iced out bench

iced in - one heck of a weekend

thursday

went to placement. it was a pretty typical day until after lunch, when i was working with one of the students on his multiplication facts. i'd noticed him counting on his fingers every time he subtracted something, no matter how easy of a problem it was, so i told him he needed to memorize them and practice them every day. we worked on the 2 times tables, and within 5 minutes he knew them frontwards and backwards. he had a smile on his face that i never want to forget. it said "hope." i've definitely picked the right career. i don't expect it to ever feel like a job. when it doesn, i think i'll retire.



so brett and i pulled out of milledgeville at about 3 on thursday afternoon headed for augusta. got to the hotel a little before 5, changed rooms once to get one where the internet worked. i played guitar a little before heading to an executive board meeting at a friggin' huge house in a really nice country club. the meeting lasted about 5 hours. i got there 15 minutes early and was one of the last to leave. i think people were suprised at how friendly i was, because apparently they don't like the students, but i couldn't tell. i went back to the hotel, ironed my clothes on a wrinkly ironing board (yeah, makes it a little harder) and got in bed around 1:30.



friday

woke up at 5:30 on friday morning, got a shower, got dressed, tied my tie about 8 times until i was satisfied with the knot, grabbed some danishes and a banana and headed for the conference center. we got there really early to help set up registration and met some students from augusta state (they got elected later, so i'll be working with them over the next year). the sessions went well, i learned a lot, met more people. it's funny hearing people introduce me as "this is our state student president." chris lee, a guy with a learning disability who dr. jackson worked with at uga was the key note speaker, and he was absolutely hillarious, entertaining, and inspiring. after lunch we had some more sessions and our student business meeting where we had elections and i was no longer president-elect. after that i tried to go back to the hotel to take a nap while some folks went to see a presentation at the medical college of georgia, but instead i got lost in the ghetto and didn't get back to my hotel until about 30 minutes later. for those of you who haven't heard, i have the worst sense of direction. we were supposed to go ice skating that night, i had suggested we do that because students would be more likely to do that than a service project. turns out no one wanted to go, so i didn't even go. i met everyone for dinner at wild wing, and dr. jackson informed me that they were expecting me to go ice skating, but she wouldn't let me leave. she told me i should stay and eat and call them to let them know i would be running late. so we had a good ol' time eating and headed back to the hotel around 9:30, exhausted. brett said i was asleep by 10.



saturday

woke up fearing the worst from the ice storm. my car was coated in the stuff, but the roads were still good, so we took our time getting to the conference center. people were freaking out over the weather and half of our group decided to go back early. i sat in on an all-morning autism forum for the first half of it. after not hearing anything new, i took the handy folder full of stuff that they had given me and hung out in the vendors' area until lunch. at lunch i discovered how awkward it is to eat on a stage in front of about a hundred people (most had left fearing the weather). we got "honked" into office after hearing a story about how geese fly together and i won a door prize that i gave away. (it was water color paint, but only one color). afterwards we mingled and made a lot of good contacts. we heard from those in our group who had left. initially they got stuck on the interstate and weren't allowed to exit because of the nasty conditions. some eventually made it back to milledgeville, others got scared and stopped at the closest hotel. the rest of us? we had the most fun i have had in months. brett and i walked along the river walk looking at the various ice formations and taking pictures (until my batteries in my digital died, man i wish i had taken my nice camera and new lens!)



we went up to the girls hotel room and sat around talking and watching tv for a few hours. then we went to dinner with the state president melanie and a guy named mike who's worked with cec for some absurd number of years, serving at every position you can imagine, as well as working for other organizations that serve children with disabilities. we had so much fun at dinner, then went and got dessert. we ran into the seniors from our school who didn't look like they were having near as much fun as we were, wished them a safe journey home, and went back to the fun. after numerous stories and laughs, we said goodnight and brett and i headed to some new friends from uga gwinnett's hotel room. they offered us an air mattress on the floor which was a lot nicer than the floor our girls had to offer.



sunday

we woke up at about 9 this morning, left the girls a note and some money, took a picture with a camera we found laying on the counter, and headed for waffle house. i kid you not, it was the most amazing waffle house experience ever. the place was full, and there was only one cook, but we got our food in 3 minutes. they had a greeter with all kinds of buttons of flare, everybody worked together in the most efficient way i've ever seen, and the food was the best i've ever had at a waffle house. we left, heading for the girls' hotel to help them load the car and head back to milledgeville, but of course we got lost and drove around until we found some roads that we recognized.



i got back to my apt and the power was out, so after unloading my car, i crawled into my sleeping bag, threw some blankets on top, and took a nap. when i woke up my i went over to my neighbors' for the first time and hung out with kimberly and emily and emily's dog josie (josie hates blue). we talked about getting a hotel room if the power wasn't on by tonight, but thankfully at about 6 it came back on. i've had enough adventures for one weekend. thankfully, dr. jackson cancelled our classes tomorrow since we've all had a crazy 4 days.



morals of the story:

1) being nice to people really pays off. you can't please everyone, and some people will get upset with you. what you have to do is stick with your gut, and unless you realize you're wrong, be happy with what you've done because you know it's the right thing. i went into this weekend stressed and worried, and came out of it with thicker skin but a warmer heart.

2) you can get to know someone more by spending a few hours with them in their hotel room than you can over the months outside of it.

3) this next year as the scec president is going to be awesome!



never did i dream being iced in would be such a wonderful experience.

"even when you're talking inches, it means a mile to your heart." those of you in 609 know what i mean.

special ed is for me

another long day, but much more fulfilling than yesterday. don't get me wrong, i enjoy helping my cohortmates and doing cec stuff, but yesterday felt like too much. today was the reward for all the crap i did yesterday: the realization that i will be an effective teacher. dr. j came by to visit today and she and my host teacher talked for about 20 minutes. it was mostly about no child left behind stuff, but there was a little praising jason in there which was much needed. i never really understood how much i need encouragement and simple words of affirmation (to steal a love languages term). for those of you who tell me you enjoy my pictures, songs, or just simple things like "have a good day," they mean the world to me and i cherish them.



speaking of cherishing things. i really cherish my free time now. i got home, took blue to the park (never heard from jessica and hudson, oh well, maybe some other time), caught up on some e-mails from department chairs and cohort folks, and by 6 when i sat down to eat, i felt like i had earned it. i'm learning how to be more organized -- i have to be just to survive. i'm hoping i'll get used to it soon and get out of that survival mode to where i can thrive, but until then, i think staying busy is having a positive effect on my mental health. i don't have time to sulk.



part of placement today that was so moving was learning about the abuse that one of my kids received when he was younger (he's 8). we're talking physical (hot water, beating, bleach, drugs), sexual (doing things to his parents), and obviously emotional. when i saw him after hearing that i just wanted to hug him and hold him and tell him everything would be ok, no one will ever hurt you again. i think i've found the right career path.



happy picture! (from my last placement)

long, long long, long day

school is kicking my butt right now. i don't really have that much work, it's just we're in class from 8:30 to 3:30 2 days a week, and at a school from 7:45 to 3:45 every day, i don't have me time anymore. when i got home today i started firing off e-mails about cec stuff . i'm also apparently "mr. technology" in the cohort, so i get stuck with compiling a list of websites and descriptions for our technology class which is proving more difficult than i thought it would. at this point i've sent 30 e-mails just tonight. ho well, enough about that.



blue and i went running today. i used the headcollar that i got him and it's amazing. the chain choke collar wasn't doing any good anymore but the headcollar works great as long as he doesn't slip out of it. i think it's a little big. he did really well with it, but after running about a mile and a half got sick of it and refused to sit down to let me put it back on. he was stubborn about it for 5 minutes or so, but i stayed there until he did it. never give in. i can't wait for my behavior management class, i feel like i already know so much after working with kids with autism and taking applied behavior analysis as a psychology course last spring. and i'm back to talking about school...



jessica brought her dog hudson to school today. he's a gorgeous great dane, with these tiger stripes. i asked if i could take his picture sometime and she said yeah. i might even be able to talk her into letting me take her picture. we'll have to wait and see. blue and hudson are going to play together tomorrow when jessica and i get out of our placements. that should be entertaining. scooby doo and and scrappy too!

shadow

here's another old one that mcginnis shot in one of my cd photoshoots. and no, there's still no cd.

lonely soul

oldie but goodie

i took this one last year, but it's still one of my faves.

2 favorites from the weekend

here's 2 good shots from the weekend. i'm sick of looking at them!

have a flower!

this is my favorite pic of the photo shoot. i mean, i got some great shots of the guys, but i got kinda tired of going through 8 rolls of guys.

voodoo?

2 bird (maybe fish?) skulls that are just hanging from some trees right next to blue's poop spot. i see them at least 3 times a day and finally decided to shoot them one night. that's like a 30 second exposure because the street lights are pretty bright.



i did 2 photo shoots this weekend, a gay guy and a straight guy. who was the bigger diva? that's right the straight guy. he got here late and i told him that we needed to hurry, that he should grab 2 shirts and we should leave so we could catch the light and the sunset. instead, he decided to shave, and iron his clothes, and... i don't want to get all the details but we only took a few shots before it was too dark and we'll just have to wait and see how they came out with the flash. we took 2 rolls in my bootleg studio that i set up in my dining room, complete with a small lamp to light the background (consisting of a bed sheets, also from walmart), 2 cheap work lights covered with an old t-shirt that i cut up, a folding stool, and i put a clear film canister with a slit cut out of it over my flash to soften it a little. i'm very curious to see how those came out. and if i need to get a tungsten filter for electric light settings.



this morning, i met my old roommate at sunrise and went to the park; using the lake, trees, playground, whatever for backgrounds. then we went to this place where an old school used to be, all that's left now is the foundation. there's an old walking bridge that goes over the road that makes a caged in fence that i've always wanted to shoot at. we also went on campus at gc&su and shot around some old brick buildings. some poor plant (azalea maybe?) took last week's warm weather as a sign to bloom and had some gorgeous pink flowers littering the ground. they matched his pink shirt and tie, and of course i got some macro shots while he was changing jackets.



i'm such a nerd, and even though i tried to stay away from the technical side of things, i still babbled. to sum it up, it was fun, but i found myself losing inspiration after about 30 minutes both days. maybe i should just pace myself or maybe i should find a sexy lady to shoot. you be the judge.



i get the pics back tuesday. i'm going to go back to the lake with some bread to entice the geese and ducks into posing. maybe i'll buy a telephoto lens after my singing-for-a-youth-group gig on the 29th. y'all should come hear me.

wet web

foggy house & swingset post

it wasn't foggy out, my lens was fogged up, so i took 2 shots to experiement

ae1

two

reflection

open

apeture

biopic

i'm gonna write a movie script loosely based around my life. it'll be a drama with some dark, self-deprecating comedy. it'll have screwed up families, sickness, surgeries, bullying, nerds, and depression. it will have 2 coming of age parts, the first being the college years. the main character will get over his fear of girls near the end of high school, and that confidence will get out of control. we'll see him get obsessive about his first true love and then watch it wreck his life. he'll start relationship after relationship only to watch them all crumble down. he'll finally figure out what it means to be passionate about something and he'll pick a career path and dive into it head first. but he'll still struggle with relationships and have this trail of broken hearts behind him and scars on his own heart. in the second coming of age part, the quarter life crisis, he'll meet an angel who explains to him that he's never truly committed to anything in his life, and than until he decides to dedicate all his focus to wholeheartedly loving someone, he will never be happy. the grass is not greener on the other side. there is no other side.



okay life, imitate art.



coming very soon: my photoblog (i'll separate the words and images, and the photos will link to a huge online community that i'm addicted to browsing through www.photoblogs.org)

resolutions

i don't usually do these, but here they go. i don't think i can really fail any of these, they're just thing i should be continually working on.



1. be nice to people, trying to start on the right foot with everyone and mend anything when it arises

2. recycle

3. write happier songs

4. take careless pictures

5. be a leader by serving others

6. read my bible

7. be less cocky about things

8. be more confident in my abilities in things i'm self-conscious about

9. get out of my apartment more

10. catch up with old friends



there, that wasn't so hard.