Tagged!

As oer these instructions: "List 7 things that you love, and then pass the award on to 7 bloggers that you love! Be sure to tag them and let them know that they have won. You can copy the picture of the award and paste it on your sideboard letting the whole world know...you are Kreativ."

First, the things that I love:

1. My pets. I love them. I love the way Ollie chirps when he jumps on you for a cuddle and curls his tail around Bella's ears as he rubs his head under her chin. I love the way Bella runs in her sleep and licks the cats' heads. I love everything about Fred, my special, special Fred who stares at nothing for hours, makes love to flip flops and cries when his big blue bowl is empty. I'm a lucky human.

2. Slipping into a bed made up with clean sheets right after I've shaved my legs

3. Rolling into town every summer in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. I love seeing all the things that have stayed the same year after year, even though it's always just a little different.

4. Shooting an important photograph under difficult conditions and not feeling at all certain that it will be in focus, then looking at it later and realizing that it's not only sharp, it's TACK sharp. TACK. Love that. Booyah!

5. Making people laugh

6. The muscular ridge between Joel's torso and his hip. Sex-ay.

7. Gaul family traditions- it's a toss up between the Annual Gift Competition, the yearly Beach Trip, and the various silly inside jokes/phrases with my mom and dad and sister

And now... I tag Nikki, Jillian, Lauri, Karla and Lauren

Back to work...

So I went back to work last Tuesday, post-recovery, and hit the ground running. I had the amazing opportunity cover a funeral at Arlington National Cemetery for a Vietnam War pilot who was shot down over Laos exactly 39 years to the day before he was laid to rest. A team of military archeologists recovered his remains last September.

And then, an airman came home.



I just happen to like this picture, but it doesn't show the hundreds of people from all eras of this family's life who showed up to celebrate this unlikely homecoming. It also doesn't show the amazing military funeral, with full honors, this man received. You can see the rest of the photos from Arlington (and some lacrosse, weirdly enough) here.



(Yes, the clicking you hear in the background is me shooting stills while standing too close to the video camera on a tripod.)

Just a gorgeous day

Pleased to Announce...

I've launched a new website for my photojournalism work! Yay, online interactive portfolio! This new website is located at www.angelagaul.com. You can view it by clicking the hot link in the previous sentence, by clicking under the photo of the firefighter on the Milestone Images splash page or by clicking where it says "Photojournalism Portfolio" in the sidebar.

There a few things I still need to polish up. I have more images to add to the Faith photo essay, and I need to post more movies in the video gallery. (I have trouble spotting typos sometimes when I'm really close to a project. Please let me know if you catch something.)

Launching this site was one of my biggest goals for my recovery time, and I'm going back to work tomorrow. So... just in time. I also wanted to clean out my closet, which means I really ought to turn off Law and Order and close the laptop. Yes. We'll see if that happens. ;)

Congratulations, eh?

Joel just got an email saying that Canada just passed an amendment to Canada's Citizen Act, restoring citizenship to anyone who was forced to renounce their Canadian citizenship in order to become a citizen of another country between 1948 and 1977. Like, say, my mother-in-law. It also grants citizenship to their children.

So Joel woke up Canadian this morning. It wasn't anything like this in the video. It would have been AWESOME if a Mountie had knocked on the door to shake his hand, but I'm not sure he'll ever dance around eating poutine.



Joel: "I'm going to have to start watching hockey now."

While recovering...

Greetings from Casa de Convalescence. Everything is fine here- slow and steady. I've been watching a lot of movies, some of them really BAD ("Catch and Release" with Jennifer Garner and Kevin Smith= AWFUL) and entertaining myself with all that the Internet has to offer.

The always lovely Gwen recently posted GREG RUTTER'S DEFINITIVE LIST OF THE 99 THINGS YOU SHOULD HAVE ALREADY EXPERIENCED ON THE INTERNET UNLESS YOU'RE A LOSER OR OLD OR SOMETHING. This is a list of absolute GENUIS on the Internet.

My two new favorites? A re-dubbed PSA from the end of an old GI Joe cartoon...



Porkchop sandwiches!


And then there's this, which makes my drama club geek heart sing. The beginning is boring, you have to hang in there for the first 1 minute and 45 seconds. The rest is so touching. By the time they busted out her headshots, I was in tears. I don't know these people, but I feel like they're an awful lot like people I do know and love. Most excellent.

Angie's House of Suckers, Revisited

So we all know that one of my special superpowers is attracting stray pets. It's been like this my whole life. I

I've got a lot going on at the moment (surgery in the morning; but no worries, I'm fine!), so I really, really can't do anything about this right now. But the last couple of days, I've been seeing this rabbit everywhere. It's not a wild rabbit. It has the long, droopy ears of a lop-eared rabbit. It definitely escaped from somewhere or was freed by someone who was tired of it. I think there are two rabbits, actually, because Joel has seen two different colored rabbits in the bushes and behind the cans on our street. I've only seen the one, but it's been, like, five times.

There's this poster at the animal shelter where I regularly drop off donations/volunteer/drop off homeless dogs who show up on my porch. It shows a sad looking pet rabbit, and the slogan says, "You're not setting her free. You're making her bait." Oof. So really, there's no way I can help this rabbit right now. I have to be at the hospital in six hours. I can't catch it, bathe it, neuter it, and drop it at the shelter.

But here's the thing. The rabbit? Is sitting on our porch right now. Yes, our porch, where we live. Right now. Sigh...

UPDATE: Michael, would that I were like the great Granny Weastherwax and could neuter a rabbit with a withering look! (not that she does that in any book I've read, but certainly she COULD)

Um, I actually went out and looked for the rabbit right after I posted that entry, shortly after midnight, thinking maybe, just maybe I could convince it to spend a few hours in a cat carrier. (Fail.) know Joel's animal rescue instincts would kick in once I was hooked up to an IV and knocked out by 8 a.m. It wasn't on the porch anymore. And- Oh God.... sadly.... the rabbit was hit by a car outside our house between my 12:10 a.m. surveillance attempt and when we left for the hospital at 6 a.m. I feel really, really bad about this.

On the other hand, I am home. Surgery went well and I am resting. I didn't get much sleep in the hospital, unsurprisingly, so if you call and I don't pick up the phone, please don't worry. On the other hand, the doctors strongly encourage movement, walking and activity, so I'll be up and about before long. Thanks for all the get well wishes everyone!

In memory of the Bun Who Should Have Lived, please make your Easter bunny chocolate this year and spread the word.

The One Where I Get Just What I Wanted

So... my big sister is the best big sister ever. She is just the coolest. I know a lot of people have heard me say this about her before, but as there are a lot of new readers and followers around these days, allow me a little back story. My sister Amanda is two years older than I am. She potty-trained me when I was 2. When my mom decided I was finally ready for big girl panties, she went to her drawer and got me her fanciest, frilliest pair to wear (and then told that story at my wedding.) That kind of set the tone for the rest of our relationship.

When I was graduating from high school and juggling a million extracurricular activities and a part-time job and AP exams, I didn't have time to go shopping for a white (school rules, had to be white) graduation dress. She was just home from college for the summer and not yet working. She went to the mall, bought 14 dresses in my size and brought them all home. I tried them on at 11 o'clock at night, picked one, and she returned the rest the next day. That's just how she is. (Read: AWESOME)

Additional backstory: I'm having surgery on Monday. Don't worry, I'm fine. Seriously. I have one night in the hospital and then I will be off work for two weeks to recover. Fine, I say!

Tonight Joel and I were sitting on the couch with Ollie. I was lamenting how I'm always after the Next Big Thing. I just paid off my credit card debt completely, which was a huge goal of mine. I was saying, feh.. I want to go get a bunch of books to read during my recovery, but technically I don't have enough extra cash to go to Borders and splurge until next pay day, which is Friday after surgey yadda yadda yadda, this is how I end up with a credit card balance I should wait etc etc.

Joel: Didn't you just order books from Amazon?
Me: No, why?
Joel: Well, there's this big box from Amazon here.
Me: Nope, those must be your geology books.
Joel: My geology books are in the other package.
Me: I know, you got like, three boxes today.
Joel: This one has your name on it,
Me: Really?

Joel tosses me the box, which contains the exact four books I would have gone and purchased. From my sister. Who rocks my world. Thank you so much!

Okay, this is just freaking adorable.