My Familiar Pillow

A New Adventure

2012-02-27T22:28:00.001-08:00

I graduate in May with my degree in Graphic Design and I'll be looking for a job at a design firm. I'm really excited about this because I have nothing holding me back and tying me down to Michigan anymore. I'm going to look everywhere for a great position, but I'm really leaning towards Portland, Oregon. Ideally, I want to find a 9-5 job that still allows me to have my photography business on the weekends and/or evenings. I've never been to Portland before, but from all the research I've been doing, it seems to be perfect. The entire city is really pet friendly (there's roughly 35 dog parks), trails all over and even restaurants that have a portion of the menu dedicated to your pet. I've already found a few places that will allow me to rent with Piglet :)

There's been a few jobs that look rather promising as well. I've been working hard on getting my resume, cover letter, and portfolio ready to present to potential employers. There's one job in particular, that I'm really interested in. The company sells sustainable household items like lighting and sinks, all made from up-cycled materials. Their products are more like functional art pieces, simply gorgeous!

Hopefully, I'll be able to take a road trip out there after I graduate in May to make sure that I want to move there. I'll be sure to check back if and when I do go out there. And if I don't end up going to Portland, I will be posting about wherever I end up and the adventure of getting there!

Slip n' Slide

2011-11-23T17:24:00.001-08:00

The derby wife, derby kid and I went to Kalahari Water Park in Sandusky, OH a couple weeks ago and had a blast!! I wish my camera was waterproof so I could have taken it to the actual water park, but this is what you get instead, us being silly in the hotel room. This was after we spent the day going down slides, getting "flushed" in a tube, and nearly taken out to sea at the wave pool. It was absolutely amazing and so relaxing at the same time. There's just something about being able to go swimming in the middle of November that's exhilarating!

Missy and I have gone to Ohio three times this summer and each time we've passed a sign for "Bono Baptist Church," Missy is completely in love with Bono (*puke*) so she mentions it every time and we had talked about stopping on the way back, but the GPS always takes us a different route home...who knows?! Well, this time we managed to take the same route back and she seen the sign coming up, I'm in the passenger seat crocheting like a grandma, and I almost pee my pants when she suddenly stops next to the sign. Then I'm trying to get out of the car to take the pic and I'm all wrapped up in my blanket and my foot's caught in my purse strap...I almost died...well not really, but close!! So here it is, the church that worships Bono. lol

The Journey Home

2011-10-11T09:13:00.000-07:00

It was an awesome vacation! I had an absolute blast, but unfortunately all vacations come to an end so here's the journey back to Michigan. Below is the outside of the Denver Airport, kind of looks like a bunch of tee pees chillin' in the middle of Colorado.

I didn't fly Southwest, but that was the plane that was hanging out next to ours.

I want a circle farm!

Sunset on the plane.

She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain

2011-10-10T21:01:00.000-07:00

I found out that tours of the Mint were free and the last time I was in Washington D.C. they weren't doing them due to heightened security so I took advantage and signed us up for a tour. It was rather short, probably about half an hour, but it was still pretty cool to see the money being made and know the process of how it works. Our tour guide was a little cheesy, which cracked me up. At the beginning of the tour he said, "The Mint. The only place where the government actually makes "cents"." HAHAHAHA I thought it was great :) The only downfall to the Mint tour was the amount of security rules you had to follow. You weren't allowed to bring a purse or any sort of bag and no camera's so that's why the only pictures I have are of the outside of the building. Still pretty cool either way.

We didn't get to the Red Rock Amphitheater the day before because they had a concert going on and it would have been impossible to get up there, so we went back up again the next day. I'm SO glad we did because it was absolutely gorgeous as you can see from the pictures. You could see all of downtown Denver from way up there. I think the coolest part was that you could see the different layers of earth in each of the protruding rock sheets. Pretty much like going back in time.

Left: This is one of the HUGE rocks at the entrance to the amphitheater.

Right: I know the left one doesn't look that big, but here's a picture of Jen in front of the rock and you can see that you obviously can't see the top and it's HUGE!!

Taken with my 75-300mm lens, zoomed all the way to 300mm from atop the Red Rocks.

It was quite a trek just to get down to the amphitheater, but when we did there were TONS of people exercising by running UP the seats or the stairs. There was one guy, probably in his early 50's who did it twice while we were there!! It was crazy.

There were tons of deer all around, but they're called Mule Deer, obviously because they look like mules. But they have the biggest, cutest deer ears I've ever seen. There's a great picture a few down of a close up of one of them.

Yay for long exposures!! That's Denver in the background. I didn't quite realize how big Denver was until we sat up in the mountains at night starring at it.

This was a new restaurant that opened up recently in Denver and I HAD to stop and take a picture because it cracked me up so much. I really, REALLY want a shirt from there. It makes me wonder what kind of food that they serve there...

Diggin' with the Dinos

2011-10-09T11:42:00.000-07:00

Day two was Dino Day, we headed up to Dinosaur Ridge in the mountains and took a tour of the ridge, which was by far the best $4 tour I've ever taken! The tour guide was rather cute (and an archaeology major) and there was a biker couple on the tour that knew quite a bit about geology and archaeology so TJ (the tour guide) went further into detail than he probably normally would. Our half an hour tour turned into 45 minutes because of the in depth discussions, but it was pretty cool to listen to. We got to see all kinds of dinosaur fossils, dino tracks and a RATTLESNAKE!! It was pretty sweet. The snake was a baby, it was SO cute!

Dinosaur track. The one on the left is the baby Iguanodon and it's about the size of an adult human hand. The one on the right is the adult Iguanodon, a hand can fit in one of its toes!!

Our cute tour guide, TJ. See his "I <3 Dino" shirt?!

Left: A Stegosaurus rib bone

Right: A jawbone, the circle in the middle is a cross-section of a tooth.

The indentation in the layers is where a Brontosaurus stepped lots of years ago. TJ said that, that part of Colorado used to be a flat river way back in the day, so this dinosaur was most likely walking through soft mud near the river bank. But as you can tell, it was super heavy because of all the layers beneath it that it disturbed. Also, where that flat spot is on the bottom of the foot print is practically a cast of a Brontosaurus foot. How sweet is that?! More dino tracks below.

Left: Random cute cactus I found.

Right: There's a fault line that runs right next to the mountains. You can see where it zigzags in the background. Obviously by the photo it's called the Golden Fault.

The baby rattlesnake I found.

Panoramic of the Red Rocks. Another photo of the Red Rocks below.

A view of downtown Denver from the expressway.

After we got some dinner, we headed out to go putt putting at this place called Putter's Pride. This place was giant! It was only $7 and there were three different courses that you could pick from or you could pay $10 and do all three. But we wanted to go play Geeks that Drink later so we only did one of the courses. I still sucked at it, but had a ton of fun! Jen's roommate Annie, came with us and kicked our butt in the beginning, but in the end Jen beat us all!! We chilled with Nessie, as you can see below and even made a little bunny friend.

Jen was awesome and got a hole in 1!!

After putt putt was all done we went to this place called Jonesy's because it's my last name, and played trivia. I was terrible...even the round about candy, I barely knew any answers, but it was still fun. The place was kind of expensive and the food wasn't the greatest. I wouldn't recommend going there, but the Geeks that Drink was fun and are held at other places so I'd check those out.

Denver Derby Day

2011-10-08T20:18:00.000-07:00

Waking up at negative bajillion in the morning definitely sucked for the flight, but I was so excited about going to Denver that I didn't really care. Not to mention the flight was 20 minutes shorter than expected. The Denver Airport is the scariest place I've ever been. Awhile back I watched a documentary on how conspiracy theorist believe that the New World Order constructed it to commit a mass genocide, so I had that in the back of my mind the entire time I was there. The picture above is one of the murals they talk about in the documentary.

One of the things I was looking forward to in Denver was seeing for real mountains, but when I landed I couldn't see any out of the plane window. But as soon as I got out of the airport there they were...MOUNTAINS!!!

Jen took me downtown Denver so I could see all the cool shenanigans there before we went to her house and because my bad luck doesn't just effect me it has to get everyone around me, her muffler falls off her truck...right in the middle of one of the busiest roads in Denver!! I swear that everything I touch breaks (later I went to the bathroom at her house and I shut the door and pulled the knob right off!) I suck lol. But we pulled over in front of the "world's largest discount laundry." I love seeing the "world's largest...."

We get back to Jen's house and get all settled in and then we're off to DERBYVILLE! An entirely derby dedicated store in Denver. I had stumbled across it when I was checking out the Rocky Mountain Roller Girls. So naturally we had to check it out. We, of course, drive past it the first time and on the way back spot this really weird looking building which turns out to be the BIGGEST resale/vintage/costume shop I have ever seen. We browsed that for quite awhile. All kinds of awesome stuff in there, but unfortunately there were signs everywhere saying that we couldn't take pictures :( After that quick pit stop, we found Derbyville, which was everything I imaged it to be. Absolutely adorable, girly and BA at the same time, and Amy was the cutest thing ever! And so incredibly nice. We chatted derby and I got to put a sticker up on the map for Michigan. I bought an uber cute shirt and got a sweet bout poster with the amazing artwork of Jay Vollmar.

Then it was back to the house for a much needed nap and to get ready for the bout at the Filmore: Rocky Mountain Roller Girls vs. San Diego Derby Dolls. What an intense game!! I had never seen such an amazing game of roller derby ever played. I should have known it was going to be incredible since RMRG were the 2010 Championship Winners. They had cheerleaders, a mascot and the coolest announcing system ever. Not to mention the Filmore was absolutely gorgeous. I was impressed from the get go, then the game started and I don't think my mouth closed the entire game. The final score was RMRG 296 - SDDD 25...they got creamed, but fought right down to the last jam. I can't even express in words how cool it was without sounding like a blubbering idiot. Just know, if you weren't there, you suck and missed the best thing I have ever seen.

Their after party is at this place called the Beauty Bar, you can get martini's and your nails did at the same time. It was very 80's retro nail salon meets bar/club. Super cute.

Flying Solo

2011-09-30T19:29:00.000-07:00

There's something fascinating about traveling by yourself. With everything these days revolving around technology and sitting behind a computer screen talking to someone halfway around the world; it's really easy to be content with that. Studies show that the younger generation lacks everyday social skills and since a lot of my job is based sitting on a computer, I slowly find myself falling into that category. So it's exhilarating to get out there and see the world first hand. There's also something freeing about leaving your comfort zone of your own vehicle and having to rely on on someone else for transportation (ie. planes, trains, cabs, subways...). I practically live in my car, between driving back and forth to school and meeting clients all over the state; I am completely comfortable in my car. I can eat, sleep, and go places in my car; so leaving it behind and leaving my fate up to someone else (despite prior planning) is completely out of my comfort zone. It makes me uneasy and excited all at the same time. I love traveling anywhere and everywhere. I want to see the world, eventually visiting every continent...well maybe not Antarctica, it's too cold for me :) I want to see mountains and oceans and wide opens plains. I want to photograph the wonders of the world. I am hoping to travel at least twice a year to somewhere new. Last year I didn't get a chance to go anywhere, but this year I was able to travel quite a bit. And I'll be leaving in 8 hours on my way to Denver, Colorado. I never thought I'd be going there...as a matter of fact I had VOWED never to go there because of their ban on pit bulls. It was my way of protesting their ban and not giving the city any of my business. But since Hawaii got cancelled and one of my friend's moved out there in May and has been wanting me to come visit, I broke my vow and now I'm going. I will be bringing my Hello Bully t-shirt that says "Pit bulls are for Lovers" and will be wearing it proudly. So I will still be spreading pitty love <3

Bedtime...I will see all of you tomorrow...in Denver!!

Two Days

2011-09-29T13:15:00.000-07:00

OMG, I leave in two days. Goal today: Get off of work, go home and pack!!! Well, at least that's the plan...I know myself too well. But I also need to clean the house a bit so I don't feel like so much of a slacker. Photos will be coming of the journey, just like last time. However, hopefully this will be a lot less stressful than the trip to Ireland lol. I do have a nonstop flight, so it should be :)

Derby in Denver

2011-09-22T11:54:00.000-07:00

So, I'm sad to say that I am no longer going to Hawaii. It's not that I'm sad that I'm not going, I'm sad that I found out 10 days before I was supposed to leave, but I'm the queen of compulsive purchases so I threw all plans in the wind and bought tickets to Denver, Colorado. I have a good friend that lives out there and I figured I'd get to have fun visiting her and seeing a new place still. I already had made all the arrangements for time off and a dog-sitter, so I didn't have to change anything besides my destination. It all worked out great!!

Now for the greatest part, she used to play on my derby team here in Michigan so she looked up the team out there and there's a bout going on the day I land...yep, you guessed it, we're going to see the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls (5280 Fight Club) take on the San Diego Derby Dolls. Here's the Facebook event if you want to check it out. Also, there's a store dedicated to everything roller derby, right in Denver!!! I'm SO excited, we're going to hit it up on the way to the bout. It's called Derbyville and here's their website. We're going to have so much fun, I can't wait! And of course, keep checking back for tons of pictures...t-minus 10 days...

T-Minus 16 Days

2011-09-13T10:16:00.001-07:00

I can't believe that time has flown by SO fast!! I leave for Hawaii in 16 days!! I can not wait until my massage on the beach at 9am and chillin' ocean side taking beautiful photos.

Hawaii Update

2011-05-08T11:17:00.000-07:00

The dates are set for Hawaii! I'll be there from September 29th - October 4th (really the 5th since it's an overnight flight home). I'll be staying at a resort and spa, so there's no way I'm not getting a full body massage while I'm there. I've never had one before so it should be amazing. I looked over what they offer and I think I'm going to do the sunrise one in the cabana outdoors...mmmmm...

I had been feeling rather nervous about shooting the wedding without an assistant, I've done it before so it's really no big deal, but this is my first destination wedding and I definitely don't want anything to mess it up since this could potentially open SO many new doors for my business. Not to mention when I went to the Sandy Puc tour I asked her what her best advice was for me and she said, "get an assistant." So I placed an ad on craigslist and had a HUGE response, much more than anticipated. It was nice being able to pick from a range of skill levels, but I finally found a woman who's style compliments mine and who shoots weddings regularly. Now my brain is finally at ease (at least for the moment).

Hit the Ground Running

2011-03-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

So fresh off the plane from Ireland and I get an email asking me to photograph a wedding in Hawaii!! Right now it looks like I'll be there in early September, she's still trying to coordinate the dates with all the family and friends. I've always wanted to go to Hawaii, just the idea of lush, tropical paradise got me...hook, line and sinker. Not to mention the photos I'll be able to get there. I just received my gallery blocks from Artsy Couture and they are the most gorgeous pieces of art I've seen (and I'm not just saying that because my images are on there lol). The craftsmanship and print quality are outstanding! I hope to be able to buy some from Ireland and I can only imagine how awesome Hawaii photos are going to look.

So I hope to be able to knock "volcano or lava flow" off my photographer's bucket list with this trip. I've been googling things that I can do while I'm there and there's SO many sweet things. Horseback riding, helicopter rides, botanical gardens, surfing, snorkeling, zip lines, hiking, roller derby team (this is a must!!)...I really don't know how I'm going to decide what to do. The bride said that they plan on doing some hiking and whatnot so I'll probably hang with them for a bit. I'll be there for a week so I'll have time to be able to do some things on my own if I like as well. I'm super excited, I've dreamed of being asked to do a destination wedding and didn't think that it would happen, but it did! Now just to loose some weight so I'll be beach ready and not so self conscience :)

Homeward Bound

2011-03-12T09:18:00.000-08:00

This was the last couple pictures that I took in Dublin. Here's right outside the hostel while waiting for a cab and the front entrance to the hostel.
Good-bye Ireland!! Sitting on the plane waiting for take-off.

Here's the view outside of the hostel in Chicago, it was more like a hotel room than anything.

And as promised, a couple photos from inside Union Station in Chicago. The main waiting area of the building is absolutely gorgeous.

Cliffs of Moher

2011-03-11T12:51:00.000-08:00

So I figured I might as well finish updating from my last day on the Shamrocker tour. On the last day we started off seeing the Cliffs of Moher. Despite the fog they were absolutely stunning, but it was really cold out there. I could barely feel my fingers to take the photos! Thankfully I had brought my mittens, they were lifesavers. We walked out to the edge of the cliffs and around a path, I took my time just taking in the view and the smell of the ocean. But as soon as I was on my way back to the bus I stopped in the gift shop and bought a fuzzy hat so my ears could warm up! On the way back to Dublin we made a stop in Galway for lunch. It's a college town (there's four there!) so it's pretty different from anywhere else I went in Ireland. In comparison, it's the Ann Arbor of Ireland. But here's a photo from the main shopping area.

I totally wish we had these here in the States. What is that you ask? That is a Dyson Blade aka an air hand dryer. You just put your hands in their flat and slowly draw them out and..WALLA! They're dry!! It's seriously amazing...seriously! Way more efficient than the sad excuses we have for hand dryers here.

After getting back from the tour, we didn't want to go our separate ways that quickly so a group of four of us got together later that night at The Brazen Head, Ireland's oldest pub, for a couple drinks. It dates back to 1198! Definitely has that old world feel in side, but it's kind of weird because there are four rooms that you can drink in. There's the one outside, there's one with a bar but the bar was closed, there's another with a fireplace and then there's the one with the open bar in it. Regardless of what room you sat in you had to go to the one with the open bar to get your drinks. It was weird, but really cool to know how much history that place holds. I can't even image what it must have been like when it opened. Too bad they didn't have photos back then.

I did have a bit of trouble remembering what is what over there since some things don't use the same words as we do in the States. So here's a couple of them, the word in italics is what the Irish use.

chips - french fries
crisps - chips
lift - elevator
craic - fun, a good time (not used all the time in conversation)

Dingle Peninsula

2011-03-07T03:20:00.000-08:00

Day two of the Shamrocker Tours was spent exploring the Dingle Peninsula, there was a short stop in the town of Dingle and later we back-tracked to there again for lunch. I love how Irish architecture looks and how quaint the houses are so I couldn't resist taking this photo of the rooftops.

Below is a beehive hut which dates back to about 1400 years ago. We made a quick stop to see the beach and some of the coastline. Then we walked down to the beach and one of the guys on the tour rode "tis cool as feck!" in the sand, which was pretty sweet once we walked back to the top of the beach and could see it from above. The beach and it's surrounding area were gorgeous so that's what the photos are below.

And what trip to Ireland would be complete without seeing rouge sheep blocking the road? A little way down the road there were also a couple of cows blocking the road as well, but the sheep were definitely the highlight of the road blockage. You can see the colors on the sheep here and the picture of the sheep above, those are dyes put on them so the farmers know which sheep belongs to who just for these occasions when they get out of their pasture.

After we were done sightseeing for the day we made our way to Ennis for the night. There was a pub around the corner that usually had traditional Irish music around 9p and then a local band would come in and play after that. The majority of my tourmates were tired from the day's adventure, but didn't want to pass up the music so we went to the pub. The traditional music showed up really late so they only played two songs before the modern day band went on. Being so tired we called it a night pretty early, around midnight-1am. But here's a couple pics from the night.

Dublin to Killarney

2011-03-06T05:01:00.000-08:00

So the first day of the Shamrocker Tour I showed up at Kinlay House on Lord Edward Street and the first person to show up was an Aussie named Ed. He'd been on the Haggis tour (one that goes to Scotland) before and loved so decided to do the 3 Day Southern Rocker. That made me a lot better because even though I read nothing but great reviews on Shamrockers, it was just solidified by hearing it out of an actual persons mouth. Our tour guide Seán arrived and gave us shirts and a book that had tips for traveling in pretty much ever European country. I will definitely be holding on to that!! And we were off.

The first stop was the Rock of Cashel, which was this castle, perched atop a hill. Way back in the day it was the seat to the Kings of Munster. The second picture is of another castle that was just behind the Rock of Cashel. From there we traveled to the Blarney Castle in the Rebel County of Cork. From the pictures I had seen of the people kissing the Blarney Stone, I really was not prepared for the castle. The castle and surrounding landscape was gorgeous beyond anything I'd ever seen. But then you get in the castle. I expected that they had built modern day stairs to get up to the top so it would be easier for visitors, but that was so NOT the case. They had the original spiral stone staircase that you had to climb. It was barely wide enough for my fat booty to fit through and they just had a thick rope to hold onto for stability. The good thing is there were different rooms along the way up that you could step into and take a break from the heart-pounding stairs. So I got to see the kitchen and the girl's rooms on the way up just long enough to get my heart settled down and start again.
Eventually I did make it all the way to the top and here are the pictures that one of my tour mates took of me as I very nervously kissed the Blarney stone. Also, the most unflattering angle to ever be photographed at!!!

After I kissed the stone I booked it back down to solid ground, the stairs were much more what I was used to and I was very glad that they weren’t like what they were going up. If they were I think I would have gone down on my butt hahaha. I hadn’t really had any Irish food since I arrived so I walked over to an Irish pub called Muskerry Arms and ordered Irish Beef Stew. OMFG that was the BEST beef stew I had in my entire life! I just wanted to keep eating it forever, but it was so filling. If you ever get to the Blarney Castle, for real stop at Muskerry Arms and have that stew!! You won’t be disappointed, well unless you’re vegetarian…The next stop was Killarney and I laid down in the hostel for a bit to take a nap before going out for the night. So around 9p I made my way to O'Connor's pub around the corner to watch Pa perform. He's a very animated story teller that recites a story about a bartender that is closing his pub for the last time and is remembering all the characters that frequented the bar, while drinking Guinness and Bushmills Whiskey. All together we counted five Guinness he drank during the show, but there were quite a few cigarrette breaks so who knows if he had any more then, but it was still hilarious.
After the pub we headed over to the Grand Hotel which is like the local club for some drinks and dancing. Seán had "warned" the bus that the guys don't dance with you, but they dance "at" you, which was the funniest thing I ever heard lol. And the guys that the local girls packed a punch so be cautious when hitting on them hahah. A lot of the bus was married or engaged so it was pretty funny. But the people in our tour stuck together and danced in a circle so there was no weirdness. I didn't drink, but I did have a red lemonade which is the equivalent to carbonated lemonade with a bit of red coloring/flavoring. I tried to find some to bring back, but I could only find it in a 2L bottle and didn't have room for it :( Maybe when I go back I'll make sure I have room and get some then. It was about 2a when we decided to head back to the hostel. Right next door was the pretty much the equivalent of Denny's so everyone wanted to stop there and get some food. So we stopped for burgers and chips and laughed at all the really drunk locals as they stumbled in. Then off to bed as we had to be on the bus at 8:30a later that morning.

Over the Rainbow

2011-03-05T16:47:00.000-08:00

Sorry I've been MIA for a moment, the tours have me on the bus a lot and exhausted when I get back to the hostel. So here's some photos from the Northern Ireland tour...

Ouch!

2011-03-02T21:35:00.000-08:00

Euros, Cola, and Roller Derby

2011-03-02T16:25:00.000-08:00

As you read in my previous post my day started off pretty early. So as I was buzzing about online I got to watch the sunrise over York St. Everything was really quiet, no people on the streets and no cars going by, and I could hear the birds singing. It was rather lovely.

I always wonder what the money looks like in other countries. When my dad moved into his house, there were some Francs up in the attic and I thought they were the coolest thing since sliced bread! And I've had a couple friends travel to other counties so I always get to look at their money. So I naturally I had to take a picture of it (just in case I end up spending it all lol).

I set out to find Bewley's Cafe on Grafton St. and when I walked by it looked really fancy from the outside so I didn't go in. I have jeans and a hoodie on, so I didn't want to be the weird one. I found out from one of the Dublin Roller Girls that it's really not fancy and I could have went in, but I found a little coffee shop area inside of a store called Marks and Spencers, which is semi fancy and there I was in my jeans...lol oh well. I would probably compare it to Von Maur or something along those lines. But I had a grilled ham and cheese sandwich and a cola. The pop kind of tasted like carbonated raisin juice, but I liked it. The back of the bottle said "vegetarian" on it which I found kind of funny because I just assumed that my pop didn't contain meat...but I guess you learn something new every day???I sat at the single row of window seats and across the street from the cafe was this place in the picture below. Now can someone tell me what herbal remedies, cosmetics and photography all have in common? There are a lot of these place here...I think I'm missing something, but I haven't figured it out yet.So after breakfast, I wandered around a bit more just trying to get the lay of the city (which is impossible BTW). All the buildings are gorgeous and look like they just came out of a storybook. There are flower vendors on every street corner, literally. But the majority of the shops weren't open yet so I just walked around for a couple hours. The bottom of the two pictures reminds me of Gringotts, the wizarding bank.This is the ceiling in the elevator at the hostel. I went back midday to take a nap before I met up with the Dublin Roller Girls.I met Kitty Cadaver and her fiance Violent Bob at the Spire which is this giant spike in the middle of O'Connell Street, pretty much Dublin center. I didn't get a good picture of it because the camera wouldn't focus on it. It was dark and the top of it just disappears, but here's a tiny piece of the side lol. This looks like it's sunset, but I had to Photoshop it so you could see it, I assure you it was dark. We took the bus out to where they practice at and Kitty gave me a sticker and some pins :) I LOVE their logo, it's like the perfect combination of girly and hardcore at the same time. Good graphic design work (yep I'm a nerd). They let me borrow some of the fresh meat skates to practice with them in and I borrowed pads from the coach. I skated for a little while, but not skating for six months in combination with the massive blister that encompasses the entire ball of my right foot didn't help so I took the skates off and watched the rest of their practice. It was super awesome to see how another team runs drills and their team dynamic. I can't wait for the semester to be over so I can get back to practicing in May!!

After practice we went to Burger King hahaha and it's way cooler than the one's we have in the States!! It's two stories and they have LED monitors for their menu boards, but they also don't have everything that we have on the menu. No Whopper Jr. for instance. I just couldn't believe how fancy schmancy the BK was! Definitely cracked me up!

After we said our good-bye's I started walking back to my hostel and I had to cross the Liffey River. I stopped on the bridge and snapped an awesome picture of all the street lights reflecting on the river.

That's all for today, it's 1:18a and I'm off to bed. I have to be at the Tourist Office at 6:30a tomorrow for my tour to Northern Ireland (Belfast and the Giants Causeway).

Time Changes

2011-03-01T23:41:00.001-08:00

The time change sure has done a number on me. I went to bed at 9p Dublin time (aka 4p EST) and woke up at 3:30a (12p EST) and have been awake ever since...so I searched around for a good breakfast place and there's one up on Grafton St. that I think I'll check out. But while waiting for the rest of Dublin to wake up, I edited a couple of the photos from yesterday's shoot.

The one above is my favorite so far.

So I guess it's time to actually get offline and go get some food, explore Dublin and take more photos.

Trains are Not Like the Hogwarts Express

2011-03-01T11:51:00.000-08:00

I had no idea what to expect when it came to riding the train. When I think of trains I think of the Hogwarts Express from Harry Potter. You know, the ornately decorated wood, with compartments where four people can sit, and a lady with a trolley brings around candy. Yeah that's definitely not it, but it wasn't bad either. You would think I would know what a real train looks like on the inside since my dad has been a toy train collector since I was born and I grew up playing with them, but nope. The inside is kind of like a plane, just with more room to move and you can walk around to get coffee or a snack. It's a pretty smooth ride too. I have to say my favorite part was hearing the whistle all the time. Definitely brought back lots of memories of my childhood. Too bad the Amtrak engines don't have a smoke stack like my cool trains did. Also, we arrived in Chicago an hour late due waiting on a Norfolk Southern freight train that was converging on the same track. The Grand Hall in Union Station was stunning, but I didn't stop to take any photos because I didn't want to be late, on the way home I definitely will!!

Got to the airport no problem despite lugging two pieces of luggage around Chicago. Check in everything goes smoothly, get to my terminal and wait. I realized I haven't eaten or drank anything all day so I find a food stand and grab a banana and juice. Then I look at the time and my flight isn't supposed to start boarding for an hour and a half, so I try to update the blog, but for some reason the wifi the airport is supposed to have wouldn't connect. So I'm just sitting there...then they switch terminals, good thing it was the one right next to where we were. They tell us that they're just waiting on the plane that's there to leave so ours can pull up. My flight was supposed to leave at 4p. Finally 4:30p rolls around and you can see all the passengers getting restless, then they announce that our terminal was changed again from F6 to E15...which just happens to be at the other end of the "Y" shaped terminal. So all of us haul butt to get over there. After waiting for the passengers that were on the plane to disembark and us to load, we didn't leave Chicago until 5:15p..my flight from Philly (1hr ahead of Chicago time) is supposed to leave for Dublin at 9p and it's a 2hr flight to Philly!! As soon as we land I get off the plane and have to run, literally run to my terminal. I stopped to use the bathroom before I boarded and almost missed my flight. I boarded and not five minutes later my plane took off! It was crazy and US Airways needs to get their poop in a group.

By this time I'm starving and exhausted because all I had to eat earlier was a banana and I've been awake since 6:30a. So you can imagine my excitement when they said they were going to serve an in-flight meal, which wasn't that bad surprisingly. Then I realized because I had to run, I didn't have a chance to pick up any Tylenol PM to help me sleep. Never again will I not stop. That was seriously the l-o-n-g-e-s-t flight I've ever had to endure. There was no getting comfy and there was definitely no sleeping. Surprisingly with everything else running late, the flight to Dublin landed 1hr early. When we land I had been awake for 20hrs, but I had to gather my brain and take some pictures :) So here's from inside the airport looking at MOUNTAINS!!!!I get on the 16a bus that takes me to my hostel and when I arrive there it's 10a Dublin time (which means 5a Michigan time). By the way, the bus system is insane, actually all the roads and drivers are, but the buses don't announce which stop you're at nor do they have a map on the wall showing which stops are which. And when I asked someone how do you know where to get off, the answer was, "You just know." I was lucky enough that I seen my hostel coming up so I was prepared, but I feel bad for those people who's stop is not as easy to point out as mine was.

I get to Avalon House and I could check in, but I wasn't allowed to have a key to the room until 2p, actual check in time, so inside the hostel is a coffee/sandwich/baked goods shop and I went over there to catch up on eating. I got a mocha which the barrista made very pretty as you can see and some pasta salad which was delicious!!So after that I was going to try and adventure to the Vodafone store to get a prepaid, but the guy at the counter explained that "prepay phones" haven't really made it to Ireland yet, but I could check out the store and gave me a map. He said it was like a 5 min. walk from the hostel, so I set out to find it. Well, since I was SO tired I ended up going the wrong direction and didn't feel like trying again, not to mention I didn't want to walk any further having two blisters on my feet, so I sat in the lobby where there are computers with free wifi and checked my Facebook haha.

Finally at 2p I was able to check in, I was SOOOOOO excited to get to my room to sleep!!! Walk up to the room and open the door and there's two beds. I thought I booked the room with one, but I guess not lol. Oh well, I just put my suitcase on the other one :) But the best part is the bathroom is in the room! Most hostels have a shared bathroom, but I got lucky finding Avalon House and the private suites have their own.

Here's the view from my room of Aungier St. Sorry about the really crappy white balance of the one below, but I just uploaded all of these straight out of my point and shoot. But this is what their electrical outlets look like.

I got all settled in and got to take a 3hr nap before I met with the model to do the photo shoot. He was really fun to work with, we were cracking up the entire time because he was embarrassed to pose while people were walking by and I kept thinking I was going to get run over because crazy drivers drive on the sidewalks and park there!! So we talked about all the differences from Europe and America and whatnot. It was dark by the time we started shooting so I don't have that many photos, but from what I was seeing on the camera I liked. I might post a couple later in the week, but for now I am going to bed. It's 9p here, so it's only 4p for most of you reading this. And I've more or less been awake for 32hrs, minus my 3hr nap, so it is WAY past my bedtime!! lol.

Tomorrow I get to meet up with the Dublin Roller Girls in the evening, so I'm excited to meet them and see how their practices go.

Good night!

Only Hours Away

2011-02-27T10:36:00.000-08:00

I board my train to Chicago in roughly 18hrs!! I'm still packing, per usual, but I just have to get the clothes together. However I do need to go to Best Buy and return the wireless remote because the "knowledgeable salesman" told me it would work for my camera and it doesn't. He wasn't very helpful in the first place, I went in there looking to buy a camcorder and he just acted like he didn't care. Nor did he even try to sell me anything. It's probably because I have blue hair, he probably thought I was just some punk kid coming in to be lame. Well that's what he gets for stereotyping.

Either way I got to run out and do that, then I need to make copies of my passport and license. I would really like to get some food too, Los Tres Amigos sounds amazing right now!

Time to get crackin'!!

Feeling Accomplished

2011-02-25T18:31:00.000-08:00

I was on a mission today!! Woke up and drove to Ann Arbor to do my pottery homework during open studio. It was SO nice, there were only four students there, the quiet and tons of room to work. After that I went to the mall (I HATE THE MALL) to buy some shoes. I just got new shoes two months ago, but those are my custom made roller derby shoes and I needed some everyday shoes. Plus Journeys had Etnies on clearance for $30! Half off!! Yay! I found the travel store and picked up a plug adapter to go from the US outlet to the Irish outlet.

Next stop Wal-Mart. I got all my travel sized stuffs like shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste...etc... All to TSA regulations. And I picked up some snacks and instant oatmeal; I had read on one of the thousands of sites I've been on, to bring some food if you're staying in a hostel because then I'll save money on at least one meal.

Oh I opted out of driving to Lansing today to exchange currency, one: because gas is $3.45/gal. and two: because I already drove to Ann Arbor and didn't want to drive anymore.

Now I'm working on getting everything I need together and packed in my suitcase. Two days!!!!

Note to Self

2011-02-24T19:57:00.000-08:00

Exchange money at least three weeks before departure...

I figured I could just stroll into my trusty ol' bank and they'd change my dollars for euros. Nope. My bank doesn't do that and the ONLY bank (or place for that matter) that will exchange currency in town takes a week for the money to come in! So I frantically scoured southern Michigan searching for a place that would do it on the spot and the only one I found was in Lansing. I figure that the Dublin airport would have one, but I'd rather have it already and figured out BEFORE I get over there, so a trip to Lansing is in order tomorrow.

So Much Stuff to Do

2011-02-23T09:47:00.000-08:00

There's five days left before I leave and I have SO much stuff to do still, I really should stop being such a procrastinator. I still need to:

Exchange money into Euros and Pounds
Pack
Buy travel size shampoo/condtioner/body wash, etc...
Make copy of passport
Make sure all tickets and itinerary is printed

I took Friday off work so I could get all that done, I'm gonna need all the time I can get to pack. OMG so much stuff to bring, but I've got to have room to bring stuff back!

Highlights of my trip that I've scheduled:

Photo shoot with Irish model (every vacation I try to find a model to do a photo shoot with, just getting to work with people in different regions is fun).
Sitting in on practice with the Dublin Roller Girls!
Book signing with Steve McCurry (here's the link to his most famous image).
Kissing the Blarney Stone.
Seeing the Cliffs of Moher.
Seeing the Giants Causeway.

Dublin Zoo

2011-02-22T11:15:00.000-08:00

I LOVE to go to zoo's and aquariums and I just looked up the Dublin Zoo. I was going through the list of animals they have there and came across a peacock, except the Irish don't call them peacocks, they're called peafowl. Thought that was an interesting tidbit I'd share with you.

T-Minus Seven Days

2011-02-21T18:40:00.000-08:00

I've decided to start a blog to display my photos from various travelings that I'll do over the years. My resolution this year is to at least go on one vacation/trip a year (so it's a life long resolution, but it still counts!)

This year I'm going to Ireland and I leave in seven days. This will be the first time I've ever traveled off the North American continent so I'm really excited/scared/nervous/anxious/pumped/amazed!! I will be taking a train to Chicago and flying out of there (also awesome, I've only ever flew out of Detroit AND I've never been on a real, taking-me-to-another-city train before). My goal is to document my entire trip start to finish, I'll probably have a bajillion photos, but I'm okay with that! I've read SO much about Ireland in the last month I don't think my brain can take in anymore. On the other hand I have a TON of stuff to do before I leave, mainly go exchange some money at the bank and pack but I'm a procrastinator :)