PIZneyland the Happiest Place on Earth

well my south dakota vacation has come to an end. i will fly away in less than 24 hours. it has been rather successful, in the way of working other than that it has been a complete fail. i've made $600 in the 9 days ive been gone... but gotten ZERO scrapbooking done! ZERO knitting done! and i have finished watching the entire series of veronica mars. 3 short seasons... =[

its 12:45 south dakota time... and i am sitting here rather depressed that there is no 4th season... that there is no closure. i need closure!!!

so the only point of this blog is to send anyone who reads this... [so basically you nicky lol!] to http://www.saveveronicamars.tv/.

oh and i looked at my hawaii pictures today... i miss it so!

a little story....

thursday afternoon approx. 3pm my family along with 7 suitcases crammed into my fathers car and drove a million hours in traffic to Las Vegas. we stayed the night in LV and shopped a little in the morning and then we arrived at the Las Vegas Airport at 2pm, 2 hours and 20 minutes before our flight was supposed to leave.... lines caused us to almost miss our flight, a real joy i might add. lol. but when things finally settled down and our flight took off and i had to listen to my puppy cry which made me want to cry. =[ for 2 hours!

lets rewind for a second. around 2, my mom called my grandma to inform her our flight was on time and then she called her sister, who was supposed to pick us up to tell her that everything was on time. my aunt said that it had started snowing... and she didnt know if she would be able to pick us up.

we landed at 7pm and once we could turn on our electronic devices my mom called to make sure things were going the way they should. surprise surprise my aunt decided not to come, and expected us to drop the money to get a ride to town and stay the night. because "a little snow" stopped her from coming down to get us.

my dad went downstairs, a little frustrated, and rented a car. a rather small car.. to shove 5 bodies, a puppy, 3 laptops, 2 backpacks and my mothers gigantic "purse". but an upgrade would have cost ohh... $160 more. after we were loaded... and we had to rip the doors open because they were frozen shut, it was amazing. we drove into town from the airport, on completely clear roads i might add, only to find that there were no openings for a hotel room anywhere in Rapid City.. and after we talked to some people about the roads.. and how they were basically perfect and everyone was making drama about nothing. so my dad decided to "risk it" and drive to my grandmas house... after many warnings against it from my amazing relatives. no one wanted us. we were like Jesus... aww the Christmas Story. =]

so that was the way we started our vacation. i must say that i think i laughed more this trip than i ever have in my life. but.. i am still so ready to come home!

and now i must end because it has seriously taken me like 4 hours to type this.. because i am addicted to veronica mars. disc 2 episode 5... =]

"schools out scream and shout!"

last night was my last final. im so excited that it is over! mostly because i disliked my last nights class. and im hoping with all of my heart that i passed it. i had an 88% but i dont know how well i did on my final. so i dont think my percentage can drop 18% from one grade... hopefully!

in other news church on sunday night was absolutly amazing. it was FUSE as usual, but the theme was "worship through the ages" at first i was like yay! worship night! and then... they called it a production... and then i was having visions of christmas music and amber and i made a deal that if they sang more than 3 christmas songs we would go home. lol. well they sang 3 christmas songs but we didnt leave and im glad. and it was amazing!

they started with 200AD where people worshiped by reading/singing the psalms. and a youth boy did just that. then they moved to ireland in 700AD and had a bagpipe player play and people sing along to that then they had someone come sing in latin because at one time that was the universal language of the church. then they moved to the spirituals that slaves in america sang around the time of the revolutionary war then to a southern baptist setting where the chior came up and everyone sang "I'll fly away" and "This little light of mine" then to the 80s where Cody came out [in a mullet wig! lol] and sang "Awesome God" by Ray Boltz and then to the 90s where we sang "Shout to the Lord" by Darlene Zschech... i havent heard that song in so long! it brought back many memories of youth drama team lol. but it was so amazing! then they had the whole worship team come up and sing a song that some of the youth had written [it is a song a absoultely adore too!] and then to close they had one of the youth sing "Amazing Grace" in this new fun way i also love love love that song. =] it was so great. =] Jesus is so amazing!

things to do

everytime i start a blog i start with the word "so" and after i type it i'm like NO thats such a stupid way to start... so i have to delete it and start over. it makes me laugh.

anyway this is whats going on the next week.

today: work till 6, come home hang/fold/put away laundry, brainstorm about final.

friday: work all day till 6, come home work on MML emails.

saturday: shoot final? or go Christmas shopping... or do both at the same time? mall madness is so photojournalistic. lol.

sunday: church all day maybe christmas shopping?

monday: touch up final, print, buy mount boards and mount pictures. [i just realized thats going to cost about $40.. ugh] go to nicky's for bible study christmas party and "Chapter 9" oh and take susanna to my library. =]

tuesday: work till 5:30.. get to class by 7. turn in and critique [ugh] final. potentially play christmas with amber??

wednesday: hang out with zoran/finish all christmas shopping! maybe go to youth christmas party?

thursday: pack pack pack.. leave for SD.

and on top of all that i need to go to joanns, buy a shirt from torrid, take family pictures, loose 5lbs, pluck my eyebrows, and PRAY that my car doesnt die before january 15th... after then would be nice too but at least till then!

can we say PHOTOSHOOT?

today was my full day off work. no school or anything to deal with so, i played pictures. all day long. i dont even know how many times i filled my memory card lol. i'll share a few. and they're on my myspace too. actually... i'll share very few because they are on my myspace... and this entry will be 5 years long if i post them here too.









i must say that it was an amazing day. just because i got to play. im really tempted to tell people to come over so i can take their picture in front of my wall. =] then i can have a whole series... and then i can make a blurb book! that is my goal in life lol. i may also do a series on store front windows... because i took 2 pictures that i aboslutely love... but they were film and i havent scanned them yet. one day i will and ill post them.

and to end this post i'll leave with a few pictures from the day i spent with the stades. just to give nicky a preview. =]

dr. philbilly

so i have discovered podcasts. they are amazing. i can 1. get caught up on kevin and bean while i am sitting in traffic... AND 2. i can download services from church to listen to again and again... and to listen to while im in south dakota. its like not missing church at all. =]

and right now im waiting for my film to be developed so i can go to school and make a print thats due tonight. "landscape cityscape" is the assignment. so since im sitting here with nothing really to do... or more likely wasting time... i am watching TV. first the shot... which i must admit is a really good show! the first episode was not impressive... but it has gotten way better and it looks fun! then 2 episodes of my secret addiction.. hannah montana. and now my former addiction [of the non secret variety] gilmore girls.

im really excited for friday. i have the whole day off so i can finish editing nickys pictures, and then i can have my own photoshoots. i have to the option do a self portrait for extra credit and i also have a project called 7 objects that im abnormally excited about that i am going to shoot on friday as well... and entire day of nothing but fun photoshooting.

i will leave with a hannah montana clip.

"I photograph to see what the world looks like in photographs." - Garry Winogrand

i have to give an oral presentation in my photo history class tomorrow explaining how my photography has been influenced by a photographer in history so i have chosen Garry Winogrand mostly because of this quote: "I don't have anything to say in any picture. My only interest in photography is to see what something looks like as a photograph. I have no preconceptions." that way i dont have to explain any uber artistic nonexistant crap about my very small portfolio of photographs lol.

im actually about to go on a photoshoot right now. shanna is making a calendar for philip for christmas so we're going "shooting" today and susanna is going to come along. =] yay for pictures. annnd this past saturday i spent the day with nicky and her family taking their family pictures. it was a really fun day she made a video if you wanna check it out lol.

in other news christmas is coming.... UGH. im normally not a holiday freak. everyone knows this. but usually i can have some fun with christmas [once you get past the music!] because you get to buy people things for fun! but this year i cannot think of anything to buy people... so it is killing any joy i previously had. =[

gotta run shannas on the verge of violence.