November 29, 2012

Awkward & Awesome Thursday: neuf

AWKWARD
  • Overhearing bits of conversations like "they're so much creepier when they're upset..."  
  • People presume that I'm my Dad's wife when we are by ourselves.  Do I look that old?  Or does he look that young?  Or are they somehow missing that I resemble him like a daughter would??
  • How many people have come over to our house for a meal any number of years ago and we can't remember them.  I remember everybody.  But I have NO recollection of this.  It is really awkward.  I'm looking forward to getting to know them though...again.
  • Being in the newspaper, except it is only half of your head behind someone elses.  That is the way it usually works out.  Or like that one time a huge photo spread of my soccer team that my dad was coaching got put in the paper but I had gone to use the bathroom like 30 seconds earlier and completely missed it.  :-/
  • Not having business cards.
  • How I'm a photographer and I don't post any photos.  How I'm a seamstress and I haven't been posting my projects...
AWESOME
  • Our performance of Handel's Messiah this past weekend was amazing.  I love singing that work. It was extra special this year because some of our friends from the NICYO orchestra joined and I hadn't seen them in some time. :-)
  • I got an A on my first College course and now have 3 credits. :-D  Yippee!  It wasn't as high a score as I was anticipating, but my coach said it was still an A, so that is nice.  Up next, Analyzing and interpreting Literature!
  • Letters from India that smell like India.  It was actually Jasmine perfume, but it really did smell like India.
  • 2 different on the fly hairstyles from pinterest/blogs that turned out great.
  • My brothers have introduced my to Imagine dragons.  Yikes.  Some of that is SO powerful.
  • Feeling ill and helpless and all I wanted to do was play the piano.  (the playing the piano part is the awesome part, not the ill part.)  
  • Happy music

November 28, 2012

God bless the plumbers...every one

No seriously.  They must have the worst job.  Ok, you know what?  You're right. They're tied with septic pumpers.

I've had my share of plumbing adventures and every time I look up at my Dad in bewilderment and say "Why does anyone choose to become a plumber?"

The answer is accompanied with a smile and always the same: "Because they need to feed their families."

I stare into space and shake my head slowly.
Then I get back to work.

For some reason, you see, the plumbing lot has always fallen to me.  I guess I'm not perceived as busy enough to get out of it or I don't immediately reject the idea and so I get delegated as a willing (or perhaps simply not unwilling) individual.

We call it "voluntold" around here.

I suppose it isn't particularly gross.  And this time it hardly smelled at all.  And it wasn't hard to fix.  So why am I complaining you ask?

Ah, but you mistake me!  I complain not, I merely seek to entertain with a glimpse into the odd education that is sometimes thrust upon that most interesting and mysterious race of the Stay-at-Home-Daughter.  We really are a most convivial sort.

Occasionally the basement floods from rain and there is a lot of clean up work to do or the sump pump ceases to function and there is a flood of an altogether more detestable sort.  This was a mere kitchen flood.

I was sick Monday.  That is my excuse.  Fevered and lackluster I would not being getting up to sustain myself with food and drink (except water, 'cause, you know, that's supposed to be healthy ;-) let alone clean up after my most adored siblings and their culinary adventures.

Tuesday is well, today.  Except it is yesterday because I'm not publishing this till tomorrow, which is actually today.  :-)  I love watching your brains work.

Tuesday is co-op day and praise be to God I was feeling quite recovered this morning and was perhaps my energy levels only lapsed because I didn't bother to eat much after breakfast.

 Anywho.  The family was gone to co-op and I was hear all by my lonesome studying literature, most intriguing of all how to read and analyze and interpret poems.  You know, I've never given poems enough notice...

Needless to say in my academic endeavors I did no kitchen work and cleaned no dishes (I didn't make any dirty dishes either, but apparently that is irrelevant).  So now on this Tuesday evening the kitchen is piled high with dishes from 48 or possible 56 hours before.

Don't even mention it, I'm already embarrassed.

Well, I'd nothing better to do at 9PM (except go to bed and continue recovery or waste some time on line and stay up super late writing this extremely long blog post that probably no on else is going to read...moving on!) so I decided to do something about the sorry state of the kitchen.

I start loading the dishwasher and putting the dirty dishes on the right side of sink and organizing everything so that I can work efficiently when it is brought to my attention that the pipe below the sink has been dripping and that it must be backed up because there are four inches of filthy water in both sides of the sink underneath stack of dishes.

Eeesshh.  I stop humming.  Time to really buckle down.  I'm not squeamish folks, but I do avoid putting my hands in filthy water whenever possible.

It was a dark orangish/yellow/brown mixture with food from who-knows-what-meal floating in it and isolated lillypads of cool grease (presumably bacon?).  I fished some junk out of the bottom and when my hands emerged again -- slimy, cold and smelly -- The water droplets formed neat little pockets atop the greasy grime.

Oh Joy.  Well, we're already this far in and we've simply got to fix it.  Daddy has to study tonight because he has got books to read and papers due.  Mommy is painting in the bathroom, Than is half asleep because he had basketball practice this evening, Hudson is mentally tired after co-op and drama and is probably practicing cello.  Emily, frankly, would not be any help.

Thankfully I'm wearing my "AIR FORCE SISTER" T-shirt to remind that "No guts, no glory."  Not that I'm going for glory.  I'd just as soon have a clean kitchen and a happy family...and this stuff OFF OF MY HANDS!!!

So, after all of this it really was a simple fix.  My Dad just stuck a hanger down the hole and jiggled whatever nefarious substance was there loose so the standing water would drain.  Some soap, boiling water, paper towel, unscrewing of PVC, draining of water, cleaning of some soot color muck out of said PVC and reattachment of the same everything was fixed and I finished loading the dishwasher and did half of the handwash!

You'll thank me someday for not posting pictures when you're sink clogs someday.

And there you have it!  Today's Adventure in Domestica! 
...to be continued

November 23, 2012

Awkward & Awesome Thursday: huit

AWKWARD
  • Taking an proctored final exam online one morning where they tape everything you do through your webcam to make sure you're not cheating.  Then realizing I'm still in my pajamas.  Whoops.
  • Texting with my vocabulary.  Did you know that words like "expectations," "tomorrow," "covertly," "compatible," "continuity," "lightning," "production," "squashed," "basketball," "entertainment," "disappearing" and "unlimited" are very long words?  Perhaps I should stick with email.  Yes, I am one of those people who uses commas, periods, and apostrophes in texts. 
  • Not having business cards when people ask for them
  • Budgeting time.  I need to study, I want to read, I want to sew, I want to take pictures, I need to workout more.  If I didn't have lists I wouldn't get anything done on time.
AWESOME
  • Well, I got a cellphone.  :-)  This will be good especially for my business.  Unlimited texting and minutes for $30 a month.  
  • Setting up my facebook page for Joanna Kay Photography!  Go ahead and like it here for updates and photos!
  • Jamie is home on break!
  • Organizing my "studio" again and getting rid of 3 bags full of junk.
  • Singing the Handel's Messiah this weekend!
  • Safe and Sound by William Joseph.  I had it on repeat on Youtube for a couple minutes and then bought it and LOVE it.  ;-)  Check it out.

November 16, 2012

Gary & Myrna ❘ Married


Welcome to the wedding of Gary and Myrna!  One fine chilly October morning I met Gary and Myrna out at Chapel in the Pines to capture their wedding!  There was no getting ready, no bouquet, to attendants.  It was just a simple 10 minute ceremony attended by only immediate family and my parents.  That is the funny part of the story.  He is a friend of my Dad's and work, and she was Emily's 1st grade teacher and a friend of my Mom's.  They met at my graduation party!  Here is how Gary told it to me: 
Jena told me about Myrna and I called her Easter weekend.  I caught her at a really bad time by surprise (extremely tired from traveling and waiting for a bus home from Midway airport). Nothing happened and I really never intended to call her again.  Then we saw one another at your graduation party.  We didn't really get a chance to speak one-on-one there and I couldn't gage that she had any interest in me.  I still didn't plan to call her afterwards, but your mom insisted.  The Friday of Memorial Day weekend (your mom still poking me), I finally called Myrna again and we spoke for about an hour.  Things clicked - thanks to your mom.  I asked Myrna to dinner the following evening and we went to Maxson Manor in Oregon.  I was doing back flips I was so excited.  I reserved and requested a table by the window, but it turned out we were the only patrons in the entire restaurant.  We still laugh about that.  That night, I knew I was with someone special.  She just swept me off my feet.  I couldn't believe I was actually having dinner alone with such a wonderful person.  The rest is history.  With only a few days exception, we have seen each other every day since.  I proposed with a cake I presented to her one night after dinner only a couple weeks ago at home.
And there you have it!  



Awaiting her entrance






Exchanging vows...


and rings!  




Lighting the unity candle.






Exuberant!


Congratulations all around.





Except for my parents and Nathanael (who second shot for me) this was everyone at the wedding.



There wasn't a reception, but we were invited to go out to lunch with the bride and groom and family.











 Where are you going on your honeymoon?
We just booked a 7 day inter-island cruise in Hawaii. Why Hawaii?  I asked Myrna on our very first date if she could travel any where she wanted, where would it be.  She said Hawaii.  I remembered that.   But little did I know at the time I would be asking about honeymoon destinations.







I asked Gary how they would describe each other and he answered for both of them. :-)  "She calls me Prince Charming (still not sure I can live up to that).  I call her a princess - a real life Cinderella.  And that's what she is to me."








Congratulations Gary and Myrna!  Thank you so much for trusting me to capture this moment for you! 

November 14, 2012

Loss



Change is a part of life.  It just happens.  But sometimes it is hard, and it makes you re-think things that you had thought were just fine.

My Grandma just called.  My Great-Grandpa died today.

How does one process things like this?  The house suddenly feels stuffy and the air grows stale.  The only thing I think is to get outside.  Now.  It isn’t warm enough anymore to go out without a jacket but it feels right.  

A cold splash of reality.  

I breath deeply for a couple moments and a tear slides down my cheek.  The wind cradles our wind chime and a single note rings out. 

I lose it.

I don’t ask why.  I don’t think life is unfair to me.  He was 97 and I knew the last time I saw him that it would be the last.  You know it is coming and then...it comes... and you just don’t understand how someone can be here one moment and then, the next they are gone forever.

November 10, 2012

E Pluribus Unum Premiere

You saw the trailer for our latest film, Time, Space and the Lint Between here, but you may not realize it that this is the second film that Webber Entertainment Group has collaborated with Morell Cinematic Studios on.  Our last one, E Pluribus Unum, came out almost exactly 1 year ago.

When it came out we started a tradition of sorts.  We had a movie "premiere" where everyone dresses up Hollywood style and walked the red carpet to see it for the first time all together.  It was a blast.  So of course, we're doing it again. :-)  The film is currently in postproduction and is on schedule to come out in early 2013.

Since I never posted any pictures from the last premiere I will do so now to give you a little taste of what I'm talking about.

I know these look small, but you can click on any of them to make them bigger.







 So, everyone got their picture taken on the red carpet under the marquee.  Don't they all look great?  These are some of my favorite people. 






I wasn't just the people that looked good though, the house was dressed to the nines and the food looked and tasted unbelievable.


Just ask Josiah.  He knows. :-P


Hudson looking studly.


Musn't forget to mention all of the awesome people who worked like crazy to set this up, and then stay and help clean up!


After "dinner" we watched the movie.  And laughed hysterically. ;-)


There was a great deal of talking and some swing dancing thrown in there.


Pictures were taken...


 And posed...


And then these two great gentlemen MC'd the first annual Champignon Awards.  Because, you see, that is a word that looks like "Champion" but in reality means "Mushroom" in french, and a Morel is a mushroom, and we were at the Morell's house...Get it?  Yeah, I though it was wickedly clever too. :-)


Our beloved Director and Editor-in-Chief.  She got the final and most prestigious award and then made a sweet speech to close the night.


But wait!  You can't leave until you get all of the actors' and actresses' signatures!  Everyone got a souvenir poster as a keepsake and everyone signed the massive original as well.  That is what Emily is doing above.


And why, you may ask, am I telling you all this?  For that you must stay tuned for a future post... :-)