Demoted

I came home yesterday to some unexpected information.

It seems that Esther, tired of waiting all day for me to come home only to find my lap occupied by the attention-hogging puppy, decided it was time for a change. When I went upstairs to change out of my work clothes, I found her contently snuggled up to my teddy bear with no intention of swapping out for "that dog loving human".

Looks like I've been replaced. How sad for me.

The Colors of Spring

I hate the question "what's your favorite season?" because each season is beautiful in its own time. And right now, we are right smack in the middle of the gorgeousness that is Springtime! Take a look at what my lunch hour on Friday looked like:











I feel very lucky to work in such a beautiful location, especially on days like this, when the entire campus looks like it's decked out in it's Easter finest.

Dakota Memorial Dog Park

I took Jade to a new park today. It's a dog park not too far from my apartment. The park is run by the city's Parks and Recreation and part of a larger community park.

I had found it online on Monday, but my plans to take Jade out that afternoon were foiled by our neighbors who took Jade out to another park with their kids. By the time I got her back, she was too tired to go out and play, so I had to wait for another day. Today was nice and sunny without being hot, so I thought it would be a good day to try it. Besides, I figured Derrick would like to join us and today was his day off.

The dog park was named after Dakota, a German Shepherd police dog who was killed in the line of duty. It is 8 acres in size and fenced to keep the doggies in. There's a gravel trail for walking, an open lawn for throwing a ball or sticks, a forested area and a rustic log agility course.


For those of us who run out of steam sooner than our four legged friends, there are benches around the walking trail. And there are drinking fountains for the people and the dogs!


It was a lot of fun being out there. For someone who has not been all that comfortable around most dogs, I had a blast out there. Hardly any of the dogs were on leashes and all of them were friendly and well behaved. I didn't get growled at even once and the only barking I heard was playful barking. Jade made lots of friends with lots of different pooches today.




It was a great place to just walk (or in Jade's case, run) and enjoy being outside. We completely lost track of time and only realized how long we had been out there when we noticed that Jade was not running back at full speed after fetching the ball. She was so exhausted that she fell asleep during the 5 minute ride home and has been snoring next to me on the couch ever since.

I think she'd call this a successful outing.

Exposure to Light (and Flowers and Dogs)

Yesterday I did some more photography practice. Yesterday's lesson was on exposure and how to make sure that you are getting the right amount of light to make your pictures come out correctly. The exercises had me turn the camera settings to "manual mode" and spend the day adjusting the aperture and shutter speed on my own. After all day of adjusting and snapping shots, I realized that while I am getting the hang of seeing things with an artistically photographic eye, I still have no concept of light compensation. This is obviously going to take a lot of practice. Most of my pictures still look a little too dark.


Mom and Don have a great place for practicing photography. They have a large yard with trees and flowers. It was fun to wander around the yard, going into areas I usually forget to check out because they are slightly hidden from view and finding the flowery treasures flourishing within.




It's also a great place to practice taking action shots as the dogs never seem to slow down while we're out there.




Mom and Don were taking advantage of the sunshine by doing some much needed yard maintenance. Derrick came out with me and took on the task of mowing the lawn. I had already established earlier in the week my intentions for the day, so I quickly grabbed the camera and headed out before they handed me some tools and foiled my plans. Surprisingly they didn't even make an attempt. They were very cool to just leave me to my experimenting.




I really love taking pictures! This morning I was sitting in the lobby of the church, waiting for the second service to begin and watching the people coming, going and greeting one another, and I kept thinking how beautiful these scenes would be to shoot in black and white.

I guess that means I'm on my way to becoming a true photographer. I just can't wait to get my own camera!

Practice Makes .... Less Average

My first camera "lesson" was on aperture (depth of field) and shutter speed. Of all the many photos I took on Sunday, these were the ones I liked the best. I can already see a difference in the way I look through the camera lens.

(aperture)

(aperture)

(shutter speed)

(shutter speed)

(aperture)

This weekend is supposed to really nice and sunny. A great time to go out and do some more practicing.

The Matchmakers

I'm about to drop some universal truth: Dating sucks.

Yes, I realize that I say that a lot. But it's true. Sure, there are individual cases where fun is had, a hot connection might be made, a temporary relationship is developed, and a great experience might be lived. But in the grand scheme of things, dating is just not a favored activity. The always putting your best foot forward to make a good impression, the awkward silence of trying to find something in common with this stranger sitting across from you, the sifting through the duds to find that one person who stimulates your mental acumen while at the same time sends flurries of butterflies soaring through your insides. Then there's the chess game of "who calls who and when?" and the business deal of "would a merger between our two entities be profitable in the long run?".

It's exhausting and frustrating.

Every single has reached this conclusion at some point in their lives (although not all would be so ready to admit to it). But if we want to avoid the dating game, we only have two options: be content to live alone for the rest of our lives or get married (which incidentally requires us to continue playing the dating game).

Add in the unavoidable factor of advancing age and suddenly dating becomes a community project. Seemingly out of the blue, I'm bombarded with well-intentioned matchmakers.

Now it's also complicated.

See, the problem with letting someone else fix you up is that no one can determine what will attract one person to another. "Good looking", "cute", "handsome", and "attractive" are all relative terms that can only be decided by the beholder. And it doesn't matter how wonderfully kind and intelligent someone is, if you can't imagine yourself at some point wanting to kiss him, you might as well forget it. But no one can decide who I will eventually want to kiss but me.

Then there's the true motive behind introducing one person to another. Did this matchmaker look over ALL the potentials out there, study my behavior patterns, learn the other person's temperament, and come to a real solid conclusion that yes, we would in fact make a great match? Or was it thought "single boy + single girl = match"?

And unless you are actually using some kind of matchmaking service, these dates must be approached with extreme caution because unlike normal dates, these situations are no longer just about the two people who are going out. All of a sudden, the interactions between the two who got set up become of interest (and assumed right-to-know) to the matchmaker. And what happens between them could have negative consequences, not just on the "couple" but on the third-party. Suppose, for example, that someone sets me up with this guy who is just a "great, wonderful, teddy bear of a guy who deserves someone great". I meet him and determine that while he is nice, he's not kissable to me. Then I become the Shallow Bitch. Or someone sets me up with this guy they work with because he's "cute, funny, really nice, and seems ready for a commitment". But then he ditches me at a party to hit on another girl that he finds more attractive. Then suddenly this coworker is a Deadbeat Jerkface. If one of us stops calling without warning or reason, that person is suddenly the Flake who can no longer be counted on. See the problem?

Let this serve as a warning to all you well-meaning would-be matchmakers out there. Dating is tricky enough; be sure you know exactly what you are doing before you decide to "help".

And yes, I have a real point to all this blather:

I had a coffee date last night. He's a coworker of someone I know from church. We've talked a couple of times on the phone and decided to meet up. Actually, to be more accurate, he talked and I listened (he's far more chatty than I am). I put off getting together a couple of times because I just wasn't feeling it, but eventually I gave in. Mostly because I'm tired of my family thinking that I'm not dating because I'm still hung up on him (although, it's a fair concern. In those quiet moments of introspective reflection, I wonder the same thing). But I also agreed because I had no real reason not to meet him.

We met after I got off work at one of the MANY coffee places Vancouver is privy to. We met, drank coffee, and chatted.

I am currently undecided about him. Nothing about him immediately offends me, but nothing really grabs me either. I can't date him just to make everyone else happy, but I don't want to write him off too quickly. Guess all I can do now is proceed with caution and hope that my church friends can respect my desire to maintain a bit of privacy while I work through it.

Have I mentioned lately how much I hate dating?

Hoppy Easter!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Beginning Photography

My newest obsession is photography. I've decided that the best way to improve my scrapbooks is by learning to take better pictures. I've been paying close attention to what I'm doing when I use my camera, but still most my photos look average at best. So, I've decided to try taking some classes and/or getting a new camera. I've come to realize that the people who take the amazing pictures that I love to look at (yes, Riikka, I'm talking about you!) all have higher quality cameras, so maybe if I get one of those (and learn the proper way to use it) then maybe I'll be able to take up photography as a satisfying hobby.

Classes have been a bit hard to come by. I don't really have the money to take the ones offered at the community center and my tuition waiver for classes on campus is based on availability. Thanks to the state of the economy, enrollment has skyrocketed lately so there really isn't room for me in the classes here. So, I'm forced to teach myself. I did find an online course that offers "classes" that I only have to pay for once and then am free to revisit as often as necessary. It's five classes and I can take it at my own pace, so that's what I'm going to use to start out. It's a good thing that I'm good at learning on my own.

But I still need a camera. So, while I'm learning as much as I can intellectually (and practicing on a borrowed camera whenever the opportunity presents itself), I'm researching the cameras out there and saving up for when I find the one that fits my needs the best. It's the best I can do for now. I hope it won't take TOO long to save up the money. I would love to get a lot of my practice done outside in the sunny weather while I have the chance.

The following photos are my first attempt at playing with a Big Boy Camera. At this point, I haven't started the online course yet, so these are REALLY beginner shots. I was just playing with Don's camera at my cousin's birthday party. These are some of my favorites that I took:

As I do more practicing, I'll share my progress.