Can’t Handle It

My History of Creativity professor is trained in the ways of torture – he’s shown pictures of the British Museum, the Louvre, and Europe in general, reminding me of the days when I would actually be going to these places for class instead of looking at pictures of them in PowerPoint. And today he showed pictures of cathedrals in Paris. Did he know I was there exactly two years ago this Wednesday? I think so. He’s out to get me, and he knows exactly how to do it*. I mean, is showing pictures of him eating crepes while discussing them in great length really necessary?? There can’t be any other plausible reason for doing this.

Places he talked about in great detail and length:

He even talked about our exact tour guide at Chartres. Really?

And just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, he started talking about these places in England, because he knew that would be the final straw.

Specifically, he mentioned these places:

Dear professor,

A class from 4-6:3o on a Monday evening is already bad enough. Please don’t make me want to be somewhere else even more.

Sincerely, Natalie

*In case you’re wondering why this is one of the highest forms of torture for me when it’s one of my favorite topics, it’s because it used to be oh so close. And it still seems so close. But it’s not.

Camille’s Magic

Just got back from studying while Camille practiced the piano. We haven’t done it for awhile, and I am SO ridiculously happy we’ve started it up again. I can’t even describe how wonderful it is. I sprawl out on the cushy chairs in the Madsen with my notebook, Camille works her magic on the piano. And I just feel so much peace and clarity. I get more done, do better quality work and feel great when I leave. Without fail. It’s one of my favorite things in the world. Definitely the way I would prefer to study every time if I could. I’ve tried to replicate it with recordings, but nothing even comes close.

I took the picture above at Camille’s last recital in the Madsen. I love her so much; she’s one of my favorite people in the world. So glad I got to grow up with her and end up at the same college.

A Spooky Tale

Last week while we were in our family finance class Sabrina had the brilliant idea to write a story using the classic write a few sentences, fold it over and pass it to the next person method. I think it turned out fabulous (or terrifying?), so I’m posting it on here to help you get into the Halloween spirit! I included the breaks where we folded the paper for your added enjoyment.

There once was a young man named Fernando. He was naturally curious and loved to explore. One brisk, fall evening he decided to explore the old //

mansion that had been abandoned 40 years before. All of the townsfolk told stories about hauntings that occurred there, but he thought of himself as quite a smart guy and didn’t buy into that. He opened the creaky door when he //

smelled the raw fish. His curiosity was piqued. He stormed into the house and blundered about until he found the kitchen. There he found a sushi-making //

zombie, which offered him some food. However, he thought this may be a trick to get to his brains. Or an actor. He couldn’t //

bear the thought of being the next Tom Cruise, so he dove into the dumbwaiter and sank down into the basement. It was completely dark and he heard//

a dripping sound in the southwest corner. It kind of freaked him out. But because he was curious, he tiptoed over to it and found a dark green //

pile of snot and parrot feathers. “How odd!” thought Fernando. He poked the pile with his foot and to his surprise the goop grabbed him and started climbing//

onto his shirt, kind of like Flubber but in an evil way. He tried to get it off, but it ate him. Or did it?

--> Also, this is completely unrelated to the story, but it made me really happy on my way home from work today.

Daydream Travels

Today was a beautiful fall day in Provo, but as I was stuck in forever-long classes I found myself wishing I was somewhere else. That it was still this summer when I was in these cities.

Here are the top 5 places I would like to be back at now:

#1 Washington, D.C.

#2 New York City (fab photo stolen from Peter Carroll)

#3 Philadelphia (let’s admit it, this sandwich alone would be reason enough to go back and stay)

#4 Baltimore

#5 Ocean City, Md. (who doesn’t want to be at the beach?)

And of course, I always would love love love to go back here:

It’s crazy to think that exactly two years ago last Monday I arrived at 27 Palace Court. If anyone happens to invent a way to teleport before me, pretty please let me know?

Mountain Adventures with Guava

I thought I’d let you in on some of my adventures from this weekend, namely Rocky Mountain Goat Viewing Day. I desperately need extra credit for my bio 100 class, so I had to drive all of the way to Little Cottonwood Canyon in Sandy where I literally stood in a parking lot and stared at a mountain. There were a few other people there who were mountain goat experts or something who I overheard saying they recognized the goats from last year. They have skills.

I did get to help these three nice ladies who came late find the goats though. That made me feel pretty cool.

Here are some pictures so you can see what you missed out on. I had brought my camera to use in place of binoculars since I don’t have any and ended up taking pictures too.

Ok, now find the goat! What, you don’t see it?

This is as close as I ever saw them through my lens. I’ve circled them to help you.

This is a majorly cropped photo of one of the goats.

What’s funny to me is that when I worked at the Oregon Zoo I walked by an exhibit of mountain goats every day. They were a hundred times closer, so I think I should have been able to retroactively get even more extra credit for that.

This, as you can clearly tell, is a picture of me and the goat.

I may have quickly gotten bored and started taking pictures of all the other people standing in the parking lot.

It was nice and sunny though so I didn’t mind. I was hoping to get a tan…

This is my faithful car Guava. I’ll have had her for 5 years this August and we’ve gone on many an adventure. I think the $1,500 it took to buy her has gone quite far. Literally.

There was a mall on the way home so I had to stop to get some clothes for DC naturally, especially since there were a lot of sales and I had birthday money. My favorite purchase was the purple Max Studio dress above. It was originally $128 and I got it for $39. My mom raised me and my sister on shopping only at Ross and during sales and she trained me well. I spent $134.28 on what would have originally cost $364.50, according to the tags. (I bought the dress, five shirts, two cardigans and a scarf)

And then I returned to Provo.

The end.

This is for class. Yep.

Finally

Last semester for my photojournalism class we had to do an audio slideshow, so I did mine on the Provo Farmer’s Market because I am naturally attracted to such things. The one here has nothing on the one in Portland, but it’s still fun. Anyways, since the school didn’t have the right plug-in to turn the slideshow into a file I could use it was stuck in the computer lab until last night. For the longest time the only way I could show it to anyone was to drag them into the Brimhall building, but now it has been liberated from the third computer on the right and is here on my blog for all to see. I know you’re excited.

And thanks again to the lovely Katie Andrus, who let me interview her for this. It was in October so she probably forgot it ever happened. But she’s cool so you should check out her blog.

Here’s the video. It’s only a minute thirty, so you totally have time to watch it.

Or there's a better one on vimeo. It just doesn't want to cooperate and fit on my blog.

http://vimeo.com/9159898

Go Santa Go!

In honor of how fast Santa will have to travel from rooftop to rooftop tonight, here are some pictures from the Santa run that was on Center Street in Provo a couple of weeks ago.

Happy Holidays, and don't forget to put out cookies tonight!

My Magazine

I finished my final project for my publication design class and I'm pretty excited about it. We had to create 6 pages of our own magazine from scratch. We started with a blank page and had to come up with our own concepts and find all of the art and everything, so it took a lot of time but I'm really happy with the result, and I hope you like it too. You can even click them to make them bigger if you want.

A fun note, the pictures on page five (of the girls in dresses) were taken by my friend Olivia from high school. She goes to NYU now and has her own company called Olivia Renee Photography. You should check out her Web site or her blog because she is cool.

What I Do

I know I've been slacking in the picture department lately, so to try and make up for it a little bit here are some pictures of the things I've been working on.

As a new media and design major (in the print journalism program) we've been working on newspaper design in one of my classes, so below are a couple of projects. I even got to use my own pictures for the India tab.

For my photojournalism class this past week our assignment was to take pictures of food, so this is what I've been eating for dinner every night this week. Yes, I made it all and I'm quite proud of myself. However, it has never looked quite as good since the first day. It's an absolute miracle that I didn't burn the grilled cheese sandwich for these pictures. I haven't been able to repeat that feat ever since.

For a little bonus for you guys I'm even going to include the behind the scenes pictures of the chaos behind the food shoot. I know you're excited.

Also, for those of you who want to know, this song (You Make My Dreams by Hall & Oats) has been perpetually stuck in my head for the past month or two, so if I ever look like I'm about to start dancing this is why.

Stalking

Sometimes I feel like my major is all about stalking. While writing for the newspaper we had to become very adept at getting a hold of people. I remember a couple of articles where people were being particularly difficult to get in touch with, so I called their mobile and home phones, emailed them at several addresses, facebooked them, stopped by their offices and generally tried to be wherever they were going to be. For another assignment last semester we were even assigned a random house in the area and were required to find out everything we could about it using public records, including things like their tax records. It's all very interesting and all very stalkerish.

I was feeling particularly stalkerish during my last photo assignment. We were assigned to take a talking head, which is essentially a picture of someone talking. I think the idea was to go to a lecture or something of that sort, but I completely spaced the assignment and was forced to take pictures of random people on campus. This can be a very stalker-like activity. My favorite part of taking "stalker" pictures is the moment when whoever you're taking pictures of becomes suspicious, because it is that exact moment you proceed to pretend like you have no idea they exist. I feel like I've almost mastered the "I'm gazing into the distance, I have no idea why you thought I was taking a picture of you" look. Besides the slight discomfort associated with taking pictures of unsuspecting people after they catch you, I actually quite enjoy it. I love how with photojournalism you can capture moments of real life. It's really interesting to just observe the interactions people have, and I feel like your eyes can really be opened up to the beauty in the small things that happen everyday.

Below are some of the stalker photos I took for my last assignment. If you happen to find yourself in one of the pictures I'd like to say that I'm sorry, but I'm actually not.