Mom Says I’m Running Away

10 Years:

Felicia’s mother was heading out to see her mothers ashes today in a temple across town and invited Felicia, Arthur and I to come along, today was the 10 year anniversary of her death.   Just like we head out to peoples graves on special days and lay flowers on their headstones, the Buddhists will visit and burn incense and gifts for their departed relatives.

Although Christina joked about the whole system of burning gifts and “Hell Money” was like “DHL for the underworld“, I could see she missed her mother dearly and took the entire events of the day very seriously.  I just tried not to be a pain, except to the temple’s cats who I stalked to take pictures of… they seemed rather annoyed with me.

Accck!!! I’m 30!:

So today is my birthday… and I am 30…

Anyways, since I missed Felicia’s birthday a couple of weeks ago in while I was in California, we decided to have a combined birthday fest at the uber-fancy Shangri-La Hotel buffet here in Singapore.  Unfortunately, since it was midweek we thought we would have no trouble getting a reservation, so when we called yesterday we were quite surprised to find we would have to sit outdoors (ie. yours truly will melt).

Still not to be swayed we showed up right when they opened at noon and I asked to sit indoors, the restaurant said they were completely reserved, so I asked to please come and move us if anything opens up, which they agreed to. We sat there trying not to melt and enjoying our first course when an absolute tropical deluge began (which gave us another reason to NEED to be indoors), So I flagged the down the doorman and asked again if we could be moved, this time he agreed to find us an indoor table.

(The above foods are what I ate - in chronological order.)

Much happier and much cooler, Felicia and I proceeded to act like the worlds biggest pigs, on this 2 1/2 hour multi-course lunch, everything was extremely tasty, I finished feeling like this, after a second course of the decadent bread pudding.

All in all, it was a glorious birthday and after acting like complete food-heathens we did wander the malls/streets of Singapore for 7 hours finding more stuff for our wedding, feeling slightly less guilty for our over indulgence.

The birthday doesn’t make me feel any different, still feel just like a kid, so I guess aging is not too bad.

Off to Singapore:

I just landed in Singapore and was greeted by my ecstatic future-wife at the airport after 25 hours or so of travel. To tell the truth I was rather ecstatic too, the last time we saw each other was way back in December.  That much time apart will really make a couple miss each other. I will get some pictures up of Felicia, myself, and Singapore as soon as I recover from this soul sucking jetlag.

In the mean time, here is a portrait I took of Grandpa, while I was explaining to him my new Pocket Wizards I had bought about a week before.  As a photo buff himself he was rather entertained (as you can see by him looking at the flash and not at the camera).

For those of you that are interested in such stuff, the Pocket Wizards I bought were the MiniTT1 and the FlexTT5, and although I have no idea how these companies come up with names for such products, they work amazingly(some samples of pictures I have taken with them are on the two posts below)

Senior Year:

This is my cousin Craig. He’s a pretty badass swimmer and an all around nice guy. With one day before I leave for Singapore we were able to spend a few hours getting some shots of him as senior portraits. I am pretty impressed with myself.

Now, I am ready to go see my woman. (sorry for the short post… Have had a crazy busy day)

Out in LA:

I am currently out in L.A. working, making one last attempt to stockpile wedding money for the summer and staying with my brother in North Hollywood.  Two things VERY out of the ordinary happened to my in the last few days.

• First I went to McDonalds for breakfast. A rare occurance in itself as I try to avoid the fast food, but it was on the way to work, in my 1 mile walk from the train to the theater, and I was running late, so I ordered a Sausage McMuffin with Egg and a Coffee.  It cost $4.63.
• The second occurrence dawned on me a couple days later when I wandered into a Starbucks for breakfast and ordered the exact same thing: a Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Muffin and a Coffee. It was $3.95….

I mean, “What The F?!?!” When the hell did Starbucks get cheaper than McDonalds? No wonder our economy is in such a slump…

Paints:

I just cashed in a pile of frequent flyer miles and booked a free ticket to Singapore for the summer leaving on May 20, a mere 8 days before before I turn the big 3-0 and 45 days before my sweetheart and I tie the proverbial knot. It’s a time of big steps in my life and I am looking forward to a crazy summer!

A Delivery:

FedEx came to the door and dropped the package I was expecting, something I will soon be attached to for a lifetime (or at least the remainder thereof), our wedding rings!

I actually was more excited than I expected when I got them… good stuff, now in a couple of weeks I can head off to be with Felicia for the last 6 weeks before our July 4th wedding.

Helping Out:

Sorry I haven’t posted for the last week or so, I have been spending some time with Grandpa (who is well on his way to complete recovery), helping him out around his house on some of the projects he has wanted to get done for a while.  As you can see he won’t let anything like a poorly done heart surgery stop him from fixing up his house.  (It turns out his Easter “heart attack” wasn’t a heart attack at all, just a collapse of the stint they put in his heart after his last real heart attack in January)

My only question to him once he started feeling better from this whole ordeal was if he was going to ask for his money back from the surgery which wasn’t done right…  I mean, if someone fixed my car incorrectly I would ask them to fix it for free…..

Her Eyes:

Little people can give that modeling look too.

Happy:

I love my 35mm @ f/1.4…