Jacked Up

This belongs in MoMA.

100

That's how many letters Casey has written me.

Slightly Miserable

There's so many things frustrating me right now:
1) No contact with Casey for 45 days.
2) With health insurance, 401 (k) and taxes, I am losing on average about 200 bucks a week out of my paycheck. And it's not that much to begin with.
3) Every single thing/project that I'm involved in today at work is in limbo. I'm either waiting for some sort of authorization or a call back from people. It's very frustrating.
4) I didn't go grocery shopping this weekend so I have nothing to make dinner with at home. This means I'm going to have to go to the grocery store before dinner, causing me to spend more money.

Even though I can't stop being miserable, there are a few things that I can look forward to:
1) I signed up for an MBA information session. I've realized that I don't want to stay at Garnet the rest of my life. Graphic design doesn't completely thrill me. There are certain aspects about it that I really enjoy, but I can't see myself doing it for the rest of my life. Although, I'm very glad I have the skills and the knowledge.
2) Casey comes home September 10th! It's been a while since I've been really happy. He's going to have 2 new nieces/nephews when he gets back!
3) This summer will be fabulous. Even though Casey will still be away, I have absolutely nothing stopping me from heading down to the beach every weekend.

Shoes

I have an unhealthy obsession with shoes. So much that I fear for my financial future. Actually, it's not that bad. I just bought these this weekend:

I walked into the mall, and I strolled into Journey's, and they caught my eye. I knew they were kid's shoes, but I didn't think anything of it since I buy kid's shoes all the time (a pro to being on the petite side). I didn't even notice until I was checking out that the entire store had been transformed into a Journey's Kidz. I can't wait for summer. I'm so excited to wear these!

In other shoe-related news, these are my newest must-haves:


I would rock them all day, everyday. Can someone please give me 90 bucks so I can give these puppies a good home?

My favorite teacher

Arscott pimp!
Originally uploaded by xtina.sanchez

When I casually mentioned that I was in high school 5 years ago, I remembered the man that pushed me in the right direction (as far as my education went). This is Arscott. You can add a "Mr." in front of that if you want, but I personally don't.

He first came by in the fall of 2001. Our original photography teacher was a hippie in her 50s who really dug the colors of the earth. The art department had just received an entire lab of Macs. This was such a techno-shock to her that she decided to go on sabbatical right after the school year started. And when a 50some year-old hippy decides to go on sabbatical, she goes down to New Zealand for 6 months to weave baskets. You can't make this stuff up.

So Arscott came into our lives and we immediately we hated him. He asked us questions that we didn't understand. He made us redo projects that we thought were done well. Nothing seemed good enough.

Of course, the obvious lesson that he was teaching us is that he knew we were better than we thought we were. He became my absolute favorite teacher and he brought out the very best in my work and taught me how rough drafts and proofs were just as important as the final work.

As I went into college, I stayed in touch with him and sometimes went to visit him after he was done class and show him things I've been doing. He became a mentor, and eventually a friend. He's still totally awesome and he just had a baby girl a few months ago!

Pretty much the point of this post was not to bore you with a lame "my teacher was my hero" story, but to pretty much just give background on this fantastic picture. Arscott was showing how easy and quick it was to make something boring (i.e. normal Arscott) into an interesting subject matter for your photo by just adding a few simple elements (i.e. some kid's hat, another kid's glasses, and a girl's coat). He was distracted by helping a student and another one just snapped this priceless gem.

Fun with a digital SLR that isn't mine

Joey for President
Originally uploaded by xtina.sanchez

I've been updating pictures around our dealership because the last pictures that were taken were in 2003. Where was I 5 years ago? Oh yeah... in my senior year of high school *shudder*. I was a completely different person.

Anyway, this is our lovely sales manager, Joey. He looks like either some mundane superhero or he's trying to give Obama a run for his money. Either way, I thought it was only appropriate.