Oct 21, 2013

I worked at Memorial as a gym teacher today, being the referee for the girls' flag football games. It was easier since they didn't care as much about the game so it was easier for me to make calls. It was a pretty relaxed day of playing, and then my last block I had to do alone so they played mat ball. Things went pretty well, but a couple of people questioned my calls in that game more than I ever got for the football games earlier. To be fair, I wasn't totally paying attention.

Later in the evening Chuck and I went to Kate's to try some beers we had picked up the other night. Kate had gotten The Shed IPA which is really good. Chuck got several Alcoholic Ginger Beer by John Crabbie & Co. That stuff is amazing. It tastes like regular ginger beer. I love it. Glad he got three of those. We had a few others by Evil Twin and Duck Rabbit as well. Chuck picked up the guitar and started playing at one point. It was a good time sitting around the brew barn.

Oct 20, 2013

I actually had the house to myself in the morning so I spent an hour or so playing bass. I miss having the nights to be able to play as much as I wanted. That's the time when I'm most motivated to play. I biked over to South Vineland Park to play a round of disc golf and then biked home. It was a nice day, but the breeze made it chilly while biking. It was a pretty lazy day after that. I watched Brew Dogs with Kate later and then Ryan and I went for a walk around town. The day was as concise as this paragraph.

I finished off the peanut butter.

Oct 19, 2013

I headed up to the Asbury Park area to meet Quinny, the photographer I was second shooting for today. He seemed like a good guy and we got along well. We had a busy schedule for the day so we got started right away talking about the logistics, then I went to the groom's house to shoot the guys getting ready. Of course the guys are usually done getting ready when I get there for this part, but there's always the same problems like trying to figure out how to put the flowers on their lapel or how to fold their pocket squares. It's always funny to watch, and I still don't understand why they leave it up to the guys to figure it out. Despite this, we got some cool shots in the road and house, including one of my favorite shots I've taken with groomsmen. When he said, "Do you mind if we take a picture with the guns?" I had no idea this would happen.

The guys caught the trolley, stopped at the liquor store that the family owns, then headed over to the church. It was a while before everyone arrived and filled the pews so I shot around and watched the bagpipers practice. It was a proper Irish Catholic wedding. Once getting started the ceremony went quickly (for a Catholic service) and all went well. After the receiving line, we did grouped pictures with the family inside and outside with the wedding party and then it was off to the beach!

We went down to the Asbury Park boardwalk to shoot in the old Casino building and on the beach. Quinny has his routine down so much that he was going really quickly with each shot. I did the best I could to keep up, but not knowing exactly what he was doing each time made it harder.  I liked a lot of the shots he was doing and took a mental note of them for the future. I wanted to direct the group sometimes, but he was in the zone so I didn't interrupt. I suppose I should be more assertive sometimes.

Our next stop was Monmouth University. This place is beautiful. The inside has gorgeous lighting, marble staircase, arched doorways, and an awesome garden outside. We made use of all of these aspects. Quinny and his videographer got some really great shots here. It was a hard balance for me trying to shoot details and close-ups while also getting some wide portfolio shots of each scene for myself.

Finally it was time to head to the reception at a beautiful hall not far away. They had the cocktail hour setup outside on a deck. The food was decadent and seemingly never-ending. It started raining a bit which drove some people under the awning and pressured the people in charge to get things moving. The reception was very nice and classy. All the usual events took place and I circulated, taking photos of couples at tables and people dancing. We even got a tip from the bride that Quinny was nice enough to share with the videographer and me. I had a great experience with him and I hope to shoot a wedding with him again. I had a long drive home down the dark parkway, but my podcasts kept me company until I made it back to my bed.

Oct 18, 2013

I worked at Memorial for a gym teacher and it was track day. They ran races and did other events. I was in charge of the discus station. I just watched them and kind of organized them. I also threw the discus a few times. I was okay at it. I don't think I've thrown one since high school though. The day was pretty fun since I basically just hung out with kids throwing things and didn't have to discipline them for it. After work I charged my batteries and got my camera equipment ready for the wedding tomorrow, then I got ready to go out for the night.

Chuck, Kate, and I got up to the Piazza plenty early. We were the first in line to enter the Living Social Beerfest, but we only had to wait 15-20 minutes before they let us in. It was a small fest and generally open season for the first half hour or so. We breezed through quite a few breweries in a short period of time. Victory's Dirtwolf was one of my early favorites.

Once we made our way through one side of the tents we went back out to the entrance to meet Tracy and Mike, who finally made it. They joined us to work our way down the other side. We had started slowing our roll a bit by this point. We had some good beers from Brooklyn, Yards, and Sierra Nevada. A wise man once said, "Beer fests are terrible places to taste beer." And he was right. I have a hard time remembering most of the beers we tried. Too many beers in a row are hard to evaluate for taste. It's really just an excuse to get drunk on good beer and have a good time.

Have a good time we did. After we finished sampling all of the beers we wanted to try we tried the handful of ciders that were available and then we went back for seconds. Even though I told myself I wouldn't do that, at this point it was a forgone conclusion. We were drunk and dancing by this point. No one was really into the cover band that was on stage the entire night, but we went up and danced right in front of them for a little bit, and I asked them to play some Blink. What seemed like a long time passed and then they finally played All the Small Things. We were happy.

Once we had our fill and then some we left and went over to The Abbaye for food and sobering up time. I had something that was delicious followed by the best pecan pie I have ever had. You can never go wrong with food from there. Kate was not feeling well at all, unfortunately, and we had to help her back to the car so she could sleep in the back on the way home. It was certainly worth the $29 for that ticket to the beerfest, so thanks for that, LivingSocial! Until next time.

Oct 17, 2013

I worked a Special Ed math class at Memorial during the day. It was an interesting day, as I had another teacher in there with me who had no idea how to do basic algebra, which is what the students were learning. More than once she explained something incorrectly to the student and I had to go tell them the correct way. She was also trying to look up how to do it on her phone and sneakily come back with the answer. It was bizarre, annoying, and quite sad. I had a good time working with the students on the algebra though. I always enjoy math classes.

I had last block off so I left early and went to the Vineland Board of Ed to drop off my physical form and find out my next step. The substitute coordinator seems to be impossible to get ahold of. She never answers her phone and I was there about a half hour before she left for the day and the secretary said she was on her lunch break. Then she looked at me weird when I thought that was odd. Anyway, I was told I'd have to wait for board approval, which I already got, and then I awkwardly left. Thanks for the help. On my way home I picked up Dave and Chelsea's pictures at T & F. They look good printed.

I met my mom, Sarah, and Aiden at Kawa for dinner for my mom's birthday (only two weeks late!) We had a good dinner of sushi and beer that I got for my mom to try. She wanted a mixed six pack of different styles so she could find out what she likes. She liked the stout a lot and, predictably, not so much the IPA. It was nice trying them with her though and we had a good time talking.

After dinner had settled a bit later I decided it was time for a neighborhood run. I ran 5 miles after initially feeling like I wouldn't make it much farther after the first. I love the boost I get in the middle of a run. Sometimes I feel like I could just keep going. It's been a while since I have just kept going, but I need to do that again. Time to get back to long distance running and running more often in general.

Oct 16, 2013

It was another early morning at Merion Elementary School for portraits today. Lots of kids coming through very quickly without much of a break this time. There weren't really any problems, just the usual tedium of getting the kids to actually sit up and smile, while trying not to be rude to kids who have different smiles. One kid just would not smile, so I gave up on it and let his picture go looking like he just got punched in the stomach. It turned out his mom would not be happy about that one, but her kid is an idiot, so that's her problem. After we wrapped up for the day, I went back to the office for a brief graduation training session with Derrick. It was a quick run through, but I feel like I got the idea of what I need to do. (It's distorted because it's probably illegal to show his face..)

Once I got home and showered and changed it was out the door and right back to Philly with Chuck for Left Hand U Buy the Glass night at The Abbaye. We met Kate, Cody, and his friend there. They had the Polestar Pils, which is always great, the 400 Pound Monkey, Milk Stout, and one I'd never had before called Ambidextrous Ale Step 3 - Great Juju. That one was fantastic. My favorite of the night. I got the seitan cheesesteak because the vegan lasagna was sold out (damn!) That's not a problem really, because the cheesesteak is one of my favorites they have. We had a good night and Chuck won a shirt in the raffle so bully for him! After we left the bar we stopped in at the Foodery to pick up a few beers to bring home.

Oct 15, 2013

I subbed for an English teacher at Lakeside. It was one of the few times the students were disappointed to have a sub and not their regular teacher, because everyone loves this guy. I don't blame them. He's a cool dude and seems like a good teacher. The classes were all pretty good as well. I suppose they didn't want to anger their favorite teacher. Later I picked up sushi from Kawa and went to Kate's to watch Boundless. These guys are doing the most extreme races all over the world and started with a multi-day ultramarathon in Iceland. It was pretty intense, but even them struggling made it look too easy. I need to find something that will let me travel the world for work and soon. I took a short walk around the neighborhood later at night listening to Childish Gambino. Not sure why I never listened before, but I really like him.