table for one.

so i am "on business" in lewisburg, WV. oh, i feel so official. not really. so this is a shot of where i am staying. just kidding...i'm staying at the econo lodge because olan mills is paying for it. but i am thankful because it is no joke...3 minutes by car to the studio. i've had fleeting thoughts about how it would be nice to live here for a time because it's a rather artsy, small town place with GOOD FOOD. but then i give myself a reality check and say it's still west virginia. beautiful, but full of no diversity, which is important to me. if i could take melbourne, australia and crop into the size of blacksburg or a little bigger....i could be happy to call that place home. but in all my travels, i have no yet found that place. my friend ted said that when he was in west virginia, eating at applebees, a little girl was staying at him as if she had never seen a non-caucasian before. interesting. i say all this as if i am a non-caucasian. :) right now i am eating at stardust cafe, having a date with my laptop and sharing with life with you fine friends. eating by yourself gets less weird the more you do it. it's okay at wendy's or something. but at a restaraunt, it's a bit weird. there's this man (he's like 45 at least) and he's eating by hiself (minus a laptop). we both ate homemade bread with balsalmic vinegar and oil (it was awesome!). he commented to the waiter and i thought the same thing! i also thought, maybe i should go introduce myself and ask if i could eat with him. maybe not. i'm no that extroverted. i'd rather chuckle to myself outloud because i am typing furiously and stuffing my face with food at the stardust cafe. so i bet you are dying to know what i am eating: 1. penne pasta with pesto and sundried tomatoes
2. spinach side salad
3. yummy bread
4. coffee
5. water with lemon.


better go before the food's cold. thanks for keeping me company!

IT IS FINISHED

i know that basketball is just a game and i shouldn't let my favourite team losing effect me. but i am SO SAD! JJ Reddick is a local boy and it was his last tournament and his dream died. i feel for him.

MADNESS!!!!!

I AM MAD. I HAD KANSAS IN MY FINAL FOUR.
WHO'S BRADLEY ANYWAYS?

yes, this is my self-portrait. i like it. i had a very "adult" day. i don't know if i really *like* being an adult. i was late for work (this is very un-adult of me, but oh well, i over slept), only to find the studio manager was out sick and i was left in charge. oh my. i have never done a photo shoot by myself, or without anyone peering over my shoulder to make sure everything was okay. Needless to say, i survived. i even did two graduation photo shoots, which required much creativity for my tired little brain. i was experimenting this new lighting effect--i won't even bother to explain it--and the family bought this pose of their son for an 11X14 canvas. i guess they liked it to. seriously, it made my day. so i was listening to All that Jazz on NPR, but it switched to chamber music from Russia. not that i have anything against Russia, but i was hoping for more jazz. chamber music could result to potential sleepiness, which is not acceptable, because i still have things to accomplish. think i will switch to hip hop. tax time. :)

another way to procrastinate...try this quiz. Your Scholastic Strength Is Innovating

You are the master of new ideas, techniques, and ways of looking at things. You are talented at structuring thoughts, decision making, clarifying, and making deadlines. You should major in: Marketing Psychology Desgin Cognitive Science Economics Photography

What Should You Major In?

welcome to the "i have no idea what to do with my life" net group

i thank Jesus for friends. i went to my very first net group tonight. it was encouraging to know that misery really loves company. i was relieved to find myself not alone in the miry mud of broken human relationships and what feels like walking in the dark on a path that will lead me to the destiny God has for me. of course the truth is that God desires healing and reconciliation in all relationships and He wants us to use His Word as the flashlight to navigate the often rocky path of maturity. honestly, i feel like i like i'm in a cave sometimes because often caves only have entrances--you can only get out the way you came in. and caves are dark, damp, cold, lonely and the path you walk on can be really slippery--i.e. you can fall down in the mud. OR you can bang your head on a stalgcite if you're not careful to watch where you are going. so if my life is a cave right now, more than ever i need the illumination of His Word so i can see where i am going.
so my friend nat called me tonight and introduced me to some AWESOME new hip hop, Jesus style. so shai linne and flame are going to be my new ipod friends. :) thanks, nat.
sometime i think i'm adopted because i am the only one in my family who wanders. well...i guess we all wander in our own ways, but i LIKE to wander. for example, i have semi-concluded that my next places to wander to will be cape town, south africa for DTS training with YWAM and then hawaii for YWAM's School of Photography. of course i vowed to never again "make plans" because they enver seem to go the way you planned, but if i had to make a to-do list for the next several of years, doing those programs would be on it. the picture above is from cape town and i included a little blurb from mediavillage.com's website:
Media Village is situated in the quaint fishing village of Kalk Bay. Most maps will not even indicate the location, but take a look for Muizenberg, we are just two kilometers down the road. Kalk Bay is the creative maverick's paradise. Art stores, pottery studios and antique shops line the narrow road. Cobblestone alleys take you on adventure into dusty bookstores and cozy coffee shops. The area is filled with the history of early traders and fishermen, who still anchor their boats to the harbour wall at the end of the day.

another new addiction

here's an excerpt from what i have been studying in song of songs. the book is fantastic. i want to read it for the rest of my life.

I WILL GO...
The hill of frankincense is much smaller that the mountain of myrrh. In other words, even a small amount of prayer prepares us to embrace the large obstacles. The Lords pays well! The Lord hears our prayers because our voices are sweet to him. We need the hill of frankincense that speaks of prayer and fasting in seeking the Lord. The mountain of myrrh is too high without living on the smaller hill of frankincense. The hill is smaller than the mountain. The significance of this is that we don’t have to pray night and day for every temptation. A little bit of communion with the Lord does make an impact. A little bit goes a long way. God enlarges our prayers. We don’t need 24-hour prayer vigils for everything that we do. The Lord taught that prayer helps us to overcome temptations (Matthew 26:41). The commitment to ascend to the "mountain of myrrh" will never be effective without living in prayer on the "hill of incense" She understands her need to identify more deeply with His death. "I will go" (4:6). She commits to go to the mountain of myrrh. In other words, to leave the comfort zone, to embrace the sufferings of Christ. This speaks of her full resolution to embrace everything that the Lord puts before her in order to walk in full partnership with Him. In other words, there is nothing that will keep her from 100% obedience.