SatZ

I just got back from Catherines house. we watched 'hes just no that into you' and drank a little wine. it was a fun, relaxing, night in. it's so weird what a small world it is- i met catherine through bri who i worked with @ the ropewalk in nantucket- weird, huh? ANYWAY, catherine is hilarious, she has an awesome sense of humor that i can easily relate to.
SOO_ monday is my last day of spring semester 2010, then finals! :) Most of my finals should be pretty easy, not a lot of pressure because, surprisingly i have all A's in my classes sans one- macroeconomics. however, if i do well enough on my final I will get an A in that. I am shooting for a 4.0 this semester and REALLY hoping to achieve this. we shall see! i'll probably dedicate most of my time to my photo class because i enjoy that the most. this photo posted is a scanned version of a photo i printed today- still working on it and trying to get it right- i have to incorporate 2 techniques i've learned into this photo so i still need one other, still deciding what to add- any ideas? anyway- i could spend all day, everyday working on my photo final, i love it. i am kind of dreading studying for my other finals, ha.
so its confirmed that we have the house that we wanted for this summer. the lease starts May 15th- so i am still trying to figure out when to book my car reservation and get down to the island. I am unsure if i can start work earlier then discussed but i am going to find out because i would love to start early!
I found my old school wild life fact file book today (and my toothbrush bracelet, important to note) down in my basement and am SIKED. this fact file is amazing- all these little brochures about different animals, its AWESOME.

MUSIC HALL!!!!!!!

Check out the Music Hall tonight from 5-7 pm!!! Come out and support some of the best photographers in the region- Just so happens to include my brother Jamie's work!!!!! :)
Ya know what is amazing?? In Chopra's book, seven laws of success- he asks, If money was no concern and you had all of the time and money in the world, what would you be doing? And if you would still be doing what you currently do, then you are in dharma (purpose of life), because you have passion for what you do- you are expressing your unique talent. One of the things that I admire most about my brother Jamie is that I am 100% sure that if he asked himself that question, he would be doing exactly what he would be doing if money was no concern. He has so much passion for photography and he is fully in dharma- he has found his unique talent and passion to spread to humanity. He has discovered his divinity, and i could not be more envious! :)

Silly School

At school today from 8 am to 9 pm- i am dead tired and am coming to the realization that the next couple of weeks are going to be exactly the same.
There are many lights flashing at the end of the tunnel, however-- the return of my license in the near future (that makes it sound like i lost my license, which i didn't, i just lost the physical, actual license) anyway, ashies birthday slash reunion of some of my good girlyfriends. Umm some more lights include school being over, moving down to nantucket, gardening for the summer, oh and so many many many more :)
see, life is never so bad even after rough days, there are still good things to think about!

8 AM-Wednesday-April 28th.

*Oh bubbles*

*Half of my self-portrait*



*Bubble- picture is cut off*

*Window in Steph's Brooklyn Apartment*


*Jackson Hole, WY*


*Self portrait or crazy woman?*

Is it at all weird that I sat in silence for about 20 total minutes, spacing out and all that i could think about was how I wished it was 8 am on Wednesday April 28th? Why, you might ask? That's when my photography class is (Monday and Wednesdays) and I literally am itching to get there. I've never felt this way about anything- i don't recall the last time i've felt this much passion for something. I want to be in photography class all of the time, developing film, printing negatives, learning new techniques. I cannot even describe the excitement that I get just thinking about it. Some days it is truly hard for me to pull myself away. Many days I stay after my 3 hour class to continue on- I rarely get sick of it. At times it can be frustrating but it doesn't last very long. I am so glad that I took this class because it has opened me up to a world that I never thought would interest me this much. It's an amazing feeling discovering a new love.

ACK!

*photo taken by Ashley Kretschmar*

*Photo taken by Ashley Kretschmar*

Awesome photos, huh?
Agh, I love this time of year when everything starts to get settled with Nantucket and it is no longer on my list of To Do:
I recently got hired for a gardening crew for this summer and could not be more excited!! I am really looking forward to many aspects of gardening such as being outside, working long hard hours, routine, hourly pay (haha), working with other people and many other reasons! I am SIKED. Although I have my place here in narragansett until the end of May, chances are Nantucket's forceful power with get me there much sooner than that. Not only do I have a thrilling job lined up, but we are also getting housing all worked out. The family that Ashley nannies for is hooking us up with an awesome place this summer and if all goes according to plan, ashley, janie, erin and I will be living in a cozy, warm, bug-less (sorry paul) house with two dogs (bailey and petri) how exciting is THAT- i know, i know. I am very excited to live with ashley and erin this summer as well as I love them both to death- jane you know i love you too. Shall be fun :) I am really looking forward to this summer. It is going to be a much more low-key summer. My focus and priorities are on work and saving money and having down time, unlike every other summer that I've grazed nantucket. We really wanted to live somewhere this summer that encouraged nights in and chill time- and this seems to be a fitting aboad! Hopefully we'll get a lot of visitors, we love visitors :)

Bronica

*Bronica open- when taking the picture you look down into that little box and it shows you the image*

My mom let me borrow her old Bronica camera to test it out and take some photos with it. its a medium format camera and it holds 120 or 220 film. Currently I have 120 loaded in there so it exposes 12 images- the 220 exposes 24. Since this will be my first roll with this camera I think it's better to start off with less to see how I do. I am not sure how I will be developing this kind of film yet because I have only used kodak 400 tx- my photography teacher knows how though so she will be showing me how. I am wicked excited to take a roll of film with this camera because it takes very crisp, sharp images. My mom actually took my highschool senior photos with this camera. She also used to shoot weddings with this back in the day- crazy huh? Luckily the Bronica has a back up, back so that you can just remove the back and load on another back that has the film preloaded so that she didnt have to waste time loading more film. I think its so amazing that cameras like this not only are still around but work just great! This camera actually seems to be a primitive form of a digital camera because as you can see, the part the pops up on the top, you look down into that and it shows you the image that you are focusing on- its VERY neat. My mom also ha a variety of lenses and filters that go with this camera so I can't wait to try them all out.
On another note, yesterday the brakes in my car gave out while I was driving. Luckily I was not driving terribly fast but it was pretty scary. My foot was pressing the brakes all the way down and i was gliding- ehhh. anyway, I was right near the nissan dealership and was able to make it over there to drop off my car so it is in the shop now. I am currently rocking a rental car- i hope my baby is ok. *baby=car. I love my car so much but its been making really weird noises and shaking so I hope they can fix her up!

Chopra's Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

*Again, I realize this is backwards*
Just returned from another run/meditation at the beach- ahh, again, so rejuvenating.
I have a feeling this book that I am reading could really be life changing. I am reading one law per day and attempting to practice it the next day. The first law of pure (self) potentiality challenged me to go through a day with no judgment. I generally have lived my life trying not to judge people but wow, this was a very difficult task. I did not realize that my internal voice was so loud and filled with some thoughts that i am not proud of. It was hard to not judge anyone or anything throughout the day but I think by the end of the day I started getting better at it, which means that by the end of the week i'll improve and hopefully rid my mind of negative thoughts. I think that it can really improve my life without those types of thoughts. The second law of success that I moved on to was the law of giving- this law challenged me to give something to everyone I came in contact with throughout the day. Not necessarily something materialistic but giving someone something like a compliment, a flower or even a prayer/blessing in your head. This was also difficult. I wondered how people would react to me giving them something and to be honest, i felt a little uncomfortable. So for the most part, I practiced giving people prayers/blessings in my head but I am going to try harder tomorrow to give people more!
Point is, this is an amazing book and I think I have a lot to learn from it!