Adventures In Wonderland

San Francisco, View From Takeoff

2012-02-07T19:21:00.000-08:00

It's a lot of fun to fly in and out of San Francisco because the landmarks of the area are so easily defined. This shot shows San Francisco (peninsula on left side of picture), the Marin Headlands (hills to North), and the Bay Bridge (two spans of bridge with Treasure Island in the the middle at center of picture).

Sunset In Napa Valley - Christmas Eve

2012-02-03T06:08:00.000-08:00

Not a bad place at all to think of as "back home".

Indie Go-Go

2012-01-30T13:54:00.000-08:00

I heard about this cool site called Indie Go-Go when I was in California over the holidays. It is a way for people to ask for donations to a personal cause. I have decided to open a page called Help Meghan Pay For Graduate School. You can go HERE to see the campaign and make a donation. Tell your friends!

Thanks for your support. You are all flowers in the garden of awesome.

Blogging By Typhoid Meghan

2012-01-29T19:07:00.000-08:00

This time I have a really good excuse for why I haven't posted in a while. I have the plague. Well not the plague but certainly a plague. It started about 10 days ago as a mostly GI virus. Thing One brought it home from preschool and proceeded to infect me, his parents, Thing Two and maybe the entire city of Boston. The GI symptoms quickly and astonishingly morphed into a disgusting, chest rattling, nasty wet cough. I saw the doctor and was diagnosed with viral bronchitis. This basically means I treat the symptoms and wait for the sweet release of death, or recovery, whichever comes first. I've got 50 bucks on death.

On top of the plague I am dealing with insane amounts of new information coming my way at school. Do you know what 3 hours of Neuroanatomy feels like at 8pm? I do. It's not fun. Not at all.

During this same period of time the weather in Boston has decided to do everything in its power to qualify for a schizophrenia diagnosis. In my last post I mentioned that the weather was mild with highs in the 40s and lows in the 20s. That's also what the weather is like right now. In fact, I showed you a picture of campus just to prove how unseasonably warm and dry it was, remember?

Then this happened.

Yeah, snow. We had a couple of days of heavy snow that ended up accumulating about 4-5 inches. Then it was sunny for a bit, then it rained, and now I think the forecast is rain mixed with sun and snow. They want to cover all the bases here. I guess the saying is true, if you don't like the weather in Boston then wait five minutes. What this means for me is that just when I have the whole parka, scarf, gloves, hat, boots dance perfected, I have to turn around and start layering like it was fall. It's all very confusing.

Here's something else that I've been having fun with while not blogging.

No, she isn't mine. She lives downstairs and I just steal her when I need a little pick me up. Wouldn't you?

I'm going to get back to dying a slow death. There are a couple of posts in the queue so either way there will be another post or two here soon.

But I've Always Found My Way Somehow, By Taking The Long Way Around

2012-01-16T13:10:00.000-08:00

First off, let me say that I'm a bad blogger given that it has been over a month since my last post. I figured it was time for me to let all my supporters know what is going on with my life. I've decided to break in down into a few helpful categories.

School: I just began my second semester at Northeastern University's Graduate School of Speech Language Pathology and Audiology. I had to write that all out because I still can't believe that I was accepted into this program. I aced my first semester and hope to do the same this time around. Something that has helped me through is two new girlfriends who are in my program. We are crazy, funny, and we kind of just clicked. I'm so thankful for them. I'm not sure how we can only have known each other a few months, it feels like longer. We are the three nerdy Musketeers. We can complain about the guys here, and dating issues. (Little known fact - There are almost no male Speech Language Pathologists. It's a girls club. Makes meeting guys on campus a bit difficult. Apparently men don't like to talk about talking. SURPRISE!) Do I love Northeastern University? Your answer is this photo from one of my classes on campus.

Work: I think I can describe my job in a few words: exhausting, incredibly fulfilling, life altering. As I have mentioned, the family I work for is wonderful. They are kind, generous and fun. C is two-and-a-half and is a delightful handful. We've started time-outs and are trying to cut back on the whining, but his smiles and dimples part the dark clouds. His language is exploding and I usually feel like a translator. I have known him since he was 20 months old and love to watch him grow and attach to me. M is 8 months old and is hysterical. I've know her since she was 7 weeks old and we have a special bond. Her giggles are infectious and she is so easygoing. She is so close to crawling and it really frustrates her that she can't. I love them so much.

Home Life: Well, I went home to California for 3 weeks over Christmas vacation. It was wonderful, but weird. I was home, but it wasn't home. I didn't take a single picture (except the one I snapped of Jeff Corwin at the airport after we got off the same flight).

Then I came back to my cozy apartment and felt at home, and I consider that a blessing. I don't get to spend much time here (I worked 50+ hours this week plus school), but it is home. I feel so lucky to have found this place. I spent Thanksgiving with the family who owns the house and lives downstairs. It was wonderful. A little touch football, some food, and laughter. All wonderful.

Boston/Weather: I really have grown to love Boston, Cambridge and the surrounding areas. I feel like the entire area is one big College. The history is is wonderful, as are the people. The Charles River is particularly spectacular. I was warned repeatedly about the weather here, but it hasn't been too bad so far (knock wood). We did have that one bad snowstorm on Halloween that devastated New England. Since then it has been pretty warm (Highs in the 40's and lows in the teens and 20's). But...as I write this post the temperature outside is 4 degrees and our high is going to be 20. It has been dry (no snow), just windy and cold. I find it totally doable, but ask me again in February. One fascinating/sad thing is that the Charles River is beginning to freeze, which is beautiful, but means no more Harvard Crew teams to see rowing each morning.

Future Plans: Well, as we all know, plans change, but here is a little taste. I'm going back to California for Spring Break in early March. Then in May and June I will be spending a month at a villa in Tuscany with the family I nanny for. Just let that sink in. Italy for a month, while being paid. I also hope to continue to explore Boston and the Northeast.

Highs and Lows: I'm not going to pretend that there haven't been hard times since my move. Particularly since my return from California last week. I try to think of this adage - "Get a large group of people together and have them take their biggest problem in life and place it on a table. After looking around at everyone's problems, each person takes their own problem back from the table". I like to think hat I was given my challenges for a reason and I need to own them and work them through. That's also why I chose Dixie Chicks lyrics for the title of this post.

The Long Way Around (abridged)

"I've been a long time gone now, maybe someday, someday I'm gonna settle down

But I've always found my way some how

By taking the long way

Taking the long way around

Well I fought with a stranger and I met myself

I opened my mouth and I heard myself

It can get pretty lonely when you show yourself

Guess I could have been easier on myself

But I, I could never follow

No I, I could never follow

Well I never seem to do it like anybody else

Maybe someday, someday I'm gonna settle down

If you ever want to find me I can still be found

Taking the long way around"

A Bit More Seasonal

2011-12-08T17:13:00.000-08:00

Somehow this photo came out more like a painting. I'm in love with it.

Fall In New England

2011-12-04T13:24:00.000-08:00

All of the trees here are bare now, so I thought I would share some photos of what they looked like a month or so ago. My first winter in New England is going to be interesting.

Your 2012 Arrow Calendar!

2011-11-27T07:38:00.000-08:00

Without further ado I give you the 2012 Arrow Calendar! You can get yours here on the blog for $15 shipping included. You can click the pay pal link on this post or the one on the sidebar. Thanks for your support. Here's a peek inside:

Northeastern University - Late Afternoon

2011-11-18T14:55:00.000-08:00

I took this photo with my iPhone the other day. I guess I was walking, which caused the blur that I love. This was just after the time change which means it is already dark here at 4:30 pm. More on how I have been handing this soon.

Boston Accents

2011-11-02T11:32:00.000-07:00

I heard a repairman next door say that he left his khakis in his jacket. It took me a few minutes of trying to imagine getting pants into a jacket pocket before I realized he didn't say "khakis" he said "Ka-kees" which in Boston translates to "car keys".

If you are given driving directions with street/exit names in them have the person write down the name! You could spend an hour looking for the exist to "Wusta" before you realize it is spelled Worchester.

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

2011-10-27T15:08:00.000-07:00

There is a large reservoir around the corner from my apartment. On nice days it is really wonderful to walk over to the reservoir and then walk the path around it a couple times. I just have to watch out for the geese.

(Side note: All of these photos were taken on my iPhone. I am continually amazed at what it can do.)

Leaf Peeping

2011-10-22T02:39:00.000-07:00

Walking Through History

2011-10-19T10:46:00.000-07:00

I was on a walk in Cambridge the other day and almost passed this house without another glance. The sign caught my attention and I'm glad I stopped to read it. It's really crazy how much history is around every corner in this area.

Hold Sister's Hand

2011-10-17T17:10:00.000-07:00

From now on, when people ask me if I like my job as a nanny I will refer them to this picture.

Boston Driving Hints and Tips - 2

2011-10-03T10:28:00.000-07:00

There is a local radio station that starts its traffic segments with an old woman with a thick Boston accent saying things like "Put on my blinker? That's like giving information to the enemy" and "I can drive with one finger, my middle one". I find the first one particularly accurate My guess is that the average Bostonian's car horn wears out twice as fast as the average American's, and their blinkers last twice as long.

I have seen people being pulled over by the police, but I can't imagine what makes the cops choose them. There must be some algorithm that the cops use to cull one insane driver from the herd.

Boston is the only city I've seen where the school bus drivers are worse than the taxi drivers.

I recently heard this explanation for why Boston's drivers are so bad, "Well, Boston is a city where people commute both ways with the sun in their eyes." Yep. That was the explanation I was given. Blame it on the Earth's rotation. Wouldn't this have to apply to all cities where the downtown area lies East of the suburbs people commute from? This has led me to start a subsegment of my Driving Tips and Hints posts:

Terrible theories about why Boston drivers are so terrible

Drivers in Boston know that they are never more than a mile from a world class hospital, so they figure they can risk it. This is especially true since health insurance is mandatory in Massachusetts. These people want to get their money's worth.

Boston is full of equal parts crazy old ladies and new college students. The old ladies can't remember how to drive and the students have no idea how to get anywhere.

The pedestrians are so bad that the drivers are constantly either having to avoid the pedestrians, or trying to hit them and get revenge.

Spread The Word To End The Word

2011-09-24T14:10:00.000-07:00

I'm sure that by now most of you have seen this commercial from the organization Spread the Word to End the Word, but I had to share it here. I had to share it because I simply don't understand why I hear the "R" word so much. I don't understand how the same young men who are one minute discussing astrophysics on an elite college campus can turn around the next minute and call each other "retarded". I have to say that when I was growing up we used the "R" word all the time in school. We would say someone was retarded or their idea was retarded. We didn't understand the connection to real people. I'm so glad that there is a campaign out there to raise awareness about how this word can hurt.

Ramblings

2011-09-18T13:23:00.001-07:00

-When deciding whether or not to see a movie based on a book you read ask yourself "Did I finish that book?". If the answer is yes, then go with god. If the answer is "hmmm, I remember the general plot, lots of happy stuff. But the ending? Uh..." then you should reassess. Spoiler Alert: I recently saw One Day, the new Anne Hathaway movie based on a book that I "read". I really thought I finished that book, but that bus came out of nowhere. I slowly remembered that I got about three quarters of the way through the book and got distracted by a butterfly something, and never finished it. Killed by a bus. That was a surprise.

-Since I nanny for a two year old I say the same thing over and over in rapid succession. "Feet out of your mouth please. Feet out of mouth. Feet! Mouth!". "I'll be right back. Be right back. Right Back! Back!"

-Disney is rereleasing Bambi and The Lion King, because apparently scarring my generation wasn't enough, they want to screw up a whole new group of kids.

-At some point in history the competing manufacturers of shower curtains, liners, and rings got together and decided how many holes EVERY shower curtain would have. Every last one. Let's put these guys to work on the economic crisis.

-I was walking out of the gym recently and glanced up at cars stopped in traffic. Right there in front of me was a truck owned by "Her Plumbing, Inc.". I think the "Inc." really gives the company credibility.

-Little known fact: starting a sentence with "I was walking out of the gym..." means you double the amount of calories burned.

-I drove past a Dunkin' Donuts on Friday at 12:30am and there were three police cars parked outside. My first thought was "They know I need blog material!". (Don't get me started on Boston's obsession with Dunkin' Donuts. Yuck."

-No one looks good getting up from an Adirondack chair.

-Some nights call for a delivery pizza, a screening of Airplane, and zero guilt.

Ten

2011-09-11T03:47:00.000-07:00

Ten years ago, I woke up not feeling well and decided to stay home from school. It was my senior year of high school and I knew one day wouldn't be a big deal, so I stayed in bed and flipped on the TV. At that point no one knew what was going on. Both towers still stood, like giant billowing smokestacks. Then one tower fell. Then the other. I distinctly remember watching live video of people 80 stories up in the towers jumping out of windows. The world was pretty different after that.

I didn't know anyone who died on 9/11. For that matter I don't think I know anyone who knows anyone who died, though statistics say I probably do. But that's the thing about a tragedy like this, we stop talking about it every day. We keep it tucked into a little corner of our minds because there is no way we could look it in the face every day. Yet people do. Survivors, family members, friends. They don't have the luxury of a back corner.

We can use words like tragedy and terrorism to describe what happened ten years ago today, and those words are totally accurate. But sometimes the only thing I end up thinking is "wow, what a shitty thing to do". I know it's not eloquent, but that's what comes to mind. Some times the simple words will do. Shitty. Fucked up.

Sometimes on this day I post a picture of a flag as a memorial. Somehow, that doesn't seem to do it today.

Bad Blogger!

2011-09-07T15:40:00.000-07:00

I know. I suck. I move 3,000 miles away and never call or write. I apologize. I'm not sure there is a good way to sum up how things are going here, but all in all I would say things are great. I love my apartment and the area where I live. I love school so far. I love my job (most of the time, I mean, isn't that the best I can ask for?)

When I tell people the long and convoluted story of how I ended up in Boston working where I do and going to school, doing my research assistantship, etc, they are universally amazed. "Clearly" they say "this was meant to be". I completely agree. Things have fallen into place so smoothly here that I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. Maybe it was all those years of Catholic school that made me think "Jesus is dead, there is no way I'm allowed to be this happy". (Note: I'm not Catholic, I was just indoctrinated by their schools for 10 years). Well, the nuns were wrong, things can be awesome without anyone having to pay for it. I'm sorry Sister Clarita, but that's how it is. May you rest in peace.

I know that there are a million little stories that I won't have time to relay here and that makes me sad, because I really want to have some of them documented. There is something I have learned from my photography that I have been able to transfer to my blogging and other areas of my life, and that is this: If you are too busy documenting you forget to do the experiencing.

I just thought I would take a moment on this, my first day of Graduate School, to let you know that I am alive and well. No...I'm thriving. I will share stories and photos again soon, and plan on being a better blogger. I have a "Ramblings" post in the works which seems easier for me to write than a long story lately.

In the meantime, please enjoy some photos of my backyard and its occupants. My apartment has 7 windows that look out onto this gorgeousness. Seven. SEVEN. That's one, two, three...SEVEN! I cannot overstate the importance of the windows. Oh, and there's a skylight too. The backyard is home to a very long swing that just begs to be photographed at many angles, as well as a pool and much foliage.

Something tells me that Sister Clarita would be happy for me. Jesus or no Jesus, I've got a view.

Coming Soon To A Blog Near You!

2011-09-05T18:41:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry it has been a while since I posted anything. I spent the long holiday weekend on Martha's Vineyard and will write up a post soon. I also have some fun photos to share. In the meantime I'm going to go consider the terrifying fact that I start Graduate School on Wednesday. Shudder.

Sunset - West Chop, Martha's Vineyard

2011-08-29T13:20:00.000-07:00

Martha's Vineyard, So Specific (And Some Other Ramblings I Wasn't Planning On)

2011-08-27T06:02:00.000-07:00

(This photo is from one of the roads on Martha's Vineyard. Gotta love it. Right now the East Coast is bracing for Hurricane Irene, Boston included. It looks like we will get hit with some fierce winds and lots of rain on already saturated soil. I'm prepared with supplies and plan on hunkering down tomorrow. I will share stories after the storm passes, if anything interesting happens. Also, for those who have asked, I did not feel the earthquake a few days ago. But then again, it was relatively small for a California girl. I do think it is funny that everyone ran OUTSIDE during the earthquake, pretty much the worst idea. I also love how California has poked fun of the East Coast's reaction to the quake. Here are a couple of my favorite joke pics of earthquake "aftermath".)

Nautical Grammar

2011-08-25T19:14:00.000-07:00

This is a sign on the ferry to and from Martha's Vineyard. Inspires confidence, no?

My People

2011-08-23T16:21:00.000-07:00

Beloit College just released their "Mindset List" for this year's incoming college freshmen. Since I just celebrated my 27th birthday (shudder), I thought I would go onto Beloit's website and look up what the Mindset List for my incoming class looked like. Here are a few that hit home (I've added a few of my own comments to their list too):

Most were born in 1983 or 1984 (I was always the youngest in my class).
"Ctrl+Alt+Del" is as basic as "ABC".
Paul Newman has always made salad dressing.
Bert and Ernie are old enough to be their parents (and now they can legally marry in New York!).
There has always been some association between fried eggs and your brain.
Computers have always fit in their backpacks.
The Osmonds are just talk show hosts.
They have always been able to make photocopies at home.
A Southerner has always been president of the United States (until Barack Obama, who is, of course, Kenyan).
South Africa's official policy of apartheid has not existed in their lifetime.
Cars have always had eye-level rear stop lights, CD players, and air bags.
Bruce Springsteen's new hit, Born in the USA, could have been played to celebrate their birth.
Barbie has always had a job (And still doesn't make as much money as Ken for the same job).
Afghanistan has always been a front page story.
The U.S. and Soviets have always been partners in space.
Nicolas Cage, Daryll Hannah, Eddie Murphy, and John Malkovich made their first major film impressions the year they were born.
The drug Ecsasty has always been around.
Electronic filing of federal income taxes has always been an option.
The Coen Brothers have always been making films.
Datsuns have never been made.
Directory Assistance has never been free.
They knew how to pop a Popple and trade a Pog (Total flashback to 8th grade).
They can still sing the rap chorus to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air ("West Philadelphia born and raised, on the playground is where I spent most of my days..." Damn it, now that's in my head!)

Well, that makes me feel a little younger, thanks Beloit! Now everyone older than me can proceed to the comments section and share their thoughts on me feeling old.

Boston Area Driving Hints And Tips

2011-08-18T16:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, I have a confession to make. I was wrong about how much it sucks to drive in Boston. It sucks. Hard. I'm not sure what the other drivers are thinking but my thoughts usually go something like this:

"Alrighty, pull out of the driveway and...wait, why is my street blocked off. Oh, it's just a couple of hundred people double parked. Everything is good...hang on, is this a rotary? Damn, it is. How many lanes is it?! Why aren't there any lines?! Let me out! Let me out! I'm alive!!! Wait, why is everyone turning? Is this a turn only lane? But I'm in the middle lane! Okay, moving over. Let me in! Let me in!! Ooh, that guy doesn't like me. OH MY GOD THERE'S A TRAIN COMING! AM I ON THE T LINE?! That was close. Now, the GPS says that my destination is at the next right. Wait, there are three rights and four lefts at the next intersection. Which fork do I take?! Excuse me. Pardon me. Oh, go to hell! Okay, made it through the intersection. Wait, why is that guy coming right at me? Am I on a one way street? OH MY GOD I AM! But, wait, HE'S THE ONE GOING THE WRONG WAY! Phew, I made it. Now how do I get home?"

I'm sure I will continue this series as I learn to drive like a Bostonian, but here are my first observations:

People generally go 15-25 miles above the speed limit and will sit three inches off your rear bumper if you don't.
There are two places for informational road signs - six inches before an intersection and ten feet after an intersection (the latter saying, basically "you should have turned there, now you're screwed").
There are two ways, and only two ways, that people give directions here: "Oh, that's easy to get to" and "You can't get there from here".
Blinkers are for pussies.
Merge and Yield are not recognized words in Massachusetts.
Why park when you can double park?
A two lane road anywhere else is a four lane road here. Most of the time there aren't lines on the street. I imagine at some point there was a conversation like this:

   "Hey Bernie, how many lanes should this road be?"
   "I don't know Ray, I guess it depends on how big the cars are."
   "Then we shouldn't put lines on the road. We don't want to confuse anyone."
   "Wicked smart man, wicked smart."

Complain about any of this and you will get the following explanation -
"Well, the roads were laid out for horses and carriages".

I understand that, but there have been some upgrades since then. Right?

Twenty Seven

2011-08-14T04:23:00.000-07:00

More years than candles in the package.

Move It

2011-08-12T16:43:00.000-07:00

What can I say about my move to Boston? I think one word sums it up well: Surprising. I was surprised again and again by how calm I was. I'm still sort of waiting for the other shoe to drop.

My mom and I flew out on 7/31 around 10pm and arrived in Boston early the next morning. I didn't sleep on the plane. At all. Fun times. When we arrived in Boston I discovered that one of my bags had been "misplaced". And by "misplaced", I mean that it was probably sent to Boston via Madagascar and the Galapagos Islands, perhaps with a stop on Mars. Luckily, the bag was dropped off on my doorstep sometime in the middle of the night having only gone to Philadelphia (but with a tan that suggested a more tropical locale.)

So, my mom and I spent the next three days waiting for my car and furniture to arrive and making many trips to Target and Ikea. These trips were fun at first, but two hours in Ikea deciphering and translating is way too much time. My right eye still starts to twitch whenever I see a letter with two little dots above it.

As it stands right now, I am about 90% moved in (thanks, in large part, to the two guys downstairs who row crew at Harvard and have been my sherpas). On 8/4 I dropped my mom at the airport and I drove down the coast to Martha's Vineyard. (Note: the ocean is on the wrong side out here. This may lead to some interesting navigation for a California girl). I took the ferry here and am in paradise. I'm sitting on the screened in porch looking out at the lighthouse and Vineyard Sound. I can see why the Obamas and Kennedys hang out here.

I will share photos of my place once it is completely set up. Until then, enjoy some pictures from the Vineyard.

Cleveland!

2011-08-09T13:09:00.000-07:00

While I get together a post detailing my move, Boston, and what Martha's Vineyard is like, I want to show you this hysterical video about Cleveland. My other top choice grad school, Case Western Reserve University, is in Cleveland. I think Boston was the right choice.

Life On The Deck

2011-08-03T05:41:00.000-07:00

The decks at my parents house are gathering places for all kinds of critters. The top deck sees it's fair share of squirrels (which Arrow hates), various species of birds, and one chipmunk called Bob. I love Bob and was able to get a few shots of him and his friends last weekend. Behold - Bob! (And Friends)

Moving

2011-07-31T18:52:00.001-07:00

And so it begins. Farewell California. Hello Massachusetts. My bags are packed and I'm ready to go. Now if my mom could just get her shit together we would be good.

Arrow's Girlfriend

2011-07-30T16:07:00.000-07:00

This is Scarlit, the neighbor's Rottweiler puppy. I ADORE HER! Scarlit came to visit a few days ago and she fell in love with Arrow. She followed his around licking his face and pouncing on him. Arrow was less than impressed. He isn't really a fan of other dogs, particularly when they are rambunctious. He thinks they are just so juvenile.

Yeah, This Confused Him

2011-07-27T20:31:00.000-07:00

Arrow helped me load up a bunch of boxes last week, so I decided to repay him by putting him inside one. He was not amused.

Step One

2011-07-26T08:18:00.000-07:00

The first tangible step in this whole cross-country move process happened on Friday: Greta the Jetta was packed full of my stuff and loaded onto a large truck. Right now I would guess that she is somewhere around the Rockies. A few days before we shipped her, Greta got a makeover in the form of a brand new paint job. The paint on her hood (the clear coat actually) was peeling off and I was concerned about what a Boston winter would do to any exposed paint. Now Greta looks great and will do just fine this winter.

For a while after I decided to go to Northeastern, I assumed that I would sell Greta here and use public transportation in Boston. Then I saw the difference in commute times from school to work (15 minute drive or 50 minute train and bus ride) and decided that having a car would give me so much more independence. I have had one car or another since I got my permit at 15 and I really wasn't looking forward to relying on public transportation for everything. I had heard horror stories about driving and parking in Boston though, so I had concerns. Then I visited and saw that it was no more complicated than driving and parking in San Francisco. Plus, having my car means that I can take little trips around the East Coast if I want (like to Martha's Vineyard!).

So, that's where things stand right now. Greta (packed with a ton of my stuff that would have been crazy expensive to ship) is on her way to Boston and looking good doing it. It was strange to hand her over, knowing that the next time I see her will be at my new place in Boston. Things are happening fast now folks. Really fast.

Snacking, Veg Veg Revolution Style

2011-07-21T11:55:00.000-07:00

This is another one of my current favorite snacks: Mango. Right now they are juicy and sweet and absolutely delicious. Also, I think it's much more fun to pronounce it Mongo, like Bongo. Plus, when I cut them up they look like little hedgehogs. I'm such a geek.

Yeah, So This Happened

2011-07-19T12:47:00.000-07:00

I dropped my iPhone. On the sidewalk. And it cracked. A lot. And I was very sad.

The case I had for my iPhone didn't provide protection for the back, which is made of glass. Luckily, I had the insurance policy on the phone through Verizon, so I got a new phone shipped to me without paying the $600. I am a pretty careful person, so this was a surprise. This is a public service announcement for my readers: get the insurance on your phone. And get a good case for it. And don't drop it.

Pocket Sidekick

2011-07-15T13:01:00.000-07:00

This is Kick*, the youngest member of the Harvard family. I saw them a few weeks ago and got in a good photo shoot with her. She was super cooperative and loved having her picture taken!

*Not using real names for the family

Snacking - Veg Veg Revolution Style

2011-07-12T14:53:00.000-07:00

It's been over 4 months since I started my vegetarian journey (see ticker on sidebar), and I wanted to show you one of my current favorite snacks. Be warned, they are really hard to make. You have to go to the store, buy snap peas, rinse them off, and eat them. Phew! Did you get all that? Anyway, here are a few photos of these yummy bites of goodness.

I don't know why, but I really like this dark photo of the pea that I took when adjusting my camera settings.

Don't Be A Drag, Just Be A Queen

2011-07-07T17:25:00.000-07:00

Just put your paws up. 'Cause you were born this way, baby.

Insert Clever Title Here _______

2011-07-04T13:52:00.000-07:00

I was tempted to title this post "AHHHHH!!", but I thought that it might scare some of my more delicate readers away. Since my last update on Boston I have signed a lease for the place I mentioned. This is a huge relief. Now I can finally picture where I will be living. I can imagine how I will decorate it and what life there will be like. The "apartment" is actually the top floor of a wonderful Victorian house in Brookline. It is MASSIVE compared to the places I saw when I visited in June. It has a large bedroom, living/dining room, kitchen, and (wait for it!) CLOSET SPACE! Also, it has a ton of windows and a skylight which makes for a bright and cheery place.

The entrance to the apartment is at the back of the house near the large backyard. There are a couple of decks on the way up that I can use as well. The house is owned by a wonderful couple with college aged kids and a black lab. I will have full use of the "grounds" of the house including the swimming pool! I am ridiculously happy about all of this. After looking at studio apartments all over Boston, I had a pretty sad idea of where I would be living. All I could picture were tiny studios (a room and bathroom), on busy roads with one or two windows usually looking right at a brick wall. No view. No natural light. I could never have imagined a third story place on a tree lined street, huge yard, pool, wonderful (non-smoking, which is harder to find in Massachusetts than California) family below me, free off-street parking (a HUGE perk in Boston with the snowplows and parking restrictions) and near the oldest country club in the nation (called simply "The Country Club"). The price of an apartment in Boston is ridiculous so I won't even go into that. When I feel a little lightheaded looking at the numbers, all I need to do is glance at this picture of the house and I am reminded of how lucky I am to have this place (which was on the market for about two seconds for the first time in three years).

I will be sure to add a ton more photos once I move in. Obviously, I have pictures of the interior of the apartment, but they are all of someone else's stuff. I wouldn't want you to think that my interior design skills are so poor.

So, the apartment is just the first (rather large) piece of this whole story. I need to set up the second part of the story with a little bit of information and background. The fall semester at Northeastern starts on September 7. Most students (undergrads that is), move in on September 1, and that's when most leases begin. I initially thought I too would be moving then, the day that moving vans take over the city. (Remember, Boston is pretty much owned by students between September and June. Boston is home to about 35 colleges and Universities like MIT, Harvard, NU, Boston College, Tufts, and Boston University. Over 100,000 students migrate there for school.)

That was the plan. Then, the family I will be working for when I move said that they wouldn't mind having my help for some of August too. And here's another piece of background for you - I have worked as a part time nanny for many years. I work on-call through an agency which means that I work part time for many families. At the beginning of this year I got a call from a woman in San Francisco who got my number from a mutual friend. The woman and her husband have a vacation rental here in Napa Valley and were looking for someone to watch their almost 2-year-old son when they visited. I did this several times and we really hit it off. Then, the crazy universe decided to do some matchmaking. Right around the time I decided to go to NU, the father of the family decided to go to Harvard to get his PhD, starting this Fall. We all joked about the serendipity and how we should keep in touch. Long story short, we realized that my school schedule would allow me a lot of time to work and they were looking for a nanny for 25-30 hours a week. Everything quickly fell into place. I will be nannying for their son (and brand-new baby girl!) as much as they need me. And let me just stress that they are the nicest people. I adore them. So, when they said that they could use me around August 15th, I thought "Why not!?". The owners of my apartment were initially looking for someone to move in on August 1st, right after their current tenant moves out, so the realtor thought an 8/15 move in would be more appealing to them than a 9/1 move in.

Then, I got an offer that I couldn't pass up. The family (now on referred to as the Harvards. And the kids will be Mac and Kick.) has a beach house on Martha's Vineyard. They decided to spend the first few weeks of August there and asked if I wanted to come work and play on the Vineyard for a few weeks, starting around August 1st. Are you kidding me?! Of course I want to spend a few weeks at the end of the Summer on a gorgeous island instead of in the hot and humid city. Duh, Winning! Could there be any better way to relieve the tension of moving than hanging at the beach?!

Well, that's where things stand right now. I will move in on August 1st. I will fly there with my mom, and my car is being shipped. I will spend a few days with my mom at my new place getting settled, then she will fly home and I will drive to the Vineyard. Hopefully there won't be too many hiccups in the arrangements. As always, I will keep y'all updated as much as possible. And again, thank you all for your support.

(Oh, and right now I an recovering from a head full of snot and lungs full of phlegm so blogging has been a bit hit and miss. I apologize.)

Spring Into Summer

2011-06-29T08:41:00.000-07:00

Pathway, Northeastern University

2011-06-26T06:59:00.000-07:00

Home

2011-06-21T09:32:00.000-07:00

The Thing With The Guy In The Place

2011-06-17T11:54:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry that it has taken me so long to write a post about my trip to Boston. I could give you excuses like jet lag, stress, busy work schedule, and so on. It could have something to do with the fact that I tweaked my back last weekend...again. Or, who knows, it could be because the new season of Toddlers and Tiaras is on and I just HAVE to see parents give their three year olds Red Bull, then wonder why their kids are melting down. We'll never know. Anyway, here's the story...

The flight to Boston was long, but not too terrible. Mostly I just kept thinking that I would be repeating the trip pretty often, and that wasn't really appealing. The hotel was lovely, as were the people and the shopping. My mom and I got some good quality mother-daughter time in, anticipating the fall when we won't see each other much. We were in the city on Memorial Day which meant lots of tourists, some cool flag memorials, and busy tours. The first day was also unbearably hot and humid, leaving me sweaty and frustrated. Luckily, I was told that that kind of weather is not the norm, especially during the school year.

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about what we did on the trip. I will say that we did both city and harbor (pronounced hah-buh) tours, rode the T a lot, and saw a few movies (my abs are still sore from laughing so hard at Bridesmaids, a much needed emotional lift). We enjoyed a lightning storm, toured my school, and searched for apartments. I loved the tour of my program, conducted by my advisor. Northeastern's campus is well known, and is used as a model for other urban campuses. This could be because they have a strong Architecture program which results in gorgeous buildings, grassy quads with painted Adirondack chairs, and rooftop gardens. This means that the campus feels like a sanctuary in the middle of the city. Calm and relaxed.

The apartment hunt didn't go as well We met with two realtors. One showed us absolutely abysmal studios, the other showed us nice studios, but nothing fantastic. This left me frustrated. VERY frustrated. I didn't expect to land a place while I was there, but I would have liked to have some prospects. The good news on this front is that I now have a possible place to live! The papers are being signed and now all I can do is just hope that it all works out. I will share more about it if/when it comes through. Let me just tell you this - $1500 a month for a studio. Yep. Ugh!

When I sat down to write this post I wanted to make sure that it was a true account and not a whitewashed story. It most certainly was NOT all rainbows and unicorns. I wanted to be clear about this because I don't want other people in this situation to think "Why is it hard for me, she made it seem like a dream?!" My emotions on this trip were up and down like Charlie Sheen and his Tiger Blood. Sometimes I was too excited to be scared, and sometimes I was too scared to think straight. Until the trip, Boston had been just an idea, not a reality. When I was finally there, a place I had never been and didn't know my way around, I kept thinking "I don't live here! This isn't home!". Now, I realize that this is true, I don't live there yet, and don't yet have ties to the city, but I was hoping to feel and immediate connection to the city like I had with the University. It didn't happen. Part of this was because I was tired, hot, stressed, and scared. Part was because I couldn't look at the city through the objective eyes of a visitor. I was there knowing that, come hell or high water, I will be moving there in a couple months. A lot was riding on my relationship with the city. One of the BIG stressors I have had, both during and after the trip, is that I don't know where I'm living yet. I don't have a place to think of as home. I can't distract myself by thinking of how I am going to decorate my new place, or what the area will be like to live in. When that piece falls into place I know I will feel 100 pounds lighter. I do know I will be taking a little piece of home with me - my car (Greta the Jetta). I was initially planning on selling her here, but between work and school it became clear that a car would be a huge help and open many doors.

So, that's the story. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I will continue to update you this summer as my August 15 or September 1 move in date approaches. Thank you all again for your support through this, and enjoy these pictures of my new city.

Boston - 10pm

2011-06-14T09:56:00.000-07:00

It Was A Dark And Stormy Night

2011-06-10T10:21:00.000-07:00

Before I get into the entire story of my trip to Boston I wanted to share these photos of a lightning storm from one of the nights I was there. I learned something that night - lightning is really difficult to photograph. These photos were taken at about 11 o'clock at night, so the only light you see in the sky is from the lightning. It was amazing.

Benches, Northeastern University

2011-06-08T13:34:00.000-07:00

I Just...I Mean...Wow

2011-06-06T18:45:00.000-07:00

As a soon to be Bostonian, I am officially offended. You know, between fits of hysterical laughter. I love the part where the British were taking our guns and Paul Revere came at them with "papers". I'm not sure if she made it all up or is mashing together the right to bear arms and the story of Martin Luther and his Ninety-Five Theses. (I'm TOTALLY betting it was the Theses mixup. Sarah is just so likely to know about that). The "shots and bells" part is another classic. And not to be outdone by their feckless leader, Palin supporters then went on Wikipedia to change the page on Paul Revere to more accurately reflect Sarah's account. Oh Sarah, how I have missed you since the 2008 election. Welcome back Beauty Queen, Welcome Back.

Boston, Dusk

2011-06-06T07:11:00.000-07:00

Two Words: Jet Lag

2011-06-05T13:14:00.000-07:00

While I work on a post or two about my trip to Boston, I thought I would share a bit of this cuteness with you.

Beantown And Lima, Ohio

2011-05-28T23:09:00.000-07:00

Don't you just love what I did with the title? Well, I leave tomorrow for a five night trip to Boston to check out Northeastern and look for places to live. I'm sure I will come home with a ton of great pictures and stories, but until then here is a little look at my trip to Glee Live 2011 last week. It was freaking amazing. I didn't know what to expect from the tour and was not disappointed in the least. The photos aren't great because I wasn't allowed to bring my DSLR camera in (thanks to a bitchy security guard who thought she was Secret Service), so I used my iPhone.

Just A Few Reasons Why I Am So Happy When Farmers' Market Returns

2011-05-25T09:35:00.000-07:00

Pretty Boy

2011-05-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

I recently learned how to make curled ribbon by wrapping ribbon around a barbeque skewer, clipping it at both ends, and baking it at 200 degrees for 20 minutes. The result is fun curly ribbon that looks great in hair accessories. And, of course, this was bound to happen ~

Photography Lesson VI - Using Reflections

2011-05-19T22:21:00.000-07:00

Reflective surfaces can be a great photography tool. They come in both natural (water) and manmade (mirror) forms. Not only can they add an interesting element to your photos, but they also boost the amount of light in your picture. These surfaces can be used as a basic aspect of your photo, or alone as an artistic shot. Here are a few examples ~

I took this photo during a walk through my neighborhood (yes, I sometimes bring my D5000 on exercise walks with me). The road wasn't particularly visually interesting, though it's pretty curvy, so when I saw the mirror attached to a telephone pole I knew it would make a great, artsy shot. Because I couldn't move the mirror, I had to angle myself and my camera so the road lined up in the mirror. The result is a fun shot using an unusual method.

Here's another example of using a manmade reflective surface. I took this photo during a snowmobiling outing in Lake Tahoe. I had gotten a bunch of great shots of the scenery and noticed how the gorgeous blue sky was reflected in Gilda's helmet. I thought it would be fun to get a picture of it and I also knew that my reflection would be captured too. Since a photographer isn't often the subject of many photos, this was a nice bonus. I guess that's how many people see me anyway, with a camera pressed to my face. I love that I captured me, Richard, the sky and landscape all in one shot. I also like that I used the helmet to achieve this because it gives a real feeling for what we were doing.

This is a picture from my cousin's wedding in Texas of the river that ran beside the resort. I liked that both the trees and sky were reflected in the river. It really gives a feeling for how calm the water was and how relaxing the experience was.

This was another shot that was purely for artistic expression. The clouds that day were almost cartoon-like in their fluffiness against the clear blue sky. I saw the puddle on the ground and thought it would be fun to picture the sky reflected in it. The result is what looks like a puddle full of sky and clouds.

This shot of the Golden Gate Bridge, taken from the Marin Headlands, is another example of using water to reflect light. As you can see, it was a cloudy day, so the light was diffuse and was reflecting nicely on the water of the Bay. It also meant that the shadow of the bridge span was cast on the water very distinctly. I made sure to adjust my settings in this shot so that the dark and light areas of the clouds were defined and the same was reflected in the water.

This photo of the Washington Monument and Capitol Building was taken from the Lincoln Memorial and I felt that it was important for me to capture the reflecting pool as well. See, even the architects of D.C. knew the importance of reflective surfaces. In this instance (a dark night shot) the reflection was also important because it nearly doubled the amount of light in the shot.

So, now you know how to use reflective surfaces to make your photos more interesting. When dealing with these surfaces and how they interact with your light source, you may have to adjust the settings on your camera to maximize the effect. Just mess around with it!

A Public Service Announcement

2011-05-17T11:57:00.000-07:00

You guys know that I'm always looking out for your best interest, right? Recently I was talking to someone about online coupon codes, and realized that I have useful information that you may not have. I thought I would share! If you do a lot of online shopping you will find this particularly useful. Here's what you do-
If you see a box asking for a coupon code or promotional code like this on the checkout page, you can count on there being coupon codes out there. For example, here is the checkout page on Sephora.com

The next step is to Google "Sephora coupon codes".

And finally, take a look at the results, pick a coupon code you like, and plug it into the box on the checkout page.

Coupons range from some percentage off, to free shipping, bonus samples, and more depending on the site. I hope this helps. I never buy online anymore without checking for coupon codes. I recently saved 10% on a $250 purchase, all I had to do was search for less than 5 minutes. Sweet!

Notorious D.O.G.

2011-05-13T22:26:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's Arrow's other nickname. And I think he wears it quite well, don't you?
(He asks that you please disregard the hot pink toenails)

Serious Cuteness

2011-05-11T10:28:00.000-07:00

I hung out with Hayden for a few hours this weekend and, of course, brought my camera. Could this kid be any cuter? (And the green stuff on his face is avocado.)

I Had To Share These

2011-05-10T09:35:00.000-07:00

He Shot The Sheriff

2011-05-06T09:55:00.000-07:00

Arrow's nickname is Deputy. It used to be Deputy Dog, but somewhere along the way it got shortened. He actually responds to it too. Couldn't you just eat him up?

Alan!

2011-05-03T09:50:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I watch this video when I need a pick me up. Sometimes I just want to hear "Alan!"

Photography Lesson V - Taking Advantage Of Every Moment

2011-05-02T09:16:00.000-07:00

When setting out to take a picture, I usually try to visualize what I would like to capture. This is especially true when I am planning a professional shoot. However, plans change quickly, so it is important to not get too attached to what you had planned and instead look for moments to take take advantage of. A good way to accomplish this is to always have your camera ready. After you set up a shot and take a few photos, don't sit back and congratulate yourself. Keep your camera ready for a happy accident, should one occur. Here are a few examples...

This photo is part of Hayden's newborn shoot. I knew I wanted to get some naked photos of him, so I laid his little sleeping self out on a dark blanket on the couch. (The dark blanket was to create a uniform background, as well as to show off his pale newborn skin.) I had gotten a few shots, then he whimpered a little. His Daddy was sitting next to him and sort of absentmindedly reach down to soothe Hayden. At the same moment, Hayden reached his little hand up towards his Dad's. Since I had my camera ready I didn't have to say anything to his Dad about keeping still, or really even mention that I was taking a few shots. The result is that his hand looks relaxed and natural on Hayden and his parents know the photo wasn't staged. This is a true father-son moment caught on film. Having his father's hand in the photo also helped give a little perspective on Hayden's size. Perfection!

Here's another example of a happy accident. This photo of Javan and Karen in an open top bus in Washington, D.C. was only partially staged. I asked them to turn around to get a photo, which they did. However, between the time I asked them to turn around and the time I got my settings right (about 30 seconds), my cousin became too exhausted to hold his head up, poor baby. He said I was taking too long. the result is actually better than the shot I had planned. It captures Karen's sunny personality and easy smile as well as Javan's, well, Javan-ness. It also captures how tired we all were after getting up very early to go to the Rally to Restore Sanity, then standing for many hours at the rally.

Finally, here's the ultimate example of a happy accident. When I took this photo I had only owned my D5000 for about a week and was just photographing Arrow to see the quality of the photos it could take. Arrow was lying on the deck in the bright summer sun, just enjoying himself. It was warm so he was panting when he looked up at me. It just so happened that when I snapped the photo he closed his eyes against the sun and "smiled" a bit wider. Luck is what this shot is all about. Without good luck, my photography company wouldn't be called Smiling Dog Photography and Arrow wouldn't have a signature picture.

There's not much I can say that will help you improve your luck (but maybe go outside, turn around three times, and spit just to be sure). All I can do is help you recognize opportunities for great photos and not see them as getting in the way of your plans. I can also tell you not to over-plan and to have your camera ready to take advantage of every situation.

Here are a few more examples of a captured moment rather than a planned photo. There's not really anything to explain, they are just here to give you a few more ideas.

And The Winner Is...

2011-04-27T12:13:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I had heard back from most of the seven grad schools that I applied to. I was trying to make a decision between University of Oregon and Sacramento State University when I got a letter from one of my top choice schools that I had written off, Northeastern University. They only took 35 people from hundreds of applicants so I didn't really hold out hope that I would get in there. But I did. I could not believe it. I immediately began looking at everything Northeastern related online and fell in love with the school. I joked the next day with my college advisor that the only thing that could make this decision any more interesting is if I got off the wait list at my "first choice" school. Well, be careful what you wish for, because the next day that exact thing happened. That "first choice" school, Case Western Reserve University, invited me to come on down to Cleveland. After looking more into the program and the area around the University, I realized that Northeastern was my first choice all along, I just didn't have any hope of getting in there.

So there you have it. This fall I will be moving to Boston and will do one year of prerequisite coursework and two years of masters coursework. I am so unbelievably excited. I don't know what living in Boston will be like, but I am psyched to figure it all out. Northeastern is in a small area of Boston that contains Harvard University, MIT, Tufts, Emerson, and so many more. It is going to be so cool to be living in such a great college town with so many other students. Go Huskies!

To learn a little more about Northeastern University you can click here and here.

What I Have Been Doing With My Down Time

2011-04-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

This live puppy cam is so damn cute that I find myself staring at them while making squeaky little "Ooh how adorable!" sounds. Press play and the video will begin a live stream of what the puppies are doing right now.

Live video chat by Ustream

Seriously?

2011-04-25T09:10:00.001-07:00

It's been a week since I blogged, and I apologize. I'm not sure if it is because I have been working a lot, or because there has been movement on the grad school front, or perhaps because on Thursday my mother tripped in a parking lot and broke both arms near the elbow. Yeah, that last one seems most likely. My mother is okay. She caught her fall with her forearms and face. She has two black eyes, a fat lip, a forehead laceration, and the two broken flippers. As you can imagine, you can't do a whole hell of a lot without your arms. So, I have become her arms. For those who have called and sent flowers and care packages I want to thank you and tell you how much she loves them. I will write soon about the grad school stuff, because it's pretty exciting!

A Lovely Gift

2011-04-19T21:53:00.000-07:00

My parents presented me with this gift last week. They had one of my paintings framed, no small feat given that it is about 3 feet wide. The painting is based on a photo that I took of one of the roses that my mother grows in her garden. I think this is what Oprah calls a Full Circle Moment.

Do I Need A Twelve Step Program?

2011-04-18T08:43:00.000-07:00

I recently realized that I have far too many pink accessories. I'm not talking about clothes or anything like that. I'm talking about things that I may be carrying around with me, at the same time, on any given day. For example...

I've got my pink Chucks, wallet, iPod, iPhone, water bottle, and pink iPad case. You think there is a twelve step program for people like me?

Photography Lesson IV - Lighting

2011-04-15T08:44:00.000-07:00

The actual lighting of any situation is usually out of your control. If you are inside you may be able to turn on a few more lights, but if you are outside all the lighting control is going to happen in your camera.

The beauty of putting your D-SLR camera into Manual mode is that you can adjust for a certain light, and adjust within a certain light. Again, these adjustments will involve changing your ISO, Shutter Speed, F-Stop, and White Balance like we talked about in the second Photography Lesson.

Adjusting for a certain light is pretty self explanatory and is what I talked about in the second post. This involves changing the Manual Settings until your picture looks lit correctly. Adjusting within a certain light is what I will talk about here and it is what will give your photos a bit more of inartistic flair. Adjusting within light will help you play up shadows, create silhouettes, highlight areas of a photo, and much more. Let's work with a few examples.

Using Low Light To Your Advantage

This photo was taken at my cousin's wedding reception. It was held at night in a large gazebo-like building which was lit by Christmas tree-esque lights. In this type of lighting situation your first instinct may be to use a flash. But you know that I don't like using a flash, and if I had here, I wouldn't have captured the same emotion in the picture. More importantly, I wouldn't have captured the actual moment, I would have captured some bright version of it. So, what I did was dial up the ISO, lower the F Number, slow down the shutter, and turn the WB to indoor light. The result of dialing up the ISO was more "noise" in the photo, but the slight blur from it gives the picture a warm fuzzy feel (Collective "Awww").

Awkward Light Placement

A situation like this can be difficult to photograph. This is a picture of the iconic bagpiper at The Inn At Spanish Bay at Pebble Beach. Our rooms were right on the golf course and every evening the bagpiper (employed by the resorts) walked through the links playing and stopping at various locations. The problem with this lighting is 1) the light from the sunset is low, 2) to get the sunset in the photo the bagpiper had to be photographed on his shadowed side, and 3) if I tried to get the bagpiper well lit using my Manual settings, the sunset would be washed out. The solution was to embrace the idea of the bagpiper in silhouette. I upped the ISO, but not to the very top of the range, and adjusted the shutter and F Stop until the sunset's colors were ideally captured. Then I made sure I had a good angle on the bagpiper (turned to the side and actively playing). The result is a shot that is emblematic of the Inn as well as Pebble Beach Resort.

This shot was taken on the same trip to Pebble Beach. This is Carmel Beach looking North. In this picture, I wanted to capture several things - the sunset, the peninsula, and the dead tree on the beach. I used the same camera method that I did with the bagpiper to get the color of the sunset without blacking out the other details. (Neither of these photos was edited with PhotoShop). You can see that, in terms of light, the sunset is brightest, the peninsula is dark, and tree and grass around it are black. This helps create a lovely layered look and is a result of where I was standing in relation to the light source. Here is another shot of a sunset creating a layered look:

Where Is The Light In Relation To Your Subject?

This picture was taken in the early evening, so the sun was low in the sky (on Arrow's right). The result of this light placement is that half of Arrow is dark and his shadow is long. For this shot I used a faster shutter (because Arrow was running), and I needed to raise the ISO to compensate. Take a look at where the light is coming from when you line up your shot. It's fun to see Arrow partly shadowed, partly sun drenched because you can really get a feel for the type of day it was. Here is a close up shot from the same time that really shows the shadows:

Getting Creative With Lighting

This shot of Baby B was taken on an outdoor deck early in the morning. The result was that there was a huge difference between the areas of sunlight and the shadows rather than a gradual change. What I did was set my camera to work for the lighter area, knowing that the shadows would be pretty dark (darker than they actually were). The light happened to be falling across his face at the time which created a fun, more artistic photo.
Take Advantage Of How Windows Funnel Light

In these photos of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, a beam of sunlight is streaming in from the famous dome above. I'm sure this was intentional on the part of the architects because it is a church and the whole "light from above" thing is a big deal. I made sure to adjust my settings so the beam was defined instead of just looking like a bright area of light. Just play around with your camera, take a picture, look at it on the screen, then adjust accordingly. (Note: I did not have my D5000 at the time of this trip so the photos are not quite as good quality, but they were best for illustrating my point.)

Dark Situations - Use Any And All Light To Your Advantage

This picture of the Washington Monument, reflecting pool, and Lincoln Memorial was taken from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at about 7pm. This was admittedly a difficult lighting situation for me. I was able to dial up the ISO, slow down the shutter, and open up the lens (F Number) to allow as much light to enter the camera as possible. I also took advantage of the reflecting pool because it nearly doubled the light. (Note: I am going to do a future post on how to use reflective surfaces.)
Aiming Your Camera Directly At The Sun

It isn't easy to take a photo with the sun directly in front of you because it can leave everything washed out. Also, if you are focusing on something in the foreground the subject will be in front of the sun and therefore in shadow. What I did to capture this was to use a low ISO number, fast shutter, and a mid range F Number. The result is that objects in the foreground look darker than they actually were, but since they were not my subject I was okay with that. The good thing about these settings is that the sun looks defined rather than just washing everything out. (Safety Tip: Looking through the viewfinder is my preferred photography method, but probably isn't the best idea for this type of situation. The probability of going blind goes down when you choose to look at the screen instead. I'm so stuck in my ways though, that I looked through the viewfinder and saw spots for a while. I was worried I would have to learn Braille. I'm thinking of doing a PSA about it. Oh well, I guess hindsight is 20/20. Pun intended.)

Now you know a little more about how to use the light in your environment to give your photos more personality. You can even take the same shot twice, but adjust your settings in between to get vastly different, and equally good, photos. Again, the best way to figure out lighting is by playing with your camera. Keep adjusting the settings between shots. I think you will enjoy getting to know your camera this way.

Next up - Taking advantage of little moments and not over-planning.

Potential

2011-04-13T09:14:00.000-07:00

If you haven't had the privilege of going through the Graduate School Application Process (yes, first letters capitalized is necessary. I almost went ALL CAPS, but decided against it) then I can't really describe the emotional ups and downs that come with it. Anyway, that isn't what this post is about. This post isn't about recommendation letters, applications, fees, acceptance letters, rejection letters, personal statements, or tests. This post is about the who, not the what of the process.

When, in 2001, I moved from Texas to California between Junior and Senior years of high school, I lost touch with a lot of friends. This was before absolutely everyone had a cell phone, or Skype, or texting. This was before (GASP!) Facebook. (Side note/tangent: Mark Zuckerberg is exactly my age so I was in college when he was, and when he invented Facebook. I remember when you had to have a .edu email address to join. I didn't remember that until I saw The Social Network. It also makes me feel like a total underachiever. End of tangent.)

So, back to long distance friendships and the stress of Grad School. I feel very privileged to have kept several relationships going between California and Texas in the nearly 10 years since my move. The closest of these friendships is with my friend Melissa. I met Melissa in First Grade, she was nearly seven and I was almost six (so over 20 years ago). We went to school together from First through Seventh Grades, then she changed to a local public school. But since we were still living in the same city, it was no trouble to keep the friendship going strong. I then continued on to a private high school and she went to a public one. Again, nothing changed. But when I moved to California I was really worried about losing touch, and we both cried on my last night in Texas.

I really shouldn't have been worried. Not a month has gone by since I moved that I haven't gotten several letters from her. And then I write back. Sometimes one of us has something tough going on and writes more than the other, but each and every letter is read and reciprocated. Through the years, email and other electronic forms of communication have become more popular, but we prefer good old snail mail. I can honestly say I have probably communicated with her via email fewer than a dozen times in these 10 years. We chat on the phone and text, but the letters are our main form of correspondence. There is something about seeing her handwriting, the same left handed print that I recognize from our school days, that makes it feel like she is right there with her letter. In fact, when I met her girlfriend a couple of years ago she said, "It's nice to finally meet the person behind the letters in the mailbox". I feel very lucky to have a friend like her. Our letters aren't always particularly insightful or meaningful in subject matter, but their existence is very meaningful. We can write about boyfriends, girlfriends, work, parental stress, and also about what we are watching on TV, the weather, that we are bored at work, and any number of mundane things. I have several boxes of our letters and treasure them. Maybe these letters are our way of rebelling against technology. (I say this while typing on my wireless keyboard connected to my iPad and published on my blog). Or maybe they are our way of being different. It doesn't really matter.

I'm sure you are asking yourself why I am writing this post now. Well, I'm writing it because this necklace, and the meaning card it was attached to, were included in her last letter.

The meaning card said:

The lotus flower is an ancient symbol of one's true potential. Its inner beauty is revealed as its petals open, just as one's hidden potential is fulfilled over time. Wear it as a symbol of the potential that lives within you.

Nowhere in her letter did she mention the necklace. She just slipped it in there, knowing that this Grad School application journey is all about potential, and she wanted me to know that she sees mine. Because that's who she is. She knows me so well, and can read in between the lines of my letters, that she knows what I need. And a reminder of my potential is what I needed. I didn't know that yet, but she did.

I guess I'm writing this as a thank you to her, and a reminder to everyone else to not take friendship for granted. Like any relationship, friendship takes work on both ends. If you find a friend willing to put in the effort, then put it the effort on your end and I think you will be pleased. Also, when you do it right, the "work" you put into keeping a friendship going doesn't feel like work at all. So call a friend today. Or write them a letter. Do something you don't normally do. That's what I'm doing here.

(I also keep her around because she is about as crazy as me!)

(Not to make this about me. But note my weight loss in the above photo and my sidebar pic. Yay!)

I Don't Want To Talk About It

2011-04-12T08:37:00.000-07:00

Put On Your Depends And Prepare To Laugh

2011-04-10T15:18:00.000-07:00

I found a website recently and couldn't wait to share it with y'all. It's from the people who brought us Damn You Auto Correct, and is called Parents Shouldn't Text. Unlike DYAC, these texts aren't necessarily spelling mistakes and stuff. They are the insane things that happen when our parents decide that they can text. Here are a few gems. (Parent side of the conversation is in the gray bubbles.)

I must now use Molexted and Sweet Charlie Sheen at least once a day.

Two Years Ago Today

2011-04-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

Two years ago today I started this blog. I find that really hard to believe. The blog was started as a way to keep up with family and friends, and to share the random pieces of my life with the dark void that is THE INTERNET. I have grown a lot since starting this site, and it has grown right along with me.

In my two years of blogging I have lost about 40 pounds, traveled, become a published photographer, changed jobs, applied to Grad School, and so many other things. The best part, though, is that you have been here cheering me on. Two years ago I would have been happy with a few people checking in on the blog a couple times a week. Last month the blog had 1,100 hits. I can tell you that the blog is read in the U.S., U.K., Netherlands, Canada, Germany, Belize, China, Malaysia, Brazil, Russia, Singapore, Iran, the Philippines, Denmark, India, Morocco, and more. I can also tell you that the majority of those readers return, and that is truly the key. When you take the time to read my words and look at my pictures, I feel a deep sense of gratitude that hasn't changed in the last two years. I am humbled.

Here are a few of my (and apparently your) favorite posts from the past two years.

A three-part driving journey through Europe.

A birthday letter to myself.

A Published Photograph!

Conversations with my father. One, Two, Three

How my mother tried to kill me.

Ladies and Gentlemen, My Grandma.

So, thank you for your support. Thank you for your comments. Thank you for your presence. Thank you for helping to make writing this blog an enjoyable experience for me.

Here's to another year of blogging. I know the twos are notoriously terrible, but that's okay. I was also two once.

Aaron Sorkin Should Have An Office In The White House

2011-04-07T10:54:00.000-07:00

I don't know why I felt the need to share this video clip today. Maybe it's because it seems like not a day goes by without The Christian Right (the extremists, not everyone, don't send me hate mail) using The Bible to take someone's rights away, or hurt good people. I think this clip from The West Wing shows that knowledge is power and sometimes you have to fight haters with their own words. I'm also frustrated because I feel like no one is standing up to them. Oh, and I will heretofore refer to these haters as The Ignorant Tight-Ass Club.

New Stuff At My Etsy Shop!

2011-04-06T10:16:00.000-07:00

I have just added a bunch of new hair items over at my Etsy shop. You can click here to get there or click on the "My Etsy Shop" button on the sidebar. Here's a peek. Tell your friends!

Homemade Apple Sauce

2011-04-04T14:01:00.000-07:00

Since becoming a vegetarian, I have been looking for healthy fruit and veggie recipes. Applesauce seemed like an easy treat to make at home and has zero Weight Watchers points (if you use Splenda). Here is my recipe for fresh Organic applesauce (if you use Organic ingredients). I added pears and blueberries since they were ripe, but you don't have to. This recipe is for a medium sized batch. If you want to make a larger or smaller batch, the ratio is about 2 apples per pear. I use an immersion blender to puree the fruit but you can also use a blender or food processor.

Ingredients
Apples - 5 medium
Pears - 2 (I use Bosc pears because they seem sweetest)
Blueberries - 1 cup (really just how many you want)
Juice from one lemon (essential so apples don't break down)
Brown Sugar - 1 heaping teaspoon
Sugar or Splenda to taste
Cinnamon - 1 teaspoon if you are NOT using Blueberries

Peel and core the apples and pears. Cut into about 1 inch cubes. Put in medium pot and add lemon juice. Add about 1/2 cup water, or just enough to cover the bottom of your pan.

Cook on high heat until water boils, then cover pot and reduce to medium low. Cook for 20 minutes or until apples are tender. (The pears will not be tender, but they will be cooked. Just test the apples.) Add the blueberries, replace cover, and cook for another 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Using a slotted spoon, move the fruit to a large mixing bowl (or blender or food processor). Add brown sugar. Blend until there are no chunks, but don't liquify it. Stir in sugar or Splenda to taste. (If you are not using blueberries you can stir in cinnamon now too). Move to tupperware and refrigerate. I also like to have a serving when it's warm!

I have been tempted to go all Jessica Seinfeld on this recipe, but I haven't had the guts yet. Hope you like it!

WTF Fortune

2011-04-03T19:15:00.000-07:00

First the candy hearts, now fortune cookies. What is happening?

Happy April Fools Day

2011-04-01T00:07:00.000-07:00

Photography Lesson III - Lining Up A Shot

2011-03-29T19:34:00.000-07:00

Since we have gone over equipment and the basics of camera settings, then next logical topic is how to line up a shot so that you get the most out of your photos. People will notice how well a photo is lined up and how it draws their eye before they noticit that it is a little blurry or dark. In fact, when the angle on a photo is perfect, little flaws can be played up as artistic.

Most people's photography needs fall into a category (like nature, the kids, pets, etc) that that is the main subject of the majority of their pictures. If you have children, you are probably going to be most interested in tips on children's photography. Same goes if you take mostly nature shots, or portraits. I will try to use examples and present info in a way so that everyone can benefit from it.

As I said in my last photography lesson, I use the viewfinder on my camera to take pictures rather than looking at the LCD screen. I find that it is easier to imagine what a picture will look like when I block out all other visual information. I can then review the photos on the screen when I'm done.

The first thing to ask yourself when lining up a picture is Why am I taking this picture? If you are photographing your child's soccer game, you are going to want to get a shot of your child with the ball or in action, right? This means you are going to want to zoom out a bit so you can get your child's body and the ball in the shot. A closeup of little Susie's face isn't what you are going for here. Makes sense, no? On the other hand, if you are trying to photograph the beauty of a rose, you are going to want to get in close to capture its intricacies. If you take a wide shot of a rose garden you will have a nice shot of a garden, but nothing extraordinary because the viewer's eye will not be drawn to any particular subject.

And that is my next tip: ask yourself What is the subject of this picture? Your answer will probably be "My child kicking a soccer ball" and not "My child and five other kids on a soccer field". Keep in mind that the background of a picture can be distracting if the subject doesn't fit with it, or if the subject isn't placed well in it. Your eye tends to dart around looking for a subject to settle on, and if it can't, it will move on to something more interesting. Let's look at some examples.

Here is an example of an action photo where having the subject placed correctly in the frame is crucial. In this case, the background colors go nicely with the subject so they add to the photo rather than distract from the subject. It was also important for the photo to be in portrait (up and down) format. This layout minimizes the amount of uninteresting background and makes Arrow look longer and the jump more spectacular. It allows more sky and ground immediately around him to be shown. You can see that Arrow is nicely centered in the picture. Given that the background is pretty, but not particularly relevant to the subject of the photo, having the subject centered made the picture more visually appealing. The next example is the opposite.

When lining up this shot I felt that it was important to capture as much of the background as possible without minimizing the subject. It would not have been very interesting to see Richard against a white snow background without any of the context that the trees bring. This photo was taken from the top story deck of the house in Lake Tahoe. The height was crucial in getting the right angle for this shot. Richard had just sledded down the hill and was climbing back up for another go. I loved that he was wearing all black (even though the doofus was in short sleeves) because it played so well against the snow. I could have panned a bit right to center him in the lower half of the frame, but sometimes an off center subject is best. I chose to anchor him in the bottom right of the shot because it accentuated the fact that he was walking uphill. (It can be helpful to think of your subject as the anchor of the picture. It makes the subject seem weightier and helps you visualize the shot before you take it.) NOTE: The color was edited in PhotoShop to make it black and white while keeping the color of the sled. I will explain how to do this in a future Photography Lesson.

In the Arrow photo I sat on the ground to accentuate the height of the jump. In the photo of Richard I climbed up to take the picture from above to get a lot of background in and to highlight the uphill journey. Here is another example of the importance of the height you take a picture from.

For this photo of Hayden I had him lie on the ground on his tummy with his arms over his boppy pillow. Because this put him low to the ground, I needed to get even closer to the ground than sitting on it would have allowed. So I got on my tummy too, propped on my elbows, and got him centered in the frame. If I had been sitting I would have gotten more of the top of his head than his face. Once I was set up I shook a toy in my left hand out of frame to get his attention (and apparently Bodie's too if you look in the background). I will do a Photography lesson on the best ways to engage your subject a little later (I sure am making more work for myself!)

Using your surroundings to frame a subject and make the photo more visually interesting is my next tip. Here are a few examples. Each of these photos would have been very different if I had pushed in past the closer objects instead of using them as a frame.

This walkway at Pebble Beach is pretty, but by taking the photo through an opening in the sheer curtains the photo becomes more interesting. The colors seem more vibrant and the curve of the sidewalk looks more pronounced.

For this photo of a vineyard, instead of zooming in past the stone archway I pulled back and let the arch create a natural frame. The archway acts like a funnel directing the viewer's eye to the vineyard.

This picture of the valley with the circular frame is an example of looking around you to see what might make your picture more visually appealing. Any ideas about how I achieved this? Well, the photo was taken through a knothole in a fence. I got up close to the fence, focused on the landscape, and the fence created a creative frame. Again, the viewer's eye is directed to the subject (the view) and any extraneous visual information is blocked by the fence.

Finally, for this photo at Lake Tahoe instead of avoiding this location because of all of the branches in the way, I used the branches in the foreground to frame the shot. Many times objects in the foreground can accentuate the background of your pictures as well as add context.

Now, let's talk about getting really creative with the placement of your subject. Sometimes it is fun to place the subject of your photo in a wacky spot in the frame.

This picture of Arrow is fun because the background is blurred out and his eyes draw yours. Don't dismiss a photo like this, even if it was an accident.

For this photo Baby B I pushed in really close to focus on his amazing blue eyes and precious lips. I have other pictures of his whole little self, so I wanted one that would accentuate the details.

The same can be said for the following photos of Hayden. I got some great photos of his face, or all of him, so I wanted to capture some of the finer details. Take a little time to pick out the details of your subject. For Hayden I chose his sweet hands, mouth, toes and eyelashes. I did this because he was 4 months old and I knew that his parents would want to have some pictures to remember the little baby things that change so quickly.

Final tip: sometimes the subject isn't what you think.

In this photo, the little girl's face doesn't matter. The emotion in the photo comes from her little hands pressed against the store window. Think about what you are trying to convey with the photo.

The same is true for this photo of the sisters at the piano. The emotion of the photo comes from seeing their little backs squished in together (the older ones framing the baby) and from the two sisters looking at each other. We got some great shots of their faces that day, so their faces weren't important here. We know who they are. The emotion is the key (both what is shown and what is evoked).

Here is the final example: Javan and Karen in Washington, DC. Here I didn't want to take a portrait of them holding hands. I wanted to capture the moment. The visual of them holding hands walking down the tree lined sidewalk is best presented from the back. Not seeing their faces leaves the emotion entirely in their body language. I like to think that one day their grandchildren will really like this photo too.

So that is a little lesson on framing your photos and lining up your shot. This post doesn't address lighting, staging, taking advantage of the moment, or many other factors that I will address later. The point of this was to help you broaden the way you arrange your shots. Play around with this and I think you will be pleased. Think about what you are going for, but don't over think it (make sense?). Some of the best photos are happy accidents.

Next lesson: Lighting - Sometimes it's okay to cross to the dark side.

Evidence Of Awesomeness

2011-03-28T08:16:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my Photography Lesson post, I am really enjoying the camera on my new iPhone 4. I thought I would share a few pictures that I took with it so you can see how great the camera (and camera and editing apps) are. Have I mentioned that I adore Apple products?

(Working out. The phone has both forward and rear facing cameras so you can see the screen if you are taking a picture of yourself. Very useful.)

(Archie is obsessed with my bangs. He likes to push them around with his beak. This is the view I get when he comes in for them.)

Book Review

2011-03-25T12:53:00.000-07:00

This is the first time I am recommending a book on the blog. If you do nothing for yourself this week, go read (or listen to) A Discovery of Witches. This is the most fantastic book I have read in a long time. Deborah Harkness takes the supernatural vampire/witch genre to an entirely new (more adult) level. If you enjoyed the fun nature of the Twilight series but wished that the characters were more believable and less, well...swoony, then you will love this book. Even if you didn't like Twilight, you will love this.
The writing is exquisite and you will not want it to end. Discovery is the first of what will be a trilogy. The second book is due out in 2012 and I am trying to figure out how I can possibly enjoy another book in the meantime.

(FCC: I have not been compensated by the Author or Publisher for recommending this book. I purchased the book with my own funds.)

We've Had Some Rain, Clearly

2011-03-24T08:22:00.000-07:00

Back At It

2011-03-22T15:24:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a wicked storm we were without power here for about 48 hours. Add that to the fact that my computer was in the shop getting a new hard drive and a bunch of other stuff, and you will understand why blogging has not been very regular.

While I get things back in order (and throw a bunch of stuff out of the refrigerator) I will leave you with a few photos of the recent "Super Moon". I didn't think the size difference was noticeable until I took these photos and saw how much of the frame the moon takes up compared to previous shots I have taken. For perspective and orientation, the large crater on the right of the moon in these photos is Tycho.

Photography Lesson II - Camera Settings

2011-03-18T17:03:00.000-07:00

I got positive feedback about the last photography lesson and I hope some of you found it helpful. Since we have gone over equipment, I will now move on to discussing how to use the settings on your camera.

If you are anything like me you took one look at the User Guide for your camera, put it aside and figured out the camera by using it. The only way I could do this however, was because I have a background in photography and know what the various settings and buttons mean. However, camera settings vary widely and sometimes I do need to refer to the User Guide. A problem that may stand in your way if you aren't familiar with cameras, is that the User Guide may not be helpful because you can't translate what the settings mean. These problems are pretty specific to Digital SLR cameras since point and shoot models generally only have Auto mode.

What I would like to do next is introduce you to the main settings on a camera. These will help you understand what your camera is doing by itself when it is in Auto mode. My camera is only in Auto mode if I hand it to someone else so they can take a picture of me. The rest of the time I keep it in Manual mode. This means that I individually adjust the settings for each photo shoot and usually multiple times during the shoot. This isn't as time consuming or daunting as it sounds, and I hope that by the end of this Photography Lesson series you will feel comfortable enough to explore Manual mode. I think you will be pleased with the results. You will certainly be getting more out of your camera. Here is an overview of the basic settings on your camera.

ISO Sensitivity - This measures the sensitivity of the image sensor. Low ISO numbers are used in good light, higher numbers are used in low light. You will also need to adjust the ISO based on the shutter speed you are using. ISO ranges vary between cameras. My D5000 has ISO numbers between below 200 and over 3200. This vast range was one of the reasons I was drawn to the D5000. I'm not going to be able to eloquently describe how/when to change ISO settings, but I can help with some of the basics by using examples. If you are taking a photo outside, say of a flower, and it is bright and sunny out, you would use a low (~200) ISO setting for two reasons: 1) it is sunny and 2) because you are not taking an action shot you can use a slower shutter speed. It is better to use a low ISO then adjust the shutter speed until you get the right light in the photo whenever possible. Why? Because high ISO numbers come with something called "noise". "Noise" is what makes photos look grainy, blurry, or out of focus. Always use the lowest ISO settings possible for a given environment. Here's a second example - say you want to capture your child's soccer game and it is e same kind of sunny day as it was in the first example. Wouldn't you use the same settings? No, because you are going to need to use a much faster shutter speed to capture the moving players without making them blurry. Te faster the shutter speed, the shorter the time the shutter is open, and therefore the less light is getting in. You may have to bump the ISO up to around 400 to compensate for the faster shutter. Here's one last example - you want to capture a photo around sunset, say a group shot at an evening party. If you are not going to use a flash, you are really going to have to bump up your ISO to the top of the range on your camera. You will also want to use a slower shutter speed to maximize the amount of light getting in. But you can only go so low in terms of shutter speed before the movement of your subjects (and your hands) causes blurring. People then accuse you of drinking while photographing and you end up saying thinks like "I'm dot nrunk! It's a poblem with the EI-EI-O and the sputter seed!" and those conversations are always uncomfortable. Particularly at children's parties at 3pm. The point is that you can't expect magic from your ISO settings. They can only take pictures in low light to a point before you need to add light or use a flash.

Shutter Speed. Get to know how to adjust your shutter speed manually, you will be happy that you did. It is pretty easy to understand the purpose of the shutter's speed. The more quickly the shutter opens and closes, the less light enters the camera. Also, if you are shooting action, a faster shutter means the picture is taken so quickly that a moving object doesn't blur. Think of shutter speed as how fast you blink your eyes. The way shutter speed is adjusted varies between cameras. If you take a look at your User Guide you can learn how to change the shutter speed, I just want to help you understand what is happening when you do. Once you do that, all you need to do is keep in mind the following - 1) faster shutter equals less light, 2) faster shutter equals less blur, and 3) in low light you will need to use a slower shutter speed. Don't be afraid to play around with your shutter. Take a photo then look at it on your camera's screen. This is the beauty of digital photography! No guessing! Take advantage of this feature. (This is a good spot to mention that I take all my photos while looking through the viewfinder of my camera rather than the screen. I feel like closing one eye, looking through the camera, and seeing only what will be in frame helps develop a photographer's eye. I will go more into this in the next post). If your photo looks too dark on the screen, adjust your settings and try again. This is truly the best way to understand your camera. Don't take a bunch of photos without checking the screen to see how they look. I promise that you will not hurt your camera by constantly playing with the settings, that is what they are there for. The camera manufacturers will not let you access a "self destruct" or "burst into flames" setting on your camera (they send memos to professionals on how to use those). If you get overwhelmed and feel like you are stuck, just relax, put the camera into Auto mode and try again later.

F Stop (also called F Number). Unlike the ISO or shutter speed, the F Stop is determined by the lens, not the camera. The lens will show the lowest F Number possible in its name (like for my Nikon Nikkor 50mm 1.8 GE, the 1.8 refers to the lowest possible F Number). Your camera will know what lens is attached to it and what that lens is capable of, and it will only let you make adjustments within those boundaries. D SLR cameras are computers after all. Now you are saying "what is an F Number? Get to the point Meghan!". The F Number is kind of like the pupils of your eyes. When it is dark your pupils get larger to absorb as much light as possible. Likewise, when it is super bright, your pupils contract so that you can see without washing everything out. The F Stop is the same. (They say your pupils dilate when you look at someone you love, I don't know if a camera gets a tiny F Number when it sees a lens it covets). A low F Number means a wide open lens for low light photography. A larger F Number means a smaller opening when it is very bright. Pretty simple, right? Again, take a look at your User Guide to find out how to change your F Stop and consider the lowest F Number on a lens when buying it. The lower the better. Also, don't forget to review your photos and adjust accordingly until you love the results!

White Balance (WB). This is one of the easiest settings to understand. One reason is because the options under the white balance menu on your camera are shown as icons rather than numbers (like a cloud, sun, light bulb, etc). These icons show which kind of light environment each option is best for. You know that sunlight is going to have a more blue/white quality, while a lightbulb under a shade will be more orange/yellow. White balance compensates for this so that you get a more uniform look. This is easy to change and easy to understand. Piece of cake! (Mmm...cake.)

Hopefully you now have a little better understanding of your camera's Manual settings. There are more settings on most D-SLR cameras, but these four are the ones you will adjust most frequently and the ones that together will have the greatest impact on your photos.

Writing this has been a bit like trying to describe how to tie your shoes without any visual instruction, but hopefully it makes sense. Making these adjustments has become a bit like typing for me, more muscle memory than conscious thought.

The next photography lesson will be about lining up a shot to get the best photos. I will include photo examples so you will have something to break up the monotony of my writing.

Now I'm going to go drink heavily so my brain can unknot from trying to write this out over the course of two days.

Veg Veg Revolution

2011-03-16T09:33:00.001-07:00

How do you like the new title for my Vegetarian journey? One of my readers suggested "Vegetarian Revolution" in a comment. I just rhymed it with "Dance Dance Revolution", the game no one plays anymore.

Anyway, my Vegetarian journey is going well. It has been about a month of eating no meat or meat products. It has been surprisingly easy. After the first week I realized how little meat I was eating before and I didn't have to make too many adjustments. I mean, I can't have an In N Out burger again (collective Californian gasp!) but that isn't too terrible. Here are a few things I have learned and a few things I had to change this past month.

Jello has animal products in it. Look it up because if I have to type it out I might throw up.

It is easy to replace chicken broth with vegetable broth in soup.

Filling a grocery cart with fruits and veggies is gratifying.

When people find out you are a vegetarian they inevitably ask "Why?". And you had better have an answer or they will stare you down (and "None 'ya business" doesn't really work). This happens even though the town I live in is based around a religion (which I don't belong to) whose followers are either Vegetarian or Vegan. The local grocery store doesn't sell meat products (including fish).

There are a whole lot of companies trying to make vegetarian "meat-like products" (ham like chunks or beef like granules anyone?). I have no interest in eating these over processed products. I'm not eating meat, I don't need something to taste like meat to feel satisfied.

Every now and then on a TV show or movie there is mention of meat processing. It is a relief to be able to see that and know I am not taking part in any of it.

I feel like I can take a longer shower because being Vegetarian has significantly reduced my carbon footprint. Around 18 percent of carbon emissions come from the meat industry. So I am one squeaky clean Vegetarian.

Vegans will always have something to hold over Vegetarians. But will I give up cheese? Hell to the No.

I have also joined Weight Watchers recently to help me make healthier choices in my vegetarianism. It is easy to fall into eating all kinds of junk food because "it doesn't have meat in it!". Neither does a good arugula salad.

I will keep you all apprised of is journey, thanks for your support!

The First In A Series Of Photography Lessons: Equipment

2011-03-13T22:09:00.000-07:00

Well, it looks like The number one request from the many comments on my SITS post was for information and tips on photography. I am honored, and always a bit surprised, that you like my photographs as much as you seem to. I thought I would pay you all back for all your wonderful comments by writing a series of posts about my photography knowledge and style. I will try my best. Photography is such a difficult thing to teach, so bear with me. Those not at all interested in photography may not want to read this lengthy post, though I do include info on point and shoot cameras. I am also including the prices of equipment I mention because another common question was something along the lines of "what is the best camera for X price range?". All prices are approximate because different sites may charge $50 more or less, plus there is tax which can add up. Prices are for equipment only, from Nikon's site.

I guess the place to start is with the basics - your camera equipment. I use several cameras and lenses which produce very different results. My main camera is my Nikon D5000 Digital SLR camera, aka "My Firstborn" ($650). I have four lenses for it as well. Two are standard lenses (one with slightly more zoom than the other), one is a macro lens for extreme close-ups, and one is great in low light settings. Now, don't let all the specifics intimidate you, it is easier to understand than it sounds. The exact lens info is located on my sidebar in case you want to know a few more specifics. I will come back to this camera and its lenses in a minute.

In the past I have used a Nikon Coolpix digital point and shoot camera ($250) for times when it wasn't feasable to lug my D5000 and all its various accessories around with me. The Cookpix has pretty good color and resolution, but I could definitely see a quality difference between it and the D5000. For some reason, the pictures from the Coolpix didn't have as much soul. I recently got an iPhone 4 ($250-$350) which has a great built in camera and now I don't use the Coolpix. Obviously the iPhone 4's photos are not as good as those from the D5000, but they are comparable to the Coolpix (if not better). I especially love all the camera and photo editing apps that are available for the iPhone 4. You can really explore your creativity with them (and many are FREE!).

So, now you have a little info about the equipment I use and recommend. You can see that I prefer Nikon products. There seems to be two categories of professional photographers - those who like Canon products and those loyal to Nikon. Honestly, I have never owned a Canon camera, though I have played around with a few. I find the Nikons very user friendly while also allowing professionals to make lots of manual adjustments. I think it is a personal preference, similar to my unwavering love for Apple/Mac products.

Some of you may have noticed that I don't use an external flash. Each of the cameras has a built in flash, but I don't use those either. When I was in High School and learning photography with a 35mm SLR, I had several external flashes. For some reason, it seems like digital photos taken with a flash look flat and unremarkable, while this isn't necessarily the case with film. Now here is the bomb I'm dropping today - I can't think of a single photo on this site that I took using a flash. Two years of photos, many types of situations, no flash. It can be done.

I'm going to go back to the lenses for the D5000 now. When I first got the camera I bought two standard lenses, one with a bit more zoom than the other. I was very happy with these lenses immediately. They both take great photos and are easy to use. All lenses are autofocus unless otherwise specified. Here is a bit of info on the two standard lenses:

Nikon Nikkor dx 18-55mm lens ($200)

Great for everyday shots. Can get relatively close and also not a bad zoom. Great starter lens.

Nikon Nikkor 55-200mm lens ($250)

Great zoom lens. Good for nature shots or when you want to get a group (or wide) shot and close ups without changing lenses.

When I felt like I wanted to get more out of my camera, I bought a macro lens. I do a lot of nature photography and this lens takes nature shots from zero to sixty in a millisecond. Here's a bit more about it:

Nikon Nikkor 60mm lens ($600)

Absolutely amazing lens. Can clearly capture a dew drop so that it fills up the frame, and can even see reflections in it. Also zooms out to take regular shots from up to ten feet away or so. This makes it better because it means it gets more use. Dreamy lens.

One thing I was missing with these lenses was a good low-light lens. I wanted some good indoor shots or shots at evening events. I was give the next lens as a gift:

Nikon Nikkor 50mm 1.8g ed lens ($200)

Takes amazing low-light pictures. This lens does not autofocus with my camera, which I rather like. I have gotten some amazing results with it. All the photos of the three little girls were taken with this lens. Not having autofocus didn't get in the way, even though I was wrangling 7, 4, and 1 year olds while taking their pictures.

Well, that is the low down on my camera equipment. Next time I will talk about what all of this means for actually taking photos. Now excuse me while I faint while thinking about the over $2500 of equipment in my bag.

Comment Contest Winner

2011-03-11T14:56:00.001-08:00

Congratulations to Christina over at There's Just One Mommy who won the comment contest on my SITS day! She will be receiving a fun bag of goodies from my Etsy shops.

And thank you all so much for your hundreds of positive comments. If we could get women everywhere to treat each other the way SITS Sisters do, the Real Housewives would be out. Women (students, mothers, bloggers, newlyweds, doctors) all took time out of their day to send me a few compliments on the blog, asking only for a little positivity back. I like that exchange system. Thank you again, reading the comments here and on SITS gave me warm fuzzies. You are all flowers in the garden of awesome.

It's My SITS Day

2011-03-09T03:00:00.000-08:00

Today is my day as the featured blogger on SITS! I'm excited. SITS is a really cool site that encourages women bloggers to leave comments on each other's blogs as a sign of support. I have always had positive comments here and really like getting them.

So, welcome to my Sisters from SITS! Thank you for stopping by, I hope you hang out for a while. Feel free to look around, delve into the archives, visit my Etsy shops, follow me on twitter and ask me any questions.

Here is a bit about me and my blog. I started Adventures in Wonderland in April 2009 ( almost two years ago! ). I live in Northern California but I was born and raised in Texas until I was 17 years old. I graduated from college in 2008 with a BA in Psychology and minor in Art History. I love to travel and spent two weeks in Europe after graduation.

After two years working with children with special needs, I am now applying to graduate schools to get my masters in Communication Disorders. I plan on being a Pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist (Kid's Speech Therapist), I will know where I was accepted soon and am very excited.

Arrow is my sidekick. He's an Australian Shepherd-Border Collie mix and is my favorite photography subject. He even has a calendar! I think he's pretty awesome.

My main hobby, which has turned into a side business, is photography. I specialize in photographing children and pregnancy. If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area and would like to have me photograph your family or something else, just leave a comment or send me an email. I was published in California Homes Magazine in November 2010, which was pretty cool.

As a thank you I will send one random commenter from today a little package of goodies. This may include some hand made hair accessories from my site and a few hand designed cards. I may throw in a few other treats too!

So take a look around, put your feet up (not on the sofa!), grab a lemonade (and a coaster) and enjoy. Thanks for visiting!

Arrow's Corner Movie Reviews: Two Paws Up

2011-03-06T17:12:00.000-08:00

Arrow asked me if he could start reviewing the movies we have been watching on Pay Per View while I have been sick. I thought he was sick of chick flicks so I ordered 127 Hours.

Here is his review.

Next time on Arrow's Corner - The Kids Are All Right

Feeling Craptastic

2011-03-01T13:19:00.001-08:00

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I caught a flu bug thingy from the tiny humans. Gotta love those little germ factories. Not any huge info from my world anyway.

Oh, except if you count GETTING WAIT-LISTED AT MY FIRST CHOICE GRAD SCHOOL!!!! This is pretty huge. The program is really competitive and top ranked so getting put on the wait list there is like a prize. It is still possible that I could get into the program. It depends on the number of people who were accepted that accept their spot. Hopefully this bodes well for the other programs I applied to. And hopefully I get accepted off that wait list.

I texted a friend and asked him what could be more stressful than getting wait listed at your first choice school? His answer was simple and true:

"Getting wait listed at your last choice school."

Leave it to a Physicist/Engineer to cut through the crap and point a spotlight on the truth.

Just Tell Me When It's Over

2011-02-23T12:45:00.000-08:00

I promised you, my faithful readers, that I would keep you updated on my Grad School application status.

So, I took the GRE again in January and got the results back recently. My scores are as follows for the first test/second test:

Verbal: 630/650 out of 800
Quantitative (Math): 590/500 out of 800
Analytical Writing: 5.0/5.5 out of 6

I'm pleased at the 20 point jump on the Verbal section. I ran out of time on the Math section, which really sucks. I think I'm most pleased with the 5.5 in the Writing section. This brought me from the 84th to 94th percentile. This is huge given my area of study and the importance placed on this section. Schools will get the scores for both tests, so they will also see my 590 on the first Math section. All told, I'm happy with my scores and super happy that I don't ever have to take the GRE again.

As far as applications go, I have submitted all of them, which feels really great. I ended up only applying to 7 schools instead of 8. University of Washington wasn't going to be a good fit so I dropped it. Now I reside in the awful purgatory between application submission and hearing back from the schools starting in late March.

I have very strong opinions about my first choice school, second, etc. I'm not going to share the names of the schools until I hear back from them.

Please cross your fingers, toes, eyes and really anything else you can cross, and think happy thoughts for me.

All Creatures, Great And Small

2011-02-20T20:41:00.000-08:00

"Only when the last tree has died, the last river has been poisoned, and the last fish has been caught, will we realize that we cannot eat money."
- Cree Saying

I have a T-Shirt with this saying on it that I got in Costa Rica in 2002. I went on an 11 day Eco trip with my High School's Environmental Club the day after I graduated. It was spectacular. But that's not the subject of this post...this is:

I don't get political here very often. When I do it is because I feel very strongly about something. However, an issue recently came up that I feel compelled to discuss.

This year, Japan's whaling fleet went back to port early with only a fifth of their 900 minke whale quota. These whales are on a threatened species list, but Japan gets around the laws by claiming that the meat is not ONLY for eating, but that they are conducting scientific research. They claim their research involves tracking stats like size, stomach contents, age, etc.

I learned about the whaling battle several years ago through a TV show called "Whale Wars". I was immediately disgusted with the Japanese fleet and inspired by Sea Shepherd, the anti-whaling organization featured on the show. Their goal is to prevent the whaling fleet from killing whales by harassing the Japanese ships. They use things like stink bombs and prop foulers on the fleet. On the show, the Japanese fleet can be seen harpooning whales, bringing them up on deck, and immediately beginning to process the meat (along with some very violent behavior toward Sea Shepherd). The process of removing the whale meat is incredibly fast, begging the question of when they have time to do their "scientific research".

Anyway, you can learn more about the whaling battle in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica on many websites. You can learn about why Japan eats whale meat and how they circumvent International Conservation Laws. The important news extends past this year's early retreat by Japan. Apparently, Japan has a stockpile of whale meat meaning there is less demand (which points out that this is based on money, not research). Also, the Japanese are becoming more aware of the whaling battle and are increasingly disinterested in eating whale meat. These two factors in combination mean it is possible that Japan may not return to whaling next year.

On the day I heard of Japan's retreat (now called VSO Day by Sea Shepherd for "Victory in the Southern Ocean") I Tweeted this:

"Japan has STOPPED WHALING!!! It's wonderful to see the good guys
come out on top! Thank you Sea Shepherd. The whales thank you."

A little while later, I received this reply from someone I suspect is Japanese based on syntax:

"Why do U support the violence? In your country, U don't mind hurting
human? Paul Watson [Sea Shepherd founder and captain] is dishonest,
not a hero. SS fuel the fire."

I was initially hesitant to repeat the comment, not wanting to reward negative behavior. But I wanted to comment on it. First, I don't think that the U.S. promotes killing people. We are certainly not perfect and have high gun violence rates and state sanctioned capital punishment, but we don't condone random murder. Second, I'm not supporting the violence. Hello?! That's the point. Finally, whatever your opinion about Capt. Watson's tactics, they are not "fueling the fire". Without Sea Shepherd there would be no opposition to the whalers. Therefore they are not so much "fueling the fire" as "leading the charge".

I'm honestly happy that the citizens of Japan are beginning to see the whaling industry as wrong and worrying about how it affects Japan's image. I also know that America isn't in the clear. We may not kill and eat threatened species, but our meat processing industries are far from humane. This weighs heavily on me. I feel like I need to put my money where my mouth is. So this post is also going to serve as an announcement. Starting today, 2.20.2011, I am no longer going to eat meat or meat products. This is a personal decision and I don't judge those who choose to eat meat.

You readers have been so uplifting and supportive. I wanted to share this with you so I can document my Vegetarian Journey here and be honest about its impact on my life. I'm also going to need a running name for this journey. Any ideas? Something like "The Veggie Diaries" or "The Devil Eats Cucumbers". Many thanks, dear readers, for your willingness to sit through this never-ending post.

Because I Said So

2011-02-16T17:09:00.000-08:00

It can be really fun to Google "why" and see what pops up in the suggestion box. For example:

I can get on board with "why is the sky blue?" and "why do cats purr?"- those seem valid.

I don't know what to say about "why is my poop green?" or "why is Demi Lovato in rehab?"

Why can't you own a Canadian? Same reason you can't own an American or a Australian - because IT'S ILLEGAL TO OWN PEOPLE!

I like to picture the person that Googled "why did I get married?" I suppose if you are at that point in your relationship, Google advice is as good as any.

I Think It's Fine...

2011-02-14T18:16:00.000-08:00

... to be 26 and find this book helpful.

What Do Mullets, The Olsen Twins And Pigeons Have In Common? They Were All Subjects Of One Day's Thoughts.

2011-02-10T02:55:00.000-08:00

I will not get attached. I will not think of it as my first choice school. I will not set myself up for disappointment. I won't. I won't. Oh, who am I kidding...

I'm most homesick for the South when I see a grown man wearing a baseball cap inside who fails to hold a door open, say please, thank you or yes ma'am. Where did manners go?

I feel bad for Richard Engel's mother. He's the go-to correspondent to send to war torn, up in arms, disaster ravaged countries.

Why am I getting spam emails advertising 'pajama jeans'? I never open the emails so I can't figure out if the selling point is that they are jeans as comfy as pajamas or pajamas that make you look like you are wearing jeans. Neither is high on my priority list.

Some days I don't so much style my hair as stare at it in the mirror and ask it "what are you in the mood to do today?". It usually chooses the days when I run into all 119 members of my high school graduating class to go for the "flock of seagulls meets Billy Ray Cyrus's mullet circa 1990" look.

Dog, if you stick your cold nose against my bare leg one more time we're going to have a problem.

Did Sarah Palin just say we are allies with North Korea?! Oh Sarah, Kim Jong Faux Pas.

Who makes up the password security questions I get asked when I forget my account info online? Like "Which celebrity do people say you most resemble?". Seems awfully subjective and could change. I think this may only work for the Olsen twins.

Some days really call for a show or two on conjoined twins or a face transplant. Or maybe a woman who became a man and a man who became a woman supporting the daughter that used to be their son (true story).

Is it wrong that whenever I hear Gabrielle Giffords husband's name on TV (always referred to as "Astronaut Mark Kelly") I think of Liz Lemon's imaginary husband, Astronaut Mike Dexter, on 30 Rock?

Why don't you ever see baby pigeons? I see other baby birds. Pigeons just show up in shifty eyed flocks. Where are the baby pigeons? Think about it.

Can we all agree that only Nazis are Nazis?

Foggy Bottom

2011-02-07T07:50:00.000-08:00

No, these pictures were obviously not taken in Foggy Bottom. I just like saying Foggy Bottom. Foggy Bottom, Foggy Bottom, FOGGY BOTTOM! Okay I'm done.

The fog in these pictures is a frequent visitor in the Napa Valley. Fog will settle in over the valley, leaving the mountains on either side in the sunshine. It looks like an ocean or lake. Or maybe like someone dropped dry ice into the valley.

Oddly Negative Candy Hearts

2011-02-04T11:05:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you, but for me nothing says "Happy Valentine's Day" like a 'Goodbye' candy conversation heart.

I find the 'Don't Tell' one particularly disturbing. What happened to the 'Luv U" hearts of my childhood?

A Day In The Mind (One Day's Random Thoughts)

2011-02-02T09:33:00.000-08:00

Does anyone pick up hitchhikers anymore? I see one every now and then, but I can't imagine anyone picking them up after 1980.

Why is it always the gray cars who don't put their headlights on in the thick fog and rain? Do they have a camouflage fantasy?

Is it bad luck to tell people what my first choice grad school is? Did I just mess everything up by telling my hair stylist?

I really want a Ctrl Z button for my life. I just want to immediately undo my last action that easily (see above problem).

If I go to school in Oregon or Washington will I have to wear a lot of plaid? I'm not sure I want to live in a bad Twilight spinoff.

Why is it that the one day a month I decide to go to Costco is the day that everyone in the Bay Area decides to go to the same Costco and bring all five of their children. Also, there shouldn't be food samples in Costco. That place is hard enough to navigate without huge throngs of browsy people eating their weight in mini sausages.

Every time I see a cop when I am driving I immediately feel like I'm doing something wrong. I can be going the speed limit, not texting, and hands at ten and two, but my blood pressure goes up and I feel like I'm going to get pulled over for sure. What does this say about America? Or is it just me?

What happened to Toxic Shock Syndrome? I know one seventh grade health class of girls that were sure TSS would eventually claim their lives. It wasn't a matter of if, just when. Now it is hardly mentioned. Just a little fine print message on the tampon box insert. I feel lied to. Is this a result of having a male church deacon who later transitioned into a woman as my health teacher? I will leave you with that thought.

Oil On Canvas

2011-01-31T14:46:00.000-08:00

Here it is, the product of my relatively newfound love of oil paints. I'm not sure I can go back to acrylics now. I started with a landscape taken from one of my photographs of Lake Tahoe.

Mamma Mia!

2011-01-28T09:36:00.000-08:00

Over the holidays my mother tried to kill me. She may try to kill me again when she reads this post, but I will tell you about the first murder attempt.

My mother makes the most delicious peanut butter fudge, which she only makes around Christmastime. One evening we were both sitting on the couch watching TV. I got up, got myself a piece of fudge and flopped back on the couch. On my second bite of fudge I felt something...hard. You know, that grating sound on your teeth that sends chills down your spine? That is what the crunch on this hard bit induced. I know the fudge is usually smooth as peanut butter so I was intrigued. My mind first went to "it's just a piece of eggshell!". A millisecond letter I was let down when I remembered that there are no eggs in the fudge. Then this conversation happened as I began to extract the item:

Me: "There's something hard in my fudge, I can't tell..."

Mom: "Is it a knife tip?"

Sure enough, right then I pulled a tiny piece of metal out of my mouth.

Me: "Yes it is?! What the hell?!!"

Mom: "I was afraid of that. The knife tip broke off when I was chopping chocolate and I couldn't find it."

"Im sorry. You knew this was in the fudge and you didn't think to tell me?"

"I was hoping I would get that piece."

"That's taking a bit of a chance don't you think? You could have killed me if I swallowed it!"

"It would have just come out the other end..."

"Mother, it's not a marble, it is a sharp piece of steel! With a point! Made precisely for cutting!"

"Well you didn't swallow it."

"Really, very much not the point. I could have had serious internal bleeding. How would you feel then?!"

"I had hoped it went on the floor..."

"Oh, okay where I walk BAREFOOT!?"

"Hmm"

"Okay, from now on I would appreciate it if you front load all information on potentially deadly food, not explain after the fact."

And then I added two grad schools on the East Coast.

Low Blood Sugar, Aisle 5

2011-01-26T17:39:00.001-08:00

I recently started a medication that has significantly reduced my appetite. This is a doctor prescribed and monitored medication, so I don't want to get a million emails telling me that I am a wackadoo taking my life in my own hands. Alrighty then?

As I said, this medication definitely reduces appetite and has really aided my weight loss. The only problem is that I sometimes forget to eat. It can be a problem when it gets to be 4pm and I realize that all I have had to eat since I woke up is a banana and yogurt.

Doesn't sound too bad right? Well, you should probably ask the girl on her cell phone who was behind me in line at the store when I turned around and apparently said something along the lines of pulling the still beating heart out of her chest if she started another sentence with "and then like...".

Right then I thought, "hmm, I should probably eat something".

I exaggerate. Maybe.

Endings And Beginnings

2011-01-19T16:55:00.000-08:00

"There will come a time when you think everything has finished. That will be the beginning."

- Louis L'Amour

As some of you out there know, I'm applying to Graduate school. Or, more accurately, Graduate schools. Eight of them. Eight. So much energy, stress, anxiety, happiness, frustration, and confusion goes into this process that I felt I needed to use the blog as a platform to share and vent.First off, let me say that nothing can prepare you to go through the admissions process. Nothing. Not having previously applied for, been accepted to, or graduating with an undergraduate degree. Grad school admissions are a whole different animal. Undergraduate admission is a cute, furry little bunny named Mr. Fuzzy. Grad school admission is a three ton hippopotamus named Thor The God Of Death. Got that visual in your head? I mean, Thor takes one look at Mr. Fuzzy and says, "Puh-leez, that little thing isn't a freckle on my hippo ass". So he eats Mr. Fuzzy and spits out his bunny bones as a warning. Say bye bye to Mr. Fuzzy, and with him, all of your notions of what the admissions process is like.

A file for each school

We seem to have wandered off the point a bit. Right now I am applying to eight schools. Usually this means two applications for each school. One is for the university and one is for the individual program. So, eight schools, sixteen applications. There are transcripts to request and mail out, letters of recommendation to ask for, the GRE to take, fees to pay, and a 'letter of intent' to write. Sound like fun? No? Well then add in the fact that it seems like all of the universities have had a meeting to make sure that they all want different things. Oh, Northwestern University you want a 500 word statement and four letters of recommendation? Well then, University of Washington, you should ask for a 1000 word statement and two letters of recommendation. That will mess with them! Some schools want all three GRE area scores (verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing), and some only want one area.

Now I'm going to take a sidebar here to discuss the GRE, the Graduate Record Examination. This test is the work of the devil himself. It is unlike any test you have ever taken, from first grade through college graduation. First, it's fast. Really fast. 30 questions in 30 minutes per section fast. Also, it is now only offered on computers. By itself, that could be a good thing, but here's the kicker - you can't skip around through the questions and answer the ones you know then go back and answer the ones you were unsure about. This was the testing strategy drilled in our heads for standardized tests, especially the SAT. On the GRE, the screen pops up with one question at a time. If you get that question right, your next question is harder, but worth more points. On the other hand, if you get it wrong, your next question is easier and worth fewer points. You have to learn a whole new test taking strategy for this test. Here's what's even better, the Quantitative section (I guess calling it Math frightened people) encompasses all the math you learned from 9th grade through the end of college. Geometry, Algebra, Statistics, Fractions, Exponents, etc. You have to remember it all and know when to use which equation. Doesn't that sound like a blast?! I took the GRE for the first time in December. I say 'for the first time' because I am taking it again next week. In the Verbal section I scored 630 out of 800. In the Quantitative section I scored 590 out of 800 and on the Analytical Writing section (writing two essays on the spot) I scored 5 out of 6. Not terrible, and certainly better than I expected. After some intense one on one tutoring, I hope to get my math score up into the 600s. I will be sure to let you know how it turns out. It is liberating to know that after I take it again next Wednesday, I won't ever have to take it again. Never. Never ever.

Okay, back to the general admissions process. So you have collected your transcripts from the university where you got your undergrad degree and have mailed them out to your prospective schools. You've taken GRE, usually more than once. You have written, re-written, completely thrown out and finally completed your letter of intent. You've asked college professors and colleagues for letters of recommendation, always a strange request. You have filled out two applications for each school, some online and some on paper, always keeping in mind each school's individual deadline. Basically you've done everything in your power to make your application packet scream 'Pick me! I'm special! Your school needs me!"This is the step I am at right now. Some schools have a deadline of February 1st, others are later in the month or into March. I have multiple online applications in various stages of completion right now. Each is on a different website, each has a different username and password, each asks different questions.

Here is where I tell you why I'm only crazy and not INCREDIBLY CRAZY. My parents hired a company, the ESM Group, which offers one on one admissions counseling and GRE prep. I meet on Skype with my tutor and advisor regularly. Knowing that there is someone else keeping track of everything that needs to be done allows me to breathe a bit easier. My advisor is so familiar with the process that he knows how best to present me to each school. He knows how to tweak my statement here or use this recommendation there. His job is to do everything in his (and my) power to get me into each school. And he is good at his job. He is like a college advisor on steroids with eight arms. I can't say enough about this company. I was crying and pulling my hair out when I was trying to go it alone. Now I only occasionally curl up in the fetal position and mutter something about the Pythagorean Theorem.

So, what is the point of this huge long post? Well, there really isn't one. I just wanted to vent. No one ever told me what applying to graduate school entails. I'm really not writing this to discourage anyone from applying. But I know it would help me to know that the whole thing is overwhelming for someone else too. Most universities, at least in my field, admit less than 10% of applicants (say 40 out of 500). I am applying to Communication Disorders programs with the goal of becoming a Speech Language Pathologist. I'm incredibly excited to start working on my degree, I just have to get through the admissions process. I think I am writing this to ask you, The Internet, to send some positive thoughts my way. I don't want pity, I'm incredibly excited about my future. I just need to know you are rooting for me.

I will update you next week on my second round of GRE scores, be they good, bad, or ugly. Then I will tell you when I send out my last application and breathe a sigh of relief. Finally, I hope to share with you the schools I (hopefully) get accepted to. Maybe when I'm done with the applications I will share the names of the schools I'm applying to, maybe not. I'm still not sure if I want to put that out there.

If you got to the end of this post you should get a medal. Thank you for tolerating my rant. You are all flowers in the garden of awesome.

Don't Let The Baby Eyes Fool You, He Is The Devil

2011-01-18T08:28:00.000-08:00