I Almost Couldn’t Buy My Own Photo!!

This past weekend I finished the wedding gift I had been working on for quite some time for two friends who got married last month. My idea was to buy a big picture frame and put together a collage type thing for them.

Well a friend and I went to Wal-mart this weekend to get the middle, biggest photo printed because I didn’t have the proper paper at home. Personally I’m not too terribly fond of Wal-mart, but I figured they could take care of printing a photo with no trouble… boy, was I wrong!

I had the photo saved on my zip drive and went to one of those ‘do-it-yourself’ printers. When I collected my photos and went to pay for them the lady at the counter almost didn’t let me buy my own photo that I took of them dancing at their wedding!

Lady: “I don’t think I can sell you this photo”
Me: “Excuse me?”
Lady: “Who took this?”
Me: “I did…”
Lady: “Normally we need a signiture from the photographer to give us permission to print a photo like this.”

::there was a moment of silence while she looked at the photo and than gave me and my freind a you are lying look. My friend, who could defend me because he was also at the wedding, was just as confused as myself.::

Lady: “Do you have a print of this photo?”
Me: I’m thinking, no, that’s why I came here… to get it printed. DUH! “No. I mean I have it on my zip drive, but I don’t have an actual print.”
Lady: “Well I guess I’ll sell it to you this once, but next time you need to have permission to print a photo like this.”

At this point I was a bit pissed off. I leaned over to my friend and said, “Next time remind me to sign a piece of paper or something saying that it’s ok to sell myself my own photo because apparenetly they don’t believe me.”

As the lady was trimming off the white border my friend turned to me and said, “Well at least that means that your photos look professional, you should be proud of that!” and that made my day!

He also said, “I guess you’ll just have to start taking worse photos if you want them printed at Wal-mart.” Which made me laugh.

r. hodges photography in the making!

A handful of bridal photos I took for a good friend!

Shorty…

Howard (a.k.a. “Shorty”), you will greatly be missed by those of us in Wilmington! *heart*

Song Of The Day

ENJOY!

What a Monday…

Today is Monday, and you know what they say about Mondays. They suck. That pretty much sums up my day today, despite a few happy moments for me here and there but I can’t say there were many. Let us start at the beginning:

Before I even got out of bed.
I have had this thing going on for the past week or two that I just sleep past my alarms and stay in bed until the very last minute. I don’t mean to. I told myself at the beginning of the semester that since my classes didn’t start until 10 and 11, I would wake upself up at 8.30 or 9 just to get my day started and maybe get some things down around the house before class. Well I am sad to say that this has only happened once and that was because I was going to breakfast with a friend.

The reason for this lately may be because it has been so darn cold in our apartment (i know mom, we thought about turning the heat on) but I have also thought that it is from getting too much sleep at night. Crazy to think that I’m a college student getting too much sleep every night, eh? It’s like I need the coffee ready for me when I wake up to take with me to school, although last time I did that I almost got hit by a car.

**NOTE TO KIDS–> Don’t drink and bike!**

I’m thinking about investing in one of these for my room, what do you think? ::laughs::

At School.
This morning in one of my english classes, we are working on a group project. As we all know, there are pros and cons to working in a group. Most of the time I feel I would rather work on projects by myself so they are done my way and I know if something doesn’t get done it’s totally on me.
I’m not very close with these particular group members. I don’t feel like I… oh, what’s the word… fit in? It’s like middle school all over again.

::This is just me on a bit of a whinge here::

Last night I recieved a text from one of the members saying that we were going to meet in the library on campus at 7.30… literally got this text an hour before we met. I already had other obligations for the night so I responsded and said I couldn’t make it but to email me and let me know what I needed to do before today. During class this morning I pointed out that when making plans we need to make them ahead of time so that what happened last night doesn’t happened again. Than one of the members said to me, “Well I’m not the only one in the group here!” ARG… I wanted to scream at her!!! Of course you aren’t the only one in the group, that’s why we are all trying to do work and make sure we are free to meet outside of class. Like I said… single projects = better for me.

Lunch
When I got home from class I only had roughly 15 minutes before I had to leave for work. I decided for lunch I’d make perogies and eat them in the car if I didn’t have enough time to eat at home. I am sad to say that I have officially lost my power in making perogies.

I cooked acouple perogies a few days back on the stove and burnt them severely because I forgot to put oil in the pan… Today I remembered that (YAY!) but some how still burnt them to the point where the pan started to smoke and filled our apartment with smoke and a very nasty burning smell. I tried to fix that problem by opening the front door for the few minutes I had before leaving to go to work. I’m not sure if that truely helped the smoke problem or just made our apartment really really cold.

Work (AKA The Good Part of My Day)
The two kids that I nanny got along really well all day today! That made my day just a little better and a tad less stressfull. Plus the older of the two kids, an 11 year old girl, decided this morning in school that she is now officially a vegetarian. Not sure how long it will last, but it was cute hearing her ask me heaps of questions about being a vegetarian and what you can/can’t eat.

The Ride Home
As I was driving into our street a car passed me very slowly and than put his car into reverse while rolling down his window. I thought, well maybe they need help or need directions. So me, not thinking at that moment about what kind of neighborhood we live in, stopped my car and rolled down my window to assist him.

The first thing out of his mouth was, “Hey gorgeous…” and I thought, oh geez… this is either a guy who talks like that to everybody he meets or he is has been drinking. “… you lived here long?” he said.
“Um… no. I’ve been here a few years.” I replied.
“Oh. Well I’m ::insert his name here::.”
“Hi, I’m ::insert my name here::” Than it was silent for a few seconds before he spoke again.
“You got a boyfriend?”
I’m pretty sure my eyes immediately bulged wide open. “Excuse me?” I replied.
“So I guess that’s a no. Can I get your number than? Maybe take you out sometime?” he said. At this point I was absolutely scared and told him I needed to go and speed off down the road, watching him in my rear view mirror making sure he wasn’t following me.

I am sad to say that this is not the first so like incident to happen while living here, but having three big guys who live just a few doors down makes me feel a bit safer.

Now at Home
I’m now at home, for the night hopefully, and after getting my anger out into writing I plan to sit down and work on homework that I have let get away from me for the past week. Oh, how I hate procrastination.

An Ode To Running

I love to run.
It is a great deal of fun.
I could run all day,
and I don’t have to pay
to enjoy the weather and the sun.

When it rains I am terribly sad.
The idea of running is one that is bad.
I could slip and fall,
than my mother would call,
and her tone would not be very glad.

In the summer it is way to hot,
unless you live in a place it is not.
Outside it should be cool.
Running is not for fools.
You just have to find the perfect spot.

So this is my favorite sport.
It is for the tall and the short.
Anyone can try,
but don’t run when you’re high,
for that could cause a terrible report.

Just Ranting…

Well it’s been about a week since I’ve been here and what a week it’s been. Lots has been going on in my head. I’m not really sure how to explain it without it sounding odd.

I guess ever since school started up I’ve just been trying to get back into the routine of being back in a world of classes and work and everything else that comes with being a college student. We’ve been in classes for two weeks since Christmas break and I still have not gotten used to being back… is that sad or is it just me? Come to think of it, I still have a bag or two of things from Christmas break that I haven’t unpacked yet. Part of it is that I just don’t have room for everything that I want to have here, but the other part is since being back from break I feel like I’ve been up and about doing this and that and haven’t had much time just to sit and relax, which I guess is what I get for being as busy as I am, eh?

This semester feels so much busier than last semester though. I’m not sure if it’s because it truely is or perhaps I just haven’t gotten back into the swing of things yet. I am taking 15 credit hours at school, writing for the school newspaper as well as a local town magezine and spend acouple days a week babysitting two kids up the road. Doesn’t sound too busy does it? Well….. it is.

I think this past weekend was the hardest for me. Saturday I drove to Charlotte (almost four hours) for a wedding and than from there I drove to Durham for a friends house party (another three-ish hours). By the time I got to Durham I was exhausted, didn’t even realize that I had barely eaten all day, but I wanted to hang out with my friends so I did. *For those of you who don’t know me, I have this issue sometimes with listening to my body… I really need to work on that.*

Well went to hang out with them, had a drink and got sick. That’s what I get for not eating and having one bloody drink. I learned my lesson though. Don’t worry, won’t happen again!! So the whole weekend kind of revolved around that. I feel like I slept alot, which was good. I probably needed it. All I can say after this week of school though so that I am ready for the weekend again. Just four classes to go tomorrow and I’m there!

Epic Surprise Birthday Bash

Friday was our friend, SaraCafe’s, 22nd birthday and my housemates and I decided to bake her a cake and surprise her at her front door on Thursday night, since she was going home to her family for her birthday on Friday. OUR PLAN: walk to her house (which is about 20 feet away from our own), light her birthday candles, knock on her door and when she came to the door to answer it we would sing ‘Happy Early Birthday to You’. Than we would spend some time at her place eating cake and than take her out for a birthday drink. Don’t you just love it when things don’t go the way you planned though?

Pushka spent Thursday afternoon baking a birthday cake, as planned… which may I had was the yummiest cake I’ve had in a long time! After a meeting on campus, we rushed home (close to 9.30) to proceed with our “Operation Surprise Party” for SaraCafe. We grabbed the cake and some matches and walked to her house. Just before we reached the front door, we handed the cake to Sarawr, while Pushka and I attempted to light the birthday candles in the cold and windy weather. All the candles were lit and we were ready to bang on her door and surprise her with a birthday song.

::This is where our plan had a downfall::

At first we knocked the normal three times on the door and awaited for her to answer. A few seconds went by… a than a few more… and than a whole minute had passed and there was still no answer at the door. We continnued to knock and knock again, but no answer. We figured she was home since we could see her living room light on through her patio window, but we didn’t know why she wasn’t answering her door. I decided to give her a call just to make sure she was alright, but again no answer. By this time we were a bit puzzled. what if she went someplace we thought, but her car was still there in her parking spot. Maybe someone came to pick her up was another thought, but she’s pretty good about turning her lights off when she isn’t there.

As we continnued to bang on her front door and ambush her phone with missed calls AND knock on her bedroom window, all the candles were slowly dripping their colorful wax onto the birthday cake. We didn’t want to blow them out, but we didn’t want to wait too much longer either.

Five minutes had gone by and we started to get concerned. Just the night before someone in our complex, just down a few doors from our friend, had been robbed. Her TV, laptop and car among other things had been taken all while she was sleeping. Sarawr and myself stayed at her front door and sent Pushka to get the emergency key we had to her house so we could let ourselves in, but just as Pushka started to run towards our house we heard her door unlock and ALAS there SaraCafe was……. in a towel…….. dripping wet.

What perfect timing we had to bring SaraCafe her birthday cake JUST as she was taking a shower. PERFECT!!! THE BEST BIRTHDAY SURPRISE EVER!!

What made the night even that much better was going to Fat Tony’s and ordering drinks. Pushka, Sarawr and myself got margaritas while SaraCafe ordered a cider. Just a few seconds after ordering, our waitress came out from the kitchen and said, “I just wanted to let you all know that we only have two margarita glasses, someone dropped a whole tray of glasses earlier today, so is it alright if I serve one of your margaritas in a wine glass?” That was pretty epic to say the least!

So there’s a birthday that I don’t think SaraCafe will forget for a long long time!

An Inspiring Quote

I checked out a book from the school library before Christmas called ‘Ball of Fire: The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball’ and, while I haven’t finished it yet and it was due today, I did read the first couple of chapters and than flipped through to read bits and pieces of the areas I thought were interesting. Lucille Ball (also known as Lucy on ‘I Love Lucy’ for those of you out of the loop) is my all time favorite comic. I was just telling one of my roommates earlier this evening that if I was given the chance to meet a famous person who has died she would definetly be number one on my list!

So I was reading through this book and I came across a letter that was written to Desi Arnaz (who played Ricky on ‘I Love Lucy’ and who was also Lucy’s husband, in the show and in real life, for quite some time) from his father and I found it quite inspiring. Here’s what it said,

” A note of warning about driving, particulary about driving on the road that lies before you-the one we all have to travel-the road of life.
It is very much like the road from Santiago to El Cobre. There are stretches that are so smooth and beautiful that they take your breath away, and there are others that are so ugly and rough that you wish you had never gotton on the damn thing, and you wonder if you will ever get through.
Somewhere along the way, you will get into a particularly bad spot that presents a very difficult problem, and you may not know exactly what to do. When that happens, I advise you not to do anything. Examine the situation first. Turn it upside down and sideways as many times as you have to. But then, when you have finally made up your mind, do no let anything or anybody stop you. If there is a mountain in your way, go through it.
Sometimes you will make it; sometimes you will not. But, if you are honest and thorough in your decision, you will learn something either way. We should learn as much from our mistakes as we do from our successes.
And when you do come up with a minus, try to convert it into a plus. You will be surprised how many times it will work. Use a setback as a stepping stone to better times ahead.
And don’t be afraid to make mistakes; we all do. Nobody bats five hundred. Even if you did, that means you were wrong half of the time. But don’t worry about it. Don’t be ashamed of it. Because that is the way it is. This is life.
Remember, good things do not come easy, and you will have your share of woe-the road is lined with pitfalls. But you will make it, if when you fail you try and try again. Perserve. Keep swinging. And don’t forget that the Man Upstaires is always there, and all of us need His help. And no matter how unworthy you think yourself of it, don’t be afraid to ask Him for it.”

Favorite Song of the Week

Thanks to my sister, this is my new favorite song! (The actual song starts at about 30 seconds) ENJOY!