After seven years on my trusty rusty old PowerBook, it was time to retire her. I upgraded to the best of the best: MacBook Pro with retina display and SATA drive. It may have cost me my first born child, but so far I'm in love.
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I love jazz. Not the Kenny G era slow elevator jazz, I'm talking about roaring 20's, toe-tapping, swing dancing, soul searching jazz.
I picked up the documentary Jazz by Ken Burns at the library. There's a lot of information. It's 10 discs with each one well over an hour of content. I learned jazz began in New Orleans as a mix of blues and what they called rag time music. New Orleans cornetist Buddy Bolden is given credit as the founder of jazz followed by pianist Jelly Roll Morton who actually wrote the tunes down. I've learned so much and am so intrigued by the story of jazz. Ken Burns called jazz the soundtrack of America. New Orleans just became much higher on my list of places to visit. If you like jazz, this is a much watch! Lucas and his family woke me up way too early on a Sunday morning to watch the hot air balloons fly for Creston Balloon Days. I love hot air balloons and swear one day I WILL go up in one.
It was a brisk morning and my allergies were killing me. I wanted to scratch out my eyes. But with a cup of coffee and great company of Lucas and his parents, we had a great morning together on a hilltop in Creston. Later Sunday, Lucas and I got back to Des Moines in time for our photo shoot! No, we aren't models but we sure felt like it. After 3.5 hours, 4 outfits, and 7 locations, our engagement photos were a wrap! Our photographer Stan Richard was great. He was comfortable to work with, demanded perfect lighting, and was open to our ideas for locations and poses. His wife was a great lighting assistant as well! It was a ton of fun. It may or may not surprise you I love classic cars. I think they're are beautiful. I've really like cars since high school. I sure don't know the inner-workings of an automobile, but I sure do appreciate their beauty, curves, and style. In high school, my dad wanted to buy a new car. I took it upon myself to find him the best car out there. During this search, I fell in love with the Camaro. Turns out my dad had a family car in mind, not a sports car. Well, it's stuck with me. Mark my words, one day I will own a Camaro, whether it's a 1969 or a 2012 or a 2043. I will. Ok, long story there. Point being, I was really excited to get to be a guest judge at Salisbury House Foundation classic car show on Sunday morning. Wow! So many amazing vehicles from Packards to Cadillacs to Maseratis to Studebakers. It was a great time. Any car lover needs to check this show out next year. After the car show, I headed over to the Bridal Forum at the Sheraton in West Des Moines. I wanted to talk with some bakeries, dj's, florists, and get some color inspiration. Thanks to Lucas, Bayle, and Allison for coming too! Seeing all those wedding companies packed in to a couple rooms made me realize how much weddings do for our economy! The budget for my wedding is $20,000. People say it can't be done. Seriously?! It's one day! I'm sticking to that budget, and I ain't going over it.
After all that wedding jazz, we needed a drink. Nothing big, just a glass of sauvignon blanc to take the edge off. We (minus Lucas) headed over to The Other Place on University in Clive/Wes Des Moines. The wine was fine, but oh my the spinach artichoke dip was amazing. Even after we ran out of chips, I just ate the dip with a fork. It just didn't seem right to let any of it go to waste. Recommend for sure! I've been to the Temple of Performing Arts in Des Moines before for a wedding, just last month. However, that wedding ceremony was in church. This Saturday I attended a ceremony at the Temple in the Recital Hall. It was beautiful. Stained glass windows adorned the one side while wonderful arches added drama and grace to the ceiling. It was a great space for a wedding of around 250. Any more than that and it will be too small.
The Temple did not make our list of venues because while beautiful it wasn't the feel or look Lucas was going for. To no surprise, Lucas does want to be part of the wedding planning. i warned him he better not because a groomzilla. It was Lucas' first time to Navy Pier in Chicago and my first time there in at least a decade. Even though it rained on and off again, we had a fun time exploring, sight seeing, drinking beer, and watching sailboats race. After Navy Pier, we walked over to Millenium Park to see The Bean. Even as a Chicago suburbanite, this was my first time there. I felt like a tourist in my own city. When I admitted this shyly to my friends and brother-in-law, they admitted the same thing. I guess when you live in a city you don't think to take it all in because you don't want to be a tourist. Call me a tourist all you want. Lucas and I had a blast checking ourselves out. Can you find us?
I turned one year older today. That means I'm also a year wiser, right? I would not say that is the case for every birthday or for every person for that matter. However, this year I do feel wiser. I've experienced a lot in the past 485 days thanks to My First Time.
That brings me to a bittersweet announcement: My First Time has come to an end. I've experienced something new every day for the past 15 months. This challenge served its purpose. I needed to get out of a rut. Check. I needed to make each day count. Check. I needed to make every day exciting and different. Check. However, the past few months the challenge has become more of a daily chore than something I look forward to. To me, that means it is no longer needed. When I posted my one year reflection back in March, I new this day would come. I didn't know when exactly, but that I would just know. Well, it's that time. Oh, don't be sad. I will continue to do new things and will continue to share them with you. It will just no longer be an every day necessity. Going forward, my blog as a whole will be more interesting, I think, because you won't have to read about every time I tried a new snack food or listened to a new CD. I've been wanting to photograph my grandma's town since I started doing these little photo shoots 8 months ago. It's quaint and practically empty. I wish I could have seen it in its hay day. That might have been when my grandparents were young. Here's what's left of it now: one gas station, a veterinary clinic, bank, four churches, an empty schoolhouse, city hall, library, and closed up post office.
"Yes, of course!" was my response when a co-worker asked me to take pictures of her family. I love taking pictures, especially now of my niece. I made everyone at work look at them a few weeks ago, and they were impressed with how good they looked. So I was really glad my co-worker thought of me to trust her family pictures with.
It was the first time her whole family was getting together in four years so they wanted to get some photos together. I was nervous at first because all I own is a point and shoot camera. Luckily, she quickly explained I would use her sister's DSLR, that way it's on their memory card. I got even more excited because I've never used a DSLR before. When I took the Canon Rebel T3i in my hands - wowza! It was magic. I must have one. Anyone want to loan me a thousand bucks? Pretty pleeeasseee (3.16.12) UPDATE: I totally forgot about the other new thing I did this day. I went to my first YPC morning meet-up. This week it was at West End Architectural Salvage downtown. I enjoyed my mocha while chatting with friends, meeting new people and learning about the history of Des Moines architecture. I found out about the Iowa Architectural Foundation. I had no idea there was such an organization. I love architecture. In fact, I wanted to be an architect until I my dreams were crushed when my teachers told me I had to be good at math to pursue that profession. Why else do you think I'm a journalist!? We learned about the many different styles of buildings that make up downtown. I even took notes... Did you know the Principal Building is post-modern? Or that all skyscrapers mimic a Greek column? Intriguing stuff, I swear!
Friday was my first road trip with my man. He came with me back to Chicago to meet my family. He's already met my parents but still had to meet my sister, bro-in-law, and brother and three of my closest high school friends. It's usually a really boring five hour drive that I have to fight to stay awake during. That was not the case this time. The drive flew by. It was nice he drove for a few hours too. I hate driving long distances. |