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Ok I know there are still a few lingerers around that tap into to my blog here to see if I have come up with something witty and wonderful, but this will be my last post. I am getting a bit irked that you can't post a comment around this stupid place without actually joining the site - utterly self-absorbed VOX.
Anyway here is the location of my newest (and knowing me, NOT my last blog)
Have fun
sorry I am not up on my german spellings, so I did the best that I could.
I have enjoyed this blog, but it is still not touching that thing inside me that needs to be touched in order for me to feel it is worthwhile and meaningful. Pouring myself down into words is a very personal thing for me an in order to be inspired to do it it has to touch that special place, and no don't go there, get your mind out of the gutter.
So I bid you farewell and hope that we meet again someday.
Wow Its been a bout 3 weeks since I have posted, but honest to god I have good reasons!
First and foremost I have been sick, and it seems to be lingering. the latest diagnosis could be Valley Fever, another stupid airborn illness that there really is no treatment (other then supportive care) for. and the cough lingers, to the point that sometimes it keeps me from getting to sleep. Then add pink eye to the mix, to the point that I could barely keep my eyes open some days. Thankfully that is slowly disappearing with the help of eye drop antibiotics.
Now being sick and pink eye are bad enough, but in the midst of it all we started band camp. This is a gruelling 2.5 week camp for band kids that we try to make as fun as we can, but when its all washed out it ends up being just plain hard work. I never figured out quite why school admins won't allow marching band to come in under the heading of sports...would be nice if it did, we would surely have a bigger budget. So I work my team hard, with stretches, warm-ups, across-the-floors, pliometrics (all of which I do right along with them to show my committment as well as to keep myself in shape), and then top it all off with my demands that they learn the choreography for the first and 2nd songs of our show (we have a total of 4 to learn before our first competition in Oct), not to mention marching drills, learning commands, a new marching style called "Flanks" (of which I had to learn with them) well I am sure that my team as well as the 80 or so odd musicians are pretty exhausted.
Frustration was at an all time high ( which for me is not unusual routinely) with basically 16 brand new guard who have never marched as a colour guard. I do have 6 returners from winterguard of last winter and spring, but they have never been through marching season as a guard member, they were previous band students who got it in their heads that guard might be "fun" imagine that, fun! I am sure they are wondering if they made the right decision. No really they are a good core group and damn if they dont' work hard and take this seriously. I do depend on them to help me with all the new girls and more times then not they come through. I am lucky to have stumbled upon them.
Ok so lets take inventory here, first the sicknesses that have and still keep me feeling under the weather when I needed to be in top form. Then the band camp that went on for approx 10 hours each day for 2.5 weeks after coming off a summer of little activity. Ok so yeah I am tired and at times glance at my computer with the most unintertersted intentions I could possibley muster. Now lets add two more things. 2 more jobs I am doing. one is 4 hours a day, the other is sort of a work when you want and can, flexible stuff. These are both work-at-home positions so at least I dont have to get dressed and go somewhere I can basically stumble over to the computer with coffee in hand and start my day as is, as I look, which can be frightening.
I will not mention what I do, as it is not what you would consider mainstream america, but might be something that people would raise eyebrows at, but it affords a nice little supplemental income.
so there you go - the reasons I have not been posting.
School begins tomorrow, so I doubt if my posting will get anybetter, but when it does remind me to tell you about my brother-in-laws visit to us (he is also New Zealander of course lol, but lives in Hong Kong and is a pilot for a well known airline, so he flies in and out of Los Angles pretty regularly) He is a very nice guy, unlike the other brother.
take care lovely readers and I am sorry I am letting you down.
So just a picture to tide you over
I have decided to document my corner of the world. Up to now, I have been of the mindset that I need to go someplace else to find things to photograph. I constantly have requests from some of the photography forums that I belong to, to show them the "desert" So far I have resisted, probably because the desert is something I see everyday and it does not hold the same interest to me as it might to someone who has never been here... but upon further examination of this area and my bank balance, I have decided that these requests are very valid. So this weekend hubby and I set off for an area about 30 miles north of Yuma, along the Colorado River. Up there you find a place called Martinez Lake. Which is a rec area for those who have more money then brains. Sorry I consider owning a boat to be, as the saying goes, just a hole in the water you throw money into. And with gas prices what they are - its irresponsible. Anyway it can also be a great place for photography. So we set off for the area and I had in my mind some nice sunset photos over the river...what I found instead, and we never really made it to the river for shots I wanted, was amazing...
These guys apparently are descendants from the original herds that were brought here by the Spanish Conquistadors 100's of years ago. They were the pack animal of choice for miners who made their way here to the west in the 17-1800's. When the mines went bust, the burros were abandoned and left to fend for themselves in the desert where they live today. Many of these burros have something called "the Spanish Cross" on their backs...you can see in my picture the black stripe that goes over the back from shoulder to shoulder. What you can't see is the strip that runs from ears to tail, thus making the cross on their back near their whithers.
When we happened on this herd, it was in the last light of evening and so some of them were settling in for beddyby time...
They were very interested in us, but tolerant enough to let me get some good shots via telephoto lens...These guys were just one form of desert life we found, we also ran across quail, jack rabbits, and coyotes... I will post more in the coming days...Hope you enjoy
Pam
...my hubby and I got on this subject. You know, come to think of it, I find that we talk about the strangest things sometimes, and at the end of these odd conversations we end up looking at each other scratching our heads and asking each other "did you bring this subject up or did I"?
This evenings subject du jour was Brazilian waxing for men...I dunno, I suppose that it was me that tossed this subject into the conversation, since I am a bit of a sadist, nothing would please me more then to B wax a few men....of course hubby is absolutely not interested, but the subject intrigued me so I did some google research on it.
Seems that this is the hot new trend amongst the metrosexuals of the our world. They want to be like the ladies and be smooth and well manicured "down there". I laugh when I think of a man enduring this sort of torture...I imagine it would be alot like the old saying, if men gave birth, they would do it just once. I think that once a man goes for the bare look, it most likely would be the last time he does. So though it is a hot trend now, I think it will fade soon....once waxers run out of first time men to rip hair off of.
I ran across this little guide..the first one is women and its rather cute. My personal preference is the last one...but if I had any artistic ability at all I would try for that heart shaped jobber.....
and now for the men....can 't leave them out now can I?....
I told hubby that I would like to see him sport "the pilot" and what a bargain!!! The rear is included in all waxings....I told him that his hairy rear would be worth the full price alone!!! He couldn't get passed the "hairless sack" part and I found him curling up in a fetal position imagining the pain that would entail.....
Show me a man who can endure a Brazilian wax and I will show you a woman in drag.
I am stoked. We are getting a surge in our monsoon here in the desert SW which means a higher chance of thunderstorms - ie: lightning. Great photo ops. I guess you have to live here to understand just how exciting it is when we finally do get to the time of the year when we might actually get some rain...sigh. I really do live a pretty uncomplicated life as evidenced by my excitment over the possibility of a little rain lol.
Anyway....
A fellow blogger and really cool person posted a meme of her own. I loved it and thought I would take it forward here at vox and see if anyone else is up to this challenge and in effect break my self-imposed exile from blogging -at least for this one post.
So here’s the meme: if money weren’t the issue (or tangible benefits of any kind really), what would your dream job be? Where? Why?
Mine is travel photographer/writer. Where would be all over the world. The why is because it combines the two things I love more then most other things - photography and travel. 2nd to that I would own an animal sanctuary/refuge. Sort of like a no-kill shelter, but on a grander scale taking in larger animals as well. This would involve a large area of land as well as monetary resources to support it....but hey the meme says money is not an issue...sooooooo.
Would love to hear others dreams...so please feel free to either post here in comments or blog about it yourself on your blog...if you do that let me know so I can go check it out.
for not blogging lately.
I am really wondering if this is a healthy outlet for me, this blogging thing. If I let it, I can get all consumed by it and that is not a good thing, not when I have so many other things in my life that need taken care of. And trust me there are LOTS of those things.
One promise I made when my husband died 4 years ago was to tie up all the loose ends in my life. Standing here looking on my life now it seems that I have created more loose ends then I have managed to tie up and that bothers me.
I have a bit of a fung shui hang up...if my desk is a mess then I am unable to concentrate on getting anything done in the office...I don't particularly know why that is, but it is a major issue and distraction to me. I feel like the desk that is my life is a mess and I am unable to move forward to whatever it is that I am suppose to move forward to. I know that makes no sense, but it is the best I can do. and for me it works.
I have also broken out in hives for the first time in my life, which must mean that something is going terribly wrong, either I am stressed out more then I care to admit..or...or what? I dunno.
Anyway I am probably going to take a break from this blogging thing - I may not return to it, I reserve that right.
Not just for the odd, bizaar and freaky vids that you might happen upon there, but when it comes to uploading videos of your own, it never tells you if they were uploaded! I tried to upload a video of my guard in practice some weeks ago. The upload seemed to start ok, and so I sat...and sat.....AND sat, waiting for the little "busy downloading) icon to stop revolving. 45 minutes later I just shut down the whole thing figuring I had done something wrong. I tried again with same results. So gave up.
In practice on Tuesday, one of my returning members told me that someone had put up a vid of one of our practices. What? I said, Yeah, she said, someone named wildreams or something...Hey thats me! Sure enough its up...God knows how I did it, but I did...so here you go - our winterguard show last season:
We were in a plane this time...a little twin engine bugger. Next time I want to do this in a helicopter. That should help eliminate the bumpiness.
Enjoy these last two in my serious. pardon the little window glare at the top of the rainbow.
Pam
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