Dec 19, 2013

This was my schedule for the day. That's right. Two classes with a three hour break in between. I took full advantage of this long break by going home, choosing and editing photos for Christmas present, buying new blank DVDs, buying frames at Michael's, and dropping off my photos to be printed. Then I came home and had lunch with my remaining hour. Quite a productive work day.

Right after work I met Ryan at the park for some outdoor workout since it was quite nice. We did hand stands in the grass, which was extremely cold, then we tried climbing up onto the bathroom building and over the wall. We also discovered our arms are not the same length, but then discovered the wall where we were measuring them was at an angle so when we switched positions it became clear that it wasn't the case at all. We did five sets of hill sprints with jumping jacks at the bottom and push ups at the top. That was a nice and exhausting exercise.

I had to go back to T&F to resolve a problem (that they could have resolved themselves) but it was alright because I ended up getting my prints done right then. I headed up to Rowan to meet Anjali in the book store and get a latte drink from Starbucks before heading out to the ice. The skates felt like toys, but they worked, and we skated around in circles for a while. The rink is really small so you can't get much speed going before running into someone who is even worse at skating.

It was fun, but I'd rather go to a bigger rink. We walked around the campus a little bit, and I ended up talking to Jan for a while at Westby and getting a copy of the recent Gallery publication. It was nice seeing her again. I came home and had some food and stayed up too late again watching Burn Notice. I want to finish the series now, but after enjoying something a lot I don't want it to end in a way. And enough talk about TV.

Dec 18, 2013

I worked for the music teacher at Lakeside today, and he was actually there for the morning so I went home and did some editing there since I could. I had to come back to cover ACI and then my one class of the day for music, but then I just hung out until he got back from what he was doing at the mall and I was out an hour and a half early. Not bad for a day's pay. I still managed to have to write up a kid though.

I went home after work to continue working on editing until I had finished all the photos! I did them exclusively in Lightroom this time, so I'm not sure how I feel about it just yet. I usually do a little editing in Photoshop, and I think I might want to go back and tweak some things with that. I burnt the disc and then put it in my laptop to check it, but it wouldn't read and then my computer would not start up. So now I have to deal with that.

I gave up on that problem and went up to Olive Garden in Deptford to meet Gaby for dinner. We did not have the best server, but he eventually redeemed himself at the end of the night. It was just hard getting him to bring us water. We had good foods and then we hung out in the area for a little while attempting to stay out of the cold. It was a fun night. I came home and had no luck with my computer, but I ended up being up late watching Burn Notice before finally getting to bed. At least I have a late start tomorrow.

Dec 17, 2013

I looked for a job in the morning, but ended up deciding to take the day off. After staying up late and having a busy long weekend of nonstop working, I thought it would be nice. And I was right. I went back to sleep for a while and then got up and watched Burn Notice and How I Met Your Mother, not getting dressed or putting my contacts in until the afternoon when I went to meet Ryan at the gym. We did our usual bout of hand standing along with a mix of exercises throughout the gym. A girl in the group room gave us a suggestion about keeping our ankles together that really helped with our hand stands.

I spent a couple of hours editing wedding photos and then went to the movies to meet Chuck and Matt for Anchorman 2. I tried not to, but I went into it with high hopes and I was not disappointed. It was hilarious for the same reasons the first one was. It didn't seem like they beat anything to death, and the character dynamic was still great. There were definitely times when we were all cracking up. It was absolutely worth my money.

Dec 16, 2013

I ended up getting up and ready very early to go work at Vineland High School. I don't have a good idea of exactly how long it takes to get there yet. I went in for Child Study Team meetings and got my schedule then proceeded to sit in the teacher's lounge watching Burn Notice on the school WiFi that my new sub friend gave me the password for. She was very chatty but nice. I ended up only covering two classes the whole day and I was out an hour or so early. Pretty sweet deal.

I came home to eat and relax for a short while before leaving for West Chester's graduate studies graduation. I got there a little late, but I still managed to be the second person of the four of us to show up. No big surprise I guess, but I like being on time. We did our setup, but we added a spot for shooting because Masters program graduates get hooded. I got to shoot the hooding since it was something I hadn't done yet.

It was not hard really, but the timing had to be precise, and some people were not cooperative. One of the dignitaries would always whisper something congratulatory into the grad's ear and they would end up looking to the left in all the photos. Another dignitary always took a huge step to the left when he put their hood on so he was always out of frame. Those things were just annoying.

Once we finished, cleaned up, and said goobye I was off to a coffee shop downtown near the Iron Hill we ate at yesterday. I met Jess, who was walking down the street with a slew of Santas behind her. I asked the barista for a suggestion and she mentioned some caramel thing that sounded fantastic so I went with that. She made a good choice. We sat in there enjoying our beverages while we talked about travel plans and working for Cirque again sometime.

After the somewhat long drive home I went to Johanna's to finally watch Live Free or Die Hard. I wanted to wait to watch it for her, but she was renovating her space and that took a long time. We watched and had a few beers. We did more talking than watching, but the movie itself seemed hard to follow anyway. I guess I'll need to watch it again while I'm paying attention, but I think it wasn't that good. It was fun hanging out with her again though and now we need to plan to watch the other ones in the series again.

Dec 15, 2013

The drive to West Chester was nice since there is very little traffic early on a Sunday. I listened to a few episodes of The Moth podcast and I was there before I knew it. And before anyone else. Once the others got there we set up our flag backdrops, got our cameras together and I started shooting PR. That just means I go around shooting everyone I can for bonus photos until the ceremony begins and then I have to shoot everyone who walks up to the podium and award things. It wasn't too bad, but the commencement speaker went on for way too long. At least he was funny.

We hid our stuff away quickly and headed to Iron Hill Brewery for lunch. They happened to have a sour called Funkadelphia on tap so I immediately decided to get that. I was not disappointed. It is a fantastic beer, and it made me wish I could find sours more often. We got an appetizer and I got this awesome quinoa salad. It was a rejuvenating lunch to set me up for the rest of the job.

The next grad was definitely easier since I didn't have to do PR. I sat in back waiting until the graduates walked to do their posed flag pictures and then I was done. Nice and easy. On my way home I stopped to drop off DVDs from the Thanksgiving dinner I filmed. It was well-received and they plan to use me for future jobs so all good! I came home and couldn't decide for a while if I wanted to nap. When Ryan asked about going for a walk I had my answer. He brought Anya over and we walked around my neighborhood. It was a chilly but nice night, and that woke me up just enough to keep me up longer than I wanted to be.

Dec 14, 2013

We got up early, got all pretty, and got breakfast on the way to Kutztown University's field house. We did the usual setup, which seemed a lot faster and easier this time. I shot PR photos this time, which meant I went around shooting people before the ceremony and then all of the speakers at the podium.

In between speakers I helped Katie by showing grads how to hold their degrees in the photos. It seems easy, but people manage to hold it upside down or mess it up in one way or another. I wasn't totally comfortable with the PR shots in the beginning, but everything seemed fine with the stage photos. I guess we will see if I get any criticism about them. We packed up as quickly as we could after the shoot and headed out into the snow to head home. Luckily, the snow subsided as we got farther south and it didn't affect traffic.

I met Ryan at the gym later where we did a lot of jumping rope and then a lot more hand stands. We were there for quite a long while and it was fun. We went to his aunt's after that to play a game called Pandemic. There were a lot of rules to follow, but once we started playing it all made sense. I really liked that game.

We played a few rounds of darts, which we haven't played in a very long time. As usual, Ryan won a game and I won the next. We also broke out the chess board for a game. I would like to play more often now. I came home to do laundry and burn the DVDs to drop off in Delaware tomorrow. I should really be sleeping already.

Dec 13, 2013

The day at work wasn't so long today. We watched the same terrible Sweet 15 movie that the Spanish teacher always leaves when she is out. I was surprised that her classes weren't terrible though so that was a plus. After work I met Ryan at the gym for some TRX exercises and hand stands. We had to keep it quick so I could head up to the office through annoying rush hour traffic to meet Derrick.

Once I made it, we got on the highway and passed by most of the traffic on our way up to Kutztown. We checked in to the Hilton Gardens Hotel and then went next door to Florence for dinner. We had some good food with a soup and salad bar, and we both got desserts to go. Peanut butter chocolate mousse ganache thing.

I enjoyed my delicious treat in bed as I finished watching The Hobbit. It's always hard to actually get to sleep on time when I have to wake up early. Especially in a hotel. I just want to enjoy the peace for a while, but I never really feel like I can.