Monday, May 25, 2009

Sneak Preview: Brandi and Tim

Congratulations, Brandi and Tim!



The happy couple tied the knot in Vegas last October, but they celebrated with extended family and friends with a big, backyard party on Saturday.



Thanks to Brandi's soon-to-be brother-in-law Dan, who caught lots of great shots in Las Vegas' Shalimar Chapel, you can see that Elvis played a big role in their wedding...



and was part of Saturday's party, too.



Who doesn't love Elvis glasses that come with their own sideburns?



Long live the King!

Brandi's parents' backyard is adjacent to an Amish farm,

and yes, there was a farmer plowing his field, just beyond the bar.

Born and raised in Lancaster County myself, this didn't faze most of the locals. :)

Good wine..



Good food...





Good friends...






And beer pong!



Thank you for letting me spend the day with you! This is your heart's true happiness, and it's everything you deserve. :)

Monday, May 18, 2009

Three Vignettes: Random Things That Probably Deserve Posts of Their Own

1. Frick and Frack Invest In Real Estate (maybe)


Sometimes, when Joel and I are tripping over our own feet, dropping things, misplacing electronic devices... You know, just generally being our splendidly imperfect selves- we call each other Frick and Frack. 


Take this scene from "Frick and Frack Go On A Road Trip," for an example. The conversation COULD (and occasionally does) go something like this: "Oh, for fuck's sake. I don't know where the goddamn leash is! I thought YOU walked the dog. You had my keys last. Yes, you did. Yes. Um, I think you took them WHEN YOU WALKED THE DOG because you couldn't find yours, maybe? Oh, I promise you, you did. Wait, which cat just barfed? Well, how did he get a hold of the entire Ziploc bag of tartar-fighting cat treats in the first place? Jesus, I just want to start driving to Boston sometime, like, TODAY!"


We've reached a point now where we don't even need to have the above conversation. We can be digging through coat pockets and couch cushions, looking for the keys and the leash, and hear the ominous sound of One Cat Barfing from the other room. Joel just looks at me, smiles, and says, "Hi, Frick." And I reply, "Hi, Frack." Ah, married people shorthand.


So, now we're thinking about buying a house. We're kind of tired of living in Murderville. I'm definitely tired of throwing money away on rent. The offers for first time homebuyers are really, really good right now, so we're just starting the process of research, which really just means bugging my sister the real estate attorney and reading, "Homebuyers for Dummies."


Stay tuned...


2. I had lunch with my ex-boyfriend.


Yeah, so... I hadn't seen him in over four years, not since the night he walked out. We've made our peace since then. We talk and text from time to time, but we hadn't actually seen each other, face to face. He got married last June, not long before Joel and I tied the knot. 


I was running a few minutes late to meet him because "Operation: Be On Time, In Fact, Be Early" was foiled by a full parking garage. I was calling him as I walked toward the restaurant... and then, there he was. I could see him rummaging for his phone a few yards beyond where we said we'd meet, so I went rushing past the entrance to the restaurant. 


In the end, my Ex had to chase me down. The guy a few hundred yards away was actually a tourist taking a picture of Faneuil Hall with his phone. Yup, I almost bum-rushed a tourist because I didn't even see the man I loved for years. The man I thought I would spend the rest of my life with. I just didn't see him. He was standing right where he said he would be, and my eyes skipped right over him. Huh. How 'bout that.


Lunch was fine.  It was perfectly pleasant. He is still one funny, funny guy. He brought me a birthday card.  And then... I accidentally told him he was irrelevant to my current life while making a Sarah Palin metaphor, and he wasn't even insulted. We ate Japanese food, which is remarkable, what with my foot in my mouth and everything. He was actually really happy that I have no permanent scars from The Heartbreak, and I learned all over again about generosity of spirit, which is something he taught me in the first place. 


In the end, we ran out of time before we ran out of things to talk about, which is one of the best things about seeing an old friend. We fought over the check. I won.



3. Speaking of old friends... I meant to blog about this last November.


This weekend I'm shooting/attending an old friend's "We got married in Vegas last year and now we're having a big party!" party. I'm really happy for the happy couple, not only because they're a great match, but also because I asked them if I could please get them Elvis wigs and glasses as a wedding present,  B thought it would be the best wedding present ever. :) They were serenaded by an Elvis impersonator at their Vegas wedding, and the props will make for some AWESOME, hilarious photos on Saturday.  


Also, a group of friends who were really more like family my senior year of high school will all mostly be there. (We'll miss you, Beki!) Can't wait!


NON-SEQUITAR TRANSITION:


Last November, I was shooting a wedding in the same family coming up this weekend, and lots of the same friends were guests, including my friend Matt. The wedding was held in a beautiful historic inn and spa in Connecticut. I crashed there the night before because pre-ceremony preparation was scheduled to start at 6 a.m. The ceremony itself was at 11 a.m., and the shoot was wrapped by 5 p.m. I had originally planned to drive back to New York since it was only a two hour drive. 


Now, back in the day, I had a big crush on Matt our senior year of high school. He knew it. (Subtlety? Not really my thing. I have other gifts :) But we always had a great time together.We had this one amazing moment one night in the rain where he brushed the hair out of my eyes. It was downright cinematic, but there was always SOMETHING I couldn't quite put my finger on. At the time, I thought maybe he had a secret crush on Rinny Gogers.


At it turned out, he likes boys. :) Nine years after the drama of our senior prom, it was my profound honor to attend (and yes, photograph) his commitment ceremony to one of the funniest people I've ever met. They're perfect for each other.


Back to November. Matt and his husband Keith decided that I should crash with them instead of driving back to New York after the wedding. They were absolutely insistent. We went bar-hopping and ended up having one of Those Nights you still talk about when you're old and gray in the nursing home. I crashed on the couch in their hotel room. 


Now, Matt is an early riser. Me and Keith? Not so much. Matt was up at dawn, reading and waiting for it to be late enough to safely try to wake us up. Not happening. He ended up doing a Dunkin Donuts run. Before he left, he insisted I crawl into the king-sized bed as there was plenty of room. Keith was dead to the world. He tucked me in, and the next thing I knew, he was setting a hot chocolate and croissant on my nightstand.


Some women dream of going to a wedding, seeing their old high school crush, drinking way too much, sharing a hotel room, and winding up in the king-sized bed together. In my world? My old high school crush ends up tucking me into that king-sized bed... next to his husband. And I wouldn't want it any other way. :)



Friday, May 15, 2009

Hi. I'm alive. I'm just boring.

Hi everyone. Sorry posting as been light lately. All is well, I'm just kind of boring at the moment.

Summer is suddenly right around the corner, and I am about to get very, very busy. I'm presently in a kind of a holding pattern, the calm before the storm of High Wedding Season. What can I tell ya? Yesterday my car got a tuneup, oil change and tire rotation. Most of my camera gear is currently getting the same treatment at Canon headquarters. See? Boring.

Also, Joel and I are going to Hawaii in July with my parents, sister and brother-in-law. My mom and my sister have really taken charge of the planning, which I was happy to sit back and let them do, since they're total Hawaii-philes. Joel and I aren't really all-inclusive resort people; we're more adventure vacation types. My sister and my mom have done a really good job of planning a combination of stuff that's simultaneously relaxing and adventureous.

Joel and I are seriously considering doing Lava Roy's Ocean Adventure Tour, which seems like the best chance we'll get to shoot liquid lavafalls where they flow into the ocean. But then I found a bunch of threads like this one on TripAdvisor.com, which essentially feature a bunch of posters running around like panicking Smurfs (The link takes you to a YouTube video; the Smurfs panic 32 seconds into the clip. See what I mean? That's what the message board is like. Totally.)

They're all, "Collapsing lava shelf" this! and "You could get boiled in hot ocean water" that! I ran some of it by Joel, resident geologist, who was like, "Those posts are from a long time ago, the lava flow is completely different now" and "Some of that sounds like sound science; I have to do some research."

The bottom line is... we still really want to do this. We also don't want to die. What do you think? It's been a while since I posted a poll --------------------->

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Signs of the Times

First of all, GO, MAINE! Today,the governor of Mine signed same-sex marriage into law. So, so happy for them! Come on, New Hampshire. I know you're next. All the neighbors are doing it!

Yesterday, Joel was walking down the hallway at his school and saw two teenagers making out by their lockers. He called out, "Excuse me! Lovebirds!" in his best "I am your 10th grade science teacher and public displays of affections are against the rules" voice. As they sheepishly broke apart, he realized they were both girls.

I'm all for decorum and all that, but there's something so truly heartening about the fact that gay teens can be out in the hallways of their public, inner city high school, and the worst thing they have to fear is detention. Of course, we have a long, long way to go, and yet, there's hope.

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Photos from the Weekend

So I turned 30 on Sunday, and I have to say thank you to everyone for your calls and facebook posts and emails and text messages! Aw, you guys! Thank you, sincerely. (You like me! You really like me! :)



Joel and I drove up to my sister's house in Boston to celebrate my birthday and visit with Michael and Kelly, who flew in from San Francisco. It's kind of hard to explain, and it's all boring anyway, but I'm doing this very carefully monitored and prescribed... *thing* right now where I am eating a lot of sugar-free pudding and not drinking alcohol. I know.



So we celebrated my 30th like it was my 3rd, complete with My Little Pony theme! It was an ironic, throwback stroke of genius, and we had an absolute blast.



Joel gleefully showing Kelly, Michael and Amanda the wonder that IS Hamster on a Piano on my laptop.






Sugar-free pudding pie thing!



I am being FIERCE; Kelly is cracking me up.



And then, we ate lobster! (Because I *can* have boiled seafood.)



When in New England...



Thanks for making this an awesome birthday. Way, way better than the year I turned 9 and broke out in chicken pox at Chuckie Cheese. Love you all.