Let's get some shoes!

I finally started packing today, or at least getting ready to pack. I started by pulling everything out of my closet that I thought about taking and my maid helped me fold all my clothes. I then got out my shoes, and I'm pretty sure I'll be bringing too many pairs, but that's the fun of it! After choosing and folding, I went to run some errands, returning a few things I won't be needing, and buying a new bronzer brush. Once again, I bought more then I needed, but at least I'm satisfied with my purchases. I got make up brushes, make up, 3 shirts, sweatpants, leggings, sunglasses, spandex, and some headbands. I've realized that I've become almost obsessed with the color purple. Almost everything I've been buying ends up being purple, including my eyeshadow, lipgloss, shirts, sweatpants, dresses, duvet for my bed, and a headband. I also have a purple pair of shoes that I'm bringing, and a purple ski jacket. Oh well, at least I know the answer to "What's your favorite color?" because I've never had a straight answer for that.

WOW...Luby's

This would be my awesome step-sister Mary Grace. She's a junior in high school and I've only known her for like 3 years or so which is pretty interesting. She lives with my dad and step-mom in a huge 3 story house like 15 minutes from my mom's house, which is where I live full time (until this Saturday of course). As you can probably not understand, she is spelling "WOW" with her fingers and mouth because she is such a cool kid. We have a ritual where when we go to dinner, which only happens like once every 3 months, we go to a restaurant called Luby's, which is basically an old person cafeteria, but we still enjoy it!

Boogie Woogie

I was woken up this morning at 11:00 by a phone call from my dad inviting me over for brunch. He said Dominique Sachse (a family friend and the Channel 2 news anchor), so I decided to go since I hadn't seen her in a while and she was the one who got my Yao Ming picture on the news a few nights ago! Her son, Stiles (featured in the picture) was also there, but I hadn't seen him since he was less than a year old, so seeing him as a 5 year old scared me a bit. He was pretty obsessed with my dad's two dogs, Boogie and Woogie (also featured in picture) so I decided to take a picture of them because it was a pretty cute shot.

I also met with 3 other girls from the Houston area that are going to DU! We ate dinner at The Cheesecake Factory tonight and chatted for 3 hours! It was definitely a good idea to set up this dinner, so I'm glad I did! I actually learned a lot about Denver and rushing for sorority so I feel a lot more comfortable going into rush.

5 more days. Wow!

Girls Night

My aunt, uncle, and 2 cousins drove down from Austin this weekend to go watch the Texans play the Cowboys (Texans won!) Earlier this month, my cousin Daniel turned 12, so as a birthday present, my mom got him, his dad (my uncle), my grandfather, herself, and her fiance tickets to the game. So with my lack of invitation, I decided to stay with my aunt, 9 year old cousin Kendall, and my grandmother for the evening. Around 5:30, we went to get our nails done. My grandmother got a manicure, but the rest of us got pedicures. I personally think manicures are annoying and I don't have the patience to sit through them without being able to use my hands to text or itch my nose because it always gets itchy when I have to stay still. I chose to purple on my toes, my aunt got a red/orange, and my cousin got bright orange (featured in the photo above). It was only 6:30 when we finished with our nails so we decided to go shopping at Kohls. I ended up getting a few long sleeve t-shirts and a pair of leggings for when Denver actually gets chilly! After paying, we got in the car and weren't sure what to do. My aunt suggested getting frozen yogurt (my favorite thing in the world), so we headed to Swirll, my favorite store! I usually get a big cup and eat half and take the rest home for the next day, so that's just what I did. :)

When the family left, I had to say my "College Goodbyes," because they're different then regular old "see ya in a couple months" goodbyes.

One week left. It almost seems real now.

Back to high school

A week until I leave for college and I ended up back in high school.

Senior year, I took a photography class and I loved taking pictures outside of the assignment range. My teacher, who was also head of the newspaper, gave me a field pass to take pictures at football games all of last season. Since I'm still friends with my teacher and the year just began, she needed students to take pictures at the game tonight so I offered my free night for some fun work. I took just over 1025 pictures at the game, but I wasn't as satisfied as I usually am with how most of my pictures turn out. Many were blurry and none were as good as I had hoped, but I still had fun shooting. Other than students, parents and other photographers are able to get field passes, and for some reason tonight there were way too many for our side to shoot. That's another reason I wasn't able to get too many good shots; there were too many people in the way!

I got to see some of my friends who haven't graduated, so that was pretty fun getting all those hugs and "Why the heck are you still here?" looks. During the 4th quarter, the stadium lights went out for like 20 minutes so the game was postponed for that time. A lot of the crowd left since we were ahead by 34 and there was no way we could lose.

Anyways, like I said, my photos weren't so perfect so this is just one of the ones that I liked.

Montrose & Gelato

Why is it that every time I go shopping for one thing, I end up buying something else and not what I needed? It's a curse.

Today, I saw my friend Anna for the first time since graduation! I picked her up at the Houston Galleria where she worked at a Gelato store her family bought recently. We started the day off going to shop in Montrose, a very interesting part of town. It's full of thrift stores, tattoo shops, and people with very different style. It's fun to go to every once in a while, but not for too long because I feel like it starts to get a bit weird. I planned on getting a bunch of clothes at a store called American Apparel, but I didn't buy anything after trying on like 12 items. We walked a few stores down to a Japanese owned store, and I bought 2 random headbands and a necklace. We drove back to the Galleria and ate, but Anna had to go back to work so I shopped alone for a few hours after. No worries though, I had to buy her a birthday present anyways without her seeing so it worked out well. Of course, I ended up spending too much on myself rather than her gift (I still got her something cool though). So I bought myself 2 pairs of jeans and a coat, along with a necklace and some earrings for my sister, and Anna's gift which was a booze-cake book and a necklace with a glasses charm on it which reminded me of her because she has glasses.... yeah so cool, right?

That was pretty much my afternoon/evening. I didn't see anyone famous today, and I wasn't on the news (not that I know of at least). But the day was fun! 8 days until I leave for Denver :)

Oh, and this photo is from the Gelato store that Anna works at!

YAO MING

YAO MING, YAO MING YAO MING YAO MING, YAO MING, YAO MING.

I'm very short, 5'1 to be exact. Yao Ming is very tall, 7'6 to be precise. So there's no way I'm going to miss him walking around Best Buy on a Wednesday afternoon.

He wasn't too excited about everyone taking pictures of him, so I snuck this one. Also unfortunately, he didn't want to take pictures with anyone, so I wasn't able to get a picture standing next to him. Though if I did, I would have only reached to his elbow, if I was lucky. I've seen him before up close, but that was only on the basketball court when I sat in the floor seats. But considering there were so many other giants around him, well I still felt short, but the tall guys looked short too!

My favorite part about this picture is just the fact that he's playing a video game. Just imagine how small the controller would be in his monstrous hands! And it was pretty funny how whatever isle he walked down, you could see everything from his shoulders up right over the top of each shelf!

While walking out, I saw him get into his car which was just a normal SUV, but his wife was driving because he was sitting in the front seat with his feet on the floor and his knees reaching up to the window! He's such a giant.

THIS JUST IN::: this picture was just shown on Houston's channel 2 news with photo credit to me :) thank you Dominique Sachse

Streetlight

I've looked at that light for 18 years; it hasn't seemed to change. I have never lived anywhere else, and I'm about to move out to college for at least 4 years, and then who knows where I'll go? Yeah, I'll miss my home, but when I come back I know that light will still be there every night.

This light has been through some rough nights. To mention the most memorable: Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, and especially Hurricane Ike. This street was covered with fallen trees, but the pole seemed to stand throughout each storm. And Hurricane Ike was the only time I can remember that the light didn't shine. But when that light turned back on, it symbolized that it was time for life to begin again, even with all the tragedy in the area. So maybe it's just a big pole with a light bulb, but it definitely plays a role on the street.

Rain, rain, come and stay!

Do not drive and shoot. That's my advice for the day.

I've always been a fan of bad weather. Hurricane season is fun to sit through, even though it is completely dangerous and usually ruins a lot of houses. But each year, I'm always outside watching.

Today, I had just told my friend that I wouldn't mind a heavy rain storm, and lucky for me, that's just what I got this evening. I had been working out on an elliptical, staring outside the window for an hour watching the sky get darker when finally, the storm hit. For another 30 minutes, the rain fell, and the lightning struck. I was entertained.

As I left the Houstonian, the rain stopped falling, but the sky still looked pretty dark and full. Lightning had struck some of the stoplights in the area so there was a bunch of traffic on the way home. So this picture was taken on my iPhone, through the windshield of my mom's Smart car, in the middle of traffic, on a wet road. I do not recommend trying to capture the moment while in this situation, but I had to.

Albert

This is Albert. I just named him for this post because I realized he needed some recognition and I felt that the name Albert seemed appropriate. I almost stepped on him at the park, but he moved out of the way. He didn't go far though, so I started taking pictures of him and he was very cooperative as you can tell. This was one of the first days I've been outside this summer in the Texas sun. For the hour I was outside, I got a really nice tan line on my neck from my t-shirt. What an exciting day... sweating and taking pictures of a squirrel! I don't think I've ever been so close to a squirrel without it running away. I guess it was just my camera-lucky day in the eventful city of Houston, Texas. How many more days until Colorado...?

Good 'ol Texas

Finally, it's almost time for college where I get to leave Houston, Texas, my home of 18 years. To be honest, I don't remember ever seeing a sunset like this from anywhere in H-town. That's because I drove up to Austin for the weekend to meet some fellow Pioneers and this photo was taken atop a hill in a friend's backyard. Pretty different from home where all I can see in the sky is a bunch of clouds or fog most of the time. So I find this picture to be pretty special since I won't be seeing any more Texas sunsets, though I do assume that Colorado sunsets are just as beautiful. And I hardly ever use the word "beautiful" in a comment about Texas; I've never really liked the state. It's too hot. So, with that, let's get this show on the road! Denver here I come!!!

Personal Histories of Photography

I'm not sure that I've always had a passion for photography. Actually, at one point I believe I despised it because I couldn't get through a family trip without my dad stopping every few minutes to take pictures of me and my sisters or the scenery. But when I started taking pictures, I realized that taking pictures is more exciting then being in them. So for the last few years, I've enjoyed being behind the camera instead of in front of it. I'm excited to say that the first college class I've signed up for is indeed a photography class. I'll be either majoring or minoring in art with a focus in photography at the University of Denver, so this class is a perfect jump start to my college future.