Photos

Mark and I have been having a great time taking photos during the few free moments that I am carving out of my study schedule. This last weekend we went out to the desert, once during the day, and once at night on the full moon, hiked around a bit and took some nature shots. It is really hard to find something interesting to catch the frame in the desert, so we didn't get anything. The night shoot was more productive because there was so much moonlight. We hiked to the top of South Mountain and got some shots overlooking the town. They turned out really strange because the city sort of looked like daytime, but with everyone's porch lights on and stars out.

Then, later in the weekend, after going to Savers for dressing accessories, we had another photo shoot of me. It was really fun. I got a pink wig and fairy wings that match a dress I got from Grandma Zola. We're going to retake them with different make-up because the pink in the wig clashes with my olive skin.

Mark made this scrapbooking page (he calls it a photo layout to secure his masculinity) of our first photo shoot. As I noted before, you can check out the tons of excellent shots on his blog or better, his flickr account.

In the next few days, Mark will be posting the winning shots of our weekend shoot. There were not as many. I am posting this one that I like of which he isn't a fan.

Now both of our hobbies include photo editing so we got a new 160 gig external hard drive that I am really excited about and put photoshop on the laptop (so we can both work at the same time.) It is awesome.

Some updates on other topics...

I found out that my next sitting for my exam is Nov 3o, not Nov 8, so I have a little more time to study than I thought. I am still trying to average 4-6 hours per day and still keep up my grades in my classes at school as well as I can.

I have been trying to apply for jobs. It is a lot harder to find jobs that I am qualified for without that exam under my belt. I have found and applied for a couple and applied for a few more that would like the exam with the added cover letter line of pleading to consider the expectation that I will have it in the near future. My biggest setback so far is that we are not very flexible about our location. We would like something in the Los Angeles area so that we can be near Scott. There are TONS of jobs in San Fransisco. However, for someone on a starting pay salary, San Fransisco would be harder than Los Angeles in terms of increase to cost-of-living.

There are a lot of unknown factors playing a part in our near future. I'm a planner-type person, so I don't like the uncertainty or having so little control of so many things. Mark is so laid back. He keeps saying, "let's just see what happens." I could take lessons on mellow from him.

I arranged an o.k. carpool situation that costs less than gas and insurance to keep the Escort on the road, so the problem with the engine going out last week is resolved. It's not a perfect arrangement but it will do for the short term need until we move.

I'm also back to cycling regularly since I am no longer trying to attend my college classes. Just by not going, I get to sleep when my body needs it and be productive for the 6 hours of the day that I couldn't function on the other schedule. I get a lot more effective study in as well.