More My Style.....

My old profile picture has been driving me nuts for the last few days after Steve AND Casey both made comments in passing about my "sexy" pic that I had "posted on my blog". Yeah...well, that was so NOT what I was going for and I've been absolutely HORRIFIED that that's how it was perceived.
I've spawned and breastfed 2 children, I haven't seen the inside of the gym in months, and I've got some kick'n breath from the Supremely Spicy Hummus that I'm eating as I type this -- Sexy I am not.

So in the spirit of self-portraiture, Tammi-style - Here is my new profile picture.
Although that Viking Image seems to be a rather popular one as well......

The Quest for A Self-Portrait

Yesterday Dan emails me, needing a picture of me to affix to my security pass for the Chicago trip. "Take your own" he suggests oh so nonchalantly.

Ever tried to take a picture of yourself? It 's a difficult tasks - especially since I couldn't find the tripod.
1. Set camera on big blanket basket, which in turn is set on top of desk chair.
2. Point camera at chair, adjust camera settings
3. Attempt to auto focus on absolutely nothing. Camera finds it difficult to focus on blank wall. Stupid camera.
4. Change to manual focus, focus on blank wall and set timer
5. Quickly move around camera, and bump chair--turning the camera and ruining the shot.
6. Take a deep breath. I did not swear.
7. Set it up again.
8. Run around the camera, sit down & try to make my hair look not too weird.
9. Smile.
10. Think about how cheesy my smile is, attempt to change into more natural smile.
11. Think about what a moron I am, and once again change expression on face.
12. Camera clicks as I blink or am between facial expressions.
13. Curse to myself
14. Repeat


This went on for about 12 shots with no luck, so I decided to try for something a little less...conventional.











I've heard that the "sasquatch" look is really hot for fall....







Maybe something thematic.....vikings anyone?









And then I was attacked by a ferocious beast.
I barely escaped with my limbs intact.











It was a harrowing morning. Sorry Dan...I'll try again later tonight.

Another Senior, anyone?

I always have blog topics floating around in my head - throughout the day I'll have a memory from my childhood or adolescence, or something weird will happen and I"ll think, "Hey, that'd make a great blog!" but then at night I'm usually too tired the last few days to actually type the whole darned thing out, so tonight I'm posting the ole' standby - some senior photos.
This is Hillary from my Saturday session - she was beautiful, so that always makes my job a little easier. Enjoy.

Geriatric Pocohontas and Native American Pride

Tonight I was remembering when I was in college, and home for the summers when I would work in various nursing homes or with the mentally disabled. I loved working with those people and I have *oodles* of funny stories, but I was remembering one lady in particular tonight. Ida was quite old and although she had lost quite a bit of her mental sharpness, was still rather spritely. She was the sweetest lady and became one of my favorites. The odd thing about Ida was that mention of the word "Pocohontas" or anything having to do with "Indians", for some reason, would imply to Ida that you were referring to HER as "Indian" - to which she took great offense. I'm not sure if she was racist, or if she actually was partly Native American and for some reason was ashamed of it, but this is what I was told by my over-eager fellow employees. At the urging of my co-workers (a sort of new employee hazing I suppose) I casually brought up the Disney movie Pocohontas to another resident later that day. Needless to say, I was unprepared for hell's fury which poured from Ida's very core at the mere mention of this word.
"WHO ARE YOU CALL'N POCOHONTAS?" she roared as she --no lie--raised her wooden cane and began shaking it about as she came down upon me in the resident hallway.
"No one Ida - we were talking about the MOVIE Pocohontas!"
Not to be dissuaded, she continue to advance upon me with her cane swinging. "NOBODY CALLS ME POCOHONTAS! I AINT NO INDIAN! Who do you think you are?"
At this point in time, she was only about 4 feet away from me and I made one last ditch effort to appease her temper and as calmly as I could (and as quickly) try to diffuse the situation.
It didn't work.
And this, friends and readers, is the point in the story which I turned away from this 92 pound geriatric and her waving wooden sword and ran like heck down the hallway, the roar of laughter from my coworkers ringing in my ears.

Thankfully, she didn't give chase, and thankfully - she had forgotten the whole thing a prompt 10 minutes later.


Speaking of Native Americans - I apparently have some Native American in me. I'm not sure how much (Steve thinks I should find out so that I can cash in on Casino revenues), but my birth mother tells me that it's Blackfoot and I find that very interesting. Maybe at some point in my life I'll find the time to do one of those geneaology things and trace my roots. Right after I find the time to climb Mount Everest and run in the Tour de France. The town that I grew up in had an Indian Reservation, and a lot of "Indian" pride - the college mascot in town was the "Chips (Chippewas)" and I remember in college going with Steve to Native American PowWows in Riverside Park in Grand Rapids. I find Native American culture very beautiful and fascinating -- I'd love to have my camera in tow at a PowWow again, but they don't seem to be too popular down here in the south.
So....in keeping with my blog title, "Random Musings".....after my memories of Ida and Native American tidbits, here's a random painting. But it's not that random, because I actually really like it and searched it out for you to see. It's called "Visions of Yesterday" by William R. Leigh. Whenever I see it, I look at it a long time. Notice how he's wearing modern (jeans) and his native traditional attire and the expression on his face as he looks at the buffalo skull. It's hard to see in this size and resolution, but if you look closely, you can see a Buffalo Hunt in the clouds.
Anyway....I like art. And I like to look at paintings and think about them and listen to my heart as it decides what emotions a piece of art evokes. And I like this painting. Do you?

The Wonders of Photoshop..and the Play of the Game

Being female, I'm aware of media-driven pressure to look a certain way. Being a photographer, I'm aware of just how much post processing work can go into a photo to alter the appearance of the original subject - for good or bad. Bottom line-- NOBODY that you see on the cover of a magazine looks as good as they appear.
Because of my profession I look at models and movie stars in a different light now and I just thought that it's a good thing for everyone to keep in mind (including any teen females that read this blog)...hey, everyone could look like an Abercrombie model if they had a team of pro photogs and photoshop gurus to touch up any minor imperfections afterward.
I looked for a picture of myself on the hardrive so that I could show you just how much can be done to a picture, but since I'm usually *behind* the camera, there are literally about 3 pictures of me in existence. :) If anyone wants to donate a "before" picture, I'd be glad to do a demonstration.

Go to this website: www.fluideffect.com
Click on their portfolio and then go to the before and after section to see just how much manipulation some models and movie stars need.
Incredible.

Ok...on to the volleyball game. Photos are being uploaded to my website from the game last night girls - so if you click on the link to the right and go to the Sports porfolio you can see your bad selves in there. I'm pretty sure that I got at least one or two of everyone, but there does seem to be an excess of middle/oustide hitters shots. Sorry passers and setters - I'll get more of you next time. BUT...go look. I'm sure you'll see at least a few of yourself.
And...here's is yesterday's Play of The Game. Brittany goes up with a full approach, arms raised, bicepts cocked for a full outside hit and then fakes 'em out with a well-placed dink right into the hole. Fabulous play, girl. *applause*

Volleyball anyone?

Ok, so those of you not invested in SCA volleyball probably get pretty tired of these posts. But today was my first day of outing after surgery and after an exhausting trip to the bookstore this morning, after which I needed a 2 hour nap, I felt rested enough to go to the volleyball and football games tonight.

I took way too many pictures - mostly to make up for my shortcomings with indoor sports photography, but I thought I'd share just one because it made me laugh. I *love* Dana's face in this one.



More to come tomorrow...although I'll probably start putting sports pics up on my business web page rather than take up the space here...so keep checking there for new stuff.

On the Upswing....

Phew. I'm finally feeling a little better. Yesterday was NOT good - it was actually worse than the first day home and I thought I was going to land myself back in the hospital due to dehydration, but last night things got better and I'm finally feeling like myself again.
Here's my recollection of the last 2 days - if you care to read about it:

Tuesday a.m. - STeve and I are up at 5:45 and getting dressed to be at the hospital at 6:30. The nurse told me the day before that I could only shower, brush my teeth and get dressed - don't wear any jewelry, any makeup, any perfume, any deodorant - for sterility purposes in the OR. Well, no makeup, no jewelry, no perfume - fine with me. But no deodorant? Screw that. That's just gross. I applied my deodorant with defiant gusto - take that! you Nurse Nazi!
We arrived and I get checked in and they call me back to get prepped for surgery. Clothes off - they made me take out my nose ring - the nurse implied that I could get "2nd or 3rd degree burns - I've seen pictures" -- those were her exact words. I think she exaggerated to intimidate me into taking it out. It worked.
Oh...and did I mention that the nurse prepping me for surgery was training another nurse? She was telling Trainee how to work the blood pressure machine, and how they do this, and where to sign after she did this and that, and where they put the IV in. So she's going to let the Trainee put my IV in --no big deal, right? Any moron nurse can put a needle/IV in my hand right?? Well, apparently, Trainee was very nervous, which was evidenced by her hands actually TREMBLING as she took my hand and bent it down to put the needle in. I normally watch as I get blood drawn or get an IV put it - needles don't really bother me -- but as I watched her hand shaking with that big needle in it, coming slowly toward my hand -- I had to turn away. She did fine though - got it on the first try and the real nurse even said, "good job". Although on second thought, maybe she was telling ME good job, for not freaking out that the nurse fresh out of med school just stuck a 2 inch needle into my hand without making a mess.

Steve came in, said goodbye - he was taken to another waiting room. I was wheeled into the pre-OR waiting area where there were about 10 other people sandwiched between curtains hanging from the ceiling waiting to go to the OR for various surgeries. I was 10th in line. I watched the nurses coming in and out, flirting with doctors - I felt like I was on Grey's Anatomy as I watched their interactions and listened to their gossip. The anesthesia guy came in and asked me a few questions and gave me "something to relax you" - which made me feel light-headed and the room spin a little.
"Am I supposed to feel slightly drunk?" I asked him.
"Yup" he said.

The clock ticks to 8:00 a.m. and a procession of nurses come in and take patients #1-9 into the operating rooms. I watched them all wheeled by me, a parade of sick people wheeled to the knife and scalpel-wielding doctors awaiting them behind closed O.R. doors. 8:15 comes and it's my turn - they wheel me back.
Anethesia guy is there again - flirting with the nurse. I was still feeling "relaxed" from whatever cocktail he gave me the first time, so I was pretty quiet and just did what they told me. Scoot onto this table..lift up your leg...put your arm on this board, blah, blah, blah. Anesthesia guy pokes a needle in my IV and says "you're going to feel a burning in your arm"...sure enough....burning sensation comes, "ow.ow. ow. ow" I said
"It'll go away in a second" he says.
And then I was out.

Next thing I know, I'm hearing people around me saying my name and asking me how I'm feeling. I mumbled something completely incoherent, but in my head I was saying, "just peachy, thank you kindly for asking".
It's a weird feeling - coming out of anesthesia. You know when you're starting to fall asleep and you're trying really hard not to? It's sort of like that, but not. You're trying really hard to wake up and you want to, and everything feels weird, but you just can't. They kept me back in the recovery area for awhile and then wheeled me back to a room where STeve met me. They gave me about 45 minutes to wake up - I was feeling like crap at this point. I can't remember, but I think they gave me something for pain and then this no-nonsense nurse (her name was Lisa) and her sidekick came in and grabbed my clothes and went about getting me dressed. They made STeve leave, which I thought was funny - you realize he sees me naked all the time? - and they got down to business. There's something about being female...as you go along in life, having children, having to see a gynecologist on a regular basis, that over time you just lose all inhibitions and have little sense of modesty around medical personnel. Some people might find it embarassing to be buck-naked in front of two strangers who are putting your clothes on for you, but I didn't care - I just wanted them to hurry up so I could go home.

After they got my clothes on, they wheeled my bed out of the room -- I looked after it longingly - I wasn't finished with it yet - I wanted to lay back down, but they sat me in a chair instead. And then I felt it. My mouth was really watery, my stomach was churning. No-nonense Lisa and her sidekick had left and Steve grabbed me the trashcan which I promptly emptied the contents of my stomach into.
I hear the sidekick calling, "Lisa! Uh...Lisa!" and then Lisa comes in and says, "OH!" And then they bring me....a small pink pan in the shape of a kidney about 1 inch deep. I assume they want me to continue to throw up in THIS. If I hadn't felt so crappy I'd have laughed. Seriously...you want me to puke in THIS. This small, condiment-dipping size container is what you expect me to forcefully hurl the insides of my stomach into? Oh, I don't think so. I tossed it on the ground, and pulled the trashcan closer. "You just want to use the trash can?" Lisa said.
You got it sista.

I threw up again right when I got home, but that night I did ok....I even got up a few times, wrote a couple lines on the blog, ate a little food. But when I went to lay down again about 9pm I got this searing pain in my right shoulder. It hurt so bad I couldn't catch my breath. We called the nurses hotline and they said that shoulder pain was really common with lathroscopic surgery - something about the carbon dioxide that they use to blow up the abdomen can excape into little pockets in other areas of the body and cause pain. It was awful. I felt like someone was twisting a knife into my shoulder - and I consider myself someone with a pretty high tolerance for pain. I was up a lot --couldn't sleep, couldn't eat - the pain meds weren't working and were making me feel more nauseous. I tried taking a walk to the end of the street and back at 4 am with Stee and that didn't help much either. I finally fell asleep around 5:00 and slept for a few hours, but then when I woke up I was feeling nauseous again and threw up. I slept more - ate 2 saltine crackers and threw those up too, and then I didn't want to eat or drink anything else the rest of the day. The SMELL of food made me feel ill. Steve called the dr. and they called in a prescription to help with the nausea, but as soon as I took the pill and took a sip of water to wash it down I knew it would come back up. I held it in about an hour and then threw that up too. STeve called the dr. and they wanted to see me. They said that my heart rate was accelerated "enough" yet, and that I could keep trying to keep food/water down at home, but they'd admit me if I wasn't eating and drinking by morning. Oh..and they put in yet ANOTHER prescription for nausea. But THAT one worked, and about an hour after taking it, I was feeling better that night. I slept all night - the shoulder pain is gone this morning, thank God and I actually ate some breakfast (oatmeal bake -yum).
I'm feeling today like I think I SHOULD have felt yesterday. Tender, sore, moving slowly - but not completely incapacitated. I think I'm on the up-swing. And if you actually stuck with me and read this whole blog, then you deserve an award because it's WAY too long, and probably EXTREMELY boring.
Feeling better over here, and glad it's over. :)~tammi

4 Puncture Holes Later....

Having your gall bladder removed stinks.

Actually, surgery itself stinks.

Furthermore, hospitals and sharp instruments stink.

I have four small holes in my belly. They hurt.
Show and tell in practice later this week girls.

I'm going to bed.

Almost Time....

Surgery is scheduled for tomorrow AM at 8:00 sharp. Thanks Rob for the cartoon --which I spruced up a little to make it more personal. :) (click it to enlarge)

See you on the other side.....

Another Senior

Whew. I'm tired. Seems like just when I get caught up, I have more work to do. I was up until 1:30 last night proofing Britt's senior session and doing the finishing touches on this one.
We're going away overnight for a volleyball tournament this weekend (Steve's driving the bus, so he and the kiddos are coming too) and I'm hoping to be in bed by a decent time at least on Friday night (but I'm not counting on it!). Anyway....here's a couple from last Saturday's senior session at the plantation (I am so far behind!)





And I couldn't resist one more of Britt....discovered this one as I went through hers last night - her eyes are so intense in this one. Britt, I've got to get a model release signed by you because your images are going to be plastered *all over* my senior marketing materials! :) lol

My favorite senior so far

Ok...so I'm totally cheating my normal "work-flow" tonight by skipping ahead on work that I need to do. I have two senior session waiting in the wings for proofing, and this one is 2nd on the list, but I *HAD* to crack open a few of them tonight to play with.

This chick is one super talented vball player and has succesfully taken the title for my favorite senior session to date. She was open for anything, had her own ideas, didn't need me to give her cues...she just KNEW what to do and she was SMOKE'N! So...about an hour after we planned to start, throw in some trespassing and some sand spurs in the jeans, hopping a few fences, and a HOT day and you've got a successful session.

Meet Britt. She is intense in both personality and spirit and I think that her entire session was so totally, just..."her".

She is fierce beauty and I hope that I've captured that.

Here's a sneak peek.

Bath Time and Softball

Bath time this morning...the entire point of which is for the boys to move an entire tub full of water onto the floor and me in a short time. There is always much splashing, drinking of bath water, an occassional fight and bump on the head. Upon exit of the bath, AJ will almost always make way past the toilet, to his bedroom and promptly pee on the bed or the floor. Here's a few pics for your enjoyment.





















Ok, so....our volleyball team has one member who plays two fall sports. Erica, (who is DA-BOMB) plays volleyball for us in addition to playing catcher on the softball team. So after the (volleyball) team had a kick-arse game yesterday and played their little hearts out, we cancelled practice today so we could go watch Erica play softball against Deerfield. At this point in the blog I had considered making a snarky remark about our arch nemesis Deerfield, but since I've only been here 6 months, I don't feel the need as of yet. Anyway, I digress...
I don't claim to know squat about baseball or softball - I actually asked Erica if she got to be the catcher all the time, or do they take turns like in Little League. She politely answered me that no, she gets to do it all the time (although in her head she was probably thinking I was a total [expletive]). Thanks E. :) Anyway, I tried my hand at some softball photos and well....let's just say there's not a whole lot of action in the game of softball (that's a whole 'nother topic), so I didn't get too many, but here are a few. Note to self: Next time step INSIDE the fence. There's a bit of a haze on several of them due to fence issues. Anyway....Enjoy :)









Here's E....she rocks.



E again...

My Blood Has Officially Thinned

Being from the great northern state of Michigan, I fully appreciate the concept of winter and cold weather, but after living in Florida and now Georgia, today I realized that I have officially adapted to the southern climate.
The weather has blessedly been starting to cool off and today is a pleasant 87 degrees Farenheit with a lovely breeze.

What am I wearing?

Jeans and a long sleeved tshirt.




Oh...and on a side note: It's very difficult to unzip your pants for a potty break when you've just woken up and realized that both of your hands are completely asleep because you've been laying on them for the past 2 hours. Doing a two-step "potty dance" helps take your mind off the fact that you may wet yourself, until your hands regain enough feeling to undo the button.

It's Way Too Late For Thinking

I've been procrastinating on a coffee table book that I've needed to design for a client, so today I decided that I would pull an all-nighter to get it done. I took a nap this afternoon in preparation. I'm pleasantly surprised that the book is done and is now uploading to my vendor for printing. It didn't take as long as I thought it would.
It's 3:11 a.m. and I'm going to bed.

River Party Take1

Ok...so I took about 215 pictures yesterday at the Volleyball River Party - (I was playing with my new lens -yes, I'm a geek with a big camera, or a big geek with a camera, depending on how you look at it) and I weeded them out last night and came up with about 85 keepers. They were fun to download and look at....some of them made me smile, some of them made me laugh out loud. You guys are a lot of fun. :)

I'm going to try to post a whole bunch of them on here, but sometimes Blogger wigs out when I post too many pics, so we'll see how this goes.

And if any of you girls out there are reading this and you want copies, bring me a disc to the game or to practice and I'll burn you a copy of all the pics.

Oh...and if you click on the picture, it will open it in a new window, bigger. :)

ROLL CALL!

So....who's out there?? I notice I get a lot of hits on this site so I'm interested to know who's lurking about out there. And if you read up on the site, lemme just run down the names of some people who post, so if you're new around here, you'll know who's who (Ranked in order of posting-frequency):

AmyP - my friend Amy, whom I love for a myriad of reasons. She doesn't care that my house is a mess, my kids haven't had a bath in 4 days, and I have a 5 ft tall pile of laundry. If she came over, she'd move the dirty dishes and smack the wet diaper off the chair and have a seat. I'm a mom. My house is in constant disarray. I am not defined as a person by my unorganized state. She gets me.
Too bad she lives in Alabama now.

MomN - this would be, quite obviously, Mom Nowack (or for those who are thick - Steve's mom). She is one of my number one fans and is constantly praising my work, whether I deserve it or not.

Casey - well, we ALL know who Casey is (and if you don't, check out my 3rd blog ever). I love him to death. He's the little brother I never had.

Lisa - head coach extraordinaire of the SCA Varsity Volleyball Team. She's funny and makes me laugh, and likes me for who I am. Oh..and she's a way better coach than me and I learn a lot from her - I pretend to assist but really she's coaching ME too.

Ness - as in "Vanessa", who I've only met once at my sister's wedding. I check her blog every day and find her quite refreshing and very witty. She and her hubby used to be the head youth ministers at the church in Michigan where my sister and her now husband used to work, until they moved to Indiana...that is, my sister moved to Indiana, and....oh, forget it.

Jess - SCA Varsity volleyball player, yearbook person (are you the editor?)-who mooches me for sports pictures :), supastar setter.

Shari & Rob - my sibs...who only post occasionally, but they're out there.

Markus - he posts every once in awhile. I've never met him, I think he lives in New Zealand or something - I think he googled something and ran across my blog. I read his, he reads mine. Isn't that nice? :)

Mom & Dad...who just started posting recently. I think they were starting to feel left out. :) Come on guys...EVERYBODY'S doin' it.

Megan - Steve's sister-in-law and resident medical advisor. Actually, I'm surprised she hasn't commented on my dr.'s appt. yet. She probably knows what those other 3 holes are for....

Klasieprof - Also never met her. I think she is a friend of Vanessa's and found me through her? Or maybe through Shari, because I think she knows Shari too.

Jen - I think she posted once. This would be Steve's other sister in law. The one I did the canvas' for...

Am I forgetting anyone??

So....that's it....and if you're out there reading, lurking, sneaking in some highly intelligent and thought-provoking literature (ahem, that would be my blog) then fess up....leave a comment...say hello...come out of the closet. I want to see who's out there!

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

It's been several days since my last post and it seems strange to blog again after not doing it for the better part of the work week. Hopefully your lives have gone on sucessfully without your daily dose of Tammi - difficult, I know.
And I think that "fonder" is a really strange word. Say it over and over or type it out and you have to wonder, who came up with that word? fonder. fonder. fonder. fonder.

Yesterday was a long day...went to the dr. to have a pre-surgery consultation. My gall bladder will no longer be inside my body as of Tuesday the 19th. I was really pleased with the dr.'s office..I only had to wait about 4 minutes until I was called back to the exam room so that was a nice switch after the whole "ER episode" last weekend. They gave me the rundown, how it works, recovery time, blah blah blah. The dr. did say that they would basically laser four holes into my abdomen and suck my gallbladder out through the one by my bellybutton. I'm not sure what the other 3 holes are for, and I didn't want to ask. Then I had to sign the standard consent form mentioning all the horrific possibilities that could actually go wrong during the surgery including, but not limited to....having to remove another organ ("whoops, she had GALLSTONES? I thought it was APPENDICITIS - my bad"), death, paralysis, puncturing another organ (oops, bumped my liver with the laser? Hey no problem!), and a myriad of other terrible possibilities. That wasn't much of a pick-me-up.
Ironically, the nurse who was with me was a mother of one of the volleyball players. I thought that was nice...extra special treatment since I know her, right? But then it crossed my mind that she would see me naked when they did the surgery and that made me feel a little weird, at best.

So that was my yesterday... this whole "surgery" thing is a bit of a bummer, seeing as how I don't like doctors and hospitals and all that, but after my appointment I drove out to this gorgeous plantation out by Steve's school. I drive by it every day and they have this bee-u-tiful sunflower field. I thought it would be a great place to take some senior portraits (I have 2 sessions with girls on saturday) so I decided to drive myself right in there and ask if I could use their field.

Ever been on a southern plantation? It actually had signs telling you where to go. Main house this way, Barn this way, Office this way, Mammie's House down this road (I'm not making that up, it actually said "mammie"). Crazy. I felt like I should lace up my corset and put on a southern bell dress with a matching parasol. But then again, I'm just a "yankee" so maybe jeans and a plain tshirt are acceptable..you know, for folk like me. :) Anyway, after I finally found the plantation manager, he said I could use the field all I wanted, so that made my day. :)

Here's a pic.

Nothin' Much to Say Today....

I haven't been in the mood for blogging lately. Not sure why....guess I just don't have much to say lately. And maybe that's not a bad thing. :)

We had a pretty low-key weekend. Watched a couple of movies and lounged around the house. Today I wated to scope out a nature trail for potential senior sessions, so I'm putting up a few nature shots and that's about it.






Casey graciously modeled a few potential sites for me:











Forget the nasty spider, check out my bokeh! Not bad, huh? And if you don't know what bokeh is....look it up! :) And I didn't put a swirly border on this one because spiders are just too icky.













Ansel Adams I am not! I have no idea how to take an ordinary scene with trees and swamp and make it look good. Here's the best I could come up with. :/ hmph.










And some fungi stuff growing off a log. Nature stuff...not exactly my "thing" but it was fun for a little change.