Hi, i hear your names nex-5, wanna be friends?

Who has two thumbs and just bought a new camera?? THIS GIRL!
i bought it because the only video camera i have is a $100 piece i got right before alaska. it lasted me while in alaska, but i thought it was time to invest in a (sorta) real video camera. I got the Sony NEX-5 and i la la looove it. Its super compact, takes great videos & was relatively cheap (around 800 for the body and two lenses). Obviously, its gonna take me awhile to learn how to really use it, but hopefully i can learn quickly and get a vimeo up soon!
Today (friday nov. 5) marks my one year with the company i'm with. at some point in time, i grew up and get to go on a company trip. i leave in a week for new jersey. expect pictures soon. :D

thus far..

So, life has been a wee bit busy. I just got done working 21 days in a row (sigh), but i think it was all worth it. I got confirmation today that my job is flying me to New Jersey to open a new store. It sucks that it took me a year to go to the east coast, but at least now i will be getting paid while i'm there. Also, today i bought a video camera (eeek!) so assuming i can get the hang of it, i'll probably start a vimeo. Until then, this is what my fall has been thus far... Puppy time!


And i learned how to do tilt-shift on photoshop. The idea is to make a picture look miniaturized. The really good tilt-shifts are done with actual tilt-shift lenses, but those are expensive & I'm poor. :D
(Before & after)

Oh, Glorious summer.

I WENT SKYDIVING FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!
After getting rained out, we finally got to go. We had instructors on our backs, but it was still totally worth it. There's nothing like free-falling through the sky. I'd venture to say this was my biggest goal i accomplished this summer. Amazing.

I also got to spend lotsa time with my favorite fella, Jack. There's a dog park about 5 miles away from our new house, so he and his four legged roommate often get to go run around and play in a pond.



I have a really good habit of being where i'm not supposed to be. these pictures were taken in such a place. I finally found prettiness in kansas city!
Seriously, we couldnt have asked for the clouds to be prettier for sunset.


Overall, i'd say this was a damn good summer.

More o summer.

To continue the tradition, i also went to animal paradise this summer and met up with some ol animal buddies. Seriously, this place is amazing.I also went to the lake of the ozarks for my first time actually being on the lake. It's a little pathetic, i've lived in the kansas city area for 18 years and just now went to the lake. It's massive & gorgeous.

I rode & drove a wave runner for the first time. Amazing. We flipped it quite a few times, though. The one we had was a 3 seater, which is hard to flip back up. We were terrified it'd sink.

And i was sort of part of a softball team. By sort of, i mean i went to one game and never actually played. i make a better cheerleader.

I went to worlds of fun for the first time in something stupid like 8 or 9 years. not too much had changed, except for almost every roller coaster i rode when i was younger was no where to be found :(

Whoops.

I cannot believe how long it's been since i've updated. Here are some things i've gotten done over the past 6 months..
It's been summer. That means lots of work for me! I survived some silly big movies. I even got to give out shots out of this ice sculpture. :D


My now roommate and I went to St Louis to see some of my friends. We went to forest park, this sculpture park, and one of my favorite places in the world..
CITY MUSEUM!! (if you don't know what it is, and care to know, look it up here.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Museum_(St._Louis,_Missouri)


Jack & I moved to Kansas with 2 roommates, one is Abigail:
She may look sweet and innocent, but it's all an act, i promise.

(more to come of this summer!!)

The end.

Yeah, there was a club on board.


Jamaica was the last off shore day. We docked in Florida and spent the night before flying home.
As for the overall experience, I've definitely decided a cruise is not my cup of tea. Although I'm happy i went (i've always wanted to go on a cruise), it's way expensive for just a week. Also, going on spring break wasn't a good idea, there were wayyy too many drunk, young college kids.

Cruise Day 5: Jamaica

On the fifth day of our cruise, we visited Jamaica. Where we docked was gorgeous. Where we ziplined and went tubing was gorgeous. However, driving from one place to the other was super sad, a lot of people were living in shacks and what not. Above is where we went ziplining, here's a pic of my lovely gear. Turns out, wearing a dress to go ziplining is a bad idea.
Our driver (if i remember correctly, his name was Elvis) was insane. Jamaica's streets are super narrow and rather than slowing down at corners, he'd just honk his horn to let any oncoming traffic know he was coming (and wasnt about to move over).

As consistent with my luck, i didnt have a seat in front of me, nor did i have a seatbelt. I saw my life flash before me several times.


"For your wellbeing walk 30 min. daily and keep smiling"-quite possibly the smartest thing coke has put on their labels :)

Cruise Day 4: Grand Cayman

Our fourth day was spent at Grand Cayman Island. We got up super early, got off the boat, and got to see a pretty sunrise.We did two "shore excursions". We went snorkeling and saw a shipwreck. The only pictures i have from that are on a cheap waterproof camera which i still havent developed. It was super cool, though, actually seeing a sunken ship.
The second shore excursion was swimming with stingrays at stingray city. Apparently, the stingrays associate hearing the boat engines with getting food (fishers would clean their fish on this shallow part, known as stingray city). Luckily, one of the deckhands had an awesome waterproof camera and we bought some cool pictures.


This picture tells the story of Grand Cayman: You get off the ship and are attacked by people trying to get you to go on their tours.

Cruise Day 3: On the Ship

Day 3 was a "Fun Day at Sea"

My favorite pool on the ship:

Formal Night:


And some night time pics of the ship. So exciting.

I never did go down that slide :(

Cruise Day 2: Key West

We spent our second day docked at Key West, Florida. Unfortunately, all we really got to see was the touristy stuff, complete with a store where everything was $5. However, there was this cool house (above) with a peace sign over their window.


Sloppy Joe's Bar: Apparently it was Ernest Hemingway's favorite bar, and was frequented by Habana Joe.


Since I didn't get to go to the northernmost point in the US while in Alaska, I decided to go to the southernmost place in the US. Here are my feet there.



Key West lighthouse (out of commission):


That square building was Ernest Hemingway's house, as seen from the Key West lighthouse.
"I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen." -Ernest Hemingway


Goodbye Key West!

(I got a camera that takes really easy panoramics, hence the addition of panoramics to this page :D)

Cruise Day 1

I just got back from my first cruise!!!
Day One: We flew from KC to Texas to Florida and boarded the ship. I left home around 4am, so i figured it was in my best interest to not sleep at all. :D
I went on the cruise with my sister, that's us on the plane.

My first time in Florida!



Our teeny tiny room...




Goodbye Ft. Lauderdale!


Our ship, the Carnival Freedom:

I wish i had some really cool news like i havent been updating because i decided to move to europe, but alas, life got in the way. I've been living in kc (hence the jazz club up there- awesome!), and managed to get a job at a movie theatre. i ABSOLUTELY love it. its a little ridiculous.

Other than that, not a lot has been going on. i'm leaving for a cruise in a few days, so lotsa pictures will be coming from that. in the mean time, here are some pics from the past few months.


The fastest pumpkin i've ever carved, less than 10 min:



Me and one of my lovers, at another one of my lovers wedding.