Oct 7, 2013

I worked for Ryan for the first time today. What a strange thing. So I had music classes in the morning for younger kids where I showed The Backyardigans. That went over pretty well, but I still had to corral them regularly. I had a very long break in the middle of the day where I watched my own shows and had lunch in Ryan's office. The afternoon was worse with the older classes. We watched The Blue Man Group DVD and it was hard to keep them interested. One class was so bad that I had them sit silently and write an apology to Ryan for their behavior. I enjoyed that punishment.

I spent my evening watching Southland and playing with a Spanish app I downloaded. It's not quite Rosetta Stone, but it does insult you in strange ways...

Oct 6, 2013

Kate and I headed to Delaware in the morning to go to Iron Hill DGC. The forest was beautiful in autumn colors and leaves covering the ground. Regardless of how we played, the scenery was worth the trip to walk around the woods. There weren't many people there, so we didn't have to worry about crossing over anyone. The game went pretty well for both of us. I had some really good shots and some really bad ones. Overall it was a good day of playing though.

I always forget how long the course is. I start questioning whether it's a 27-hole course, but then I remember it's just because each hole is 400 ft or more that it plays longer than the ones I'm more used to. After finishing up the long course, we headed to Stewart's Brewing to get a flight and some food before we headed back. I didn't expect the place to be such a sports bar. There were TVs everywhere and fans with many different jerseys. I asked to be placed near the door since it was furthest from both loud TVs and yelling fans. Most of their beer was middle of the road, but the Big Bear Amber Ale was damn good. Definitely a smooth, drinkable beer.

On the way back home we stopped at Eliza's birthday party at a gymnastics gym. Aiden was there with Devin, and of course Tracy was there doing backflips down the trampoline thing. The kids and adults were allowed to play in the big foam-filled hole so we were doing dives and flips into it. Aiden was really enjoying himself just like the rest of us were. After singing happy birthday it was time to head out.

Later we gathered at Erika's to play games. We played a round of Settlers of Catan and that took up quite a bit of the night. It seemed like everyone was just on the brink of winning before Ryan finally did. We need to have more game nights.

Oct 5, 2013

Scott asked me in the morning if I'd like to play a round with him at South Vineland and, of course, I did. We met and played a round from the yellow tees. I'm not sure if it's because I'm not used to them as much or because they are just harder, but I play much worse from those tees a lot of the time. Some of them just seem unnecessarily narrow or out of the way. We played a round from the white tees after that which I enjoyed much more. It's just more fun all around I think. Especially for hole 18. The yellow is just not good.

When it got closer to sunset I went over to Kim and Chester's house to shoot their maternity photos. I reshot some of the photos we did for their engagement and then we did some new fun ones. I think they came out pretty nicely and we had a fun time doing them. Chester picked me some green peppers to send home with me. They live such a different life than I do. I stopped on the way home to shoot some photos of the sunset over the farms and power lines. It was so nice. The rest of the night was having some beers and relaxing.

Oct 4, 2013

I went up to North Jersey to meet Nicole, the girl who hired me to second shoot a wedding. She gave me the wrong address so I ended up at the bride's house where she was. She gave me the right address, but the wrong spelling so I ended up at the wrong place again. Eventually I found the groom's house and got some shots of the guys getting ready. I still had plenty of time. They weren't really my kind of people, so I waited outside after I got the shots I needed. The bridal party came over for the first look and then they left together in the bus.

We went to a nearby park and took shots in front of the building, on the bridge, and in a field. It was strange shooting close ups and candids of people while someone else took the lead. I was trying to get good shots myself while finding good angles that Nicole wasn't shooting.

We went to the beach and took some shots outside with the palm trees. This place was really nice. They had the ceremony area set up outside and a separate dining room downstairs for the cocktail hour before going upstairs for the reception. The ceremony was very nice. It was short, which is always preferable.

During cocktail hour I had some food and took a few shots of people hanging around. I went upstairs to get ready for the reception and shot the details like the awesome cake toppers. I definitely liked the overall style that this couple went for.

The reception itself was more like a night club after dinner was over. The DJ was playing a lot of dance music and modern stuff rather than the hackneyed set list that most weddings are plagued by. That was a nice change of pace. I always feel strange sitting down or not shooting at a wedding, but Nicole made me feel much more comfortable knowing that there wasn't anything to shoot sometimes. I even had a chance to get a Sam Adams Summer Ale. Toward the end of the night I transferred the photos to my laptop and gave Nicole my SD card and then began the long drive home. I think I like second shooting weddings. No worry about editing a bunch now, I'm just done.

Oct 3, 2013

I got to go in to Memorial late today because I was covering Child Study Team meetings. It's always nice. I covered one class and then had to inform another teacher that they had a meeting later in the day during their break time. However the schedule was done, I finished about two hours after starting and got paid for the full day. I'll take it. I had a nap when I went home and then I worked at Alternative School again in the afternoon covering the same class as Tuesday for testing. Again, I was out early. Not a bad schedule for me today.

I went home and had food and really didn't feel like doing much else. I had a beer or two and watched Brew Dogs. It turned out to be a pretty good evening anyway.

Oct 2, 2013

I had an early shoot with Legacy for school portraits and Upper Moreland Middle School. The only good part about the early days is there isn't a whole lot of traffic until I get on 476. The morning drive with a podcast has been nice. I was working with Derrick and Kate today, so it was good people too. The way the school set up our schedule was ridiculous though. They had each class come down with their science teacher at the beginning of each period so we got several big groups every 40 minutes then a half hour wait until the next one. We could have done the whole school before noon, but instead we were there all day. I had to cancel my Alternative School job that I thought would be no problem considering we started at 7:30am.

When I finally got home I just wanted to lie down for a bit and have a nap. Later we went to Quizzo, where we were beaten even though the scores were pretty close this time. It seems like anytime we have a chance we are inched out at the end somehow.

Oct 1, 2013

Since I didn't get a job for the day I made an appointment to speak with Mr. Burke at the Board of Ed about getting reassigned to the Senior High for jobs. I wasn't too hopeful when I went in, but after I spoke with him he seemed very reassuring that I would be able to work there again. After that I decided to play a round of disc golf at the park. I did quite well, shooting a -3 overall. I got a call asking me to work Alternative School to cover testing so I jumped on that. It was an easy job where I went in late and finished up early. I came home and got to bed pretty early so I can wake up for the portrait shoot in the morning.