chatter

Last night I went with Christina and Corey to see Zero 7 at the Park West. It has been like forever since I seen a concert.

Christina drove and got us there so effortlessly, I was impressed. We even drove by my old neighborhood by Wriggley Field. It took us a while to find parking on the street. The moment we found a parking garage and was ready to submit to failure, a spot on the other side opened up and Christina effortly u-ied and got it. It was practically across the street from the place. It was 2 hours before the concert and we seen people lining up at the Park West.

For dinner we went to Stanleys. It was all-American cusisine. Mac and cheese seemed pretty prevalent there. I had that but it was so rich I could only eat half. Dinner for the 3 of us cost a whopping $26.

We got out of there at 8:00, the concert starts at 8:30. None of us has ever been there so we didn’t know what to expect, standing room crowds, smokey atmosphere. We get there, the line is gone, we just walk in and was pleasantly surprised to see bar stools everywhere. We go up stairs and sit down.

It was pretty nice, where we were up in the balcony, there were no crowds, just everyone sitting on bar stools in 2 rows in the upstairs. The place is small enough that you can see the stage pretty good. At 8:30 Jose Gonzales starts the opening act, some accoustic gutair. We don’t know who he is until he sang his last song and it was a Zero 7 one. Ah, he is the male vocalist for the group. Eventually the group comes on. The female vocalist was so cute be-bopping around. You don’t get her personality based on the sound of her voice on the CDs. Since they are a electronica group, there is a lot of keyboard action. Jose comes back on to sing the male vocals again. It was a fun show. We had a great time. I should of brough RAW’s point and shoot camera so I could take some pictures and video clips. I was afraid of their camera policy so I just avoided the aggration and left the cameras at home. I don’t think it would of been a problem.

It got out about 11:20, we walked to our car and went back to C and C’s where I got in my car and drove the 30-40 minutes back to my house. I got home officially at 1:20am.

RAW was on the couch sleeping and Hollace was in our bed. I had to wake her up to move her so I could get into bed.

Today we were hoping to take the train into Chicago for a romp in the city but alas, it is a rainy day. Oh well, maybe next weekend.

Sherry called last week with her normal tales of whoa. She was 2 months behind on her mortgage and since she re-mortgaged recently to a high risk company, they don’t take excuses, only houses.

She kept asking me what she should do, I kept saying, I don’t know knowing full well what she was hoping I would say. Finally she said it….”can I borrow $2600? I will pay you back $3000″

Gulp

Well now that it is out there I can’t leave her in a lurch unless I really didn’t have the money. And though this is the worst time of the year for my slush fund (property taxes are due tomorrow and insurance on the truck the day after) I had to do it.

She needed it wired to the mortgage company in two days. She would give me the info to send to.

When I talked to her the next day I told her if she wants the money she has to come out and get it. I won’t wire it, not a responsibility I want. I also wanted her to sign an agreement. A pure technicality since it isn’t notarized.

I get a money order cause I don’t want her driving the 2 hours back home late at night with all that cash. She gets here at 9:00. She writes me out 7 post dated checks for $300. She ran out of checks and still owes me 3 more checks. She says money gets deposited in her account on the 3rd so all the checks are posted dated for then.

The next morning she calls me early to tell me she found a letter I wrote when I was in 10th grade that mentioned the bad apple pie I made in home ec and what I had for lunch which I believe was all chocolate based. Yep, my bad eating habits go way back! But the last line was “your friend Nancy, unless you want to borrow money”. Ha, ha, ha.

Later that day Sherry calls again. I guess every bank she went to (5 of them apparantly) said there will be a 2 day hold on that check. She was having a heart attack. They told her to go back to the original bank it was drawn on which of course was 2 hours away at my credit union. She calls the mortgage company to see if she could sign it over to them. They aren’t sure but got back to her a couple hours later and told her it was ok. She signed it and FedExed it and all should be well. I hope.

I bet you thought was forgetting about that teaser from yesterday.

First of all, don’t worry, I am not suicidal but lately I have really been into great/famous artists who killed themselves.

I have been reading a book on the photographer Diane Arbus. I am not a big fan of her photos though some are growing on me, but I am facinated by her and her story. She battled horrible depressions. The anti-depressant she was on (back in the 60s) made her sick so she went off of them. There are some things that I could related to with Diane. She was shy and fearful but where we differed there was that conquoring her fear was what motivated her.

The other artist that ofted themself that I am facinated with is Elliott Smith, a singer. I have had one of this albums, the one that got finished after he died and I really liked it but lately I have been listening to it a lot. I have since bought another of his and there are another 2 that I want. Good stuff albeit mopey.

I am tired and this post isn’t as indepth as I originally thinking. Maybe I will come back another time and elaborate more.

my nails are now cut and I guess I am ready to write even though I am kind of tired.

Tonight we went to the drive in to see Barnyard, another animated kids movie that are starting to having the same story line. RAW mentioned the movie was playing at the drive-in when he went past earlier today. We have been wanting to take Hollace to one of these increasingly rare places. For some reason I wasn’t thrilled to go originally. I am not sure why.

–I am the queen of wasting time. I just took a 30 minute break so I could add some lyrics to some songs in iTunes so I can sing along on my iPod.–

Back to my story….
We didn’t really prepare to go, I grabbed a couple drinks and snack food and headed off. Would of been nice if we brough chairs. I had one in the car. I sat in that one, Hollace sat on the hood of the car and RAW sat in the car. A nice family outing, huh? Oh well, maybe next time now that I know what to expect. This last of a dying breed drive-in kept boasting about its new owners and that they plan to continue on. In Illinois, I was reading, there use to be 120 drive-ins in its hey day but now they are down to 12.

Last week found me out of my routine. On Wednesday, Hollace’s first day of school, was our all employee fun day. I couldn’t work at home like I wanted to to see Hollace off. I did get to come in late so I could help her get ready. At work we got on a bus and took off or tried to. The bus broke down in Gurnee so we sat in a McDonald’s parking lot for an hour waiting for a new bus. Brian somehome noticed there was a $20 way down in the rain sewer. For the next 40 minutes that was everyones goal, get that nasty thing out. Princess was determined with the chewing gum on a broomstick. Then I got my tape out (doesn’t everyone care tape with them?) and we taped a paperclip to try and sphere it. Eventually someone got it out. The new bus then came and we went about our journey.

We ended up in Milwaukee in the alley of this 20s theme restaurant. But first before lunch, it is time for a scavenger hunt. Even before that, each group had to do a human sculpture of an animal. My group unfortunately had to do an alligator. So there we all are (7 of us) layed down in an alley in Milwaukee to do this thing.

We all had an hour to find a page full of things and 2 pages of questions answered. Our team was recognized as the best at scavenging. We found all but 3 things. First we hit the Walgreens with the $20 they gave us then eventually ended up in a mall at a bank with bored tellers who helped us with the 4 leaf clover (St. Patrick decorations), the 1971 penny and the thing that comes back (couldn’t find a yoyo at Walgreens) so we “bounced” a check. We asked, or rather they asked everyone on the street what the state tree is. Then we ran back to the restaurant before we got docked points. At the restaurant, if you didn’t know the password to get in, you had to do something ridiculous. Everyone in my group had to hop like bunnies and every third jump, we had to shake our tail. This was being broadcasted to everyone in the restaurant. It was a lot of fun. In the end, our group took 3rd place over all which means $25. Deb’s team came in 2nd and they got $50. We didn’t realize there were two pages of questions, that was our downfall. But we sure kicked ass in scavengering the objects.

On Friday was the division bowling thing. I am on the committee so I couldn’t get out of it. Normally I skip this event. I got there early to help set up. The theme was Oktober Fest. We bowled 2 games and I got exactly 71 points in both games. I guess I am consistent. I cut out early so I didn’t help clean up, hope they don’t mind since half the people in the committe arrived after we set up.

and my fingernails are too long. I guess that is tomorrows project. Look for the story on the scavenger hunt, bowling and my facination of suicidal artists

So far I have spent the whole weekend working on Christina and Corey’s wedding package. I put 5 slide shows to DVD. I had fun trying to find appropriate music. I am printing out 5×7 b&ws into a photo album. I haven’t done that yet but have the other elements to burn to DVD for the package.

What should I be doing? Playing with Hollace. it is just me and her this weekend. She is busy playing school with her stuffed animals. I have been photographing that as a photo essay. I did get some other photos shot that I wanted to do such as the blue toe nail black skirt thing. The thing is I have a bunch of photos on the card that I am dying to pull off and play with but I just don’t dare today since I need to do a few other things like finish up the CN marketing piece me and Bob L are presenting to the committee tomorrow. Also I have been wanting to design and laminate a card that I will keep with me and read every day to remind me to eat appropriately.

I feel like I am wasting the summer away. Next week is Hollace’s last full week of summer then it is off to school (she would say, boo hiss). Last week I took a day off and we went school clothes and supply shopping. This weekend the weather was lovely and we pretty much spent it all in the house. Why? How pitiful.

Last week I met with a GI doc about scheduling an upper GI endoscopy thing. I am freaked out but am trying to get over myself. I haven’t even told RAW to keep September 13th open yet.

Work has been busy enough that I don’t get time to play with the new softwares like my co-workers are. I am jealous

On Friday after work was Christina and Corey’s wedding. My darn ebay auction for the lightsphere showed up that day finally (I was really sure I wasn’t going to get it at all) but it was too late. Thankfully I bought another one that I did use. I was disappointed in how it handled vertical pictures, the one reason that it appealled to me.

It was a nice short ceremony. I think I was only suppose to stay in one place to shoot according to the pastor but I was all over the place. How the heck am I suppose to get the good shots?

I filled up one card and put in the other as everyone headed for the receiving line. I forgot to format the other card and it was filled with county fair pictures! Between that and the fact I wore a skirt with no pockets, those were my only two glaring mistakes.

After the ceremony, there was a dinner that only family was invited to. I sat next to Corey’s nephew and Christina’s sister and some cousins. The food was wonderful but I couldn’t figure out how the skinny people could finish their plates and I could not. I took more pictures until I was close to running out of card again. Corey must of noticed how tired I was and said I could leave if I wanted to. It was 10:30.

Saturday at 4 was the real reception. We all went. It was at their house and it had a Hawaiian theme. Lots and lots of people there and lots and lots of good and unique food. Some of it unidentifiable. The weather was perfect. Some people were playing beanbag toss or bochie ball. Up at the deck was the Jamba juice guys mixing up smoothies. Inside were some of my co-workers (or former ones) with their babies. Not a whole lot of friends/co-workers were there, mostly family and there was a lot of them. I took about 250 photos that day.

At around 9pm, after the karokee, Corey noticed that I was winding down again and asked if I needed to get Hollace to bed. Things were winding down in general and I think I covered their event pretty well.

Corey and Christina said hold on for a moment and they came back, Corey with a check for $300 and Christina with a new 60gig video iPod for me.

See back when I met with Christina for the details of the day a few weeks ago, I got a feeling she might get me an iPod for shooting the wedding. I wouldn’t tell her how much I would charge. I told her whatever she felt was fair was ok for me as I was just honored I could take part in their special day. I was pretty sure an iPod was in it for me. Then I starting thinking that really they would give me maybe $300 and since that iPod was $400, they would just give me cash for $300. So imagine my surprise when they gave me $300 and the $400 iPod! Yikes.

It was a great time and I think when all is said and done, I will have 400 good pictures for them.

a side note on the ipod. Everyone wants my old one. I haven’t told Sherry yet or Jeff. RAW is not assuming possession of the old iPod and he wasn’t even in the running 😉 Hollace doesn’t want it anymore because she is holding out for Christmas for her own new one. Today in the mail I finally get word about replacing the battery for free that I filled out back in January. Talk about interesting timing!

I need to find ways to drown out all the distractions and focus on all the cool stuff I should be doing.

What cool stuff you ask? Learn lots of new software, work on creativity. There are a couple things at work in that department I need to concentrate on. I am on the marketing committee and our mini team need to come up with concepts for “The Clear Choice” I need to focus to do a design on focus. At home I need to get up to speed with Motion, Shake, Swift 3d (or any 3d) and now Poser. If I could quell my online Flickr time and concentrate of those I would have it made.

I am teetering on the feeling I can do it all and the one where I feel like I am going to lose it all. How conflicted. Maybe I should call one of those therapists. I finally found that list I have been looking for forever.

I am also in mourning on what I use to be proud of being super healthy. I keep having feelings of dread that something in that department is wrong. I need to get over myself. Get things fixed, move on.

I got an email that that ebay auction I won that I am suspicious of if finally now getting shipped. I will believe it when I see it. I won’t get it until after the wedding which is what prompted me to buy it. At least I went out and bought another one by normal methods.

On Friday is the wedding I am shooting. I am sure I will do fine and all will be good but as I mentioned above, I teether on feelings of success and failure. My personality (or lack of it) is my biggest concern.

By Monday all three of my sisters will have new addresses or no address! Paula closes on her new house on Monday. Also on Monday Cindy closes on her old house rendering her homeless. And Pam, well they are leaving Kentucky tomorrow to stay with Cindy, the one who is homeless come Monday.

Cindy is scrambling to find a townhouse they can rent for her family of 7 with 2 cats with enough room for Pam’s family of 6 and one cat temporarily. Ooooh, good luck with that! If anyone can pull it off it would be Cindy.

Sherry calls today and tells me the guy she is with who won’t take her out on a date asked her to marry him. Oh yikes! At least she has the sense to not jump at that offer.

RAW and Hollace are off to visit grama for a few days so it is just me and Cloudy (big ferousous, vicious beast Cloudy—that is in case you know where I live). Today a neighbor girl that Hollace has been playing with at the park came over. She was so sad when I told her she wasn’t home. She came to apologize and ask her to come to the park. I called Hollace to ask her what Angel was apologizing for and she can’t remember.

This week Hollace has been cracking me up walking around in my old high heels and has carefully packed a purse with “purse” things including an iPod she made from a plastic box little playing cards came in. Also something clicked in her head a couple weeks ago when we tried to purge some of her old toys and clean up her room. We wasn’t able to purge much but now she is all about keeping her room tidy and organized. That has never happened before! It has been two weeks now and all is still good. She is so grown up lately.

My doctor gave me a prescription for my GERD then I asked him for an extended one to use the mailorder pharmacy. I didn’t realize until I got the prescription that he wrote it for solutabs which you let melt on your tongue and not the capsules like I had. I was pissed since I paid for this. I called him and while he won’t admit anything, he wrote me another script, gave me a months worth of samples and a “coupon”. Well that coupon turns out to be a $35 rebate for co-pays for every time I fill the script. Wow, you can’t beat that with a…a….uh, it is late and the end of that lame saying just left my head. So on that note, good night!

What do I got to say. I cut my nails so I can type like the wind so I better come up with something.

This week I met with Christina on shooting her wedding and I met with Mia on her last week at work. I think I am getting stiffed on an Ebay auction.

My stupid fault with the Ebay thing. I am trying to buy a Lightsphere flash diffuser so I can shoot the wedding. I ordered it from a guy. I got suspicious the moment I won the auction. Another “buyer” bid just enough (twice) to get me to my highest bid. Looking at that buyer I notice he is just a seller. Uh huh. Then this is where I was stupid, I didn’t bother looking carefully at the way this guy wanted to be paid, no credit cards or Paypal. Only cashier check, money order or personal check. Harder to track fraud that way. I think I just kissed $36 away. At least it is only $36. It has been 6 days and I haven’t heard word one from him though I have emailed him many times. Yep, bye bye.

Christina called me on my way home from work today. Zero 7 is coming to town and she wanted to know if I wanted to go. Hell ya! I think RAW would like to go too even though he doesn’t listen to them (I am sure he would like them if he did) but I wouldn’t know what to do with Hollace. We don’t have a babysitter or know where to find one. Maybe we can have a sleepover date with someone? I am sure it will be a late night.

I found Pam on Yahoo IM the other night (never happened before) and she said Cindy sold her house. At the risk of sounding like grama, why don’t anyone tell me anything.