New Blog
Head over to: http://christrementozzi.tumblr.com/
This is where I am posting from these days.
I’m Not So Sure…
This is Kayla’s “I’m-not-so-sure-I’m-comfortable-with-you-and-your-camera-in-my-face” look.
And this is her “I’m over it” look. 
David didn’t have any problems warming up to me 😉
Here are a few more selects.
More to come…
San Fran (Finally!)
Kris and Becky invited us to accompany them to the bay area for a long weekend of site seeing and general shenanigans. And since we’ve never spent more and a night there, and we wanted to get Jordan on a plane before the big trip to Hawaii so she could know what to expect out of flying, I thought it would be fun.
We really had a packed trip and got the full San Fran city experience. Our hotel was literally in the middle of the city and so we traveled on the cable cars, the buses, the trains and the BART to get to our attractions…which all just so happened to be at the opposite corners of the city on the shores.
We went to Pier 39 & Fisherman Wharf, Took a boat tour to the Golden Gate and around Alcatraz, had cupcakes at Ghirardelli Square, toured the Aquarium of the Bay, checked out Lombard Street, the California Academy of Sciences (which has the Living Roof, the rain forest, and the planetarium), and the Exploritorium. Whew, that was a lot!
There was so much that happened I couldn’t possibly type it all out or remember it all. But the main stuff was that Jordan did great flying. You need to wear good walking shoes and expect to climb lots of hills. Public transportation is great, but expect to share your personal space. It’s always overcast. Kris and Becky need 18 pillows to get a good nights sleep (and our hotel only had 16, so they didn’t sleep well). Fun Becky ≠I’m on a boat (even if there are flippy floppies, T-pain and nautical themed pashmina afghans). Everything cool in SF closes at ~5pm. And two dollar signs($$) on yelp does not mean $100 for a couple but $11-$30 for one person including one drink, tax and tip.
Engagement Selects
I’m sure you have heard me say that we have the best wedding photographers in the world…here’s proof:
Where Does the Month Go
So what if it has been almost a month since my last post. I’ve been busy. And clearly I should be busy if I haven’t been blogging! What kind of person sits around with nothing to do and doesn’t use that time to write how interesting the wall is that they are starring at is in their blog?! Right?!?!
Anyways, I was looking back over my calendar and damn do I pack it in! Most people are in awe of other people, but right now I am in awe of myself. I am literally so amazed that I was staring at the wall in amazement, so then I decided to write this blog post.Keep your hands and feet inside the car at all times because heeeeerrrrrrrreeeee we go!
Engagement Photoshoot
We just got home from this. Literally, as in 2 hours ago and it was a BLAST! I love our photographers! They are so laid back and chill but super creative. I can’t wait to see their shots. We went up to the Encinitas area, to a old barn-y woods-y area they knew of. Actually the barn happened to be a church and there was the worship team inside practicing for the service that apparently happened later that night as we were doing our photoshoot close by. There was another couple on the site doing their engagement shoot too… we kinda kept making fun of them because they were shooting in these really uninteresting or typical places around the site. mix it up a bit right?!?! I feel like if we were to put our pics up against theirs, we’d win hands down. But I guess we will see. I told Rico I’d back him up if there was a photographer turf war pending…but they kept their distance 😉 Anyways, I don’t want to give to much away and I’ll probably keep most of the shots secret until the actual wedding, but involved were a field and sky, a stump, a barn, polaroids and polariod cameras, concrete, chalk and of course light. But here is a small visual snack for your hungry hungry eyeballs.
Ryan Prades
I helped him move into his new, awesome, amazing apartment last weekend. He needed someone with huge muscles and a bit of brains/know how (I know, 2 things that are hard to find in the right amounts in one individual) to help him with some moving conundrums…or just somebody with a power drill. Luckily, I have a power drill. But you should know that I had selfish ulterior motives for volunteering, though that didn’t stop me from teaching Ryan how to run cable under carpet or liquid nail a busted couch leg back together… 😉
The SERIES finale of LOST was the next day, and since Ryan has the HD 52″ real-er than life flat screen TV, I really wanted to close the past 6 years of utter bewilderment and frustration and getting one answer only to have it lead into 12 more obsession, using it to break in the new pad. And although I dozed in and out during the 2 hour recap and then the following 2.5 hour episode (dang comfy new carpet) I loved every second that my eyes were open. All the moving tuckered me out! That show is by far one of the best I’ve ever seen. If you disagree me, and Jordan will, you will be shunned. You’ve been warned.
Piano Recital
One of my seven loyal blog readers, Melody, asked Jordan and I to come be her photographers at the piano recital she was putting on for her students. I was excited and a little nervous about it as it was the first “event” that someone has asked me to photograph for them. Plus I always imagined music recitals being kinda stuffy and Grey Poupon-ish, which isn’t exactly the best conditions for loud shutters, bright flashes, blocking views or being up in pianist faces while they perform. It was at one of the kids beautiful homes in Cays off the strand in Coronado and the kids did great…even with me accidentally adding a little light show and bell accompaniment of my own during one of their performances. Here are a couple of my shots (Jordan is still working on her set). Mel I’ll have a disc for you this weekend.
Diamond Dash
Def: A text messaging scavenger hunt held in Balboa Park where the winner gets a $15k diamond ring put on by The Knot and other wedding vendors in San Diego.
We were “selected” by The Knot to participate, so how can you pass that up? Jordan and I literally ran all over Balboa Park, answering questions and solving puzzles. It was actually a lot of fun, and probably the most exercise we have both gotten in years (I guess diamonds motivate us). I was extremely impressed with my Fiancé when she made an “educated guess” as to how many times we could spell the word “diamond” using all the letters of a plaque attached to the Natural History Museum. There must have been at least a couple hundred letters in the plaque and I was looking at it like, “Dang! We’re done. Let’s go home.” And Jordan looks at me and whispers… “3”…right on the first try! And there were at least 20 other people who looked stumped and were there for a long time! That girl is a keeper I tell ya!
Anyways, we didn’t win. We ended up with a total of 137 points and we heard the winner had almost 300. But considering we were on foot, running from clue to clue, and the winners were on bikes (but not to mention their 2 kids were in toe) we felt pretty good about ourselves. Next year we are bringing our bikes and bringing home the ice!
Mothers Day
We were up in Vista and celebrating the woman who gave me life. Which turned into a huge wedding wine tasting event with the battle of the Cab’s. All the wines were placed in paper bags and numbered. My mother rated everything with a 5…good to know that mom doesn’t care what it tastes like, as long as it’s wine. Easy to please. I turned out to be the toughest scorer not rating anything over a 3, except for 1 which ended up being our winner that I rated a 4.
Turns out the competition was rigged though! The winner was a Merlot that was snuck into the mix. The Cab’s never had a chance.
Sarah brought over this green cake from some bakery by her new place. It was the most amazing cake I have every had. I can’t even tell you what was in it, but if you are walking down the street and see a green frosted cake…tell me cuz I’s be there in a second.
Back to the inevitable
Wedding planning is moving along. Save the Dates are the next priority to mail out…only waiting for a shot from the shoot today to drop into the layout.
We got our wedding bands and are both supper happy with the final product. Jordan’s came in without a hitch, after the first hitch of them canceling my order after them being stupid. It was being custom made to match her engagement ring and sporting another .25kt of diamonds. Mine on the other hand, had a few small hitches. It didn’t have the right finish on it (It had a powder finish when it was suppose to have a satin finish) and that finish was suppose to be on the sides of the ring as well, and it wasn’t…it was shinny. And everyone knows how I feel about shinny. Plus it was a half size to small. But they fixed everything in store and now my Jeff Cooper, 6mm, Palladium stain finish band is prefect. I love it. It was the only ring that I loved, and I looked at a ton. I feel like you should love your ring, you have to wear it for the rest of your life, you might as well, right?!
We met with a florist that we really like, secured Jordan’s friend Jarrod as our DJ, place our order for our cupcakes/wedding cake, Jordan picked her wedding dress and we finally came to a compromise on the bridesmaid dresses. 117 days to go! And I can’t wait!
LA on a Monday.
Last Monday I took a half day off from work and headed up to LA with Ryan to hear one of my favorite bands in the whole wide world play at the illustrious Hotel Café. And just in time to because I needed a break from work and all this wedding planning. Who are they? Sleeping at Last(.com)
SHAMELESS BAND PLUG
• I’ve written about them in my blog here & here.
• And they have a new music video here.
• And this is one of my all-time favorite music videos here.
• And they have an amazing album design artist here.
OK back to the day. We took off at noon-thirty and headed for Pizza Port in Solana Beach for lunch. It’s on the way and I have never been but have heard tons about the Pizza Place/Brewery. We tried 4 of their specialty brews before making our pint selection.
I ended up picking their porter, as that’s what I’m into at the moment. This one looked dark but tasted much lighter considering it’s a porter. The pizza was good too, stacked with fresh onions and chicken on our BBQ Chicken pie.
After we were done, we still had about 1.5 hours to kill. We decided to stop at Disneyland since we both have passes and we might as well use them. That’s the beauty of having passes. Scenario: You’re driving near Anaheim and have an urge to give Micky a jumping high-five…with said pass, no problem! High-five on the way!
We parked and made a B-line for the Tower of Terror (our favorite any-land ride)…Ryan downloaded the Disneyland App that tells you the line wait times, but not in enough time for us to get there and find a 40 minute wait (in the middle of a MONDAY?!?!). That was too long for us. Bye, bye tower…next time.
Then we remembered that every time we come, all the girls are too scared to get wet or it’s too cold overall and none of us want to get wet…ummm we have car time to dry off, Raging Rapids it is!
While in line I realized I was wearing a white t-shirt and contemplated the show I potentially was about to give Ryan… I’ll leave you with that image for a second.
We only got drizzled on overall and still had time for at least one more ride. The iPhone revealed 10 minute wait for the roller coaster, California Screaming…and we figured the fast coaster air would help us dry off. Well the app failed at that one…30 minutes later we just got on the ride and when it was over we had to take off for the car and get back on the highway.
I have never been to the Hotel Café before. And so you know, it is more small concert room / bar than hotel or café. But I have like tons of recordings from the place for people like John Mayer who set up secret midnight shows here to this day.
LA is pretty sketchy too. There are swanky establishments sharing walls with questionable ones on the blocks of Hollywood. To add to it, the Hotel Café doesn’t let you in the front door…you have to walk next to the building, down the ally and around the back where there is a big dude with a clipboard and a small velvet rope. Thankfully, Ryan had been before, but just to be on the safe side I let Ryan go in first 😉
Once inside it is super dark and you have to go through a couple more “waiting rooms” to get into the main room. Low and behold we made it, stage cram-filled with tons of instruments set right in front of us.
The band sounded great! And thank God because this is only the second time I’ve seen them. They live in Chicago and never make it out to Cali on tour. I found them, and the first time I saw them play, was as the first opener for a Switchfoot concert at Soma that Switchfoot videoed and released a DVD of…yes I have it, and yes you can see me crowd surfing in it ;).
I always want to put SAL’s music to my life. Meaning that if I was directing a movie of my life (and if you read Donald Millers new book, I am), I’d put their music as the soundtrack to my life and orchestrate moments just to compliment their songs. Really I would. They are so beautiful and the lyrics are blow away. I might even use a few tracks at the wedding. My favorite line is on their song Levels of Light: We are volcanoes, making new land, Transcending borders with seeds in our hands.
You know you have made it when LA gang members write “Danger” on your concert poster!
Planning Woes & Decision Blows
It has been brought to my attention that on countable occasions Jordan has published how she feels about marrying a designer, and alluded to it as “being hard work.” Reference here and here.
I’d like to reciprocate the sentiment by saying that marrying a NON-DESIGNER is barely effable. That’s right—effable.
You would think being a designer would qualify you for some slack, a vote of confidence or at least the benefit of the doubt when it comes to things that relate. Designers have vision, imagination, they see the big picture and are constantly building with color, texture, imagery and type to visually communicate and evoke emotional responses or some kind of action through their designs, regardless of the medium. We are always drawing inspiration from, and spend countless hours staying up to date on current trends encompassing art, fashion, film, music, architecture, design, culture and society as a whole.
So why is it that my illustrious bride-to-be labels me as being “hard to work with” concerning our efforts about planning our wedding?
Is it because when she speaks I listen and believe that what she says she means? Like when she says, “I love this dress,” and for me to agree after looking at all the options, only to hear her profusely recant and even deny her previous statement, rebuking the said dress all-together?! To which I respond saying; marrying a crazy person is hard work.
Is it because she forgets when we find and agree on a compromise? Like when she didn’t want to wear any type of heeled shoes for the wedding because she said she’d “sink” into the grass and I agreed and even urged her to find a cute pair of flats that would better suit the circumstances. To which she jumped repeatedly for joy yelling, “really! really! I’d LOVE that!” Only to completely forget our compromise conversation, ignore her self established wedding shoe criteria of no heels and go against my professed hatred for small heeled shoes by buying a pair of small heeled strappies—openly publishing on her blog that they, “wont sink FAR into the grass.” Plus they weren’t even close to the deep yellow color of our wedding. To which I respond saying; marrying Attention Deficit Disorder is hard work.
Is it because she isn’t use to someone telling her, her idea sucks? Like when she wanted to designate pastel blue, green and yellow as our wedding colors…so it looked like we were one hidden hard boiled egg short of an a 5 year olds Easter egg party. To which I respond saying; marrying the Easter Bunny is hard work.
Therefore if marrying a designer is hard work, then marrying a non-designer is damn near a midlife crises. But the truth of the matter is that love is hard work. And marrying love is even harder work. And if I have to endure the hard work of a midlife crisis to marry the love of my life…bring it. I LOVE that crazy, A.D.D., Easter Bunny of a girl, and will fight to get her the best things and experiences in life that I can design and provide for her. Even if I’m up against Ms. Non-Designer herself.
There is something you shoud know…
I’M ENGAGED!
And she didn’t make it very easy for me either! I mean for someone who reminded me daily that she was ready and wanting me to pop the question, she didn’t give me any space to plan and got sick 3 times in the week preceding forcing me to resort to plans B, C & ultimately D. Plus, she was convinced that I couldn’t pull it off without her finding out…CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!
(Oh and P.S., she is the love of my life.)
Judging by the look on her face I’d say: mission accomplished.
Here’s the full story:
I started with a diversion. I wanted her to know that I was serious and preparing to take our relationship to the next level without being so blatant as to get her thinking that this would happen at a time that she could guess. So I took advantage of circumstances that just so happen to arise, making it seem like what was happening was Jordan’s idea and then tried to seem nonchalant about it happening. For instance, I had no idea what kind of ring Jordan would like or what shape diamond she preferred…hell, she didn’t know either. So when she came over one day and started telling me about a coworkers recent engagement and that they were looking at the ring online at work, I asked her to pull it up. Which lead into a discussion about what she would like. We did some looking online and then I dropped it.
Maybe a week later we went to Fashion Valley Mall to catch a film. When we got out, it was pouring rain. I thought it would be a good idea for us to go to the bottom level and use the overhangs as cover. Boy was I wrong. The entire bottom level was flooded with 4″ of water. We waded through until we got to the next section where we could ascend the escalator and get back to the upper level. Well at the top of the escalator was Tiffany’s & Co. So I casually mentioned we should duck in to this store and get out of the rain. That started our ring shopping (and she didn’t even know were we at Tiffany’s).
We ended up doing a lot more looking online together that night and the next night made an appointment at Robbins Brother’s. We ended up finding the ring she fell in love with that night. But I didn’t buy it then. It took me another few weeks or so for them to find me the diamond I wanted and set it in the ring. She ended up choosing a 14K white gold ring with 8 channel set round diamonds in the band (.28pt tw). I chose a square ratio, excellent cushion cut, .40pt center stone with an SI1 clarity and (this is the cool part) a D color rating.
Let me explain the “D” rating real fast (as I love specs, and nobody cares to ask and let me tell them about it!) Every diamond is rated on a color scale from Z to D. The closer you are to Z, the more yellow the diamond is. And the closer you are to D, the less yellow is in the diamond. Actually, D means it is completely colorless, clear or “ice” are the terms used. It is the highest color rating that a diamond can get. This diamond is a D. Pretty cool right?!
Anyways, I didn’t want to start any actual proposal planning until I had the hardware in hand. It’s mid February and I finally had it. We had some family events, like Sarah’s birthday that I didn’t want to overshadow with the proposal and therefore set a goal for the end of March.
I started coming up with super elaborate scheme’s to ask. Like a spontaneous day flight somewhere, or a weekend getaway on the coast somewhere. But I knew that as soon as I pulled this on Jordan, she would know what was probably short to follow. No, it had to be a seemingly normal day, with a reason to be out or a planned event.
We were at Balboa Park one day, waiting to use these free passes to the iMax theater my Grandfather gave us for Christmas. We popped into the visitor center, and I found all kinds of literature on San Diego and pamphlets on things to do! One stood out to me…Whale Watching! So I started planting hints. I got online and started researching companies. And mentioning ever so often that I wanted to do this. I even came up with even more cover as Jordan knows that I like to try to experience something new in San Diego at least once a month. It’s like a goal of mine. So I chalked it up to that with her, and she bought it. And it’s a good thing because I had already bought our tickets, bought some sea sickness medicine just in case and arranged to borrow a super zoom lens from Cody for the day.
In the mean time, I keep taking Jordan around town to Jewelery stores to look at rings. We went to Jared’s, Kay, Zales, Ben Bridge and a couple others that I can’t remember. Robbins Brother’s by far had the best quality diamonds and biggest selection of rings. This could have backed fired on me if she came across another ring that she liked better. Thankfully, my purchase was only solidified even more as she kept comparing everything that we saw to the one I had already purchased.
So my complete plan was to take her whale watching in the morning. Then when we got off the boat mention that it was lunch time and we should get some food. Then casually insist that I was in a mood for a good burger (which I am always down for a good burger!) and head up to a great place in La Jolla that we’ve ate at and loved once before called Burger Lounge. Once in La Jolla, I was going to mention to her that I wanted to find out where the “Cave Store” was and suggest that we go check it out.
Let me stop there. We’ve been in La Jolla before and Jordan has mentioned this “Cave Store” to me before. She has been once, but I never have. We’ve talked about going, but haven’t. The Cave Store is a store that has a tunnel dug in it down into a cave on the shores that has an opening that overlooks the north end of La Jolla Shores. The opening of the cave, looks like the outline of the face of Lemony Snicket. And apparently, during prohibition, they use to use the cave and tunnel to smuggle whiskey into San Diego. Plus, since my ring box had a built in LED light in the lid that shined on the ring when you opened it, I thought the cave would be a perfect place to utilize that feature and get a dramatic effect.
Back to the story, I was going to ask the Burger Lounge employee’s if they knew where the store was. But in reality, I already knew and is one of the reasons that I picked Burger Lounge in the first place as it is only a few blocks away and thought we could walk there after lunch. Perfect right!
So I have my plan, and I start planning Phase 2. I wanted to, and had gotten some inside information from Jordan’s roommate Jenna that Jordan always wanted to have a party with all her close friends and family after her engagement to celebrate. Since we would be engaged in the early afternoon, I thought it would be perfect to get everyone together later that night. So working with Jenna and another one of Jordan’s friends Sonia to send out invites, I booked the loft of Gio’s Restaurant and Wine Bar.
We are a week away. All the invites have gone out. And a bunch of my family and friends are coming down from out of town, booking hotels and such for the night of the party. Tuesday comes and with a delayed reaction to some undercooked salmon from Sunday, we both get food poisoning and have to call in sick to work. I got over it by the next day, but Jordan remained sketchy. By Thursday, we thought she was better. Only to go out to B.J.’s after trying to go ring shopping again and her relapsing that night and all day Friday.
It’s Friday afternoon and I texted to check up on her, and she responds with still not doing well, and asks me if we can cancel whale watching. I figured I didn’t want to chance getting her more sick by taking her on a ocean voyage and obliged. But now I have a big snag in my plan, I have no reason to get her into La Jolla that day, yet alone to go get lunch with someone who can only eat crackers and Gatorade…I play it cool.
I let her sleep in the morning of. Hoping that she is going to magically feel better and I can come up with some excuse to get her to La Jolla with the lure of a picture excursion and a “hey, the fresh air will do you good” argument. Somehow…that worked and she agreed. Then she told me that her camera battery is almost dead and proposes geocaching instead, and asks me where we could go. PERFECT! Now this trip is her idea and she wont even see it coming. I act cool and mention La Jolla would be beautiful right now. And we were off!
On the drive into La Jolla, I mention that I have another jewelery shop that I wanted to check out after we were done there, if she was feeling up to it. Then I accidentally followed a set of cars to the right of a fork and we drive right by the Cave Store. To which Jordan sees and exclaims “There it is! We have always talked about going there!” (Coming into my web, says the spider to the fly.) To which I respond with an acknowledgment and purpose going after we do some geocaching.
Now, it is about 1:30pm and I had arranged for my fellow coworker, Garrett (that Jordan has never met) to meet us in the cave at 3pm to try and photograph the proposal.
Jordan starts geocaching, and I am taking pictures of her under the pretense that I wanted to take advantage and use the zoom lens that I borrowed for whale watching.
A cool thing was that we found a cache and Jordan wrote on the log, Chris & Jordan – 3.20.10, unknowing that she just wrote the date of her proposal.
We geocache our way toward the cave store and Jordan starts feeling bad again. So I convince her that we need to get her out of the sun, get her some liquids and possibly some food. Which, on both our reflection, wasn’t the soundest argument for someone who is suffering from food poisoning…but she agrees. Plus, it wasn’t quite 3pm yet so I had to waste time.
We end up at the Livingroom Cafe and I ordered some easy simple food that Jordan likes; turkey sandwich, a bowl of fresh fruit and a naked juice. I look at my watch a few times as we are eating and am texting Garrett a few times, and I notice Jordan kinda catching onto it. After eating, I asked her how she felt and if we could still go see the cave real fast with the argument that it wont take long, I really want to see it and we have always talked about it, so let’s just do it. She says she’s feeling better and agrees to go.
As we are walking, I send another text to Garrett about us being on our way and blurb out to Jordan, “Man! Kris Cowen keeps texting me about when we are going to go golfing again!” Jordan buys it.
We make it into the cave and it’s not as big as I originally thought. I didn’t have time before hand to make it there and scope it out before the big day. But the bigger surprise is that Garrett wasn’t there yet, and he hadn’t answered my last few texts…I had to stall. So we start talking photo’s of each other and around the cave. I figured out where the best light and angle was for me to propose and Garrett to try and get the shot, but after 20 minutes I am running out of excuses to stall and start thinking that I can’t wait for Garrett any longer. Just then I see him approaching the deck! Thank God! I let him get situated and tell Jordan that we should get going but that I want to put my camera away first. I take her over to the good light spot, knell down in front of her and open my camera bag to put it away. I had so many things in there and I didn’t want to put anything on the dirty deck that I hand a lens to Jordan and ask her to hold it. To which Garrett starts snapping our picture thinking that it was go time! I notice Jordan see him do this and is looking at him bewilderingly as he nonchalantly keeps snapping shots up into the cave ceiling and down the side wall… I stuff the camera in the bag, grab the lens from Jordan and pull out the ring box. She is still looking at Garrett. I grab her attention with a stern “Jordan!” She looks down at me, i’m holding the box, and proceed to say “Will you marry me?” and open the box.
Her reaction, “HERE!?…NOW?!?”
Me, “Is that a yes?”
P.S. She didn’t even notice the box light 😦
A Million Miles
WOAH! I can’t believe that my last post was like 5 weeks ago, where does the time go? I feel like I have been running at a million miles…
Speaking of millions of miles, I just got done reading Donald Miller’s new book “A Million Miles In A Thousand Years“. I know what you are thinking—yes I do read, occasionally.
I’ve wondered, though, if one of the reasons we fail to acknowledge the brilliance of life is because we don’t want the responsibility inherent in the acknowledgment. We don’t want to be characters in a story because characters have to move and breathe and face conflict with courage. And if life isn’t remarkable, then we don’t have to do any of that; we can be unwilling victims rather than grateful participants.
The book is about living a better story. That there is just too much going on to be part of a boring story. He compares what are the essential elements of an amazing story and how we can apply those same ellements to our lives to ensure that we live a life of purpose, a life of passion.
A character is what he does.
Sometimes I feel like there is down time in my life. A period where I am waiting for that “what next” moment, for direction, for a passion, for a reason to move. It may be unintentional, but at times I feel as though there is something more, something that I have missed, something that I just don’t know what it is, that I missed something important but I don’t know what it is. At times I feel stagnate, unsure about what I am looking for, or where to start looking for it. But I am always looking, with eyes wide open.
…but I wasn’t living any kind of sacrifice. My entire life had been designed to make myself more comfortable, to insulate myself from the interruption of my daydreams. Your life is a blank page. You write on it.
I feel like I am skeptical of strangers a lot. It takes a lot of conscience thinking for me to put myself out there and take an interest in other people. The funny thing though, is that I am fascinated with other people. But all the time I run into situations where I think that after, I should have asked this, or done that.
Just this last weekend, Jordan and I were in Subway eating dinner in Anaheim after a half-day at Disneyland. As we were eating, a teenager was being rung out and came up 50 cents short for his sandwich. He didn’t look to well off in general with a baggy t-shirt and beat up skateboard. He asked openly but under his breath if anyone in the store had 50 cents…I barely heard him. I almost dismissed it. But I looked up to see him looking from the counter at everyone eating, eager. I check my pockets and wallet but all I had where big bills.
Here’s the truth about telling stories with your life. It’s going to sound like a great idea, and you are going to get excited about it, and then when it comes time to do the work, you’re not going to want to do it. It’s like that with writing books, and it’s like that with life. People love to have lived a great story, but few people like the work it takes to make it happen. But joy costs pain.
I’m not unhappy with my life at all. Not in the slightest. I just want to be conscience of what is going on around me and make sure that I am aware of the opportunities that are either presented or created. The opportunities to live a great story or be a character in someone else’s story.
Job responds, even before his health and wealth are restored by saying, “All of this is too wonderful for me.” Job found contentment and even joy, outside the context of comfort, health or stability. He understood the story was not about him, and he cared more about the story than he did about himself.
I heard this passage in a sermon one time, the line “all of this is too wonderful for me” part, and thought how cool is that! Compared to what Job went through, any trial that is going on with me seems trivial. Especially when Job can be completely torn down and still maintain an attitude that is focused on heaven. Sometimes when I feel overwhelmed I remember this and just say to myself, “All of this is too wonderful for me”. I usually feel a little better.
People who live good stories are too busy to write about them.
I think that it’s crap if you are too busy living a good story to not document it, to not tell it, to not reflect upon it. If you are too busy living and not doing those things, then you are missing the point. You should be living, but you have to create those stories along with the ability to tell them. Because if you can’t tell them, they aren’t stories.
Besides, every moment that we experience that is out of the ordinary becomes a marker in our memories. At least in mine. I have a terrible time recalling things. I make a million lists. I forget. I need something to anchor each memory too, a peg to hang something important on so I never forget. I heard a quote one time that went, “words are pegs to hang idea on.” I’m not very good with words, I’m better with pictures, but if I can remember someone else’s, I figure that just as good.
But honestly, when I think back on those those six weeks [Don speaking about riding his bike across the country], what I really remember are the few times when we made an extra effort to do something memorable…When we look back on our lives, what we will remember are the crazy things we did, the time we worked harder to make a day stand out…Good stories contain memorable scenes.
I’m realizing more and more that the things that matter the most, are the people that stick around you. I have been blessed with an amazing family, a loving girlfriend and equally amazing friends. I have realized that the stories I want to live, experience and tell, involve them. And that people or characters are the center of any great story. That you can’t have a story without people. I use to think that I didn’t need anyone, I could do it all on my own. Now I realize that I don’t want to do it without them. I’m also realizing that strangers are opportunities to learn, or listen, or tell, or become part of a story. And all it takes is some passion or just willingness to to do that. My sister is great at this. Sometimes I envy her for that.
[A fathers little girl comes home with a dress to wear to the prom] She put it on and cames down to show her dad, he turned down the volume on the TV and tells her she looked nice. As she thanked him and and walked away he thought he should have said more. He went back to the watching TV, but it kept bugging him. Then he came up with an idea. He decided to create a memorable moment, if you will. He turned off the television and went into his closet and put on his suit. Without letting his wife or daughter see him, he found the family camera and knocked on her door. When his daughter opened the door, she was still in the dress and her mother was sitting on the bed with stick pins in her mouth. “Honey,” the dad said to his wife, “would you mind taking a picture of us?” “Daddy, you’re wearing a suit,” his daughter said confused. “I want to look good in the picture too,” he replied. The three of them ended up dancing in the living room until one in the morning.
When I hear about stories like this, where a little inspiration and effort turn into something more, something…extraordinary, it makes me feel glad to be alive. It makes me think that the small things do matter and that it doesn’t take much to create a story. I don’t have to change the world, I can just recognize an opportunity and act in changing another persons world. I don’t do that enough, I feel. I might be present, but am I acting…I need to act more.
I like those scenes in the Bible where God stops people and asks them to build an alter. You’d think He was making them do that for Himself, but I don’t think God really gets much from looking at a pile of rocks. Instead, I think God wanted his people to build alters for their sake, something that would help them remember, something they could look back on and remember the time when they were rescued, or they were given grace…We have to force ourselves to create these scenes. We have to get up off the couch and turn the television off, we have to blow up the inner-tubes and head down to the river. We have to write the poem and deliver it in person. We have to pull the car off the road and hike to the top of the hill. We have to put on our suits, we have to dance at weddings. We have to make alters.
I heard a sermon this last Sunday where the speaker was talking about us being the salt of the earth. That we were created to go out and flavor things. And that if we are not doing what we were created to do, then we weren’t even good enough to stand on God’s poo pile. That the poo pile was better than us. That God could use that poo pile to create something, but he couldn’t do anything with us. That rocks are potentially worshiping God better than us when we don’t flavor things and go out to show his glory because they are rocks and they lie there doing what they were created to do, which is just be a rock. I thought that was funny, and also kind of beautiful. We all search for “what we are suppose to do,” when ultimately all we are called to do is worship God. Everything else that happens is just the story. I found comfort in that.
Be present, experience and worship God, be active and jump on opportunities, create, push, react positively, document. I’m writing a new chapter in my story, and it starts…now.
You Know It’s Time
As my title suggests, it’s time. And I know it is time as my monitor clearly couldn’t take one more second of displaying my digital needs, as it failed at the stand hinge and falls flat on it’s back in a fit of rage. I think its message was pretty clear. Here let me show you.
You are probably asking yourself, how can a monitor just break and fall over? Here I’ll show you.
In the below photo, the round hinge use to connect to other Plexiglas piece at the bottom of the image. There is no metal there to support, just the Plexiglas screwed through and connected to the hinge.
I guess it is actually something that happens to these old apple cinema displays. That’s fine, it was getting pretty old, starting to ghost and the colors were noticeably a bit “warm”. After all, I have used the monitor for a good 4 years, and I bought it used.
Actually, it still displays, it just doesn’t stand up. And this monitor thought that by falling backwards on it’s rear it would avert me from finishing my photo editing, pSSSH! As I got over the initial shock of the fall, I just stood up and kept clicking away until I was done. See Monitor, I tell you when you are done. Not the other way around.
The ironic thing was that it fell in the middle of me editing a photo of Jordan waving her finger of judgment / disapproval at me. It was like an “I Told You So” that she didn’t even want to say. Oh well, out with the old, in with the new.
I did some quick research and Jordan and I headed off for Fry’s and Best Buy. After considering a HDTV as the new replacement, I was assured by a Best Buy associate that in my line of work, I need to stick with the plain computer monitors for more actuate color densities and representation. We perused their selection but I wasn’t impressed with anything non-apple, but I didn’t really want to spend $900 on a new apple monitor. We headed back to Fry’s where I ran across a Samsung 23″ monitor with the HDTV capability built in…hmmm. Interesting. If I shouldn’t get a TV with monitor capabilities, I’ll get a monitor with TV capabilities! Perfect, I can replace my old tube TV in my room and my monitor at the same time! Brilliant!
They didn’t have any in-stock. Then they closed for the night. So on Sunday we made a trip up to another Fry’s and picked it up there, and then I spent the rest of afternoon cleaning, disconnecting, arranging, rearranging and reconnecting all my gear up. Here is the new set up, I’m diggin’ it. Much cleaner and more functional I feel. I think I need to look into getting an HD cable box now.
What Does 1.8 Look Like
INTRODUCING…
My new lens! Da-ta-da duh!
It’s Nikon’s Nikkor 35mm f1.8 fixed focused lens, but you can see that.
Look at what is can do!
This is a picture through my dad’s old zoom lens for his old 35mm film camera. See how I can focus up close and how much it blurs the background?! oooooou. ahhhhh. And that upside down head is Jordan in the lens.
Test Shot 1: Jordan thinking she has a hot boyfriend.
Test Shot 2: Jordan telling me to get over my new lens and stop taking pictures of her.
From Front Row
Ryan, with his amazing concert ticket karma, scored 2 front row, stage right tickets for John Mayer Trio from Ticketmaster for this past Tuesday night.
Wanna know what it looks like to be in the front row?
LIKE THIS.
We only had our camera phones on us for pictures, which don’t do so well with the low lights and details and such, but I think that you can imagine the jist. But just to add insult to injury…
Here is the venue. Beautiful right?! Our seats were so close, you can’t even see them in this picture as they are under the stage.
John and the gang played their hearts out and you could tell. They looked like they were having a ball up there, and we were having a great time watching them. John really did sound great. His vocals were really on that night (as sometimes those highs are a little shaky, but I don’t care), but his guitar playing was just incredible. He made every note count and just scream for your attention. Ryan read a tweet from Mayer right after the show that read:
TY/S: thanks for the best show the Trio’s played. And sorry I can’t stay and sign… Travel constraints. You were unreal tonight!!!
Some of the mentionable moments were, A) since this show was right after Christmas, in the middle of the set, they break into a super fast bluesy version of Run Run Rudof. B) they played Ain’t No Sunshine. C) the medley transition from I Got A Woman into Crossroads was legendary, as John snuck a few notes of crossroads at a time into the I Got A Woman chorus until it was like Crossroads has engulfed I Got A Woman and took it over.
I really wanted a guitar pick and thought that since I was in the front row that I had a good shot at getting one. There was nobody in front of me and just enough space from me to the stage that I thought a normal to enthusiastic throw would fall for such a tiny flying object. But unfortunately instead of him throwing out each pick individually to each seating section, John grabbed his whole lot from the mic stand holder in one fist full and threw them all in one toss to the middle section. Boo. I was even ready to fight some people off or even do a floor dive. I was that mentally prepared. Next time John, next time.
There was a girl sitting behind us that after the show went up to the stage and got one of the stage hands to give her the setlist. As me and Ryan were both keeping track of the setlist, we kept trying to see what was on it while she posed with it for a picture in front of us with the stage as the backdrop. Impressively, we had everything except we saw that they were going to play 4 songs for the encore but skipped one named “Freedom.” JM3 doesn’t have a song named Freedom…and neither does just John…it peeked Ryan and I’s interest, with us wondering if it was maybe a new song, or another cover…It is a little too wide as a search criteria on Google as a quick search didn’t provide any answers. Anyways, the setlist went as follows:
Who Did You Think I Was
Good Love Is On The Way
Everyday I Have The Blues
Come When I Call
Ain’t No Sunshine
Vultures
Run Run Rudof (Johnny be Good)
I Got A Woman > Crossroads
Out Of My Mind
Try!Encore
Gonna Find Another You
Who Says
Wait Till Tomorrow
See other photos from the show here.
The Adventures of A 4 Day Weekend : Part 2
Goal #4: Something New Every Month
Instead of doing one thing new this month, I decided to do a whole bunch of new things and stack it into some forced, use-it-or-loose-it 4 day vaca-stay-cay.
Day 3: Saturday
Getty Villa
Jordan, Ryan and I picked up Sarah in Lake Forest and met Kris and Becky at the beautiful Getty Villa in Malibu.
So some background on the place. It was once Mr. Getty’s house, who collected art. Then he got so much art that he dedicated a wing of his house to it. Then he thought that it was wrong to keep it all to himself, so he started opening his art wing to the public by appointment only. But he only saw maybe 1000 guests a year and he wasn’t satisfied with that. So he made his wing open to the public. Eventually, as he kept collecting more and more art, they had to build another building on the property to house everything. They eventually moved Getty’s collection to the new Getty Center up on the hill and left only his Greek and Roman collection at the Greek and Roman inspired architecture buildings/grounds of his Villa.
It was in the middle of the storm while we were there. Raining off and on all day. But we had a great time playing should I grab an umbrella at the exit of every doorway. After a delicious meal at the cafe, we explored the grounds and gardens, the buildings, the ampitheater and the art. Overall, I enjoyed the grounds, gardens and architecture, but the art got a little repetitive as it was all statues, busts, and objects. There were one or two things that I remember seeing in my old art history classes (which is always interesting to me). But the most enjoyable thing was really just hanging out and goofing around in this beautiful place.
For instance, there were these statues posing by the water in the middle of the villa courtyard. But there was one space left open..begging to be stepped upon and strike a similar pose of the statues…but as I approached, they placed this tiny sign that said “keep off”. Edged on by my entourage I jumped up for a quick picture. Waited a few moments and jumped off. Later Sarah told me that as I stepped up, two dark figures appeared and started making a B-line for me, but then vanished as they got word of some other patron skipping rocks across the reflection pool.
A QUICK TOUR:
The entrance to the grounds.
You come out of the entrance at the top of the ampitheater overlooking the main building entrance.
The view through the main building entrance through the courtyard, through the other side on the building, to the round fountain and ending with the mosaic waterfall fountain. This arrangement of the grounds is very Greek.
This is the view looking back through the villa.
This is the mosaic fountain at the end.
This is the view from the garden on the side.
That concludes our tour. And now onto the days models.
The gang…singing in the rain.
My Cutie posing in front of a column. 
My Cuties posing in the garden and on the steps 😉
Sarah looking fondly at one of the Roman statues.
Jordan giving me the stink eye for no deserved reason what-so-ever.
Jordan posing with one angry and one concerned man.
Nice try buddy, but I think he as a few thousand years on you.
This is the face that Sarah gives you when you almost drop her mobile and break it into a million pieces…almost.
We had Kris taking pictures of us together when a group of photographers walked by and one of them stopped and posed us like this… Thanks for the tip stranger! 
That concludes our day at the villa. We did go to dinner and tried some peruvian food that was amazing! It’s like Mongolian and Mexican had a golden baby. We spent the night at Sarah’s place and set off in the morning to get Sarah her annual pass and spend another day at Disneyland (also known as day 4 of our vacation).
See all the shots from the villa HERE
The Adventures of A 4 Day Weekend : Part 1
Goal #4: Something New Every Month
Instead of doing one thing new this month, I decided to do a whole bunch of new things and stack it into some forced, use-it-or-loose-it 4 day vaca-stay-cay.
DAY 1: Thursday
Julian
I have never made the hour+ trip up to the apple growing semi mountain town of Julian, so I thought this would be a perfect chance to experience what all the pie eating fuss was all about.
Off we went, but got super hungry as we arrived. Jordan saw this “new” (in quotes because nothing in Julian looks new) mexican place… and I should have known better. Mexican food from a tinny mountain town that’s built around apples… I should have taken the even bigger cue to go to a new place when I tried to open their door and it was stuck, but they had a sign that said push real hard. It was the most AWFUL food ever! I can’t even explain how awful it was. So I say to you, don’t go!! It was so bad that I started seeing double!
The good news was the rest of the day was not as unfortunate… except for the fact that it was cold and Jordan purposefully left her jacket at the condo and resorted to commandeering mine and leaving me to be a man and face the bitter cold while I assured her that I was fine as with each passing half hour the temperature dropped a degree.
We bounced from shop to shop trying to stay warm in the more mild set climate of each shop. The owners were all very friendly and started conversations with us as soon as we entered each new shop. I think they were bored and didn’t have a lot of visitors as it was a late Thursday afternoon. But we enjoyed checking out the keepsakes, trinkets and novelty’s of the area. After the shops we headed to Mom’s, which apparently was the place that usually had a line for pie all the way down the street. But being as this was a Thursday, we walked right in… only to wait as these four foreign men in front of us proceeded to be annoying and monopolizing the workers time with unrealavant questions and concerns that did not amount to them getting pie or letting us order some. We got our apple pie’s and I ordered a cup of their apple cider. Jordan enjoyed hers, but mine I thought was DUBNA (Decent But Not Amazing). I certainly wouldn’t wait in a ridiculous line for it. The apple cider was way better.
Day 2: Friday
Birch Aquarium + Burger Lounge
It’s storming outside but Jordan and I are determined to see some fish. The Aquarium is actually quite the place. It isn’t as large as I thought it was going to be, but it has a ton of aquariums packed very closely together. It felt like it took us an hour just to go through the first few. The coolest thing that I saw were these giant starfish, which looked like something straight out of the movie evolution. And it was moving, fast… well, fast for a star fish. The thing was like the size of a coffee table.
Their main on attraction exhibit was called “There is Something About Seahorses”. And we learned 2 very interesting and surprising things about seahorses.
1. There are seahorses that look like aliens or something straight out the new movie Avatar. I mean, just look at these things!
2. The males are the ones that carry the babies in some front pouch and when they are ready, shoots them out his belly button in these violent compulsions. It’s a little disturbing.
After that little display of the circle of life we were off to try a new burger joint called the Burger Lounge. It is like In-N-Out on crack. All they do is burgers, salads, frys and onion rings with their ambiance being ubber fresh, modern and clean. All their meets are from a sustainable and on grass feed farm somewhere in the middle of the country, and other all natural fresh ingredients. The burger just melts in your mouth and makes a huge mess with it’s juiciness being uncontainable, going every which way, running all over our hands. I would highly recommend this place.
Right Now
Right now, I am drinking the Guinness Book of World Records labeled “strongest beer.”
14% alcohol and with a name like Samichlaus, who could ever forget it after trying it? It tastes like a wine flavored beer, seriously. I stumbled across it today at Bevmo picking up a few Christmas presents. Classic.
NorCal Musical Trip
DAY 1: Friday, San Jose
After the long long drive up to San Jose, we made it to our hotel and checked in. And after getting settled and freshened up, we headed back out for downtown San Jose for dinner and and the first musical of the trip, the much acclaimed and beloved show, Spring Awakening.
We ate dinner at the Firehouse, a small local hot spot in the rustic downtown area. The restaurant was small, with old brick walls, painted bright red floors, and projected fire on any blank walls that were not covered in fireman garb. We had some great burgers and beers, and headed to the theater for the show.
Spring Awakening was good, but not great for me (Jordan/Ryan…sorry, but I can’t say I can join you in your fanaticism). The singing was strong, and the set was very beautiful. I loved all the movement on stage and the choreography, but the overall storyline didn’t move me. I wasn’t wowed by it, and it felt a little bit predictable…like I have seen this formula before. The parts were good, but as a whole it didn’t do it for me.
DAY 2: Saturday, Berkley/San Fran
We made it up to Berkley for our afternoon matinee showing of American Idiot. Which is this new musical they made by taking Green Day’s American Idiot album and a few other from the 21st Century Breakdown album and using it as the soundtrack and the storyline for the show.
The show was at the Berkley Rep, this pretty modern and industrial theater. We had front row seats (which somehow turned out to be 2nd row seats) and Jordan and I were in the “Lodge” which we also thought we had front row, but alas it was 2nd row as well.
I was super impressed with the set design. They backed the stage with a huge wall plastered with Obey style newspaper prints and cut outs for TVs that they controlled and showed graphics and videos on. The show was just all rock and all energy. I thought it was an amazing production, the music was on, and the singing was strong.
After the show we made our way to San Francisco, checked into our hotel and set out for dinner at Pier 39 and Bubba Gumps.
Oh and I might have forgotten to mention that it was halloween night and all the shops on the pier were having kids come by and trick-or-treat at their stores…but some stores were not as prepared as others.
They had great service and these cool flip license plate style signs that when you needed something you just flipped and they came running. The shrimp was good, especially the coconut battered fried shrimp, and because it was my birthday a few days before…my friends told the service peoples who made me stand on the booth as they sang their birthday song to me.
After the night, we grabbed breakfast at Panera. Jordan was acting a little rambunctious and attention deprived before we started out 9hour journey back to to SoCal.
See all the shots from the trip HERE
MuteMath: House of Blues
Brittney Lane Don’t Care
So, I have this thing…about paper…but I already told you that, didn’t I. Well, it goes deeper. And while I have a thing about paper, I have an even bigger thing about it’s close cousin cardboard.
Now you must be thinking that I am a compete weirdo, but hear me out for a second. Most people think cardboard and see a box to move stuff in. But it can be so much more. Like a chair:
Oh and I bet you are thinking that those can’t have someone actually sit in them…well I don’t know about those personally, but I know for a fact that this one can:
How do I know that might you say? Well, because I made it. In school, we had a project to make a functional, chair out of a 4′ x 8′ sheet of cardboard that had to hold the weight of someone sitting in it and lean back on it. And it had to be the normal height of a chair too, no barbi doll chairs here.
Anyways, so yeah, I love seeing things made out of cardboard. Like this stuff is great:
Even in the movie, The Science of Sleep (by Michael Gondry; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Be Kind Rewind), they built an entire filming studio out of cardboard for the weird dream sequences. See:
Even UPS made a whole world for an Ad with it (in cgi).
So now your thinking, OK, cardboard IS cool, but why did I bring this up…
I ran across this music video from a band that I haven’t heard of before. And due to it, now love the song, purchased their song and have it starting in heavy rotation…all thanks to cardboard. And I totally am digin the cardboard instruments…I totally want them! So I give you Brittney Lane Don’t Care by Meeting of Important People.
For more awesome cardboard objects click here.
Green Screens
I have this thing…about paper…
I like it. There, I said it. Phew.
I also have this other thing…about music…
I like it. There, I said it. Phew
So, when one of my favorite bands, Sleeping at Last, took one of their new songs and made a music video with basically just paper…it’s pretty awesome. Make sure that you catch the rino walking to the kick drum line, boom ba-boom… and the bunnies are pretty cute to… oh! and there’s a falling garrila!, and a cowboy cliché, and car crashes and a shower scene…
Yes, I’M ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT! Watch HERE.
p.s. the track is the last song on their album, which is very rare and bold for a band to put out a song that deep in their track list. Most of the time, labels/record companies want the “hits” to be within the first few tracks of the disc so consumers don’t have to look for them or something when they pop the CD in…like consumers can’t look at the track list on the back, or will get lost in 12 tracks…
Guilty! [CrAcK!!!]
Let me tell you how happy you feel when you get a jury letter in the mail: 0% happy, that’s how much! Actually, thoughts of running to mexico, or just picking up all my stuff and moving to another apartment in the city just to say that you moved and never got the summons, or devising a plan to commit an actual minor felony so you are on the “other” side of the law flashes before my mind. Don’t act like these thought have never crossed your mind, it happens to all of us.
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