The End of an Era

e·ra

ˈirə,ˈerə/

noun

a long and distinct period of history with a particular feature or characteristic.

"his death marked the end of an era"
synonyms: epoch, age, period, phase, time, span, eon;

Ends are never very fun, goodbyes are some of the hardest things to handle…even ones who’s effects are lessened by geographical distance.

This place is nowhere near me now, but today marks the last service in this little NC church. This church in which I have spent countless hours in worship, in service, in VBS, in weddings (one of which was my own), in choir practices, in choir recordings, in workdays (like the one where we got into paint mischief), and like that post on paint mischief, this church also became the topic of more than one blog post (although, occasionally the references were vague to avoid causing trouble—I know…me? trouble? Never! LOL).

No, I don’t attend there anymore, haven’t in years, for a variety of reasons…one of which is the reason today was the last service there. They moved to a new location closer to the communities where most of their regular attendees live, and that makes total sense. When you build relationships with people, it’s usually people in your community. And when you get to the point of inviting them to church, not only are you asking them to give up precious weekend time (let’s get real, we all love the weekend), but you’re also asking for an extra hour (or more) of their time just to drive. That makes it tough.

So I get it.

And I also get that not everything in that building’s history was sunshine and flowers. Lord knows, I get that. I weathered a few of the storms myself. But I also know that when I remember that place now, I remember the good times…the glory of God…the love…the imperfect people like me.

And I hope that these imperfect people like me will carry it on in their local community so that it will be the beginning of a new and even better era. 

Imperfect: by that I mean, capable of making mistakes and human error, not intentionally choosing wrongdoing….that term without clarification makes me cringe…but that’s a topic for another day. LOL

Throwdown Time

Wow. I have been burning the candle on every end, it seems. I posted this on photography blog (which is actually where I’ve been lately, and boy, is it ever hard to be in two places at once…lol), but anyways, I went with some friends and classmates to the Light Factory in Charlotte today for a portfolio throwdown, aka critiquing session for students. It was an all day event, so I’m exhausted now, but totally jazzed about the feedback I received. I took my work in progress for this portfolio and the critiques they gave were totally enlightening. I have some things I’m going to tweak a little and I think it will make my final project amazing. It was very cool.

So because I’ve been so busy with trying to finish school and life in general, I have once again neglected the personal blog temporarily. I’m trying to do better, but in the meantime, check the photography blog for the updates I’ve posted this past month.                                     –>

My portfolio show is coming up in just a few weeks. I’ll be posting more details about it on the photography blog in the near future. It’s been an interesting project this semester, and I’m having a lot of fun with it.

I had a great time with my first portfolio project of the purses, and this one has been interesting in it’s own way. I’m very excited about sharing some of the stories that are told in people’s faces and hands. I’m not ready to move on from this project yet, even though I’m already getting excited for my next one. LOL. Fun times!

Work, work, work…lotta hard work, but we’re getting there!

Till next time…

When It Rains

Yeah yeah. It rained today. And poured. And left some lovely raindrops…and branches all over the yard. LOL. It’s all good.

It worked out well for the first day of the nature photo challenge from Facebook, where I got tagged yesterday. LOL. I used the other shot I took for that, but I really liked this one, too.

Anyway, I was going to work on shooting some portfolio work today, but the rain dampened my enthusiasm. Haha. Now the sun is back out, but I’m just not in the mood to do anything now.

I hate it when that happens. Motivation is such a persnickity critter. Rain isn’t healthy for mine.

Random Insanity (part II)

Okay, where did I leave off? Oh yes, my countdown backwards from five ended at two, when I looked at the clock and realized I was supposed to be at the church in ten minutes and wasn’t even close to ready to walk out the door. When I get in a zone, I am terrible at keeping track of time. So that was numero dos.

Finally…last one.

WARNING: If you’ve ever said in your head (or out loud), “don’t show me your dogs!” then you should click away NOW!

Also, I’m not sure we can be friends. But since I’m a kind person who loves dogs, I’ll try not to hold it against you if you don’t. LOL.

Anyways, for the last bit of random: a selfie. =)

 

These guys are the most loyal buggers….

and let’s face it, I’m a sucker for sweet puppy dog eyes….

What’s NOT to love?

Okay, you got me, when they’re sleeping with you at night and a turd accidentally slips out and leaves a nasty mess because you’re all asleep and don’t find it until it’s squished on the bed at 4am…..yeah, THAT’S not to love.

But the fact that they are faithful, loving, and loyal, no matter that it is 4am and they just got kicked out of their warm bed and scolded for reasons they don’t even understand…well…I can only hope that someday when I’m elderly and things come out of MY rear that I’m not aware of, that I’m as cooperative and loving and loyal to whoever drags me out of my warm bed and scolds me for doing things I didn’t even know I was doing. LOL. 

Anywho, it’s been a full day (starting at 4am…lol) and I’m nowhere near finished with everything that needs to be finished, but I’m pretty much mentally finished. I’ll deal with the rest later. I probably shouldn’t have spent so much time blogging. LOL. On that positive note (haha), I’m out.

See ya around!

Random Insanity

I’m sure there’s no one still coming by here that remembers back in the day when this blog was called “Random Insanity,” it’s been a few years (like almost 10…*GASP*). Now I have to go look at that again…has it really been ten years?!?!?!?!!!

HONKIN’ DADDY! My very first post on ye ol’ blog was on February 22, 2006. So my 10 year anniversary is next Monday!

ANYWHO. Back to my original thought. Random Insanity…it was my answer to the question, ‘If you were writing an autobiography, what would you title it?” the other night when we had some folks over playing games. And after I thunked up that answer, I had this flashback to the early days when I called this blog, “Random Insanity.” Scary, how much things change. Or not.

So, yeah, it’s “Always Faith” now, which is also true, but I’m pretty sure I’m ALWAYS going to be a little bit insane and a whole lot of random. Hahaha.

It’s not a bad life. I’m mostly happy with it.  

Today, I’m going to share five randoms:

5. This past Monday, they predicted 2-4 inches of snow. This is what we got. About .375 inches of snow and about 1 inch of ice. Bleck. But it WAS enough to cancel everything for 2 days. And make me appreciate teachers just a weeeee bit more.

4. I shoulda known it wasn’t going to snow. After all, I went and bought snow suits. We discovered at the last snow, that ours have somehow all magically disappeared. My favorite white spyder snowpants, too. I have looked in every single box in this house…nowhere to be found. ANYWHO, when it snowed last, is when I discovered their absence, and we had to go all old fashioned during the last winter weather. You know, actually coming inside and drying off before going back out again. How very old-school. So I determined when it looked probable that we were going to get more, that I would be prepared.

I just love Murphy and his crazy laws. Guess we’ll have snowsuits for next winter.

But the ice was crazy beautiful from the vantage point of our yard. I’m sure I would have felt differently if I’d been trying to drive in it, but since I wasn’t, I thought it was just lovely.

3. Then 12 hours later. Spring!

I just love the bipolar weather.

2. I am a terrible judge of time and I have no time to finish this post. LOL.

To be continued….

If At First

You don’t succeed, try again.

Just deleted a whole entire blog vent. I’m a little grouchy tonight but decided just writing it out was enough to make me feel better. So I started over and you won’t be subjected to my ranting. You’re welcome. =)

Now I shall try to go back to my normally positive self.

One of my school assignments was to shadow a local photographer, so I did that this past weekend. That was so amazing! I have great teachers at school, and I’ve been in some inspiring classes, but it’s always incredible to get unique perspectives and learn new things. We went down to a local lake (not more than a pond, really), and shot at sunset. It rocked.

I posted my favorites on the photo blog, but here are the other ones I really liked.

It’s SO cool how much the sky and light changes in such a short amount of time.

Anyway, it was a totally cool experience…both in coolness factor AND temperature. LOL, my hands were numb when we finished, but I’m a total wuss when it comes to cold weather. It was 47 degrees which was totally not bad. Haha. But still. Incredible.

And now it is time to call it a night. Till next time…

“Don’t Show Me Dogs”

But. What if I really. REALLY. like dogs?

Did you know that dog’s feet smell like fritos? Well, not if they’ve stepped in a chocolate surprise, but any other time.

Find a dog and smell a paw. I dare you.

Double DOG dare you.

Just make sure it’s not a paw that has recently been dipped in chocolate surprises.

Oh My Gourd!

Here I am getting ready to do it again. I don’t know how the month disappears like this. Okay, well I sorta do. It’s cuz I’m so stinkin busy. I wasn’t kidding, the third class that started up online is kicking my hiney. I despise that class. The other ones aren’t so bad, but they’re still keeping me crazy busy, too. Also, KC and I went on a cruise again. Then I had a girls weekend to the beach. I haven’t really been home much in October.

I know. I do it to myself.

I’m so ready to graduate…..one more semester…I can do this!

I’ve got to get back to work, projects don’t get done by themselves…but before I go…here’s some pictures I love from one of my last assignments when we were sent to a pumpkin patch/corn maze. Yes, my kids are in the pictures….they were out of school on a teacher workday and KC was out of town so I couldn’t leave them at home. LOL

How In The World

How is it possible that a month has already passed again since I blogged last? Whoa.

How is it possible that tomorrow my littlest kid hits the double digits?

How in the world did I ever manage to work a paying job and get everything done?

How do food bloggers not gain a thousand pounds from eating the delicious food they photograph?

Cause, dude…this is what I’m getting ready to eat:

My semester project in two of my classes is this bakery down the street from my house. If I don’t gain back every last pound I’ve managed to work off this summer by the end of this semester, it will be a complete miracle! Eek.

Must go do some ab workouts now. *sigh*

Cheers

Here’s to all the projects that seem like they should be easy. But then they’re not.

My world is FILLED with these projects. But back to that in a minute…

So Easter was nice. The one family picture I managed to get had major glasses glare which bugs the snot out of me, but at least the moment is captured.

Then back to projects that should be simple but then are overwhelmingly not….my last project in Documentary Photography was to get six images that document yourself. I thought…yeah, simple. But then…how do I narrow it down to six?

  

Amazingly NOT simple.

Also not simple, my stinkin semester project in digital. I’ve reshot the thing twice now and still don’t have usable pics. I don’t know why it doesn’t seem to be working. So now I’m flat out refusing to reshoot it again, I’m going to do the same idea but with different stuff that I can shoot in a different location. We’ll see if that fixes it. It should be so simple. Ten images composited into one final image.

I’m not complaining…just noticing how there are so many things that SHOULD be easy.

Oil-based primer is another prime example. (LOL…I crack myself up)

“Just use this Mineral Oil to clean your brushes,” the Lowes lady says.

Thirty minutes and every surface covered in slimy gook later….NOTHING is clean.

Plus, I have windows open and all kinds of fans running and I’m about to pass out on fumes. All I can say is, THIS BETTER BE WORTH IT! If I have paint the PTDQ’s bathroom one more time, I’m going to be tempted to just gut the thing and put a whole new bathroom in there. :) Since that’s not in the budget right now, this crazy sticks to everything primer better do its job and keep the paint on the wall.

Whew.

On that note, I need to get back to work…if I can uncross my eyes long enough to photoshop my project.

Later, mater!

Hallelujah!!! (with a small side of Bummer)

So for starters…last night I had the normal kind of crazy dreams. You know, your everyday, basic, “the Russian’s are coming,” I’m eating apples in a tree house with some random kid from your childhood while someone you used to work with is mowing the grass, and I’m going to be late for something but I haven’t figured out what….kind of crazy dream.

No, I didn’t have that dream last night….it’s actually a compilation of several crazy dreams I (or someone I’ve known---hello KC’s Mom) has had, but it’s an example of the kind of dream I had last night.

COMPLETELY a welcome change from the, Oh My WORD, my heart is breaking, I can’t escape from this horrifying nightmare because it just keeps coming back in new ways, and I wake up exhausted even though I know it was just a dream, kind of dreams I’ve been having.

Yep. So hallelujah! Hopefully it is a trend that will continue. =)

Also another little hallelujah, I HAVE WINDOWS LIVE WRITER AGAIN! Blogging on my phone (while functional), just didn’t have the same ease of use!

And now for the small side of bummer…I noticed a class meeting today (in which a college BigWig, a cop, students, and our department instructors attended), and afterwards, heard from one of our friends in that class….Mr. Shows Up Late with Half-baked Work Who Threatened Students & Instructor…..

a. is going to be allowed to come back
b. will be searched before entering campus before every class
c. is required to be on time for all future classes (oh, duh, and here I thought that was the requirement all along!~)
d. is not allowed to threaten or verbally abuse any other students (again…a given, right?)

LIKE OH MY WORD!

Yeah, and I looked him up on the Public Records…it’s not hearsay that he is out on prob/parole. Sheesh! If I missed half as many days and came in late half as many times, I’d have already been kicked out of the program….without even threatening anyone! It’s unbelievable that he’s going to get to stay in the program (even on a probabationary status!) Mercy is great…free passes that infringe on everyone else’s rights are not.

Okay, it’s a LARGE side of Bummer.

Anyway, a short list of other recent work:

• designing for a bloggy friend some of you may know
• my semester project piece (which had to be inspired by the historical photographer we researched and wrote our paper about…I used this image by Hansel Mieth as my inspiration)
• and my inadvertent photo pun….from my advertisement project. Get it? Film ad…photo lab? LOL. Totally unintentional, but I went with it. =) I love my beautiful puppies. =) 

There’s obviously way more I could talk about (it happens when one avoids blogging), but I’ll quit there and go find me some lunch.

Have a very, VERY lovely day. =)

Back Home

And hallelujah, am I ever happy to be home.

It was a fantastic conference, but it's great to be back in NC again.

I'll have to come back and post the pics of the last couple days before I forget, hopefully. I tried to do it every night, but I would get through the days pics and then run out of steam because I was so tired by bedtime and the days were way too busy to fit it in during the day.

According to my step counter, over the last five days, I've walked around 30 miles. It's no wonder my feet hurt and I'm exhausted. Lol.

Anyway, I'm home, and it's great. :) hopefully more on the trip tomorrow. :)

Sunny Morning

Well, I got lucky blessed with a wee bit of sun peeking through the clouds when I drove up by the lake this morning in hopes of finding those landscape shots for school tomorrow. The rest of the area today stayed a little dreary looking, but for those few moments this morning, I think I was able to get what I needed for tomorrow.

The first one is easily my favorite. I didn’t even get out of my car, but I was on this dead end road with absolutely no traffic, so I didn’t hesitate to just stop in the road, roll my window down, and take my time getting the settings and composition right.

“Boat Out of Water” is my next favorite…it was just sitting on the side of the road. Totally out of context, which maybe is why I like it so much.

And the last two were down at the dock. Not as high up on my favorites but will still probably work for my homework assignment.

Anyway, I would call it a successful morning and I was thankful to get it because the sun was only there for a few moments before going back into hiding.

After that, I went to visit my hospice patient. She was sleeping for the first hour, so I worked on some of my stuff, but then she woke up and we chatted for awhile. She told me some interesting stories. She is definitely one of the sweetest little ladies ever. She has dementia and when we did the Alzheimers training, one of the things I learned about dementia was that it’s very common for people who have been wonderful and kind and sweet their entire lives to have this whole other personality come out because of the dementia and how it eats away at the brain cells that monitor one’s behavior. I’d have to go back and re-study it to be able to really tell about that in detail, but it’s fantastic to see wonderful, sweet, old people that are able to maintain their sweet personality even after their memory is gone. It was so funny today because she was telling me all about this couple who used to be friends with her. They were from the town I live in, which is, I think, what triggered that memory for her. But she was telling me all about this person who fooled them all because he was such a charmer, but he was cheating on his wife, so they got divorced. She told me to watch out for him since he lives in my town because I’m a pretty little girl and he’ll be going after me if I’m not careful. LOL. It was funny but not funny at the same time. I’m sure if the people she was remembering are still alive, they’d all be close to 90. But I told her not to worry, I don’t put up with any monkey business. It was just really sweet.

Anywho, that was my day. Pretty close to a perfect one. =)