Happiness

It's Monday. I have the day off, and a ton of laundry to to. I also need to run to the bank and deposit a little check. Not much, but it works. Anywho, before doing that, I want to clear my head and update everyone on this funny little thing I call my life.

This has potential to be one of my most personal posts, and probably will not include many (if any) photos. But I promise it will not last long. I just want all my wonderful readers to be on the same page, and hey, this is my blog and I can write whatever I want in it. Here goes....

Brian and I broke up. Yep, it's true. This is the main reason I wanted to type this up today, to let you all know that things are still good. Not many break-up stories have happy endings, but I think ours might. Sometimes people just change, you know? There came a point this summer, after we had moved out here to Rapid, where I sat back and really just felt through my heart instead of my head. Things just didn't seem right anymore. I tried to ignore it, and I tried to make myself feel the same as I had before, but that feeling was gone. So instead of trying to force something that wasn't there, which is sort of what I had been doing all summer, I decided it wasn't fair to either of us.

It wasn't easy. It was by far the most difficult conversation I've ever had with someone. But it was real, and it was true. I know some people have tried to make sense of things. They've tried to figure it all out. They've tried to accuse me of "planning this" or "using him" or whatever. But the only truth here is that lying to myself and to Brian was just not right. It was not fair. I am hoping some of you read this and understand that. It was never my intention when we moved out here. Had I known this would have happened, I would have saved us ALL a lot of headache and just rented out a place from my employer. It would have been a million times easier from the beginning. So please, please, before you try to figure it all out, just know that sometimes there's no reasonable solution. Sometimes you just have to follow your heart.

That said, Brian and I are, and will always be, great friends. Yeah, yeah, everyone says that...But it is true here. When there are no hard feelings, no big dramatic fights, no real problems, it is possible to remain friends. I think he is an amazing guy and he deserves nothing but the best. My heart just wasn't in it anymore, and that is no way to treat someone who means a lot to you. It was not the best.

We are still living together here in Rapid City, until I can find a place back in Eastern SD. (Which we talked about, and he is fine with staying here and waiting out the lease on the apartment.) We still hang out, we still talk and laugh and have fun. When he's not working the evening shift, we still have supper together and we still sit around and watch TV and be lazy piles together. Things just feel better now. Not having the pressure of forcing a relationship has helped us both to be happy here finally.

So hopefully this clears things up for everyone. As much as I appreciate all my friends and family telling me they love me on my facebook relationship status change, and all the texts and comments saying you're sorry to hear the news, and everyone else who is thinking it but hasn't said anything....I just want you to know that this has been a good thing. Who knows where life will take us now. But at the moment, I know this is where I'm supposed to be. This is right.

Just happiness. It is as complicated and as simple as that.

Just ended a fun little chat with my old roommate. And it reminded me that she wants me to keep this thing updated, so here goes...

A few nights ago, I was home alone and feeling like I needed to go do something. Since the apartment is just a few blocks away from the Central States Fairgrounds, I loaded up my camera gear (which, really, is just a small bag and a tripod, but I feel all awesome saying "camera gear.") and walked over to the fair.

It was a fun little time I had there. Sadly, my battery died after about an hour, so I didn't get as many shots as I was wanting. But now the carnival rides and deep-fried foods and laughing children have left the fairgrounds, so I'll just have to wait until next summer for more fair photos. It felt good to get out there and start shooting again.

I'm heading home this weekend and I could not be more excited for it. Friday night I get to see my baby brother play football. (I say baby brother, but the kid is a Junior in high school....) Then on Saturday, my very first and best friend of my whole life is getting married! He and his wife-to-be asked me to shoot some candid photos at the wedding and reception, so I'm definitely looking forward to that. And THEN at some point during the weekend, I will be doing some senior photos for one of my brother's friends. It is going to be one very fun-filled photo weekend! So excited to be creative with my camera again.

I have a feeling there's a very exciting future in store for me. I can't wait to get it started. =)

How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were?

Road Rage

Let me start out by saying: This week is ridiculous.

We're right smack in the middle of Sturgis week and I am SO happy that there's only a few days left. Hopefully most of these "I think I'm invincible on the road" a-holes will ship out of here so we can get back to our normal and (for the most part) safe roads.

I've been complaining about this non-stop on facebook, so my apologies to those of you who will have to read about it again...But HOLY COW. I've been cut off more times in the past 3 days than I have in my entire life. Today, while leaving the Mt. Rushmore parking ramp and making a left-hand turn back onto the highway, three motorcycles decided to create another lane on the right side of me through the turn. Then, when they realized that there's actually only room for ONE vehicle on the highway, all three of them decided to squeeze right between me and the rail, and THEN cut me off. Basically I had to be the nice guy and stop for them, or they would have died. In hindsight, I should have just kept driving....

Anywho...So now that my road rage level has reached its max...

How about a few (and I really do mean FEW...There's like, two...) photos:

First, let it be known that this is how I deal with the bikers on the roads. Ice cream cures everything. Even road rage. I'm serious.

Shot this today from the Mt. Rushmore parking ramp. Those clouds were intense!! So pretty...

And this little guy joined me while I was sitting at Mt. Rushmore today waiting for my tour bus people to show up. He was pretty cool. Hung out there right beside me for quite a while before hopping away. Isn't he excellent?? =)

Ok, so there's three, not two. But anywho...

Next week I'll be in NESD for a few days. Gonna go get my country on at the Brown County Fair in Aberdeen with some fantastic friends. Pretty excited. It will be my little mini summer vacation, or something. =)

Then, hopefully, by the time I get back, all the crazy motorcyclists will be gone for good. It will be heavenly. Check back soon!

August 3, 2011

Hey, guys. GUESS WHAT! ...I'm still here! I know, I know. You thought I had disappeared off the face of the Earth, never to return to this lovely little piece of the world wide web. Didn't you? Well you were wrong, for the most part.

I'd love to keep this updated more than I do. I just really don't want to bore you with the "what's happening" in my life right now. Basically, here's the run-down: I wake up, I go to work, I come home, I eat something, I watch TV/read/waste time online, I go to sleep. Repeat. Or, there's even some days where I squeeze "I go for a run" right there in between "I come home," and "I eat something." Those days are my favorite. We've got this fantastic bike trail that's only a few blocks away and it runs along the river/creek/water going through Rapid City (I can not find the name of it at the moment.) So it's a really nice little jog that can go pretty dang far.

Anyway...Work is going pretty good. All the people who work at the museum are way cool, so it's fun to have them to (more or less) hang out with during the day. I need to start looking for jobs again soon, as this one ends in October.

It definitely feels weird to not be thinking about going back to school right now. It's the first time since I was just a wee little tike that I'm not starting a new school year. I feel so old! I see new backpacks and notebooks in all the stores and I feel like I should be contributing to the sales, but that would be entirely unnecessary this fall.

So how about some fun photos? Even though you've probably already seen them on facebook, here's a couple from the weekend. Our friends Amanda and Kyle traveled all the way out here just to hang out with us! (Ok, that's not entirely true, but we did get to see them a lot while they were here!)

Sylvan Lake. Pretty small area, but it is sooo pretty! We circled around the lake and climbed some rocks. This particular photo was a "from the hip" shot, something I do quite often. I love the surprise when I see it later and it's a cool shot like this one. My favorite!

Here's Kyle. This photo is my favorite. It was so much fun having another photo nerd along. =P Definitely nice not being the only person lolly-gagging around, taking pictures of everything.

On Sunday we went to Deadwood. Pretty much just walked around the whole time. Got some food at the Tin Lizzy. I wanted to stick around until it got dark so I could get some photos like this one. Definitely worth the wait. Kyle and I had a lot of fun playing with different shutter speeds with the lights and cars.

Once we got back to Rapid City, it was storming. The lightning was incredible, so we headed up to the motel where they were staying and attempted to capture the lightning. Proved to be a little difficult. But it was tons of fun. We were up above the city lights, so lots of cool photos came from that, as well.

WE DID IT!!!

Oh, and just for fun, some Deadwood HDR. Over the top, surreal, all that stuff....But I do enjoy it. =)

Now....Back to Shark Week!!

What if the rest of your life was the best of your life?

Bears!

I am back! And so is the 365 Project! I browsed through my photos the other day and noticed how perfectly it documented my entire year so far. Really didn't want to miss out on one more day, so I started it up again. June has been crazy with moving across the state and starting a new job, so taking a break from the photos was needed until I got all settled in here. But I'm am ready now! Are you?

Since we work in the Black Hills, we get these cool VIP cards which get us discounts or free admission to most of the sight-seeing, tourist-attraction, cool-stuff around here. So we drove through Bear Country yesterday. It was free and we get to come back as often as we'd like. Quite excited about that. Here are some photos of some of the "wild" animals:

Cute little sleeping wolf. Brian actually shot this photo. I don't think he meant for the subject to be out of focus, but it happened. And I actually like it. A lot.

Sleepy bear. Yesterday was pretty much the hottest day of the year, so I felt all sad for the bears and their thick fur. They looked miserable.

This guy reminds me of Chance. Hehe...It's hard for me to believe that bears kill people. They look way too cuddly to be capable of that.

Cutie-pie.

Not sure which one of these will be yesterday's photo. Got some decisions to make.

The job is going well. I'm learning a lot and improving every day. A few of the coach drivers and tour directors have complimented me on how I'm coming out of my shell and not being so shy anymore. I see the same 10 (or so) tour directors and drivers on different days, so by the end of the summer they'll be able to look back at my progress. It is exciting feeling like I'm getting better. I think this internship is really giving me some confidence in myself, which is much needed.

Heading home on Sunday for a few days. I'll get to spend my 4th of July with my family, and I could not be more excited. =D Expect tons and tons of photos next week.