One of my photos appears in Indiana University’s site. Check it out.

I think I shot the photo in this article about a year ago… It’s figure 2.

One of my photos was included in a blurb about the All You Can Eat Event! Check it out here, look for BizTech NEWS.

I spent the morning catching up with a Paleo-friend. We went to the West Side Market, Civilization, and finally, Music Saves. We caught up on what we’ve been doing and mutual friends. It was nice to spend a relaxing morning with a friend. Later, I caught up with Ted and biked down to Edgewater Park with some friends.

Later, he made cassoulet, complete with duck legs and quail. We watched Tokyo! It was awesome.

At sunset, with musicians playing on the rocks.

Duck!

The quail was so cute. They were still articulated and I just wanted to make them dance.

Cassoulet!

My parents volunteered my design service to their Amish neighbors. This annoyed me because I’ve been very busy with other projects: getting my wedding photography business off the ground (designing 3 new business cards, a postcard, shooting as many weddings as I can and updating my website, updating my sample albums, online marketing) and trying to get into grad school (research, walking a professor through the letter of recommendation process, calling and traveling to the school for interviews, and learning actionscript and flash so I can have a super-sweet portfolio to showcase my video, interactive and photography work that will live on a DVD). Whew, I’ve been a busy girl.

You can imagine me bitching about how this is a waste of my time and is turning into a much more time-consuming project than I or my parents originally thought. When I asked my stepdad if I was going to get paid for this work, his response was “Why do you have to get paid for everything?” Coming from a man who in my shoes would definitely fight to get paid. Turns out the neighbor painted their garage, so my parents were making out in the deal.

Anyways, I did ask for a chair as payment. And why not, I’ve worked for an exchange. (I scored a sweet wreath from a portrait session last year. You can see it in my blog post.) I was hoping for a rocking chair. However they don’t make rocking chairs. They do make gliders! I was hoping for one, I got 2 with a table that attaches in between!

One of the chairs right before I went to work staining it.

First order of business was to stain it before winter arrived. I just wanted to paint it blue. Not like BLUE but a subtle greyish, new england blue. Some of my friends, who have done some wood work yelled at me and told me I should just stain it so I can see the the grain. I came up with a compromise, semi-transparent stain. It comes in a rainbow of colors (like curry!) I picked the color Gettysberg.

I spent Halloween Day staining my furniture. From 11:30 to 5 or 6 right when it was getting dark. I came in and my back hurt and my hands weren’t working because they were so cold. I went to 2 hardware stores that day. And and the end of the day, I had pretty blue chairs for my porch. Unfortunately, the wood sucked up the stain in some spots and I need to touch up my work.

So in my previous post on this day, I listed all the fabulous restaurants I’ve eaten at. Well Bernard pointed out that he INTRODUCED me to all the places in NYC and some in Cleveland. It’s true, as a New Yorker and a foodie, he is my goto person for food in NYC. I will happily go wherever he sends me, restaurant or theatrical performance.

We both have a story that we love to tell: Bernard, Michael, and my trip to Buddahkan. We went to celebrate Michael and my birthdays. B’s roommate was the manager at the time. After we are seated, he tells Kelly to bring us whatever she wants. What followed was a series of courses were brought out and filled up our very large table. Many very expensive dishes were brought out. Too many for me to eat.

At this point, Bernard likes to talk about the look on my face. Which he describes as me thinking “Oh my god, there is so much food here! And I’m going have to PAY for this!”

I remember thinking “I’m seriously going to have to put $500 on my credit card for just my part of the bill, I know it.”

So you can imagine my surprise and relief when his amazingly generous roommate takes care of the bill for us. The food was amazing, so was the service and ambiance, but it was those events that I will always remember.

I flew out to NYC Thursday. I had an interview with a grad school in Philadelphia Friday and it was cheaper and funner to fly to NYC.

I shot this in the bathroom the first day of my trip. I found inspiration. Tons of it.

Thursday afternoon I met up with Bernard at reBar. After dinner and Vanilla Java Stout I headed to Times Square to see Circle Mirror Transformation. Bernard got the ticket for me and made me go. I loved the show just like I love all the shows Bernard sends me to. There was a subtlety to the dialogue that all of my favorite films have. Sometimes it isn’t about what is said but it about it’s about what isn’t said and how it isn’t said. I thought it was brilliant and days later, I keep thinking about it.

Friday I wake up way too early and with too little sleep and make my way to Penn Station to catch the train to Philadelphia. I have a tour of the University of the Arts at 11 am and an interview at 2pm. I missed the train I had a ticket for and had to change it in for a later train. I make it to Philly in plenty of time for the tour-I just had to pay extra for my ticket.

I think the interview went well. She asked me what exhibit I remember seeing and thinking it was successful (the hall of Oceanic Live at the AMNH-my favorite exhibit ever). What exhibit did I think was unsuccessful or left me feeling disappointed (Sue-the traveling exhibit).

She then went on to explain what I would expect from four semesters and a summer in the program:

A class on materials and working in the shop learning construction.

Awesome!

A class on typography in the environment.

Sexy!

I will learn drafting on Vector Works and I will (finally!) learn to draw.

Then she took me on a tour of the area of the building that the grad program uses. I got to see the area that could possibly be my work area. I imagine how I would decorate it.

Now I just need to go home and finish my portfolio and application.

Philly.

I made it back to NYC and Brooklyn for another Vanilla Java Stout before I returned to Bernard’s to crash.

Saturday, sleep in and eventually make my way to Chelsea to see some art. The goal was to see Edward Burtynsky’s recent project: Oil at Hasted Hunt Kraeutler. He is one of my favorite photographers because he still shoots large-format, an archaic format to most people but necessary for shooting landscapes where you want to see everything in focus. The large-scale photographs were technically good but it was the work tucked away in the back of the gallery that I loved the most, because it was the landscapes I was used to seeing and what he made a name for himself. The series was on Silver Lake Operations in Australia and though they were photographs and if you came close to them, you could see the detail of the lake and the mine next to it. But if you stepped back, the subtle colors and the off -centered composition made them look like abstract paintings. These were what I feel was the strongest pieces in the show.

Since I was in Chelsea, I figured I should check out what else is happening in the art world. I saw polaroids of sports champions in the 70’s or 80’s shot by Andy Warhol. I saw a video the took clips from hip hop videos and created a music video that consisted just of the gestures and symbols of hip hop.

But the highlight was the work of Hope Gangloff at Susan Inglett Gallery. I loved her work I think in part because I can relate to it and I can see myself hanging out with these people.

After Chelsea, I head to SoHo to do some shopping at Purl and Purl Patchwork. But as usual, I get overwhelmed with all the choices of fabrics and yarns. I leave Purl with yarn for a project for my brother and just pieces of fabric from Patchwork. I couldn’t justify spending money on yards fabric without even an idea for what I would make.

I then head to Times Square to the Sanrio Store to catch the end of the the 35 Anniversary festivites. (I got a bunch of stickers.)

I rush to Momofuku for pork buns and Momofuku ramen. I try to get there when they open for dinner at 5:30 I arrive a few minutes late and see the place is packed with a line going out the door. But since it’s just me, I get in right away. I ate so much pork belly and food in general, but I was all so so good! It wouldn’t be a trip to NYC without the pork buns.

Momofuku. The quote on the board:

“Our offense is like the Pythagorean Theorem. There is no answer.” -Shaq

Sunday I wake up and head back to Chelsea to check out and photograph the Highline. I read about this park and posted alink to a NYTimes article on this blog. The photographer used a Holga to document the work. The park is sweet! You walk past man-made grasslands and woodlands, through buildings, past people lounging on big wooden lounge-chairs. You look out eye-to-eye with a hot male model on a billboard for Armani Exchange, and you sit in a platform with stadium-style seating and watch the traffic pass underneigth.

Then I head back to Brooklyn, to Park Slope to check out a store I found on my last trip to NYC, Cog and Pearl. It’s all hand-made crafts. I can’t really afford anything in the store at this point, but I splurge on a book. It’s based on this blog. The photos in it are just beautiful. The focus is shallow and the colors are muted, the images seem so soft and feminine. And I’m amazed that these two women live so far apart, rarely see each other, but have such similar photographic styles.

After roaming Brooklyn for an hour or so, I head back uptown to Times Square to photograph the mass of people. I used my twin lens and shot mostly from the hip on purpose. So we’ll see if I get anything usable out of that.

Then it’s back to Brooklyn to meet up with Bernard for dinner, relaxing and laughing about my misadventures this past year.

Shot at a little park underneath the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Brooklyn Bridge on the way to the airport.

I updated my “Wedding and Special Events” section of my website with selects from the hindu wedding. Check it out here.

Early afternoon, I meet up with Bernard who’s in town from NYC and who is taking me to Columbus to see Ben Folds play with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. The drive down goes quick as we catch up and crack jokes about ways this night could possibly go wrong. (Derek- So about the concert, we got turned around near Mansfield and somehow we are in Indiana. And by Indiana, we mean southern Indiana. Okay we’re in Kentucky.)

Guess you had to be there.

We meet up with Derek and Caitlin for dinner at Basi Italia The restaurant is in the Victorian Village. It was cute and the food was good, but nothing compared to what I had the night before.

The show was good! And though I’m not a fan of audience participation, it was pretty amazing when Ben Folds conducted the audience successfully and the maestro applauded him!

Then we went back to Derek’s new house where first Derek beat B and I at Wii tennis. Then the boys caught up while I got to play Guitar Hero.

I didn’t get home until almost 5am, and had to be at work at 10am, but it was totally worth it.

Ted took me to The Greenhouse Tavern for my birthday dinner. I have been wanting to go there since I first started reading about it-while it was under construction, and because I love Bar Cento (the pom frites! the potato-panchetta pizza!). I got all dressed up because it was my birthday and we were going to a restaurant that I was very excited to try. I was surprised when Ted came walking out in a sports jacket and tie. Boys I know don’t dress up-even for my birthday. And we looked good! And were the best-dressed couple at TGT. And I’d like to think the reason Jonathan Sawyer talked to us twice!

Before I talk about the amazing meal, let me start with the wine: Box Car Syrah 2006. I picked it because smoked bacon and raspberries were listed as the flavors. Plus it was one of the cheaper wines on the list. This wine was so full-bodied, so robust, I feel like it’s the wine I’ve been looking for all my life. Best. Wine. Ever. And a great compliment for one of the best meals of my life.

We both went with the chef’s sampler where you get to pick 4 dishes. And we made sure to pick different dishes for each course so we could try more. First course, Ted picked the butter and bread and I picked the french breakfast radishes. So basic, you think, maybe boring? So wrong. These dishes were so simple but so amazing. My radishes had a hint of lemon juice that really brought out the flavor and the butter on both the bread and radishes was so smooth and had such a great taste. We tried in vain to hide the butter from the waitress so we could use in on other dishes. She found it and took it away.

Second course: Ted got the pork (not) belly and I got the beef tartare frites. Though I really liked the soft boiled egg to dip my fries in, and the beef tasted awesome, Ted won this round because the pork was so moist and juicy.

For thirds I got the Coq au Vin and he got the Ohio Goat Pasta. I won this round because I’ve never had chicken that was so tender.

The deserts were also good but since they didn’t offer anything chocolate, nothing was capable of being great. But I did enjoy my apple tart. Overall one of the best meals of my life-and that is saying a lot because I’ve eaten at some amazing places: Lola (Cleveland) Lolita (Cleveland), Flying Fig (Cleveland), Freemans (NYC), Buddakan (NYC), Prune (NYC).

Before we went to dinner Ted gave me my birthday presents. The book is a biography of one of my favorite bands, Broken Social Scene. Their first album, You Forgot it in the People, is THE album I listen to at night in the field to fall asleep. The only time in my life I listen to music to fall asleep. And now I think for the rest of my life, when I hear the album, it will make me think of Alberta and Ethiopia.

I also got a print by this guy. Ted said he picked the particular print because it kinda refers to the fag hag in me. And I do kinda get all flirty and perky around it, just like I do when I’m around my favorite gay men. I can’t wait to get it framed and hung up, most likely in the living room, where I’ve been spending most of my time lately.