Fun Day. Epic Day.

Hopefully, I'll be able to call more of my days epic as time goes on.

First, the fun day.

Went on an adventure with Teresa :D Drove up to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena where we made fun of some pieces, marveled at others, and in general got to stare at the works of the old masters: Picasso, Rembrandt, Renoir, etc. And students were free! Had lots of fun with the water-calligraphy thing-thing.


Got REALLY hungry talking about food, so we drove down to the Boiling Crab after talking about it for the past several months.

1 lb Crawfish, 1/2 lb Shrimp, Catfish basket, corn, the whole shebang. We devoured that spread like no other (and ended up wreaking of seafood in the process).

Then over to the Grove! No pictures there. But I finally got a jigger for my bar set. Success!

Aaaand on to MILK. No trip down Beverly Blvd is complete without a stop at my favorite baked goods store. Brownie Sundae for me and Teresa, and an Ooey Gooey Chocolate Chip Cookie and Velvet Popper for the lovely.

Took it to go, ate it in the amphitheater in back of LACMA. Notice the curvature on the spoon...

Illegally parked for a few minutes and snapped off a few shots in the LACMA light fixtures once the sun went down...


Finally, over to 3rd St Promenade for a bathroom break and some late night street performers. Definitely did more driving than I expected. Pasadena, to Alhambra, to Los Angeles, to Santa Monica. Oh dang. And my ipod ran out of batteries - always a good sign.
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Now, on to my epic day.

It all started with an ASB slow clap for Kelly's birthday. She always baked goodies for us ASB kids, but we could only give her a donut -__-.

Clap it up, blow out the candle, then off on our adventure!!

Hiked five miles, crossed a few rivers. Fun group of people to be with for the entire day. Funny hiking conversationalists.


Where were we going? This picture pretty much sums it up.

Ohhh Jacob.

Yes, we went bungee jumping. I jumped three times.
1. Forward jump, like Superman!
2. Elevator - just lightly step off the bridge and watch the people above get smaller and smaller. Almost smash into the bottom of the bridge. Repeat.
3. Forward lumberjack. Fall forward slowly, like a tree.


Definitely an interesting sensation. Falling, then floating, then falling again. I had such an adrenaline rush that I could barely breathe! It's impossible to describe the feeling of falling unhindered for 100 feet. Try it yourself.

Ah, we also dumped water on Kelly as she was hoisted back up (just because she was the birthday girl, of course).


Finished our jumps, headed down to the river, and rock jumped into the refreshingly freezing pools of water. Hauled ass, and finished the five mile hike out in no time at all.

We were hungry. We needed to end the day on a good note. So, I suggested Jay Bee's.

Everyone approved. Of course, it did take over an hour to get there, when it only should have taken 10 minutes. And we definitely almost crashed several times, and should have received a dozen tickets or so. Jacob's a crazy-ass driver (for better or worse).

We were full of barbecue and iced tea, and our stomachs hated us dearly. So, to cool our guts off, we headed to the ridiculously comfy couches of Yogurt Island.

Yay for Froyo!

Bungee Jumping. Ten-mile hike. Rock hopping, rock jumping, swimming in rivers. Slurpees, Sweet Tea, barbecue, froyo, ridiculous u-turns. Epic day, indeed.

Summer fun.

Summer has started. Viva la Upper thigh tanning! :D Except, I did it too much and now I have upper thigh burns. Figures, right?

So Jordan has had a recent interest in long exposure shots, namely, nighttime long exposure shots. So we ventured out to Redondo sometime around 1 and set up our tripods. There was a surprisingly large number of people at Redondo in the dead hours of Tuesday morning. Hmm.

Ugly shops along the pier.


Pretty boats.


I'm not quite here, myself...


I didn't feel all that inspired taking those pictures. Damn.
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The rest of my week involved the following:
-Sleepovers in parks and 2 for 99 cent Jack-in-the-Box tacos. Anything is delicious at that hour of the night.

-Grad night. Hilarity ensued.

-Got hit in the head by a golf ball. ER trip. Three staples. Mom freaked out at all the blood. Ha.

-Lord of the Rings Extended Edition marathon with ASB kids and Nathan. Twelve hours of LoTR, terrific brownies, The Habit, Cider, and toasts to Legolas. Oh jeez.
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-Whitewater Rafting! I don't have pictures from the actual rafting yet, but enjoy these until then.

A four hour drive slowly grew to a drive of over six hours thanks to the 405. The girls sat in the back, listening to their ipods. Jordan drove. I slept in awkward positions.

Jordan took the picture of me sleeping. While driving. That can't be safe.

Both Jordan and I have a thing for rays poking out from inside clouds. I had my camera handy, so I popped out of the sunroof going 70 on the freeway and snapped a few shots.

The clouds were quite heavenly.

And once we got to camp, we made a campfire, told awkward stories, and took more long exposure shots. This one reminded me of those Hubble Telescope pictures of nebulas and whatnot, but clearly not as cool.


About the actual rafting portion...I can't even begin to describe how awesome it was. Great food, amazing company, lots of awkward turtle moments, and smashing against rocks. Ha. The stories sound better when told in person.

Now, on to the rest of summer.

My world's on fire.

The last holdouts of my high school life are ablaze, slowly burning to the ground. Soon, only the softly glowing embers remain, refusing to die too easily. And yet, when only ashes remain, when all else is stripped away, I will simply sit down and light something anew.



Time to move on, dear friends.

woot.

Baccalaureate was a success. I don't think I've ever had such a response to anything that I've done before. Definitely got a tan from all the basking.

Year's over. Slideshow's done. I officially have completed my purpose for this year. Time to find a new one in college.

And so, here's the end of another act of my life. I like this one. It ends with crowds cheering, people giving me hugs, and being showered with affection. Tis a good chapter.

On to the next one.

It is finished.

My purpose for the year has come to a close. The Slideshow's ready to go for this Saturday, and all I have to do until then is wait. Wait and hope. Well considering that I've been working on it from 9 to 3 every single day, that would explain my absence from the blogging world. I never wrote anything about prom, and it feels a bit too long after the fact to recount my story.

So I shall say that prom was one of the greatest nights of my life. Waltzing was icing on the cake. Post prom was epic, but in a different way. Oh, teenagers.

But moving on. Another Disneyland picture thing! Finally something different. I've grown tired of shooting PoTC.

With my new wide angle lens, I can finally get the sweeping shot of the Court de Anges that I've been looking for.


Ride Thunder Mountain for the first time in a LONG time.


The best part was definitely when the ride broke down. I had an interesting conversation with the Cast Members about photography and roller coaster physics (unrelated to each other), plus I got to see the innards of the ride.


All this wide angle madness is quite amusing! I can take shots that I couldn't before for whatever reason...


Last thing: New fireworks show. Not a fan so far, after seeing the first third or so that they were testing. But then, Sabby brought up the good point that even Remember would seem a bit awkward with only the first part of it. The cool thing is definitely that Dumbo flies across the Skyway cable, a la Tinkerbell. The lighting effects around the castle are also pretty ace.


Blogging for the sake of blogging. Meh.

So...

Why is it that people insist on boosting the contrast on their stupidass-drunken pictures to ridiculous levels?

Honest question, I swear.

"I love this shit!"

Said the excited guy when given the free bottle of Black Mamba.

Anyways.

Friday:
Scott's birthday. BP Tournament. 3-1.

Off to Sabrina's last dance show of her life. Snapped a shot of a moment she shared with her dad.


In-and-Out! Froyo! My house! Fun night...
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Saturday:
Supposed to go check out some concert at the Promenade, but missed it by a few minutes. I blame myself, traffic, and the fact that if I drove any faster people might freak out and yell at me.

But at least we saw this.


Wandered around aimlessly for a bit, checking out stores and booths and whatnot. Decided to head over to Santa Monica Pier to ride the Ferris Wheel. I love my new ultrawide.


Messed around for a bit, then headed back home. On the way, we stopped by Honey's. I am but one step closer in my goal of showing good food to all of my friends.


Somehow we managed to get back in time for the others to run off and watch UP. Jealous. But not too much, because instead I went to spend time with the lovely.

Drove around aimlessly until we decided to go to Ragin' Cajun. Fried Alligator, Crawfish Etouffee, and fried Crawfish. Oh, and the sauces ;] In case you were wondering, this is my second dinner.


Froyo, Falling Slowly, late nights.
Happy four months, love.

And that concludes the noteworthy part of my weekend. Well, and the fact that I'm probably going to Cambodia.
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Monday: Random smattering of things. Jacob and Bucky decided to play Chubby Bunny before we threw out the marshmallows.




I'm not even sure if anyone really won. Probably the people who were cracking up watching, because the two of them DEFINITELY did not enjoy that experience...

And Mrs. Hildreth made the announcement that we had to clean off our desks by Monday to make room for next year's ASB. Ouch.

This has been my home, my little slice of the school, for the entire year. Here lie my holiday cards, picture frames, bottles of Sriracha and Hoisin Sauce, extra lens, and notebooks. My memories...little bits of my life from throughout the year. And now, it's time to take them away. Out with the old, in with the new. I'm the old. Out with me. It's a bit painful to say that, really. I've experienced so much on ASB, that it really pains me to give it up. C'est la vie.