A Memory Lapse

Do you have memory lapses?

As in, large chunks of your life that you just don't remember?

I started to get scared in the last few weeks as it dawned on me that I literally do not remember large portions of my life during college. It isn't like it has been ages and ages ago...

Oh, I remember the big things. Getting married, meeting Justin's girlfriend for the first time, people staying at our sweet little apartment with us, buying different vehicles, locking keys in vehicles, bitter cold winters, weekends spent at both of our parents' houses, passing my Photoshop semester exam with the only 50/50 score in the history of the class, special events... the big things are easy.

But the daily life. I don't remember normal daily life.

What did I eat for breakfast? What did I do with all my time? Why did I only get together with my awesome college buddies 3-4 times during the two years I was there? Why is everything a blur? Did I even sleep at all? And then, how did I survive before coffee?

It's these little things that I wish I could remember.

As I was looking for something last week, I stumbled upon my old planners from college.

Heh. And now I understand why I don't remember the daily life. I understand why it's just a blur of madness interrupted by weekends.

5-6 classes per semester, usually in the mornings, with 2-3 shooting assignments a week. Shooting assignments included buying film, renting the Blad cameras, shooting the assignment, processing film, developing prints, completing the paperwork, and turning it in. That's assuming everything went as planned, and you didn't have to re-shoot. ;)

Then, I worked at the bank about 30-hours a week... which works out to almost every afternoon/evening and some Saturdays.

Plus, all the other "things" in life... including wedding planning in the first few months of school and then being newly married.

Wow. Crazy business. I was literally busy from 7 in the morning until midnight.

It's no wonder I could fall asleep at any given moment.

What is a wonder is how my incredible husband put up with me... :)



Anyway, I don't mean to give the impression of doom and gloom. When I think back, there are so many happy memories. Lots of love and laughter accompanied the stress. Some of the best years of my life!

It really makes me appreciate the daily life I have now. Who would have thought in just a few years, I would be setting and controlling, to an extent, my own schedule? Who would have thought I would be a business owner... for three years already?

It also makes me stop and take note every once in a while: this is what's happening. This is what your life is like. Right now. Enjoy it.

I even still keep a planner... Well, two actually. Some habits are hard to break. ;) They are mostly to keep track of how I spend my time for business purposes and for setting appointments.

But, also, so I'll be able to look back once I forget (probably will be sooner rather than later) and remember. This is what my days were like. This is what I enjoyed.

And it will make me happy.

This one's for Mary. :)

Well, this is the most news-worthy thing I can think of that's happened recently.

Due to Joel smashing the front end on our old truck, we had to get a different one.

I'm just glad it wasn't a 4-wheeler accident, there weren't any helicopters, or $50,000 hospital stays. ;)

Life.

I love my job.

I love photographing with clients.

I love editing through hundreds and thousands of images.

I love images like this:

Don't you?


Makes everything else okay in life.

Like the final decision from the insurance/helicopter company. Yup, $21,058. Our baby. I could have told them that the insurance company wasn't going to budge anymore.

And the fact that we spent time and money to drive out to Iowa to get a motor for our car. And it's the wrong one. And the guy's a dumb moron. And on the way home, the other exhaust pipe on the truck broke. And now the car's sitting at the shop, waiting for Joel to rebuild the motor, plus the other motor that's now ours. And I'm driving a really loud truck. Wait, maybe that's okay. ;)

With the hesitation of sounding like a thirteen-year-old girl obsessing over her first crush, I will say this: photography (among other things) is truly my drug.

:P

A mess of pictures..

I came to realize yesterday that I have not posted any photos on this blog-thinger for a very long time.

My sincerest apologies. So without further ado, please welcome....

Gma and Gpa's Anniversary Party 06.06.09

Blair, Joel, and Ron: a salute to Mt Dew

I love this one of Marshall

And this one of Jen and I

Joel and Marshall

50 yrs!

We had them cut the cake. :)

And this is what photo nerds do with a point-and-shoot full of snapshots from Greece.

Joel's clever idea. :)


Todd and Shanna's Wedding 06.13.09

I had to take a few snapshots in addition to my other ones. :)

Shanna and I

Blair and Greg (cousin)

Justin and Toby (another cousin)

The fam :)

The fam with Kayli, Justin's g/f (She's a total sweetheart!)

Me and Katie R!

Making the getaway

And they're off!


Flying to and from Atlanta, GA/Houston, TX over the 4th

We love our heads in the clouds! :)


Down in MO for Brenton's funeral (staying at the Townsend's)

Seth and Sean, the adorable twins

Driving home through St. Louis

Yup, it's the BUICK! :D


Yummy bfast last Saturday..

Melting butter for the gravy.. I thought it looked cool

The biscuits!


Our very stupid neighbors.

Yes. The clothes are out on the line. Like they were for the past week. And it had rained twice. And then they threw bread (?) out on the lawn to feed the birds. What?!

Oh well. At least their grass is green, not like our brown junk. :)

Well.

Deep subject as Dad would say. :)

I'm just compelled to post about a trick I tried at the grocery store this morning. I have this creative idea* that they should put little barcode scanners on shopping carts, so as you're putting stuff in your cart, you can add up your total bill as you're shopping. Brilliant, right? Or am I the only one who cares?
*patent #800,093,821,357 pending**

So. I took a little pocket calculator with me and added it up as I went along. Did it make me take anything off my list, especially as I flew past my self-imposed budget? No. But it did help me to put back these really awesome fizz-ed natural sodas, and leave quite a bit of other stuff on the shelves that wasn't on my list. And it wasn't such a horrible shock when I went to check out.
**just kidding. But isn't it a good idea?

Random: I saw a red cardinal at 5:30 this morning out of our bedroom window. I've never seen one in real life, so that was sweet. (I know, 5:30, two mornings in a row?! Even I'm impressed.)

Here's an update on the job situation. I was sick of not finding anything, so I went to the postcrescent.com, which took me to careerbuilder.com. So I posted my resume.

So far, I've had about 4 offers to sell insurance (which I've done in the past and don't want to do again), an interview with Prudential (which kudos to them on the speed, they emailed me within 2 hours of my posting it), and a few bank teller positions including Wells Fargo just down the street which eerily had a full time teller position open up there 2 days before I looked. I sent a resume to Fox Cities CU, just hung up the phone with Community 1st CU HR, went in and had a little chat with the Red Radish manager and owner, and poked my head in the door at Wells Fargo to give them a face with the name. I also applied at another bank that I can't remember the name of right now, and have an appointment with Cadre Staffing Services on Monday. I'm in the process of filling out an app to Career Options (another staffing place) for a teller position at a bank I know not.

I've been in touch with All Seasons Photography in New London, as the Marx family is nearly exclusive to them, and Mariah let it slip that one of their HS employees is leaving for school in the fall here. We've had a great email conversation, and there might be something there in the future.

Also, I'm going to be doing a trial wedding in Wautoma to gain some experience and grow my portfolio with Nick Pennington of Nicholas Norbert Photography, who's actually out of West Bend. He's letting me come along, and there might be paying possibilities in the future if we work well together. And before you raise your eyebrows, here's my logic for that: I might as well do something and get paid nothing... rather than do nothing and get paid nothing.

W/e. Just give me a job. And then I'll whine and moan about that. :)


Oh, and we sold our beloved car!! There was a chick that came and looked at it Tuesday night after gsp meeting, and she was rounding up the rest of the money to get it and finally got back to Joel this morning. :D

I'm going to miss that thing. It's bad, but probably the thing I liked about it most was how "cool" I felt walking out to it. Oh yeah. This is my car. Drool, now, because I drive it and you don't. Or something. But tied for first, was how slamming through the gears totally drained away any frustration. haha.


Mmm hmm. Sexy. :)

Finally, cheers to Friday being tomorrow, my awesome friend, Brett (yes, GIRL), from college coming up here next week, payday, and one of the most random posts ever!

Goat!

So we're selling our GTO... because we don't need three vehicles, and we certainly don't need it's car payment as we're looking at doing things to our plexer... Anyone interested, drop me a line. :)

Here's the craigslist posting with all the info and pictures, because even though I know some of it, I certainly don't feel like typing it all again.... and all the pictures are on Joel's computer.. :)