Jeff shaved his head too!

Attempted to go to the cubs game, but it got delayed due to a televised announcement.

So instead we hungout at Liz's mom's house all day for Liz's 2nd grad party.

P.S. Jeff Kott shaved his head!

Parents out of town . . .

My sister and I had a couple friends over tonight to keep us company since my parents were out of town.

A vendetta has been placed on someone's life . . . haha

Today was supposed to be a good day of more childish activities. We had all planned a large game of baseball/softball/frisbeebaseball/anything-that-could-be-played-on-a-baseball-field-ball. So we all show up in our baseball uniforms and begin a great game of sixteen inch softball. First base got the most laughs because the rain had turned the dirt in that area into a camoflauged sea of quicksand. Anytime someone rounded the bag they were greeted with six inches deep of mud (Karissa actually found herself face-first in it crawling back to first). Anyway, so everything was going great (mostly because the boy's team was owning) until the girls decided they were bored of softball. The girls decided it was time for frisbee baseball (which is like baseball except the batter throws a frisbee instead of hitting the ball with a bat). We all agreed and the girls pulled out a frisbee-golf frisbee (which is smaller, sleeker, heavier, and more powerful than a normal recreational frisbee). Immediately James and I argued that there was no way in hell we could play with that because no one could catch it. The girls argued back that it was easy to catch. So foolishly, we started the game. Liz and Elise had batted, lobbing the frisbee a measly 8 or 10 yards and no one attempted to catch it for fear of jamming a finger. Then Karissa got up to the plate. She had that look of sheer competition on her face, like she was going to show everyone up. So she cocks back and unleashes a furious firsbee-pitch . . . straight into James' face. Of course, James hits the ground hard, and in true James fashion screams "I have senior pictures tomorrow!" followed by a string of obscenities. Initially I assumed that he would just have a nice shiner and some hurt feelings, but he rolled over to reveal a gaping wound complete with massive amounts of blood. The Girls freak. The guys mutter obscenities under their breath. James continues to rant and rave about pictures, blood, and the stupidity that comes with being a teenage girl. Obviously, we were done with sports for today.

The next two hours I spent in the Immediate Care drinking coffee, hitting on the receptionist, and making new friends on account of my Chicago Cubs shirt. Long story short, James ended up with 5 stitches and a lot of laughs.

I was surrounded by Big Fish . . .

Tonight was one of the most beautiful experiences in my recent history. We spent our night at Liz's dad's house watching movies, playing board games, and endulging in everything that nature had to offer us.

We accomplished every child's fantasy of making a lantern out of fireflies, and while we were capturing our lantern fuel, we stumbled into a clearing and realized that we were surrounded by fireflies. I wish I could have made a panorama of the sight; 360 degrees of woods surrounding a clearing of tall grass, fireflies lighting the trees like christmas lights while others danced in a trance-like state on top of the tall grass. We were all struck to a stand-still and said nothing for about five minutes. This experience was so overwhelming; being amongst friends while you are overpowered by the simple beauty of nature. Awestruck, that is probably the most accurate word to describe those ten minutes of my life.

Richie shaved his head!

Geriatrics Promo Shoot

Shot promo pictures for the Geriatrics today, they have a new full-length coming out soon so look out for that.

After the shoot, I headed to the city with Ms. Lauren Freeburg. We checked out the new Reckless Records location, went to the museum of contemporary photography, and went to the craziest, most overwhelming camera store on Wabash!

Once I got home I picked up my check from work, then hungout with a bunch of people at Frank's house.

Out-of-towners . . .

Today didn't really start until it was actually over.

I woke up late, laid around the house (watched the cubs sweep the sox), went to work, then finally my day started (close to midnight.)

Lauren, James, Caleb, and I went to Steak and Shake for a late night, "we have nothing to do because it's so late" outing. The actual eating at Steak and Shake was good (especially seeing the manager walking repeatedly in and out of the bathroom with plungers, gloves, and each time getting wetter and wetter), but we finally found that defining moment of the night when we stepped outside:

Immediately as we stepped outside of Steak and Shake we were greeted ( with aggressive salesman-like charm) by two younger men with very strong accents asking for cigarettes. Turns out they were from Virginia and were traveling the U.S. selling magazines for some company. Outside of the obvious and blatant alcohol on their breath (and in their back pocket) they were charmingly ammusing guys. I can't think of any way to describe them besides charming, because in our five minute conversation I was so drawn to what they had to say that I found myself completely invested in this conversation. So we had a pistol-fire conversation (one of the boys spoke as quickly and incoherently as the King of the Hill character, Boomhower), and our conversation would always be momentarily broken by one of the two when any female would get out of her car or leave the restaurant (they regressed to the stereotypical "hey ladies" and "how old are you" kind of pick up lines that never even seem like a good idea in the most desperate of times.) Anyway, these two gentleman where quite the characters and when they offered me a job traveling all over the U.S. with them I momentarily thought it was a good idea.

Luckily, I politely turned them down . . .

Old Friends . . .

Today was another day of graduation parties.

Lisa Garcia's then Nicole Carlson's then work then back to Lisa's then to Angela's house.

All of the parties were great, and all of the conversations were memorable, but I think the best part of the night was Angela's

Spike, Renee, and Ryan Wizniak came to Angela's and I had yet another throw-back night where we watched Degrassi, had a bunch of those "remember when" conversations, and talked well into the early morning.

Sometimes you really forget how great people are when you haven't seen them in a while.

Carnival

Saw 1408; loved it of course.

Later in the night a few of us thought we'd check out the carnival/ Taste of Crystal Lake. It was a bit dull, outside of a few familiar faces that I haven't seen since school let out.

Sleeping at Angela's . . .

I woke up relatively early today; 8:30 (ok, that's late for summer), because we had planned a suprise breakfast for Martyna since she leaves for Poland today for over a month. We ate at this really cool breakfast restaurant called Burnt Toast, and I had this omelete with Guyere cheese (it sounded interesting so I tried it). all in all, breakfast was a success and Martyna was pleasantly surprised.

After breakfast, Liz, Lauren, Elise, and I went to Lover's Lane so they could get a few presents for Martyna (I'm not going in to anymore detail about this . . . )

I had to work at six, so we spent the rest of the day hanging out it Frank's backyard with his mom. She put some new fish in her pond and insisted that they were really friendly and let you pet them. Pet a fish?! I was intrigued, to say the least, so I stuck my hand in the pond and to my surprise . . . the fish were biting me!!! After they had finished devouring my digits, they actually did let me pet them. Frank's mom even "gave" me a fish; meaning I could name it and say he was mine. I haven't named him yet, but he is a hyper little pistol.

Work was decent, my new steel toed work boots came in so I spent most of my work-day kicking things to test them out. My Manager's brother came in, and I got in trouble because I spent an hour talking to him instead of working.

After work I rushed to Angela's for Tim's suprise birthday party. I missed the suprise (like always), but I had a lot of fun hanging out with everybody.

Currently, I am sleeping at Angela's and we are watching Say Anything (followed by Sixteen Candles and Better Off Dead). It is going to be an 80's cinema night! Tomorrow I am going to the first showing of 1408, because I am completely in love with john Cusack (I feel like a middle aged housewife for saying that).

An Engaging Proposal . . .

Today was one of the most photographically moving days of my life.

After work, Tayle, Frank, and I decided to go to Chicago for a day of hanging in the city and taking some photographs. We were wandering around Millenium Park, watching the orchestra, when I thought it would be a good idea to go to Buckingham Fountain. So we crossed the street, headed through Grant Park, and arrived at the fountain.

This is where the memories start . . . .

As I was setting up my tripod I was approached by a man who, very abruptly, asked me if it was possible for me to take a picture of him engaging to his girlfriend. I was dumbfounded! After I registered what was just asked of me I quickly and enthusiastically responded with a big ol' "YES OF COURSE, I WOULD LOVE TO"

For the next ten minutes I was nervously spying on his girlfriend ( I was so nervous I was adjusting aperature, shutter speed, exposure, trying to the the perfect composition). Finally he met back up with her and began conversation. At this point I was shaking, I was so nervous that I was going to ruin this beautiful moment for these great people, thet I was afraid I was going to get massive camera shake. Finally, he proposed and I shot like a mad man! I was making sure I got every expression, every moment, I wanted it to be perfect!

Afterwards I walked over to congratulate the new fiances and let them know how they could get their pictures. they were so kind, and I wish them a long, loving, and happy marriage!

I spent the rest of the day in awe. In fact, I'm still in awe.

Maybe I'll post more photos later.

(BTW, I got permission to use these very personal and emotional photographs)

The Classic Summer Throw-back . . .

Today I woke up at Franks (After a 3 hour video chat with Ben Hjelmsted), and we immediately decided to ride our bikes up to the freeze. So we called up Ethan and headed down to grab some ice cream. The Freeze has the best Toasted-Coconut Vanilla Cones anywhere, seriously. After that we met with Mojo at the beach and just sat around and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

A bit later we tried to go fishing, but the fish weren't hungry.

Right now there are a bunch of us just hanging around my house watching Wilco DVDs.

Later on we are going to April's for a bonfire, then Danny Bretz is coming over.

P.S. We saw them setting up the carnival for the Gala festival, so you know what that means; Summer really is here!

New Laptop!

I am currently updating from my brand new Macbook! I am very excited and look forward to using this everywhere I go.

This post will be short though, because I am at Frank's and there are a bunch of people here (don't want to be antisocial).