I wasn’t in North Carolina for terribly long, but the drives were exhausting. I helped my grandpa drive on the way down to NC and back. Today, I drove from somewhere in West Virginia back to Ohio where they live. From there, I also had to drive an extra hour to get home to my house. Finally pulling into my driveway felt so good. It’s nice to return to familiar settings when you’ve been gone a little while. Now that I’m home, I have to get back into gear. I have an interview to prep for on Wednesday that I’m pretty excited about!
Monthly Archives: April 2012
73 // Old Photos
This is Sunday’s post.
On Sunday evening, after Jessica and her fiancee left, as well as my Uncle and Millie (their dog), it was just my grandparents and my Aunt Sherri and I left in the house. That night, my aunt asked me to look through a huge box of old photos to try and find a few good ones of Jess to be used at her wedding. I got to look back through tons of pictures, some featuring just Jessica, or showing her with her sister Jenna and her brother Ray. Some of the photos made me sad because I really miss Ray a lot, but it was nice seeing all of the memories. Myself and some of my other cousins (Nicole and Danielle) also made some appearances in photos too.
72 // Cucumber Sandwiches
This is Saturday’s post.
Saturday was my cousin Jessica’s bridal shower. I’ve been to a handful of bridal showers thus far, but Jess’s was definitely the most fancy that I’ve seen. A bunch of ladies from her church threw her this one, and they had all kinds of cute little light lunch fare scattered about on a nice table. There were little brie cheese quiche things, cake pops, champagne and wine punch, cheese biscuit cookies, fruit, and my personal favorite- the cucumber sandwiches. I need to learn how to make these things, because man were they good. Me and Jess couldn’t stop eating them. Oops.
71 // Driving in the Daytime
I’ve been MIA on this blog all weekend due to being out of town. So here goes!
Friday kicked off my trip out to North Carolina to attend my cousin Jessica’s bridal shower. My grandparents and I drove up on Friday from Ohio. We left at around 6 in the morning, and were able to make it to North Carolina by 3:30 PM. This never usually happens. More often than not, anytime I can remember driving to NC, we always end up driving through the night or something and don’t get there until 2 in the morning. It was actually nice being able to get in early enough that we weren’t all exhausted. We got to hang out with all of our family members (at least the ones who were there this weekend) so that was good.
70 // Adobe Flash
My tumultuous relationship with Adobe Flash started a few years ago. In the beginning, we were awkward around each other. Eventually we grew more comfortable, but the honeymoon period was cut short. Distance and time away from each other was too straining. Our long-distance relationship morphed into a complete cold-shoulder, freeze out. We never crossed paths again for a while.
Until last night. I’ve been working on a project recently that requires me to get back in the saddle with Adobe Flash. Last night, I sat at my computer cursing the people who made the program. It’s not the easiest to pick back up. But I kept at it, and I eventually produced a finalized, polished piece that looks pretty good in my opinion. The skills seemed to come back to me, and as I tweaked things this morning, everything began falling into place.
It’s nice sometimes to delve back into programs you used to know decently well. I have a feeling that brushing up on Flash even more would be a good idea. Perhaps we can fall back in love again.
69 // Horror Movies
This is yesterday’s post. Oops.
Yesterday was jam packed full of cinematic endeavors. I went with my friend Morgan to see a double feature. I’ve honestly never done that before, so it was actually kind of cool to see two movies in the span of one day. Same theater. But the first one we saw, The Cabin in the Woods, was probably my favorite of the two we viewed.
I’ve always been a fan of horror movies. I’ve sat through some that are pretty good (see: scary) and some that are completely disastrous (see: nearly every movie my friends Tim and Dustin forced me to sit through in high school). Luckily, Cabin in the Woods fell into the ‘good’ category. What I most liked about it was that it wasn’t taking itself too seriously.
Was it a little gory for my liking? Yes. Was there a scene of gratuitous nudity, as there always seems to be with the genre? Yes. But other than that, the plot was incredibly clever. For a horror movie, it was actually really funny too. I was rooting for some of the characters, and the ending was kind of a strange little twist. I guess this film was written by the same guy who wrote Buffy, and it showed.
I walked out of the theater pretty pleased with having watched the movie. I’d rank it as one of the favorite horror movies I’ve seen in a while.
68 // My Honorary Niece and Nephew
Being as I have no siblings, that means I don’t get to have the incredibly fun experience of having any legitimate nieces or nephews. That also means that unless I marry a guy with at least one sister or brother, my kids won’t have any cousins. That just won’t do. Therefore, any person I marry absolutely can not be an only child.
Why is this relevant? Today, I got to help my Grandma watch two of my favorite tiny people on the planet. Noah and Annie. They are my cousin Kristie’s kids. I consider my cousins my stand-in siblings, therefore Noah and Annie have become two stand-in nephew and niece types. I love all of my cousins’ kids, but I get to see Annie and Noah most often since they live close.
I had a very fun day helping babysit them. I played two rounds of “Go Fish”, played catch, colored, watched some cartoons, played Peekaboo, talked about baseball and baby dolls and all kinds of things until it was time for them to go home. Being around them makes me feel like a little kid again. They’re constantly making me laugh and I really enjoyed the time I got to spend with them today. Getting to hang out with my grandma was also really great.
After the kids left, my grandma and I went and got hot dogs at “Red Hot”, a restaurant near my grandma’s house. All in all, I’ve had a fun-filled day.
67 // Getting My Design On
Thanks, Pittsburgh, for the ridiculous ramp up of terror regarding that threatening 6-inches of snow that was supposed to be coming to the area. My 4 hour ride home from Ohio happened today, sans snow. Which was fine with me. I was worried for nothing. Today, I got to delve back into some design work. I have an opportunity to do some freelance work (this still isn’t 100% yet) and I was given an assignment to create 2-3 logo options for an event coming up in Pittsburgh.
I spent quite a few hours today working on some designs, realizing lots of attempts were horrible, and refining as much as I could. If the client likes them, then I’ll be able to work on the rest of the marketing collateral they have for the event. This is an exciting venture, and it’d be nice to have a tiny bit of income coming in. Even if it’s a one time thing. There’s a very strong possibility that perhaps the client won’t like any of the options I showed, but this is all a learning experience. It’s good to keep having practice in design while I’m out of the field for a bit.
65 // Reminders of College
Today has felt like one of those days that reminds me of college. I’ve gone out to eat, seen a movie, watched 2 hours of students singing and dancing on stage, slept in, drove around for a while, finally got reunited with my Jack’s Special Garden Fresh salsa and prepared for a night of slight debauchery. I’m currently eating some wine-soaked gummy bears. Yes, they are as good as they sound. We’re planning on endlessly watching Psych tonight, there are some Jello shots in the fridge. It reminds me exactly of college and I’ve definitely needed a weekend like this for a while.
Just a Little Thing 