Rochelle's Blog ::: Subtitles Included

It’s been a long week. I was sick for part of it, but healthy for most of it. While at work, I worked hard, and barely had a free moment to tweet or play or pay a bill.

TV was great this week. Loved The Office, with Jim and Pam’s baby. So adorable. I’ve watched the episode twice already. Also, for the past year, I’ve been trying to catch my friend up on Lost so we could theorize about the show. As of yesterday, he is now completely caught up. It’s fun! We’ve never been on the same page, because I’ve always been so ahead. I’ve now seen every episode twice, which definitely helps. And boy-oh-boy does watching Season Five over again really put things into perspective.

If you haven’t heard, Sunday is the Oscars. Usually, I try my best to see everything that’s nominated, but it’s been hard to do so this year, particularly because of the Olympics. It also doesn’t help that there are 10 freaking Best Picture nominees. I hate that. Before the big show, I’ll be watching “An Education,” “District 9,” “The Hurt Locker,” and “A Serious Man.” Leaving just “Precious” and “Up.” I’m also for the first time ever watching all of the Live Action Shorts that are nominated, because Comcast has them bundled into one movie for $2.99. I always have to guess on my Oscar ballot for that category, this year I can actually make an educated guess!

Anyway, not much else to report. Here’s a couple of new pictures of the kitties.

Persephone trying to blend in.

Callie on her favorite red blanket.

Today’s Friday Five is all about comparisons. Leave a comment if you posted this on your blog too!

What’s something you do more quickly than most people?

Definitely how fast I eat cake. Seriously, I’m like the fastest cake eater this side of the Mississippi. I’ve been known to be handed a slice of cake, and have it finished before the next slice is doled out. It’s quite gross really.

The way I treat my clothes. I can be terrible about how I keep my clothes. Most of the time they are in a pile, and some of that time, that pile is on the floor. It’s an area where I could use some significant improvement.

I run super slow. I’ve played a lot of sports in my life, and I am by far and always the slowest runner. I also look ridiculous as I do it.

I’m a sucker for formatting. Not only is part of my job but it’s at the core of who I am.

I’m pretty good about waiting in the car for somebody to do something. Especially, if I have my iPhone. It must come from the years and years I spent as a child waiting in the car while my parents did stuff. They would never get away with that these days, which I’m sort of disappointed about.

I decided awhile ago that I wanted to read stories from the series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Of course there was the recent blockbuster in theaters starring Robert Downey Jr., but also because I’ve been watching some of the Jeremy Brett adaptations from the 80s on PBS.

So my first foray into Doyle’s work was A Study In Scarlet. Overall, it was a fun and simple read. Holmes and Watson meet up and become roommates and informal colleagues. Watson is amazed by Holmes’s eccentricities and brilliance, and Holmes is depicted just as I expected him to be from watching all the adaptations. The work is broken into two parts, and that confused me for a long time. The first part was how the criminal was caught, and then the second…well that turned out to be the back story of the criminal. I didn’t get that at first. I felt like perhaps I was in an entirely different book. The motive and back story was completely unexpected. I was surprised and somewhat impressed that Doyle went so cross continental, when I expected something more local.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to reading more, but that will come later. Next up is The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

Oh my blog, I’ve been away. That’s because it’s been one completely crazy week.

First…I turned 31!

And here is my birthday portrait, taken with my new lens.

If you look into my eyes you will see that they are actually completely tired. Here’s why…

I tend not to go to work on my birthday. In fact, in most cases, I tend not to be in Colorado on my birthday. But this year, just staying at home and going to work seemed like a great idea. I guess some things were  meant to bed.

Monday

Still reeling from a fabulous Valentine’s Day and excited about my new lens, Monday started great and stayed great all day. It was a really easy day at work. I got to play with camera and snap some pictures, while having a bagel at the UMC.

And then Mike’s daughters came by to bring us all the girl scout cookies they had sold us. Oh my gosh, there was a new buzz around the building, probably a sugar high.

That night at home, I watched massive amounts of Olympic coverage. Man, I love the Winter Olympics. While there, I snapped some pictures of the cats.

It as my last day of 30 and it was pretty awesome.

Tuesday

Isn’t it always strange to wake up on your birthday? There’s a few seconds when you don’t realize that it’s actually your birthday and then it sets in. That’s exactly what happened. And then I realized that it was almost impossible for me to get up and get going, even though I had an 8:30 meeting. That’s where my tiredness began.

The morning started off a little tense at work with some meetings, after all that I barely had time to sit down at my desk and thank people on Facebook and Twitter for all their birthday wishes before I was being carted off to a fun birthday lunch with some of my co-workers. Right after that, I was in three more meetings, all of which I struggled to stay awake in, and not for a lack of caring. I had no explanation for it.

After work, I rushed off to celebrate some more. I went to see “Up In The Air” right after work, which was quite a strange movie to see regarding work a day before things got strange at my own job. And then with Marissa and Johnny in tow, we went to 3 Margaritas at like 8:00 to eat dinner and so I could wear the big sombrero. Sadly, none of the pictures worked out. Except for this cute one of Johnny and Marissa:

And then it was back home for cake and presents.

I could barely stay awake by this point, and so I crashed pretty soon afterwards. It was a good birthday.

Wednesday

As soon as my birthday goodness ends, it begins for my dad. I love that his birthday is the day after mine. My day started out all right, but then things got a little strange. Basically I found out there was a re-org on the horizon and I was somehow part of it, but my part wasn’t revealed until Thursday morning. I was pretty stressed the rest of the day, trying to guess what it could be. That night I went home and got in bed and watched the Olympics.

Thursday

This day was devoted to understanding my part in the reorganization. It was a day of highs and lows. I was confused, depressed, thrilled, curious…everything.

Friday

Another day of re-org attention with lots of meetings interspersed in between. By the end of the day I had much more clarity about the situation and felt so much more hopeful. Change is really hard. But once I could understand the decisions that were made and understand the vision, it was way easier and even exciting! I was able to provide my feedback and recommend tweaks to the situation. And it was nice to be heard.

I came home from work really relieved and quite frankly exhausted. After some scrambled eggs (it is Lent after all…I gave up Soda and of course meat on Fridays), I watched some of the Olympics and fell asleep at like 10, which was way earlier than I’ve gone to bed in days and days and days.

So my long week is over and I have every intention of relaxing this weekend. Monday is a new start, in so many ways.

Valentine’s Day came and went and I’m a happy girl. I’ve always loved the holiday, probably because it’s so close to my birthday. But I love the pink and hearts and candy and lovey-dovey stuff.

This year was a great one! I was spoiled by my loved ones.

First…I got tulips (my favorite):

Pretty!

Callie loves the smell. The tulip matches her pink nose!

And I got my “birthday cookies.” The story goes that 31 years ago my mom ate a ton of these cookies on Valentine’s Day and the next morning she went into labor. I was born just after midnight on February 16. It’s a tradition that we get these cookies every year to celebrate.

It wouldn't be the same without them!

And I got my new camera lens….for Valentine’s Day, not even for my birthday, so I have no idea what will happen on Tuesday!

50mm f/1.8

As for the day, I changed out of pajamas and into pretty pink pajamas for the day. Marissa came over and we watched Shakespeare in Love, Singles, and 500 Days of Summer. It was a blast!

As many of my east coast friends are buried under snow and stuck inside, I thought I would give you a few tips, since I…a Colorado girl…have been through a couple of these in my time.

Here are my favorite blizzard activities and some tips to help you through this time….

First,  when the storm has passed, meaning the blowing hard snow has ceased into maybe some nice fat flakes or stopped all together, go out on foot! Don’t be afraid to go outside and walk around. It’s actually super cool (no pun intended). It’s incredibly quite and still. And with no cars on the road, it’s so very peaceful and natural. Just go expore. And take lots of fun pictures.

Taken after the big blizzard in 2003 when I went for a walk. Cars couldn't get out of the neighborhoods.

Second, don’t blow your load. Sorry if that sounds gross, but I mean it in this sense….space out your activities. You’re going to be inside a lot. Mix it up, games, books, naps, cleaning, and sex. Seriously people, blizzard sex is the best.

There's a car under there!

Third, eat. I recommend snacking. Having three square meals carved out is kind of lame in a blizzard. There’s no rhyme or reason to it. Why stick to the norms. Plus, you don’t want to run out of the staples. So munch here and there and you won’t start freaking out if you can’t have a proper dinner.

Fourth, play with your pets. They love snow days!!

Penny loved all the attention.

Fifth, put on your Snuggie. You don’t have a Snuggie? Well it’s your loss. Better get one for the next blizzard.

Sixth, let it snow. The more you try to fight it or hate it, the more evil you become. You’ll get cabin fever and before you know it you’ll be like this:

Don't forget this was set in Colorado!

Now all this advice can last you about two days tops. You want to know why? Because in Colorado we don’t really get a lot of snow days. At max, I’ve had two days off in a row, and that’s after we got like 46″ of snow in 2003. We’re trained to brave the snow and go to work no matter what. Which, I will tell you makes us seem really freaking cool and brave, but also really lame because snow days are the best.

Brian digging us out so we can go to work.

In 2006, the university, along with other businesses and places didn’t close down soon enough. Loads of people were stranded on the highways and had to be rescued by humvees and taken to shelters. I’m not kidding.

So enjoy this blizzard! There’s so much fun to be had and you’ll forever be able to tell the story about the blizzard of 2010!

Did you know that I’ve been blogging since 2001?  I used to pore out my heart in those old blog posts. Like the icky private stuff. Then I started a blogspot account in 2004, and developed a blog that I could share with my friends and family. After that I got new ideas and went forward in a different direction. I changed names a couple of times, and then a few years ago I switched to wordpress because of the privacy options available.

Wanting more from Wordpress, I looked into domains, and doing a wordpress.org installation that would be give me more flexibility and access to tons of free templates and plug-ins.

It’s been a good ride. And while I’m about to do a little more shifting in the coming months with my template and my domain, I decided to look at some of those 2004 posts, which is where this blog begins, and give you a little update on some of the stuff I was talking about in May 2004.

So here we go……

When I walk into work every morning I always have the feeling that people still perceive me as a student. Perhaps it is my “casual Friday is everyday!” attire or my young demeanor.

Not the case anymore. At 30, people can see that I don’t fit in with the student body. Also…I get ma’am’d like crazy these days.

I hate Quark. If only QuarkXPress wasn’t the frontrunner of desktop publishing.

Good news for me, Quark was surpassed by InDesign a few years ago.

I made the mistake of eating half of a low-carb bagel and now I feel like yakking! So nasty.

Eww! I can’t believe I ever ate low-carb bagels. That was probably the last one I ever had.

I spent most of my weekend designing a new web site. It’s called Nine*Poems Creative Outlet, www.ninepoems.com. It is just for fun, but hey if I make a couple of bucks, that’s cool too.

Ha! Even back then I couldn’t resist new websites. Well as you can see, that old creative outlet was retired and you are currently on ninepoems.com. Funny thing is that I’m actually working on something to transition away from ninepoems.com. More to come on that later.

I wonder if my crafty-ness will ever wear off. That’s all I want to do. I go through phases I guess. This happens every now and again, and then it’s back to books, or some other thing to occupy my time.

No update required. Still the same.

I bought some new fonts today, hooray! Of course I had to pick up stuff for other people too, like a Tungsten C and some canned air.

The key part of that text is the Tungsten C. That’s an old Palm device. We thought it was the bees knees. I’m sure one day, I’ll laugh at my iPhone as archaic.

What’s your blogging story?

Another silly train of thought post.

So this train of thought must originally begin with this factor….

I’m getting a new camera lens for my birthday.

Cannon 50mm f1.8

And this lens is now constantly on my mind.

So this morning, when I saw this picture on thekitchn.com, my mind’s light bulb switched right on with bright obnoxious flourescent light.

Source: Apartment Therapy

This is how my days escape me. This is how I have too many projects. This is all because I can’t help myself. I love to create stuff.

So I’m looking at this picture, and I think about how I like it and about how I can’t wait to get my new camera lens.

And there is pornography for my lens. It’s a Flickr group of just pictures taken with this particular lens. And I look at it all the time! So I go there (AGAIN) and I see some amazing photographs and furthermore some pretty good examples of photographer watermarks.

I groan. I’ve attempted to use Lightroom’s watermark feature, but it’s just bleh. I wanted more, so I watched this:

And then I started to make watermark ribbons. Like five of them, until I settled on something very simple.

But while I was making watermarks, I thought, let’s do this for real. Maybe I need a domain to add to the watermark. God knows why.

So I bought a domain: rochellephotography.com

And then I implemented my watermark workflow, which included my new URL.

Well you know what that means right? I have to have a website to back that up. So I did some research and found a template that I liked, and I activated it.

The template

Trouble was, this particular template, as gorgeous as it is, sucks to manipulate. So I was nose deep in customizing this thing the whole rest of the day. The entire Super Bowl. Yep.

At this moment in time, I am unsure if I will keep it. It’s much too difficult to manipulate. I just think it looks super pretty. And, there’s still a bit I need to do with adding images and the like and actually having a consistent watermark.

So yeah. This train of thought cost me $14, and an entire day. But it was pretty fun and so I guess it was worth it.

Please tell me that other people do this and that I’m not a complete whack job.

Persephone

She’s laying on my feet right now, keeping them warm on a rather bland Saturday morning. Persephone, who we also call “Little Bear,” loves to be at my feet. Great on cold mornings, bad in the middle of the night. I don’t know how many times I’ve kicked her, but it’s the price she pays to be in her favorite spot.

And an update on Callie….

Callie

Her last visit to the Vet was two weeks ago. They bandaged her again. Well two days later, I came home and her bandage was off! So I coned her for a couple of days while the last little bits of her tail healed. By the end of the week, her tail had not only healed but her fur grew back. So fast! I guess the air really did help. So now she is bandage and cone free and very very happy!

And because I shouldn’t leave her out…

Penny

Penny is just Penny and she’s doing great. More lovey than ever, and she’s even letting me pick her up, which has always been a challenge.

I have this lovely plant that I inherited from my old boss when she quit. Sad she didn’t want to take it with her. I think maybe she had inherited it too. I took over it’s care, and I’ll be honest with you, I’m not the best plant owner, as you’ll see later in this post.

Well…over the past eight years it’s had it’s good days and it’s bad days. Mostly because I forget to water it. Poor thing. There was a really great period of time when I used to share an office with one of my student assistants. She had tons of plants and so she kept her eye on this little guy too.

Since then, I’ve been up in my own office and the plant just chills in the window. I would water every now and again and it was doing pretty well. Then a couple of months ago I noticed something odd. Not only did my plant look amazingly alive and well, but there was a mysterious bottle of water next to it.

Ok….

I figured I must have placed it there. I am notoriously bad at bringing drinks into my office and letting them fester.

But I wasn’t sure. So I left it there to see what would happen.

Sure enough, the water in the bottle would deplete and then I’d come in the next day and it would be refilled!

So somebody, I don’t know who, is sneaking into my office to water my plant. I’ve asked around and there are no answers. Perhaps it’s the cleaning staff? But I sort of doubt it. They are are really short staffed and just overwhelmed. Perhaps it’s a secret watering gnome?

Maybe it’s my plant? Could it have magical powers?

Anyway, I know there’s got to be an explanation about it, but truthfully I want to stay in the dark. I love coming in each day to see the water bottle and my very healthy plant. I feel like the answer may disappointment me.

So if you’re out there secret plant waterer…THANK YOU!

And since we’re talking about plants, I thought I would come full circle with the Bamboo saga. Read this post to familiarize yourself…

Basically, Amanda got me the bamboo as an engagement present. The plant thrived, until Brian and I broke up, and then it dwindled. Mostly because the cats kept getting at it. So I brought it to my office and tried to revive it, but there was no hope. It was gone.

So I kept the dead plant around (am I a hoarder?) and decided that once my divorce was final I would put the plant to rest. How dramatic is that? Sure enough, I somehow remembered that little idea, and so the day after I got my divorce papers I did just that. Goodbye bamboo. I think I’ll replace you with another bamboo.