Photographer What?

Last weekend Nan gave me the oh so generous job of traveling and taking photos of multiple properties that her company owns in Atlanta and South Carolina.

My first question: "you know I'm not a photographer right?"
answer: "yes"
second question: "you know I don't own a camera right?"
answer:"yes"
my final answer: "I'll do it"

and with that kind of trust, awesome camera equipment from school, and a pile of plane tickets and rental car tickets I took off to see the country.

This is what I saw of South Carolina:
Oh and this too:

These were the kinds of properties they own. They're kind of like all of those places in St. George. I don't know if you would call them condos or apartments - but they had swimming pools and tennis courts

This is what I saw of Georgia:
This is what I saw of Charlotte, NC - don't worry I didn't go in, but I did have to pull over to take a pic. Look closely.
This is the one place that I ate at that wasn't a gas station. Jerry's BBQ. All locals, oh except me.


It was all I ate since 8 that morning . . . and it took like .2 seconds to eat before getting in the car and booking it to the airport to get on a plane once more.


All in all it was pretty awesome because I got to take three flights in less than 48 hours - which made me feel like a total jet setter. I also got to catch up on some quality driving on the free way and singing to the radio - which I happen to LOOOVE (no joke).

And last but NOT least, when I arrived at the Charlotte, North Carolina International Airport Holiday Inn who do I find I am sharing my hot digs with???

Just the International Little People Convention. You got it, little people kids, teenagers, and adults with name tags rocking out all night, running up and down the halls. If only I had the energy to dance, I like to think I would be in there making little people friends - if I weren't rejected for being the most opposite of a little person, except of course when Meredith attempts to render me as a south park character, along with her and Leah. (apperantly my eye is tweeky because of the stress from school), oh and apperantly the South Park Leah isn't as hot as the Simpsonized Leah. Oh and the South Park Meredith wears a scarf on stage when she's being a rock star?????
(yeah, I know that was a pretty amazing transition. I have a gift)

Besides the rump shaking and the shimying, this is by far my favorite move.
Yep, definitely the best move.

(for full effect must watch video)

Iris Chacon en una espectacular coreografia

I hope this brightens someones day like it did mine.

The highly anticipated Utah virgins post!!!
Explination: A few of my friends from school at Parsons were talking about taking a trip together before school started again. We talked about Puerto Rico, DR, and then some how landed on Utah. Guess who won!


Yes, some how I convinced Barbara (Queens, NY native) and Karen (Stockholm, Sweden native) to spend their vacation with me, in Utah. (Dusty helped).
Dusty also had the genius idea to start our Utah itinerary off with a dip in the Great Salt Lake. Guess what, SOOOOO worth it. I hadn't done it either and it was fabulous. Go ahead, be grossed out, squirm all you want. It was not so lovely making it out to the water because you have to go through gooie muck, but once you're in . . . the water is fine.
A desolate desert sun set after a sweaty summer in muggy ny was just what i had been looking for. (and no, we're not naked. That may have made it a more exciting story though)



I love this picture, look how cool the water looks in the foreground, and the little dots that are sitting on top of the water? They may or may not be billions of little bugs.

Thank you Christy for braving the treacherous holding your camera up for 2 hours for these shots, but I love them.
(Especially the one at the very end.)

After the Great Salt Lake there was some more Utah fun.
Mountains and more mountains.

I was so proud of my visitors. They braved elevation exhaustion (Barbara was a zombie for 30 hours straight, sorry), sleeping in my parents basement, and meeting and hanging out with just about everyone I know and love in SLC in like 4 days.

Uintas

I'm wearing the birthday present they gave me. Coolest necklace, I love it. They were so sneaky.

At the end I asked them what their very favorite thing was that they did while in Utah and they said Great Salt Lake! Told ya it was awesome.
**For more Great Salt Lake coverage check it.

Creature Thug

This is my new friend. I met him and his homies selling CD's on the corner of Madison Square Park. Basically they were hassling me to buy their CD's instead of buy fruit like I was trying. Once they realized that I had like 3 one dollar bills they stopped with the selling, but one of them had THE best pick up line of the century.



Moe - "So what do you do for work?"

Me - "Interior Design"

Moe - "...well I like your exterior design..."

Oh dang! He's so smooth. For sure my favorite pick up line ever.

As we continue to talk (after an effort like that how could I not) turns out one of them ("Creature") is going to perform in Salt Lake on the 27th of September!!! Salt Lakers you have to go!! He said his stuff is not about pimps and hoes and it's very politically aware and honest. Sounds deep. If you are in SLC you have to goooo! I told him that they love black guys in Salt Lake, so you have to welcome my NYC homies.

P.S. Just found his my space. Gotta love a guy with Benjamins for his background.
www.myspace.com/creature1

Simpson-ized

I was a little excited when Leah sent me an email that said Jess Simpsonized. I thought I was getting Hollywood gossip, but no - it was myself Simpsonized.Then of course there is the three of us; Leah, Bruder (a German shephard that looks nothing like Santas little helper) and me.

What's up Leah? Why is your Simpsonized self so much hotter than mine??? I kind of look like a hipster Simpson with those short, high waisted shorts.

Pics from the recent past

When did it become fall? Who said I was ready for that. It's not too chilly, but it's a wee bit - it is really lovely weather actually. It has surprisingly thrown me back to the nostalgic time when I first arrived here last fall. What a weird feeling being in a completely new place on my own - making it work because it just had too - loving it and then half way forcing myself too love it because the thought of having committed to something that I didn't love was too scary. Sounds weird - well welcome to my psyche.

A few new murals. I think this ones my fave.

Stoked on my new bike fixture. Thank you Sarah! One of the best birthday presents too date! Now if I just had the guts to use it.
Now, a little story:
I biked across the WB bridge the other day coming home from school and I passed these too chicks on their bikes - they were pretty hard core looking, and one of them was on a bike I have had a crush on since Andrew pointed it out to me (check out the gang green, it's so beautiful). So, I didn't think of it much until I was almost to the top and the two of them blew past me right at the crest. As I usually do when I'm on my bike alone and want to check out some ones ride - I creepily try to keep up. These girls were skidding and doing all these great tricks. They were so cool. I can't help but think that if I had only had my new horn that they would have stopped and asked me to ride with them and be in their bike gang. They probably would have said something like "cool horn, you should come ride with us". Maybe next time.

"Cereal Killa"

Don't really know what this means - but hopefully it doesn't inadvertently offend anyone. All those gangsta bloggers will be knocking at my door!

Moon over the city under the Queens Borough Bridge from Roosevelt Island. I was supposed to meet some people there, of course got lost and confused - so I took pics instead

ya, third day in a row. i'm a little bored with myself too,

but I had almost forgotten about this beautimous tattoo I saw the other day on a blog. I could hardly believe it was real. I just thought it was lovely. I want a water coloring of it.

This is Jack. I don't know how they do it, but Sid and Liz's kids are the best at making unique kid faces. Charlie used to do an old man face from when he was like 6 months old and it was amazing. Now this is Jacks all star face, as of yet. Love it.

Hello naked boys.

These naked men wouldn't stop taunting me until I took a picture with them.
(The one on the far left is a Ben Brooks clone, and the ones on the right are totally busted being bored. They were just too frustrated that they had to stay behind that glass and couldn't come out and take pics with us too.)


Actually Barbara is the one who made me take a picture with this poor naked boy. I was practically yelling "I'm too shy!", but she didn't listen - so there I was at the end of a long day of school and work posing with a naked boy that was probably the same age as my little brother.
I wanted one of the men! not the boys, come on guys.



I had a model week.

Because first - Langer ( Heather Lang, model extraordinare - Highland High class of 2000) and I ended up on the same flight back to NY from SLC last Monday. So glad I had a friend to chat with because I detest red eyes!! I don't sleep and everyone else does. No fair. Poor Heather sure didn't, I chatted her up the whole time. She was home for Lex's wedding (congrats Lex!). Heather is busy being a model and working on the opposite side as a fashion studies student at FIT too. She's busy this week because she's working New Yorks fashion week. Poor dear, busy unexciting life.

Next time put it on your calendar yo

The voyage begins

The five of us* did a King's Peak trek over Labor Day as scheduled
*Lauren Ann Nelson Foulger(the blondie not pictured here), Uncle John, Linds, my dear old Dad, and I

My dad emailed me these nifty images of our trail mapped out and graphed. Thank you GPS and computer nerd Dad.
We started on the Utah via Wyoming side at the Henry's Fork Trail Head, spent first night in Painter Basin, hiked the peak then down Anderson Pass to Five Point Lake the second day, and out via Swasey's Hole exiting at the Hell's Canyon trail head.

It was a route none of us had done before, we thought we would mix it up and avoid the 20 some odd miles straight down hill via Yellow Stone Canyon to Swift Creek, yet as you can see on the graph above (I'm saying that in a nerdy math teacher kind of way if you didn't catch that) the second half of the trip was very up and down - so we earned our keep either way.







Luckily we had the dogs there to help clean out our dishes so we didn't have to wash them in the stream. So eco-friendly.
Poor Lauren thought hiking the peak would be this monumentous, perhaps even technical climb. Umm, no, it's a giant pile of rocks.

My dad (right) and his bro (my uncle) were the guides, kind of. My dad shouted out millages and elevations as we trekked along, as well as all sorts of great tips when we would listen. Poor chaps, hiking talk was about all of their lingo that we could hang with. Other wise they were talking about Molecular Biology or something - way too boring compared to our "what do you want to name your kids" chats.

My dad and uncle John both spent their summers in high school leading pack trips

(that's loading a string of horses with supplies and leading groups of people who wanted to be taken into the high uintas)

all over these mountains, so they had plenty of adventurous stories of being buried in snow and riding for 16 hours straight. They're tough old dudes.


Actually we nerded out over geological talks too. So many rocks. Lindsay's extensive U of U Geology education kept her plenty busy. I took pictures of the rocks because I was into their colors schemes. Lauren, well I don't think she nerded out at all. Sorry Lauren, I guess it runs in the family.
The last day about a mile before we were going to stop for lunch it dumped on us. Hail, lighting, and the like. Lauren got really sad, and I got really frumpy. That's right I hadn't even noticed that I had tucked my t-shirt into my rain pants, that were over my other pants. Sexiness on sexiness, what can I say. I try to keep it real in the woods.

Black mail shot that I promised myself I would blog

Wet dogs

Max (far right, wonder dog of the world) summited for the 6th time. That's more than any of us. Plus he's 13! Don't tell him that though, because I plan for him to live at least twice that long - so send him good vibes. Good dog Max.

Good old Drigg's (Paige's dog) carried his and Max's food. He's a sweet doofus dog. Love Drigg's.