you might remember here, here, and here when i talked about battling illiotibial band syndrome last fall. i was supposed to do the portland marathon on 10/10/10, but two weeks before the race, i decided to postpone it and try again for the eugene marathon on 5/1/11. i started training for eugene in mid-december and i did well for about two months before my i.t. band started acting up again... but on the other leg! ugh. so, for the last month, i have hardly been running, i have been on prednisone, been to the doctor, and been to the physical therapist. in fact, this is what one gets for going to see the physical therapist (she did graston on me). nice, huh?
anyway, here is my dilemma... on friday (two days from now), i have to tell team in training if i want to "recommit." this means that i agree to continue to train and do the marathon on may 1st. they will register me for the event and book a hotel.
the problem is that i ran on the treadmill tonight for 30 minutes and now i can barely walk, especially to get up and down the stairs. obviously, this presents a problem if i want to try and run for 4 1/2 hours straight.
i have to admit that despite the knee pain, despite the GIGANTIC bruise on my leg, despite the doctors and the physical therapists, i so stubbornly want to do this race! i want that finishers shirt, darn it! and i want to check it off my "things to do before i turn 30" list.
anyway... just needed to get that out. thanks for listening.
p.s. on a completely different note: if anyone wants to learn spanish, come on over! chad has spanish language cd's playing and we also now have post-it notes all over the apartment with spanish words on them. :)
when we were riding in the car last weekend, chad asked me what i was thinking about and i replied with, "joni kabana's blog post about photographing in developing nations." in her post, she talks about how people in africa experience joy in life like americans never experience. "often people will break out in song and dance, expressing pure and unadulterated elation." i have often thought that, when viewing photos from developing nations, there is a happiness in the faces of people there that we don't experience in this country. they have so few material possessions, but hearts that are full of happiness and joy. it seems that here in america, it is the opposite. we have more than we could ever ask for, and yet we still complain.
i also can't help but think about how disconnected we are in this country. we're disconnected socially (we're so wrapped up in our blackberries and iphones, we've completely forgotten how to interact face-to-face), agriculturally (there aren't many foods that we eat that wasn't first put through a lab), and physically (it's not uncommon to hear about how someone bought the latest and greatest video game system or the new flat-screen tv with a sharper picture. heck, we even have video games that supposedly help get us in shape. god forbid we actually go outside and walk around.).
i can't help but think that with all of our gyms, our top-of-the-line healthcare systems, our fad diets, we still couldn't physically do what ethiopian men and women do every day just to live. the physical strength they need to collect wood to build a fire so they can cook their food, or so that they can walk to collect water, or so that they can walk for days just to get to a hospital. it's beyond what any of us in this country could ever imagine.
when i mentioned this to chad, he had some interesting insight. he said that they put all of their effort in to just living... getting from day to day. whereas americans (or the developed world in general) take our shelter, food, water, clothing, for granted. it's just there, provided for us at the store, or out of the tap. he said that americans are looking for something else to fill the time other than just living. they're looking for the next level.
it's a valid point. however, the more i think about it, the more that i realize that is exactly what i DON'T want to do: fill the time with meaningless things (blackberries, video games, reality tv) instead of living. i want to know what it feels like to experience "pure joy and unadulterated elation." i want to seek joy. so, how do i get to that "next level" without using technology to get me there? how do i stay connected, socially, agriculturally, physically, spiritually? most importantly, what can i do to help people?
tell me, what do you do to seek joy in your life?
my photography class met this morning at the oregon museum of science and industry (omsi) in portland for a field trip. monday is our last class, so our goal today was to take 3 - 5 photos to share and explain why they are interesting.
i'm not sure why they're interesting, but here they are. i must admit that i was feeling a bit uninspired at omsi, especially with such a broad assignment (pretty much anything i wanted to shoot). that said, i tried panning for the first time and i liked how they came out. another observation: i also really need to work on incorporating people into my photos and getting over my fear of asking to photograph them. photos with people in them are so much more interesting and dynamic.
so, i mentioned a couple of months ago that i have been working on implementing dave ramsey's baby steps into my financial life and i'm on step two: list your debts smallest to largest and pay them off as a 'debt snowball.' (chad is working on step 3 since he is already debt free.)
i'm happy to announce that debt number two was paid off just moments ago. so, i now have $0 in credit cards and $0 in car loans! YES!
there are still two student loans for me to work on, though, while chad continues on his savings plan for our emergency fund and a "one last hurrah before kids" trip to south america at the end of this year.
it's a slow process (or at least it seems that way), but we are getting there little by little. it will be so worth it in about 16 months when everything is paid off and we have a fully stocked emergency fund!
if you're in san francisco before april 17th, i highly recommend checking out the wine exhibit at the san francisco museum of modern art. if you have even the slightest interest in wine, i think you will find it highly interesting.
it amazes me how small the world wine industry is (in terms of how closely different wine producing regions and countries are connected). for example, the first photo below shows the peregrine winery in central otago featured in a winery architecture exhibit in san francisco. the fact that i've been inside that winery and i was seeing it on display in the states just fascinates me. it's a small world after all...
this is a portrayal of the "judgement of paris" tasting in 1976:
i was working on my photography assignment this week to take a photo of someone i don't know. what did i learn from this assignment? that it's really unnerving to take photos of people when you haven't asked. plus, they turn out better when you do ask... and a photography class is a very good excuse for taking photos of random people. they don't seem to think you're as much of a creeper as they otherwise could.
this was a study on wine label design. you can see how they have it divided up by categories:
a rather humorous wine label on display:
great quote from wine writer matt kramer:
chad and i had a GREAT day in sonoma county! we visited seven wineries today: seghesio, rochioli, copain (I ♥), j vineyards, ridge, bella, and sbragia.
it was a little bit hit-and-miss, but our favorites by far were copain and sbragia. ridge was a very close third. the guy pouring at j vineyards wins the style award, though.
tonight we're going out for a vietnamese dinner! having so much fun and loving my husband! i'm a lucky girl. :)
chad and i just returned last night from eugene, oregon where we attended the oregon wine symposium. here are a couple of shots i took while there. the one of the guy on the computer was for my photography class assignment this week (to take a photo of someone i don't know). i really like what's going on with the three guys in the background.
i'm sure all my friends in the midwest are going to laugh at this, but i had a pretty slow commute this morning after snow fell overnight last night. unlike the midwest, we do not have many snow plows, nor do they use salt here, so the roads (especially the country roads going to the winery) were very much covered in snow this morning and fairly slick. add to that a 700 foot decline down a mountain and i was very glad to have had anti-lock brakes this morning that worked!
the benefit of all of this was getting to the winery before anyone else and taking pristine photos without car tracks in the driveway or footprints in the snow. here is a selection for your viewing pleasure (these are unedited and i am still learning to meter for snow, so forgive me!):
my assignment for my photography class this week was to take a portrait of someone i know using only natural light and shooting in manual mode. my beautiful friend and former roomate, dari, was gracious enough to let me use up a couple of hours of her time this morning to take some shots of her and her entourage, including her horse, smoke, and her puppies, strom (great dane) and sloan (doberman).
like i've heard from reading about taking portraits online, it takes a few minutes for both the photographer and the subject to get warmed up. that was true this morning, but once we got going, i think we got a few good images! this spot in front of the barn was the 'money spot' of the day! it was awesome!
since my 30-day lightroom trial has run out and i haven't purchased the full program yet, i tried editing these in photoshop. then i decided that i was doing more harm than good, so i scrapped that idea and just posted these straight out of camera. enjoy!
dari rode smoke in the arena for a little bit. i really loved this photo and i thought i'd also give it a whirl in the vintage finish. like usual, i think i like the vintage better.
and speaking of vintage, here are three glamour shots that i did in a vintage finish... her outfit was to. die. for.
that said... yes, i know the light is far too bright!! as soon as i put all the photos from the shoot up on my computer, i started thinking about all of the things i would have done differently throughout the morning. i guess that's why they call it 'practice,' right?
showing smoke a little love...
when i was looking at this on the camera screen, i commented that smoke looked a bit like a camel here - LOL. but i actually really like this shot.
her is dari with her fur baby, strom. despite what you might think from his massive size, he really is a sweetie!!
here is the whole johnson clan... andrew, dari, sebastian, strom and sloan.
