Saginaw Zoo and yet another birthday party!!

Yesterday, my parents, my brother and his woman, her mom (Grandma Tammy) and my 3 nephews went to the Saginaw Children's Zoo. It was actually little Alex's 2nd birthday,  so we went to celebrate that. It was nice, and we all had a good time. Well, I don't think Alex was feeling his best yesterday but he had some fun. The Saginaw Children's Zoo is a nice little park. They don't have a lot of exotic animals but the flowers were great. There is also a carosel and a little train there. My older nephew, Lil Kenny, was going nuts over the train, "When we going to ride on the train?" He loved that. I should take him to Greenfield village.

 

The grandmas packed a lunch, so after an afternoon at the zoo we all sat in the picnic area and had lunch. That was really relaxing. It was nice to hang out with both my parents - Daddy wasn't working for a change. I had forgotten how nice a picnic can be, hehe. Again it was making me want everyone to go to one of my favorite places, Greenfield Village, and have a picnic. Check out my pics I uploaded. While we were eating lunch, the zoo's 2 peacocks came over by us and I got some really pretty pics of the pretty peacocks.

 

Soon as I got home from the zoo, I had to hurry up and run over to my sis-in-law's house for yet another birthday party. OK all these kids need to quit having birthdays! Quit growing up, dang it!! My sis's kids, Robbie and Ryan, were both born in July too. That is 4 nephews with July birthdays. Craziness! I took a few pics there too, check 'em out in my albums.

 

It was a fun day yesterday but it wore me out. Today I am exhausted.

 

Queen Anne's Lace

 

Love this weed! Check out the album I made of my nephew's 2nd birthday party. All kinds of fun with the kiddies.

Health Care, Health insurance

Here are 2 great articles about the state of the United States health care system. Health care in America, to me,  illustrates just how much we are becoming a country of 'Haves' and "Have Nots' and it is just sad and ridiculous.

 

http://blog.mlive.com/chronicle/2008/07/uninsured_patients_financially.html

 

http://www.slate.com/id/2195851/

 

From the first article:

 

"America spends more money on health care than any nation in the world, even outspending countries that provide universal health care to all residents. The U.S. spent $2.3 trillion on health care in 2007, but 47 million Americans had no health insurance and the nation's overall health status lagged behind many other countries, according to the National Coalition on Health Care."

 

That is just f---ing sad. The United States (we) spends all this money on health care and not all people are covered/have access to health care. How crazy is that? We all think/know doctors make a lot of money but I contend the real money makers in health care are the insurance companies. Every year what they cover gets less, so the people that have coverage are feeling the pinch. The poor people that don't have coverage, the really feel the pinch,  have to pay more and more because health care costs keep rising due to hospitals and Dr's having to make up for their losses, which in turn is due to greedy insurance companies wanting more and more discounts and covering less and less in health care. It is a vicious cycle. It needs to change because the way the economy and the job market is, we are going to have more and more people in America suffering without health insurance.

 

Also from the first article:

 

"The system is totally broken for the working poor," said Zyniewicz, chief medical officer at Emergency Health Partners, which runs the ER at Mercy Health Partners' Mercy Campus. "The uninsured get charged the full cost of health care, while people with insurance are charged less."

Hospitals and clinics often charge insurance companies less for medical services because insurers insist on paying discounted rates. Health-care providers cannot offer the same discounts to uninsured patients because it would be considered insurance fraud, according to several local doctors.

 

This is just ridiculous! When are American's and American politicians going to wake up? Something needs to be done about this. Put politics aside, put all talk about big government aside, and start working on a solution to this problem - whether it be a Universal Health plan/system, or just a complete over haul (with tough regulations) of our current health care system. We need to quit listening to insurance companies telling us that universal coverage won't work - they are just trying to scare us because they want to keep the gravy train rolling. People are suffering needlessly, people's lives are at stake. We have the money and resources - let's do something about this problem already! If you read the articles you will truly see what a joke and embarrasment our health care system has become.

 

Great Quote

"The writer, when he is also an artist, is someone who admits what others don't dare reveal." Elia Kazan

I like that quote. It is so true too. To really be a great writer you have to go to the depths of your soul and pull stuff up that most people don't think about, can't handle and would never admit. Psychology is like that also. I often times think I reveal too much in these blogs but in truth I am holding back. I would really like to cut lose and just write, write, write but I don't have the time and energy right now. I guess I am not brave enough either. I guess some subjects aren't fit for a blog. Well I will explore this idea as I go along. Write what I feel for that day. There are plenty of topics, that is for sure.

I could keep a diary but I am such an attention whore - I like to have an audience, or at least feel I have an audience. Who knows if anyone ever reads my blog.  Yeah, who knows who reads your blogs - it could be anybody.  It could be someone trying to cause you trouble (or someone who is curious and/or nosy - that would be my kind of person) so I guess you should never reveal more than you want to deal with. I like lead my life like an open book. I try not to keep too many secrets (like everyone I have at least one or two) or tell lies so I don't have to go around scared about how people may see me or find out about me.

Stepmother issues...

 I have a very good friend - I will call her Pat. Lately she has been annoyed by her son’s stepmother – I’ll call the son Jon and the stepmom, Dee. Jon recently graduated high school and joined the armed forces. Well my friend Pat is annoyed with a lot of her family and also her son’s father and stepmother. Especially with them because Pat says that they always talked down about Jon’s idea of enlisting, saying that he could/would never do it, can’t handle it, etc. Now it seems to her that they are jumping on his band wagon, acting like they have been supportive all along. I told her that as far as that goes, Jon knows who has been behind him and who has not supported him all along, right?

 

Well she is really annoyed with the stepmom, Dee because she is always talking about how proud she is of ‘her’ son and goes on and on about how he joined the armed services. Pat says Jon does not even like his stepmom (that made me kind of sad). I guess Dee has put a lot of crap on her myspace about she is a proud soldier mom and even wrote a blog about that kind of stuff. Yeah, that would annoy me too. Even though I am a stepmom, I think you should be careful about claiming another woman’s child as yours. I do think that Dee crossed the line at putting all that kind of stuff up on her myspace. I guess I feel that, even if she considers Jon as her own and is very proud of him, out of respect for Pat she should tone it down a bit. Another thing that bugged me about Dee is I guess she told Pat one time that she should get Jon and his sister on Mother’s Day sometimes because she was their mother too. When Pat told me that I was like, “UM, NO! You are the mother and your kids should be with you on Mother’s Day, at least until they are 18 or so. Dee needs to back off and realize that and respect that.” I mean, geez, the nerve of her. I would never expect my stepson to spend Mother’s Day with me. He should be with his mother. Sure it is nice to be recognized on that day for your efforts as a stepmom but I don’t think it should be expected or seen as an absolute right. Well I basically told Pat not to sweat it – stop going over and looking at Dee’s myspace if it bugs her that much. Pat knows the truth and Jon knows the truth so why should all this nonsense bother her?

 

This is kind of a conflict for me, to tell the truth. I can see both sides. In my opinion, and this may be a little harsh, Pat as a woman who left her husband (he was abusive) and kids (she didn’t want to uproot them from their home and school) for another man, should been prepared for the possibility that there would be another woman, another mother figure in her kid’s lives. It is hard, I know. Especially when all parties involved can’t get along with each other. (Well to me it seems they get along better than most – I guess that took some time though. Both sets of parents did co-host Jon’s graduation party. That one intrigued me, after listening to all the bad stuff that has gone on between the Pat and her ex-husband.) But like I said in the above paragraph, stepmoms should be careful about claiming their stepkids as their own. That too is hard, because you don’t want your stepkid to feel unloved or not part of the family. I suggested that to Pat, that maybe Dee claimed Jon as her own because she was just used to trying to make him feel like part of the family- that she doesn’t distinguish between her own son and her husband’s (Pat’s) kids. Pat wasn’t having it. What more can be done? Pat is not an insecure person so I all I can do is tell her that as long as she and Jon and all those that care about her know what is up – know the truth, then that is all that matters. I mean Jon has already told his mother that he does not even really like his stepmom (I kind of feel bad for Dee but she has done her share of mean things to Pat). Let the stepmom make a fool of herself over a kid that could really care less about her.

 

Another thing, how likely is it that Dee is just putting stuff all over her Myspace to A)make herself look good, or B)is insecure about her relationship with Jon and wants to try to get closer to her stepson, or C) knows that what she has on her myspace really bugs Pat so she goes overboard with it, just to push Pat's buttons (there are people like that)? I told Pat that Dee may just be trying to annoy her. Pat is thinking about that one, but overall she is just annoyed. I guess I did all I could do - just lend an ear and offer my perspective.

 

Oh boy, this is a topic near and dear to my heart. I have a lot to say about being a stepmother, as well as a lot to learn about the topic and how we all cope – both parents and stepparents – within blended families.

 

Step-parenting is a subject that has many sides and viewpoints, many, many stories and experiences. It is safe to say it is a complex topic with many different issues and sides. I have made kind of a study of the topic since I am a stepmother and I plan on going into psychology and will more than likely have to deal with these issues quite a bit. I will have to do more writing on this.

 

 

Pictures

I am starting to go through all my pictures I have laying around the house. I need to put them in albums and frame some too. I also want to scan them and put them on discs. I want to get organized, bigtime! So while I was doing my pics I thought I should organize my husband's pictures too. I was looking around for them and could not find them. Come to find out he had stuck them in the garage rafters! Yikes! Not a good place for pictures - it gets extremely hot and then extremely cold in there. The pics could have been ruined. I rescued them though, thank goodness. There were old pictures of his parents (both are deceased now) in there as well as his son's baby book. Men are such dorks about stuff like that. Of course I have pictures everywhere (a lot of which were taken before I had a digital camera - need to presereve those), which may get lost, etc. So I guess we are both pretty bad.  AND I still haven't ordered any wedding pics! I need to get to it. Our walls are looking bare.

 

So that is what I have been doing lately. Trying to get everything organized. I have a lot of work to do.

More about liars....

I was watching the news program,"Primetime: Family Secrets" last night (I had also seen another show about this guy) about Neil Entwhistle, the guy who was concvicted of killing his wife and baby daughter in Massachusettes. It is just horrible. In my opinion, it boils down to him being ashamed of who he was and being a liar. He couldn't accept who he was, what he could achieve and not achieve at that point in his life so he lied to make himself into what he thought was a better person. He lied about his finances, bought a big house for his wife and baby and then all his lies began to crash down around him. Entwhistle could not admit to his wife that he did not have any money and that his finances had been a lie so he killed her and his baby. Craziness. It is a definite case of lies and liar going out of control and ruining the lives of people around him, all because the liar was not strong enough to accept themselves for who they were, was not strong enough to make a better life through honest means (and I am talking emotionally, psychologically here). He also shows a lack of conscience. There are too many people like this guy out there, although many do not go so far as murder, their lies do affect people and relationships. SCARY!

Liars Perplex Me

Why are some people such liars? Why are they afraid of the truth? Is the truth so awful or their life so awful that to lie about things is better for them to stomach? Doesn't their conscience bother them? I know people lie to get away with stuff or to not hurt someone elses feelings but some people lie about anything and everything for no good reason. Well I guess they think it makes them look better, or they are trying to hide who they really are. I can't help to think that it ultimately hurts them inside and may hurt the people they love. Also, most of the time the people they are trying to fool the most are on to them, or they have already broken their trust.

 

I am not saying that I have never told a lie. I am not saying that it is always better to tell the truth (most of the time I believe it is). I can see telling a lie if you want to spare someone's feelings, but to tell lie after lie about little things or big things, or to try to hurt someone with a lie is plain wrong. It shows a decided lack of maturity in an adult and may point to a lack of conscience too. Truly, an adult that consistently lies is a messed up person. I wish they could/would put all that energy used to tell lies into becoming a better person.

 

So all that being said, yes, I am perplexed by liars. I wonder what can be done to help adults that lie, lie, lie? What treatment is best? Throw their lies up in their face? Point out every known instance of a lie and ask them why? Point out their good qualities and have them focus on that, or help them develop some good qualities? Hhhmmmmmm.

 

I also wonder about how the people around a liar are affected? What if the liar is a parent - how does it affect the kids? Do the kids learn to see lying as proper behavior? Do they grow up to be liars themselves?

 

Misc. Stuff I have been thinking about...

Check out the pictures of my nephews I put up. Aren't they cute? It was my youngest newphews 1st birthday Saturday, but we celebrated it on Sunday. I got some awesome pics of the kids playing. The tall, skinny kid is my stepson. My 2 oldest newphews really look up to him. I was proud of my stepson Sunday because he played so well with the little ones (well the 2 oldest, they are 2 and 4). He played balloons and pushed them around in their little cars. I appreciate that and I know the kids love it. I know he would have rather been hanging out with his cousin. I think he ended up having some fun.

 

 

Skinny Boy

 

My stepson is so tall and skinny. We feed him, we really do! Some family members accuse us and/or his mother of not feeding him. I tell them that we feed him and I am sure his mother does too. I am always asking him if he ate or if he got enough to eat. He eats - he can really throw down. Lately we have to tell him to slow down while he is eating.

 

My husband and I were shopping for pants for him last week. We couldn't find his size at all. All the pants were too big in the waist or too short. We finally had to get pants a size bigger in the waist and a size smaller length wise than what he had asked for. Luckily the pants fit. I am sure he will grow out of them very soon. I told my stepson "Damn, I wish I would grow - taller ... not fatter. You know, this way not that way." We were laughing.

 

 

Work

 

Monday ended up being a good day at work. The day went by fast, hahaha.  There was a new guy Monday. I got to talking to him. His name is Robert and he is going to school for Psychology too. He went to Mott and had Dr. McCain for a professor. She is our favorite prof. He is going to Rochester College now, which is at Mott. He still gets to see Dr. McCain. I almost wish I would have chosen Rochester College too. The new guy told me "I was hoping I would meet someone who is in school for psych" so he did and now we are happy to be friends. We can exchange ideas and job/opportunity info. He has a Myspace. I love his space - he has nice pics. I already emailed him with some info I had, and he emailed me back. He said if I don't do psychology I could be a photographer. I love compliments!

 

Robert was recently laid off from his job as an intake worker for drug rehabillitation/working with the courts. He was lucky enough to be working in the field already but his old company was under bid for the contract of the work he was doing. So now he is stuck at McD's until somthing better comes along. Robert told me it was hard putting on the McD uniform that morning, but he is thankful to have a job. I know how he feels. He has 3 kids and just bought a new house too.  I am scared and sad for him. I hope he can find something else. I hope I can find something else. I have a few prospects but I still have not started to job search in earnest yet. I think I may just look for a part time waitressing job because school is going to start soon. I don't really want to work full time and either try to struggle through school (FT or part time) or put it off for 6 months to a year. Only if the two really good full time jobs I applied for pan out. Then I might be tempted. I will have to see what happens within the next month.

 

I drove a co-worker, Sara, home after work. She is a really sweet girl. She is 19, I think, and has one son. She dropped out of school and does not even have her drivers license yet. She has just been busy with her son and trying to work. She lives with her boyfriend and his family just around the block from me. I told her she should definitely get her GED and go on to college. I hope she does. On our way home, we were talking about the new guy and college. She says she wants to go to college and help/counsel young kids. I hope she chases that dream. It makes me sad to see/hear about  people dropping out of highschool. It is like you need a college degree to do anything anymore.

 

So I drove around my block when I took Sara home. I have never been around the block!  It is a farm block (not sure of the proper term) so it is 4 miles. I was thinking I should start walking around the block everyday. It looks like a pretty walk and I might lose some weight. I need to get in shape for that 17 mile hike and I would like to try to do the bridge walk this Labor Day too. I will have to start. Better get to it.

 

http://www.mackinacbridge.org/annual-bridge-walk-7/

Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes

A friend gave me kudos over on Mspace for hiking 7 miles. She recently went to Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes and had trouble getting up the first huge hill. It reminded me of another hike I took long ago. I wish I had pics to share but I don't have them scanned into my computer and my scanner is acting crazy right now.

 

Almost 10 years ago, when my husband and I first started dating, we went to Sleeping Bear. My Stepson was 5. It was hard for me to get up the first hill but I made it. It was easy for the youngster and he had a blast, of course. Well, we decide to take the dune hike to Lake Michigan. That was a big mistake. It was only supposed to be something like a mile and a half - we thought we could do it, no problem. Um, no. It was 1 and a half miles of walking up and down sandy hills (Duh! Dunes, hahaha). We ran out of water real quick. Half the the trail markers were missing or buried. Halway to the lake we could hear the waves crashing, so we kept thinking we were close - just have to get over the next hill. NO, hills came and went and no Lake. Finally we made it. Finally. We were so thirsty we drank the Lake water. Then we noticed storm clouds over the Lake. Uh oh, better get back. Halway back, we were sorta lost and being pelted by hard rain -not to mention being scared by the lightning and loud, crashing thunder. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the sand getting getting in our eyes and stinging our skin from the wind the storm whipped up. My poor stepson had had enough; he was like "Carry me!" We were like "Who's going carry us?" hahahaha. But we made it back and lived to tell the tale. That was the last time I climbed the first big hill. We have been back since, but I am content to watch the kids climb it and roll down.

 

Click on the link for more info about Sleeping Bear. (beautiful pics)

http://www.sleepingbeardunes.com/

Long Hike

Oh - my - goodness! I went on a long hike today! Over 7 miles! My Aunts and Uncles (Dad's siblings, my dad has 2 sisters and 4 brothers) had been talking about going on a hike at the Pinckney Recreation Area (in MI). It is not too far from where I live - kind of half way between where my parents and I live and the rest of my family lives (Detroit area). So today was determined to be the day. We got up at about 5:30 am so we could meet up with everybody at the Recreation area around 7am. We get there and the park is closed - we have to wait an hour to get hiking! hahaha, I guess that is the Polish coming out in my family.

 

My Aunts and Uncles and Dad are all so silly! I love them to death. They are fun people. On the hike was me, my husband, my stepson, my Dad, and 2 of my Dad's brothers and 2 of my Dad's sisters - none of their families could make it. Originally we were only supposed to hike a little over 5 miles. My Dad kept asking me if I could do it. Of course I can hike 5 miles! But then they decided to add another trail, so it ended up being 7 miles (maybe a little more). I brought up the rear - I like to walk slow and take in nature and also take pics. I am very out of shape too. My Uncles kept asking me if I was OK, how was I feeling... I kept telling them I am fine - I am fat, out of shape, and slow, but I can do this! Hahaha They all walk too fast and talk about a mile a minute too. My stepson led the hikers - he is a tall, skinny thing. I am jealous of him.  It was a good hike. Fun was had by all. I made it, although I was getting ready to quit the last mile.  We want to do it more often. I guess I will have to start training.My Uncle Timmy said that next time he wants me to lead the hikers. LOL Actually, they are talking about doing the 17 mile hike that is in that park. It is supposed to take 2 days but they want to try to do it in one! I laughed at that one. Uncle Timmy said we might have to run in places and Aunt Connie said we couldn't stop to smell the roses. I don't know about that one. I like to hike, but for me it is more about being in nature and taking pics then the walking/exercise. I will have to see what happens.

 

My husband read my blog and he said I had to ammend it to tell you all how evil the bugs were. They were really bad. There were huge horseflies, yucky deerflies and mosquitos, of course. You had to keep moving or a million would swarm on you. I even had some flies try to fly in my mouth. I don't know how the others could talk so much! The back of my husbands neck must have 100 bites. That was the downside of the hike, that and the fact that we couldn't walk the evening after.  Gotta' love nature.

 

 I added my favorite pictures in this blog but all that I took that day are uploaded into an album on this space.

People

People are many things. There are a lot of good people in the world; there are a lot of bad people in the world. There are a lot of people that are somewhere in the middle. People are conflicted. I have known some good, some bad and for certain some conflicted people. At times I am conflicted. Whatever people are, good, bad, problematic, people interest me. Their thoughts, their ideas, their stories; why they do the things they do - I am always curious. I am a big time people watcher.

 

 I like to think I am a good judge of people. I seem to have always had a sense about what a person is all about as soon as I meet them. It may be I am a little psychic; I know I am certainly very sensitive and perceptive. Not to say I always catch everything. No one is infallible. I guess this is why I have always had an interest in psychology. I want to write about some of the things I believe to be true about people. I hope I may not come off as highly critical. I can be very critical. I try to temper this with kindness and understanding. I don’t always succeed with this as quickly as I should. Know that I often turn my critical lens on myself too. I would like to write more about people - their behaviors, their ways of thinking, what I perceive in some people and my experiences in dealing with people. I guess I would like to write about what we call ‘human nature’.

Writing/Blogging

I love writing! I want to write. I want to blog. I have a ton of things I want to write about but I know shouldn't really sit here all day and write. I am trying to clean and organize my house. I still have a ton off junk I need to move over from my parents house. I see a huge garage sale in my future. So anyway......Everything I need to do is pulling me away from being creative though. It sucks. Plus, with everything that I need to do pulling me away; I am scatterbrained. Other times I am really tired. Like the other night. I really felt like writing, ideas were bopping around my brain and I was feeling majorly creative but it was late and I was soooo exhausted. Then when I have the time to sit down and write, the ideas and thoughts don't come to me that easily. It is really frustrating. I do need to practice my writing to get ready for the new school year. I want to be so good at putting my thoughts to paper in a quick and concise way that I won't get stressed out when I have to write a paper for school. That is my goal, so I really must try to write everyday. I also should try to get away from writing just all about me. Hehe. There are some topics that concern me and that I am interested in that I can write about. Of course I would have to add my own experiences though. Well, they always say "Write what you know."

 

I want to take a creative writing class. One day it is my hope to write a novel. I have many, many story ideas floating around in my brain that I would like to write out. My novel (if I ever write it, hahah) may be garbage but this what I have always wanted to do. I just have lacked the time, energy and discipline to sit down and write. Now it seems I am trying to acquire the discipline to sit down and write. Keeping a blog has helped me with my writing tremendously, and it is getting me fired up for more writing. So I guess I better get back to getting my house in order so I can write more later.

This Week-End Past

I didn't go anywhere or do anything superty-duperty special this holiday week-end. We didn't go out of town. It was a good week-end though. My husband and I just spent some quality time together, which was nice. We did go see some fireworks with family. We putzed around the house - oh and we visited the new home superstore (Menards) that opened in our area, planning our next home improvement projects. I am looking at getting a new chandelier for our dining room. We want to put up some fencing in our backyard (just by our patio, to block the western sun and wind) and we (or I should say my husband) are going to build a built-in shelving unit in our living room to house all my books and knick-knacks. I can't wait for that to be done. I have a lot of books (my mini library- once the bookshelves are up, the living room will become the library  ) and a lot of pretty junk I want to display (not to mention pictures).

 

Sunday, my husband and I went over to my parents and spent some time in the pool. All my nephews were in the pool when we got there. I have 3 nephews - Kenny is 4, Alex is 2, and Brent is 1. My nephew Kenny, was swimming all around the pool with just his life jacket. Last year he would just hold onto the ladder or the sides of the pool. He was too scared to go to the middle. When we got there today he said "Uncle Chuck, Aunt Jackie, look at me! I am swimming in the pool like a big boy." He is so cute - well all my nephews are. I can't believe I have 3. I don't know how my sister-in-law does it - with 3 little ones. It is a lot of work. My brother is not the best at helping out. My parents help out tremendously.

 

I want to write this down before I forget. I was thinking about it today, swimming in the pool with my nephew. Last year by the pool, Kenny paid me the highest compliment. He said, out of the blue "Aunt Jackie, you swim like a mermaid." How sweet. His mom didn't think he knew that word. I love to swim and when I was a girl I always wanted to be a mermaid. I don't want to forget that lovely compliment.

Night People

Aaaaaaah! It is so nice to be able to stay up late for a change. I hate going to bed early, thus I hate getting up early in the morning. I love night time. I am a night person. I seem to get energized after 9pm. It is nice and quiet and cool at night. Maybe I should be a vampire, hehehe. I have always been a night person too. I remember, when I was a girl, reading under the covers when I was supposed to be sleeping; or listening to the radio on my headphones (that is where I discovered a lot of the classical and jazz music I like - listening to public radio at night). Why does everything in society have to be built around getting up in the morning and doing things during the day? We aren't all farmers anymore. Some people just do better at night. Any other night people out there?

Mini-Vacation

Yes! I am off work for 5 days! Wahoo! I want to go up north (to Northern MI - Manistee area is nice) but I should stay home and clean the house. I have a ton of stuff I need to do and I can enjoy my pool and spend some time with my nephews. Maybe I'll blog a lot. My writing can always use practice and there has been a bunch of stuff I have been wanting to write about but I haven't had the time or the energy to do justice to the subject matter.

 

It is just nice to get away from work for a while, hehe. I don't bring work home with me but it does suck when I am there, hahaha. Naw, it is not too bad. The money isn't bad either. Better than I thought it would be. The worst part about it is the work wears me out. I have been so tired - and my feet really kill me. 

 

I should start my job search in earnest - I haven't really yet. I have a few other job prospects that I am a little excited about (the money - a lot more $$) but really I just want to get past the summer and get back in school. I can't wait to start school again. The only bad thing is - if I get one of the jobs I put in for I won't be able to go back to school full time next fall. That is going to make me sad. I am torn. It would be nice to work full time for a year, save a bunch of money so I don't have to finance so much of my education, but I really don't want to put off going to school for any length of time. Argh! Decisions, decsions. Well, maybe my decision will be made for me, maybe I won't be offered the jobs.

Good Quote

"There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer." Ansel Adams

I love taking what I call scenery pictures. I take a lot of pics of trees, flowers, water, etc. I don't photograph people too often. I really like the above quote by Ansel Adams. It sums up the majority of my photography. Nature - the colors, the shadows and light, intrigues me. I really identify with what he is saying. To me he is basically saying you don't need people in a picture for it to convey meaning and emotion. The picture is interesting because of the beauty of the scene (or lack of beauty) but also because of the way the photographer chose to photograph it and because of what people feel when they view the picture - what meaning they ascribe it.