Assignment 4

My current assignment for my photography class is to use one piece of paper, one light source, and my imagination to come up with one photograph... Yup. That's the whole assignment. Pretty much I can do whatever I want, which should be pretty cool. But it actually kinda sucks. I don't consider myself as having the best imagination in the world and I really like focused, guided assignments... But I took some shots out at FHOV and I am kinda happy with a few that I came up with. None of these have been edited yet so please let me know what you think about them. Be as critical as you want cause it actually helps me out a lot!

Assignment 4

Ojai Day... 10 years later...

Alright, I know Ojai Day was like 10 weeks ago (ok, more like 3 weeks...), but I wanted to share some photos with you. Ryan let me borrow his camera for the day and it was super fun to ride around on my bicycle and pretend to be a professional photographer for the day... I am pretty happy with a few of these. Ojai Day really is my favorite day of the year. I just love how everyone and their mother comes out. It's such a great community event and the music is pretty fantastic too!

Sweet 16

Last weekend was my dear friend, and sort of adopted sister, Ruby's 16th birthday. To celebrate, we had her over for a taco dinner and an evening of laughs. Ruby was one of my mom's first students at OVS and is now the sophomore class president at Villanova Prep. She came here maybe 5 years ago from Taiwan knowing very little English and it is really amazing to see how much she has grown and changed and turned into the wonderful young woman that she is (Ohkay, I sound like I am 80 saying it that way... but it is the truth). I love Ruby and I am so glad that we got to spend time with her for her birthday.

Last weekend was also Parent Weekend which, I'm not gonna lie, was pretty rough. Don't get me wrong, I am so happy that some parents actually come visit their kids one weekend out of the year, but seeing some of these kid's family dynamics literally breaks my heart. One of my 4th grader's dad's can't be more than 2 years old than me. Another one of my kid's mom (who I think is insane...) brought her new "friend" to meet her daughter since they are going to be spending Thanksgiving with him... Are you serious? Who brings their new boyfriend to Parent Weekend to meet their daughter for the first time? Who does that? It breaks my heart. And then there are the kids whose parents don't even come to Parent Weekend. I had a forth grader who was alone this last weekend because her parents couldn't fly out for the weekend. Granted I understand that flying out from Japan for one weekend is kinda crazy, but other parents do it. And their kid is in 4th grade! For reals? You can't come see her? Stay for a week for crying out loud! Just come visit your daughter! Parent Weekend is always really depressing, but I am glad I got to be there for the kids who had no one, or worse, the kids who's parents at psycho!

Hittin' It Hard

Yesterday was sort of an interesting day. I got up, went to class and then went to Kinkos to print some of my recent photos. When I got there I went into my backpack to get my USB drive where ALL of my photos are right now and I couldn't find the drive. I seriously almost died trying to figure out where I had left it. Then I remembered that I was working on some photos at OVS the night before and left the USB in the computer I was working on. So I drove back to OVS and grabbed my drive and then drove back to Ventura to print my images (I have to mount my images today so I sort of needed to print them yesterday).

After printing my images, I went over to the Coffee Shop to hang out with Cory for a bit. After Cory left, I waited a little while longer to pick up Nae from school. While waiting, There was this other guy at the table across from me (definitely a hippie in his linen clothes). He kept staring at me until he finally said "Hello! How are you?" "I'm good thanks. How are you?" He said he was good and asked me what my name was. I told him to which he responded, "Michaela, you have a very good energy coming off of you." I said thank you and asked him his name. He told me his name was River (which I totally believe). He told me that he had been gone for 3 months and now his computer wouldn't start. He asked me if I knew any good "Computer Wizes" in town (which I don't... well, other than Ryan who just knows everything). We chatted for a little while about how our computers hate us (mine really hates me and I think John keeps making fun of me whenever I plug in the PC...) and how crappy the stock market is right now and how we could care less.

Later in the evening I went to Sumo Sushi with Cory, Holly, and Carl. The evening was pretty funny with Cory hitting all of the Taboo dinner topics (religion, politics, and money). After dinner we went over to the new frozen yogurt place, Tuti Fruti or something like that. The whole day was pretty great and I am glad I got to hang out with friends.

Soap Stories

This weekend of work was really nice. A bunch of my kids went home so I actually only had about 19 girls. Friday night was kinda just a hangout night. Once it was too dark for the kids to be outside, Lauren and I sat outside of the girls dorm and played some guitar until it was too cold to move. Saturday we took the kids down to Hollywood and Highland to watch the Chihuahua movie at the El Capitan Theater. The movie was pretty stupid but hanging out in Hollywood wasn't bad. After the movie, we went up to Universal City Walk (which is one of my favorite places!).

One of my favorite things about taking a Saturday trip is being able to take the kids to the Farmer's Market on Sunday. I actually ended up not having any kids so I got to walk around and pick up some great veggies for dinner. While I was wandering around, I ran into my boss Dave who was chatting with one of his friends. He called me over to introduce me to his friend. After I introduced myself, his friend turned to Dave and said "It looks like you have a very competent assistant. It's important to have someone who is respectful and reliable as an assistant." There was some more back and forth stuff about me (while I was standing right there, feeling awkward that people were talking about me right in front of my face). Dave then started talking to his other friend and I was trying to find a good way to walk away in the least awkward way. Before I got a chance to leave, Dave's friend asks me, "Can I gift you with something? I would like to gift you with something." I politely said "Thank you so much, but no thank you. I'm ok." After insisting, she asked me when I was born. I told her September 22. to which she responded "Hmm, right on the edge... Are you a Virgo or a Libra?" I told her Virgo (funny cause I had just looked at some magnents at City Walk that fully described each sign... interesting). She asked "Are you really very much a Virgo? Does that describe you well?" I said yes (because I saw it on the magnent the day before). She picked out some amazing soap and put it in a bag for me. I thanked her and went on my way. The soap smells fantastic and I thought the whole story was pretty good. Only in Ojai right? Next Saturday is Ojai Day and I can't wait!

PS: I though this was the funniest picture of soap! So Great!

C.S. Hopping

Today was pretty funny. I woke up at 7:30 (after not sleeping super well for two nights now... I feel better, but at night I can't stop coughing) and rolled over to Coffee Connection around 8... I spent a few hours hanging in the back patio. Around 11 Holly, Cory, and I decided that it was far to hot to continue sitting there, so Holly and I went down to Bad Ass Coffee in Ventura. The place was practically abandoned but we hung out for an hour or so before I had to head over to my Digital Photography class. There I finished my 3rd assignment (I think I finished it... I think I am as happy as I can get with these photos... it's just time for a new camera...). I cut out two of the photos and decided to stick with the color.

'Guitar Man'

'Music Man'

'Anything Helps'

'Book Club'

After class I dropped off some paperwork at the Business Office before, yup, heading back to Coffee Connection to wait for Nae to finish with a test. So... a few cups of coffee later, It's time to try and go to sleep. Please let me know what you think of the photos. The assignment isn't due until a week from Monday, but I have to print them and mount them next week so any suggestions would be great!

Benches

This last week was kinda wild. I guess it started last Friday night at work. I was hanging out with Lauren after putting all of the girls to bed and Lauren kept telling me I should really try and get a hold of one of our co-workers from Summer camp. I told her I had tried with no response and I was just tired of pursuing it. She eventually let me know that this person had a secret wedding the previous weekend and was 4 months pregnant and that I REALLY should try and get a hold of her. Now, my first instinct was shock, followed quickly with anger. Not anger that she got married and was pregnant, but anger and sadness that this co-worker that I considered a pretty good friend didn't feel it necessary to tell me herself what was going on with her life. The next morning I got up at 4am to drive Holly to the airport so when I got to work, I was pretty tired and still really bummed out about the news from the night before. Then, I saw that this person was calling my cell phone. Because I was kinda pissed, tired, and working, I pushed ignore because I didn't feel like having that conversation right then and there. A couple minutes later, this person came to hunt me down in the Girl's dorm (and I hid in the hallway to avoid her for almost a half an hour). She later cornered me in the Health Center and said stuff like "Sorry I haven't returned any of your phone calls... A lot has been going on... A lot of things are changing... And I wanted to tell you this before you found out through the grape-vine..." I told her she was too late and I already knew... the conversation was awkward from then on. I told her congratulations (even though I don't think it was very sincere). I really am happy for her because this is what she has wanted for a long time. I am more just bummed that she didn't feel it necessary to let me know what was going on...

So the rest of the weekend was pretty mellow. We went to State Street on Sunday were I took a ton of photos for my Photography class (Assignment 3... look at them and please tell me what you think... Not just "I like it or I don't like it" but what works and what doesn't). We also took the elementary kids to the SB museum of Art. It's free on Sundays and there was a great exhibit of Picasso Drawings. Later I got a wonderful visit from my friend Elissa at Borders which made the weekend extra special!

The rest of the week was pretty mellow. My mommy was gone camping so it was just me and Nae at home all week. My Dad was coaching so I really didn't get to see him that much. But the house was quite and I was fighting off allergies that later turned into a little head cold around Wednesday. Now I am work again trying to enjoy the rain!

The Jerk

I love the movie The Jerk ("The new phone book is here! The new phone book is here!" So funny!), but this time I was the Jerk and it wasn't really funny. It was sort of busy weekend I suppose. I went to work Friday night and we had a social. It wasn't too bad this time around even though a ton of the kids were super moody this weekend. Sunday we went to the Mall (WooHoo! The mall). It's actually one of my least favorite trips that we do, but Nae came with me and we had fun playing and taking pictures in the toy store. After work my mom made dinner for my b-day.

Yes Monday was my birthday and I have to admit I was kinda a jerk (ok, maybe a lot a Jerk). Amber had planned out a wonderful day of hanging out with friends and I wasn't super happy. I guess I have never really liked my own birthdays because I really don't like having the attention on me and usually that's how birthday's work. So the first half of the day was kinda painful for the people around me (I am sorry for being a lame face) even though we enjoyed Coffee, Pedicures, and Lunch. After a hour of resting and thinking, I realized how much of a jerk I was being and realized I just needed to get over my insecurities and enjoy the love and company of my friends. So later in the early afternoon my wonderful friends picked me up in the "Party Bus" (Martha's Astro Van) and we enjoyed a wonderful night hanging out with each other.

In addition to being my birthday Monday, It was also my mom's best Friend, Shelly's first day of Chemo. She was recently diagnosed with Breast Cancer and is starting her fight. She lives in Elk Grove (a town south of Sacramento) so it makes it a little difficult to support her being so far away. In order to help her feel supported through this, we are all wearing our Stand Up 2 Cancer Shirts on days she has her Chemo treatments.

In other news, I finished my Second Assignment for my Digital Photography class. The first half of the assignment was to take compositional photographs (Rule of 3rds, C curve, S curve...). The second half was to take the top 6 photos and make them absrtact. Check them out!

You Suck!

Ok, so the title is a little rough, but I honestly have been sucking at blogging lately. Not too much has been going on so I haven't really had anything to blog about. School is... going. I love my digital photography class! I will probably be posting some of my photos tomorrow... I have to touch them up a little and then save them as JPEG's before I can upload them. Spanish is... really easy. I am taking Spanish 2 (which I have taken maybe 5 years of Spanish in my lifetime, plus I grew up being babysat by my abuela who only speaks Spanish) so to say the least I am kinda bored, but it's nice to kinda start to brush up on my unused Spanish skills (that's right... I just called them Spanish Skills). My two other classes are online and start in October so I will let you know how those are going once they start.

For now I am just hanging out at the coffee shop with Holly, Tim, and Nicki. The Big 21 is on Monday and everyone is freakin me out, but we'll see what happens... Haircut Sunday and i am hoping to get a new look (everyone has the graduated bob now... it's time for a change...)

Hi-Ho! Hi-Ho!

It's off to work I go this weekend. Last night was the start of weekends at school. I was so excited to meet all of my new kids (which there are several of them by the way) and super excited to see some of my old kids. We have a ton of girls this year (well, it's the same number as last year... it just seems like there are a lot of girls this year) and about half of the boys we had last year. About half of our girls are new to OVS which is super neat but also sort of difficult as far as transitioning. We have a very lively bunch of girls who feel the need to yell a lot (sometimes too much, but it's their first weekend so they are excited). But for the most part they all seem like nice girls so we will see how this year goes. Last night we started off the weekend with a pool party, today we go to town (Big Town... yeah, that's just downtown Ojai... not big at all), and tomorrow we will go to Skating Plus (I will probably opt out of skating since I broke my arm there years ago). But, so far (knock on wood), so good.