Crazy Fun Road Trip!

Hey y'all!!  Ready for a road trip to Dallas?

Last weekend, my friend Sharisse got married in Dallas. I had been looking forward to this trip for about a year -- well, actually I've been looking forward to it since the moment Sharisse called to tell me she and Preston got engaged. So anyway, I brought my friend, Kristin, along for the ride.  Here we are at 7 o'clock Friday morning, ready to start our journey.

Kristin's dad planned some fun roadside attractions for us along the way.  First up, a gigantic paper cup in Springfield, Missouri!  Now I have to admit, I was a little disappointed by the cup.  First of all, it's not paper - so me being my literal self - I think the name was misleading. Secondly, there was no where to park, so I had to just pull to the side of the road.  Right when we got out of the car for pictures, it started to rain! If it hadn't been raining, I probably would have made my way up closer to the cup...it is apparently the entrance to the building.

Next up,(still in Springfield) the world's largest fork!

Notice how I'm following the rules, but still leaning against the fork and having fun? Yeah, that's talent right there.

A McDonalds over the highway.

Some Native American statue...apparently it was on the list, but I just snapped a shot as we drove by it.

Muskogee, Oklahoma!

Home of the first girl scout?  Personally, I thought the statue was a bit creepy looking - something about her eyes...

Train in the middle of nowhere.

Hey, let's get a pic of the two of us!

Yea, maybe we should've made sure the camera was zoomed out first.

That's better.

Ok, time for the world's largest peanut!  I think this was in Durant, Oklahoma.  So we were taking pictures by the peanut, which by the way didn't seem like much of an attraction, and some creepy guys in a car drove up and took a picture of us...so weird. Needless to say, we didn't stay long at the peanut.

This sign would've said, Welcome to Texas, if I had been able to get a good picture of it.  I was getting pretty frustrated with my point and shoot camera at this point. The delay time is just too long. If I had had my SLR, I would've gotten a great pic, I just know it.

This was on the other side of the road right after the Texas sign...

Finally made it to the hotel!

On Saturday, Kristin introduced me to this amazing store called Ikea. Now, I've heard of this store before, but I've never been in one.  New. Favorite. Store. I got a lazy susan, because seriously, who wouldn't want a lazy susan?  I also got a wooden salad bowl and this antique looking clock.  Oh and a light.  I really wanted to get this canvas painting, but Kristin talked me out of it.  I wish I would've gotten it.  My cousin told me there is an Ikea close to his house in Illinois...I might have to plan a trip to Chicago this summer!

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90167590

This was taken before we entered the store.  Did you know you can eat breakfast there? Crazy...

After Ikea, we went to the galleria and the coach outlet store.  Then back to the hotel to rest before the wedding.

The Bella Donna Wedding Chapel that Sharisse chose was the cutest little chapel.  It sat about 150 people and was gorgeous. When/if I get married some day, I'd like to get married in a chapel like that. (My dad already told me I can't get married in a castle in Ireland).  This photo was taken after the ceremony.  (I didn't get any photos of the inside, you'll just have to take my word on it's beauty.)  I really liked this sign and how it's set in front of the chapel, but I wasn't thrilled with the water tower thingy, so I had Kristin stand in front of it.  I didn't feel like photoshopping it out...

I tried to wait for people to leave and get out of my shot, but realized that wasn't going to happen, so I just took the shot and we left.

I don't think this really requires a caption...it was very windy and very sunny...

The name of this tower is eluding me at the moment.

So I didn't get any photos at the reception (sorry Emily!). But it was great, like I knew it would be. Sharisse sat us at a table with some really cool people. They reminded me of a mix between my high school and college friends. Anyway, they actually got me to dance, and what's more incredible, they got me to have fun dancing. Anybody who knows me knows that I am extremely self-concious about my lack of rhythm and moves on the dance floor. They taught me some moves and ignored my timing issues.  We hung out for a little while after the wedding, and I had a good time (don't think Kristin did though).  

Sunday was rough. With only 3-4 hours of sleep and feeling slightly hung over (don't judge me, I only had 2 glasses of wine, I'm just that much of a light weight), a 10 hour car ride did not sound appealing. Kristin was really cool about it though and drove a good portion of the way. I felt bad because she didn't get a lot of sleep either. I'll have to make it up to her somehow...

I had to get a picture of the highway sign.  We had a lot of good times on highway 69...haha

Kristin had never heard of this gas station before! She was a little afraid of what the bathrooms would look like...

I love random signs.

Some people play the license plate game, Kristin and I identified roadkill.  It started out as a joke on the way to Texas.  You see, my sister has this odd habbit of noticing roadkill and telling us what it was.  So Kristin and I were texting her what we saw...and finally decided just to keep a running tally.  We also counted Baptist churches. 

Stacy's Wedding

Ok, this post is mostly for my friend, Emily.  Emily, I took most of these photos for you to help give you ideas for your wedding next year.  

This is a picture of me, just because.  

(not a good photo day for me)

I stayed at Carlie's for the weekend, so I brought her as my 'date.'

I didn't get any pictures of the ceremony.  I really didn't want to be one of those people who thinks they're going to get a great shot with their dinky point and shoot camera when in reality they just get in the way of the real photographer. Wow, that sounded harsh...let me revise that statement. I wanted to sit and enjoy the wedding. This was the first wedding in a long time that I was a guest and not a photographer.

Carlie and I were at a table with some really fun people.  The food was amazing!! Take note Emily because you know it's not very often that I rave about food. The hors d'oeuvres were my favorite part.  BBQ Meatballs, goat cheese & dill puffs, and assorted quiche.  My only problem was there wasn't enough of them!  The salad was good.  The dinner was good but a lot, I had the chicken and steak...um yeah..too much for me, so I ate the chicken.  I didn't have room for the cake that night, but the waiter gave me a take-home box, so I ate it the next day...it was decent.  I ate the ice cream, though I wasn't hungry, but you know me...can't pass up ice cream.  I saved the menu for you, Emily.  Since it was in Illinois, I doubt you can find the same caterers, but might give you some good ideas.

I also saved the table stuff for you.  Ok, picture time.

I thought this ice sculpture was pretty.

The cake topper was adorable.

I'm pretty sure the table numbers were on love birds...I'll have to confirm that with Stacy though.

Here's a photo of what the tables looked like.

gotta get a little artsy with it

Here's a photo of me and Stacy.  Look at her, not me.  She looked amazing that day! Me on the other hand...for some reason my camera did not like me that day.

Well, that's it for Stacy's wedding.  Sorry, I was too busy dancing (Carlie had to drag me onto the dance floor) to take a lot of pictures...

Work, work, work

It's recently been brought to my attention that people (cough-cough-Matt Cafferata), have been complaining about my lack of postings lately.  I'm sorry, this summer is flying by and I've been so busy I didn't even realize it's been a couple months since I've last posted!  I haven't been out shooting for fun lately - just lots of photos and video for work.  In a little bit, I'm going to post about the two weddings I went to in June.  They were both out of town, and I didn't feel like bringing the nice camera, so the images you'll see will be from the point and shoot.  I know, I know...I need to plan a trip to the zoo or Botanical Gardens ASAP.  So I'll get to those, but right now I want to share with you some videos I made for work.


The first is a video of Jeremy Simonds.  It's really a combination of photos, audio and music.  It's a day in the life video, like the ones of Sue and Sharon.  Jeremy is a maintenance man at St. Anthony's, and I gotta tell ya, if I ever need anything fixed, he's the guy I'd call (well, if my dad wasn't available).  But seriously, Jeremy is a really nice guy and I think the project turned out well.  It's on St. Anthony's website now, but I'm pretty sure it's moving to the front page tomorrow, so that's exciting.  I'm posting the video to the blog, but it's small, so here's the link to the video on our YouTube channel:


http://www.youtube.com/SAMCstl#p/u/1/X_9OgJp7o_Y

The next video I want to share is about the Fern & Ruessell F. de Greeff Hospice House.  It's a little on the long side, about 6 1/2 minutes, but I think the interviews are really compelling.  (If you watch it, keep in mind that I shot it using a flipcam, so the sound isn't as good as I'd like.)  Listening to these people who had a loved one stay at this place during their last days made me wish that we would've had a place to go for that kind of support when my grandpa was on hospice last year.

http://www.youtube.com/SAMCstl#p/u/0/33NSFwvH20U

SAMC videos

As many of you may know… or should know if you read me blog semi-regularly or talk to me ever… I have a freelance gig at St. Anthony’s Medical Center.  I’ve spent the past couple of months working on this big project called “A Day in the Life.”  First I suppose I should explain the project. 

“A Day in the Life” is going to be a series of stories about the ‘unseens’ of St. Anthony’s told through photos and video.  There is a “Get it Done” gallery on the first floor of the hospital (across from the ATMs) that is a series of 3 frames that are each 36x24 inches.  The plan is to do the stories on the ‘unseens’ (lab workers, pastoral care, building engineering, housekeeping, etc.) and update the gallery with photos.  Ideally the photos in the gallery will be switched out every few months.  In addition to the gallery, I’m doing video to post to St. Anthony’s website.

When I first started this project, I sent e-mails to several departments and the first to respond was the laboratory.  I soon got in contact with two amazing women who work in the lab on the second shift (3-11p.m.).  While they may work on the same shift, they’re jobs are completely different.  I think they were both excited about my project because as they mentioned, they’re not well known because they don’t interact one on one with patients.  People don’t realize how important their jobs are.  The laboratory is a fast paced environment full of medical/scientific jargon that often went over my head.  They receive specimens from the hospital, doctors’ offices, urgent cares and the ER.  With that many people relying on them, there is no time for delays.

Sue is a team lead in the Core Lab (yes, there are different labs within the lab).  She is a generalist, which means she knows how to operate and fix all of the analyzers.  She basically knows how to do everyone's job and gives them breaks for lunches.  It’s obvious that Sue loves her job.  She says she learns something new everyday.  There are a lot of analyzers in the Core Lab.  After weeks of following Sue around, I’m still not sure what they’re all called let alone what they do.  In the video I made, Sue explains the analyzers.  It’s kind of comical…when I first showed her the video, she thought the close-up of the analyzer working was ‘cute.’  Some of the analyzers are used for parathyroid testing, hematology, and urinology.  Sue also did flu testing while I was there.  Watch the video. (I'll post a link at the end of this post)

Sharon works in the Microbiology Lab.  She works with almost every body fluid imaginable.  While I was there one day, she was testing feces…let’s just say I was glad my nose was stuffy that day and even then I held my breath a lot… I think Sharon’s job is fascinating.  Sure half the time…who am I kidding, most of them time, I didn’t understand exactly what she was doing, but it’s interesting.  I saw her work with the afore mentioned feces, tissue, bone, lung fluid, etc.  She mainly does setups and positive blood samples.  I enjoyed watching the setups… I think because there was a rhythm to it and I knew if I missed my shot another would come again soon.  She explained to me that her job is to look for infections, determine what the infection is, and then decide the best way to fight the infection.  So in the setups (I think that’s this part) she adds stuff to help the infection (if there is an infection) grow and uses a rod thingy (not the technical term) to spread out the specimen so the colonies (of the infection) will grow.  Then the dishes (again, not the technical term) are placed in an environment similar to the human body to grow.  She explains this better in the video; I really recommend watching the video.    

If you have 8 minutes to spare, go to this link: http://www.stanthonysmedcenter.com/news/video.asp  and watch A Day in the lab with Sue Munton and A Day in the lab with Sharon Duessel.  That's right, there are 2 videos about 4 minutes each.  While 8 minutes may seem like a long time, I promise you, they're interesting (at least to me and probably those in the medical field) and you'll learn a lot... especially to appreciate the lab workers! 

A special thanks to Sue and Sharon, they were great subjects for my first major photo/video endeavor at St. Anthony's.

Opening Day / Buying a Car

Opening Day this year was on Thursday, March 31.  One of my co-workers had extra tickets she was trying to get rid of, so I asked my sister and Kristin if they wanted to go.  This was my first Opening Day, so I was very excited.  We didn't get to see all the pre-game festivities, which was kind of a bummer, but we got to see the first pitch.  We were winning for most of the game...until the 9th inning when we gave up a home-run which tied the game and then made errors and couldn't hit to save our lives in the following innings.  Even though we lost 5 to 3, it was still a fun game and I'm glad I went.  Here is a photo of Kristin and I towards the beginning of the game.  (not the greatest angle, but we only took 2 photos and in the other one, only half of my face was in the frame...)

Saturday, April 2 was a monumental day in my life.  I bought my first car! As many of you know, I've been driving the Toyota Corolla since I could drive.  It's a good car and served it's purpose well, but at 11 years old and over 100,000 miles, it has been showing it's age...burning up more oil, literally falling apart in places, and I think there is something wrong with the transmission... Anyways, I've been thinking about buying a new car for quite some time.  It's something I wanted to do before I moved out of my parents house.

Back in 2009, I drove a Ford Focus (with Justin) to Washington D.C.  I really liked that car and especially liked the cruise control.  So that was one of the cars I had in mind when we went test driving.  My dad suggested Enterprise because they sell good pre-owned cars for reasonable prices.  While I would have liked a brand new car, I decided a pre-owned car was more affordable at this time in my life.


So yesterday we went to Enterprise to see what they had on their lot.  I test drove a Ford Focus (they only had a silver one with beige interior on their lot).  I liked the features and how it drove, but wasn't in love with the color (or the sticky steering wheel).  Then I test drove a Chevy Cobalt.  I really liked the feel of that car, but it didn't have cruise control -- which is something I really want since I have several road trips planned this year.  Then I test drove another car, which I liked, but the price was a little more than I wanted to pay.


I told the salesman, Jim, that I really liked the Ford Focus, but didn't like it in the silver.  We went into his office and he looked to see if another lot had the blue my heart desired.  I was in luck!  The south city location had a blue '09 Ford Focus on it's lot.  We drove down there and picked it up and I test drove it back to the lot on Lindbergh.  Jim then let me test drive it to my house to pick up my mom (and the checkbook).  It's kind of ironic that I first discovered the Ford Focus in 2009 and then ended up buying a 2009 Ford Focus SES.  


I love it!  Sure there are a few scratches (but if you've seen my Corolla, you know that scratches don't bother me that much).  It has everything I wanted in a car...it runs, has powered locks and windows, cruise control, cup holders, nice size trunk, and the driver's seat can be adjusted higher so I can actually see over the whole steering wheel!  And it has some features I didn't need, but think they're pretty darn cool --the radio controls are on the steering wheel and it has a media sync... I can connect my phone to the car with bluetooth and if anyone calls me while I'm driving, I can just hit a button on the steering wheel and it's like talking on speaker phone.  I don't know how often I'll use this feature, but it's neat.


Here is a picture of me posing by my new car at the dealership!!!

So there you go...now I'm broke, but extremely happy with my new car :)

Gangsta

So my brother came in town this past weekend for a wedding. He has lost a lot of weight and his suit doesn't fit anymore so he wore a long sleeve shirt with a vest and an awesome hat that reminds me of the 1920s. (My dad called it a 'stupid' hat, but I think that's just because it was passed his bed time and he was mad we had to wait an hour at the airport because Joe's flight was delayed, a fact which Joe neglected to mention.)

Anyway, my mom wanted me to get a picture of Joe all dressed up. Here is the picture I printed for my Grandma's mantle.

And here is the photo I touched up for kicks. (I think this pose makes him look like a wannabe gangsta)

Botanical Garden in the winter

Yesterday I went to the Missouri Botanical Gardens.  I've been meaning to go for a while to get snow pis. So here they are:

This is my typical Ottoman Garden shot, but this time in the snow:

I call this one "Robin in Tree"

The Climatron

Iris Garden: this sign is about the only interesting thing in the garden during the winter

English Woodland Garden

Icicles above waterfall

Japanese Garden - yes, that is a pond under that snow

That is an island in the middle of the pond-- the name of the island escapes me at the moment-- it's only open to the public once a year during the Japanese festival.

Here you can tell it's a pond! Some of the ice has melted.

The ducks enjoy the ice

I have a picture of this fountain at this angle last spring.

Duck prints? Maybe geese?

When I got home, the sky by my house was pretty amazing. The blueness, the clouds, perfect.

Ice Day!

It's pretty icy and snowy out there today. I decided to go take a few pictures of the ice in my front and backyard. First up is a picture of my house in the snow. You can see ice building up on the mailbox (it was frozen shut! I guess no mail for us today!). Oh and I also took the address off the mailbox...can't take any chances.

Here is some grass stuff (no that's not the actual name of it). This one was actually in my neighbor's yard, but it's pretty close to my front yard.

Apparently there is a berry tree/bush? in our backyard... who knew? But the berries frozen in ice were pretty neat.

Even the tree branches are frozen.

The tiki torches on the back patio collected icicles.

Jerry's paw print...so adorable!

I went inside and a couple hours later (after my workout and shower) birds started landing on the trees outside. I was a little upset because my hair was wet and I didn't want to go back outside(the birds probably would have scattered at my presence anyway). So I opened the blinds in the office and snapped a few shots.