wonderful person and a fantastic mother.

kids are dumb

They are also bluntly honest and cruel, but we're just gonna focus on the dumb part today.

As I was saying, kids are dumb. I know I sure did my fair share of pretty dumb things as a kid like washing rocks with soap and a toothbrush in my mom's sink, starting a small brush fire in the neighbors back yard and bending over anywhere in the general vicinity of my bother-in-law's yellow lab (Dumbest. Dog. Ever. We're talking about the same intelligence level as dirt. Maybe celery).

Anyway, the following is a narrative of a fun game that my childhood best friend Lucky-Unlucky and I used to play in her back yard. Fun, sure, but as you will see, obviously a little too much of a challenge for our cognitive abilities.

As children Lucky and I spent a good chunk of our time in her backyard being tomboys, as I have mentioned in a prior post. We built things, we drowned things, we got all kinds of dirty. You know, the usual stuff. In her back yard was a walnut tree with a rope swing. Now being the imaginative little kids that we were, we got out benches and put them a short distance away from each other with the rope hanging in between in the interest of swinging back and forth. See, cool right?

So that worked well but it lost its appeal rather quickly. So we decided to do an old standby game. The 'you make up a cool swing and we'll both do it and then I will make up one... etc etc'. So we had Superman Swings and Tarzan swings but soon we had to be a bit more inventive. I decided to make up the "Dead Man's Swing". I got the rope and pulled up the end and held it together in a loop. I then put my head in the loop and swung across the benches holding above my head so the rope was slack. While I did it I made some gurgling sound and we both laughed and thought it was all good fun.

Then it was Lucky's turn,

She got her rope ready and pushed off the bench. She never quite made it to the other side. She lost all momentum and just sort of swung lazily in the middle all the while choking and sputtering. I mean this girl was good!! Her legs were all kicking and jerking and her face was turning red. It was awesome. I laughed and laughed!

It wasn't till she finally realized that all she had to do is let go of the rope above her head that I found out that she hadn't been acting---she hadn't quite gotten the gist of the whole 'hold the rope' thing and had actually been there choking to death on her own accord.

Boy was she pissed.

See. Kids are dumb.

You think you know someone

Today while at my sisters house using up all her available internet, because as you know we don't believe in such things at my house, I decided I needed a Walmart Popscicle. You know the sweet ones that are like giant Otter Pops but better and cheaper? Yeah those.

So anyway, in this search I ventured into her garage and popped open the freezer. Bingo. Not green ones, but you know, I guess I can handle that. I grab the frozen lightsaber a la sugar water and am about to shut the freezer door when a little brown box with writing on it catches my attention. My sister is the queen of goodies. She has a food storage that would make army ants marvel. So I grab this thing to see what sort of fabulous treat she must have to have to hide it in this non-descript box in her freezer.

It says this:

Abercombie

June 8th to

September 15th 2003

We loved to hear you sing

Thats right.

Nestled in between the Lean Cuisine, popscicles, and taquitos is my sister's dead canary. Not even newly dead. No this thing has been in there chilling and being dead for nearly THREE years. Now I love my sister, and I want to deny that she really did get some of those crazy genes that my dad has and so I try to think that maybe there is a logical reason for this:

She really really did love that canary I bought her... maybe she is waiting till you can clone your pets so she can have one made. Like an afghan or something.

Or maybe she is waiting to have a autopsy performed on him. I mean... he DID die under some mysterious circumstances.

Canaries is good eatin???

There has to be SOME good reason. Cross your fingers that the genetic crazies haven't gotten to my sister afterall.

"but we need the water... blah blah blah"

Utah is really trying my patience this year. This whole cold, rain, snow, briefly sunny, warm smoggy haze, rain etc etc thing has GOT to end. Did anyone else realize its going to be May in a week and its still 50 outside?? As I type this I look out the window at the bleak sky and the barren trees and my lip starts to quiver.

I think the extended winter has put everyone in a perpetual bad mood. We all need a little sunshine, a little tan, and a little vitamin D. I think the current conditions are going to finally awaken that secret serial killer waiting to come out in Randy. No worries guys, I'm safe. They don't kill people they know. However, if I come home and he's wearing a 'people' suit its really gonna put a further damper on things.

So, in a sad whistful way I have put together a little list of all the things I am REALLY looking forward to in the next coming months.

• Having a clean car for more then three hours. I had the Murano washed yesterday and it just looks so sexy with its gleaming chrome and shiney wheels. I almost moved it to the top of my loves list.
• Golf. Yeah Randy will roll his eyes here but I do miss it. I miss my legs sticking to the vinyl, the ping of the ball and the feeling you get when you finally hit that great shot. I'm sure after I lose a couple hundred balls my enthusiasm may fade just a bit, but thats when I break out the camera!
• Green. Green leaves, green grass, flowers blooming. I never noticed how much I was starved for it till it took a month longer then usual to coax all the living things out of the ground.
• Driving with the windows down at night. The lilac blooming is a bonus. Can. Not. Wait.
• Snowies. Who doesn't love a good snow shack?? I mean minus the slightly sullen teenager baking under the plexiglass like an ant under a magnifying glass.
• Barbecues. I plan on having a lot more of these this year. And I cannot wait to convince my sister that we need to have them at her house cause they were her idea.
• Capris, shorts, flipflops and the tans that come with them. I'm tired of looking like a slathered a tub of cream cheese on my face.
• More photo oppertunities. Winter is beautiful and all but you have more time and more motivation to get out there and work on your photography if youre not losing a limb to the elements.
• Nectarines, peaches, raspberries. Locally grown fruit and produce that wasn't imported from Chilie. Oh and isn't rotten on the inside. BIG bonus.
• Fireworks, festivals, car shows. Theres just so much to do in the summer!
• Roadtrips. I've made a goal for myself to see more of what this beautiful state has to offer. If its just an hour jaunt to a weekend, I want to go places I haven't been.

Is there anything in particular that you are really looking forward to this year? Or is there somethings that this horrendously long winter has made you appreciate a bit more? Let me know.

Spring... is that you???

Our travels to Noni brought about these gems. Looking at these pictures I can almost imagin that its warm outside. Anyone thinking that Nielson's Grove will be a real treat, I advise you to skip it... so far anyway. Only about an eighth of those gazillion planted tulips are even blooming and the rest of the place looks down right, well--monocromatically beige. Maybe in a couple weeks it will actually look like spring.

Noni itself was a little on the dull part as well, but at least it had some actual real life blooming flowers to try out some new equipment on. So take a look at the pictures, these are straight out of the camera without any post editing as I've already told you that my Dell is from Hell. Also it was extremely overcast with 40 mile an hour winds. Thats right, I'm feeling pretty smug that even one came out like I wanted. If they let you, click on them to see the picture bigger, they came out so close and clear. Lovin it!

I'm better then you... did you know?

Women as a general rule are very competitive with other women. They walk into a room and immediately begin to size up the "competitors". They start making a mental note of their flaws; She's fat, she's too trashy, she has bad hair, she wears ugly clothes. I think we all do it to a degree. We need to see where we rank and for many of us self worth is tied to our appearance.

Now perhaps it was growing up as a tomboy. Maybe it was having peers when I was young that did their best to let me know that I wasn't, say, as cute, or thin as them, or that I didn't have outfits that coordinated quite as well as theirs did, but I find that my self worth is tied more into other things. That's not to say that I don't wish I was prettier or thinner or had a butt you could bounce a quarter off of, but it does mean that I tend to value intelligence, wittiness, and just the ability to kick some butt more. I find that for the most part my perspective when I walk into a room full of women is a bit on the unique side. Let me give you an example:

Years ago my friend Di and I went out with a group of people we didn't really know. One of the guys invited us and on walking into an apartment I found three young women already there and flirting their little hearts out. I looked and listened for the next minute or so and had sized up the competition. My thoughts were like so:

1st girl: Oh I could totally beat you up, you prissy little drama queen.

2nd girl: Please cease speaking. You are the intelligence equivalent of bark.

3rd girl: I could snap your legs from behind with one tiny movement of my mighty thigh.

So that said. I think I should tell you that while maybe I'm not quite as smart as some in my blogoshpere, and maybe I'm not as strong as some (although excuse me as I hesitate to laugh) I most definitely dominate in one if not both fields and in a nutshell I am better then all of you. Yes that's right. I'm superior. And Lucky, I know that you're a tough chick, but at the moment I'm sorry... what are you gonna do? Gimp after me on your crutches?

You can't stop a train with a toothpick sister.