Wedding Photos

Normally I don't check my phone until we are in the car driving to the office, but for some reason this morning when I woke up, I turned towards my bedside table and saw my phones charging away and I had the urge to check them for messages. There were emails for work, emails for Stephanie Beach Photography emails from friends and of course emails from spammers. There were a couple texts and a bunch of Facebook posts (mostly likes and comments on photos I posted yesterday). And then there was a tag from fifteen:fifty-one photography and that made my morning. It was 6am and my day was already good - thanks Gen!! :)

The above and below photos are screenshot captures I 'borrowed' from Gen's blog (Photo Copyright © 2012, Genevieve Georget/Fifteen:Fifty-One Photography. http://www.fifteenfiftyone.ca/) --- hopefully she doesn't mind. :) I was trying to choose my favourites from all the photos, and kept changing my mind between so many of them, so you get these two here and the rest are on Gen's blog until we get our awesome little CD next weekish.

Decade in Review (2000-2009)

I have been alive for over two and a half decades, but it is only this last one that I remember with almost perfect clarity. You see, in the beginning of 1990-1999 I was barely in school and can only remember certain moments, and even those may be contrived from photographs I have seen and stories I have been told. During the last decade though, I was 15 to 25 years old and able to remember everything - though not everything is worth remembering. Below is a listing of personal highlights and a photo of myself from each year in the past decade:

2000 - got my driver's license; house was robbed; finished technology enriched school program;

got first digital camera; became quite active in extra-curricular activities in high school. Below photo taken by me in the hallway of my parent’s room.

2001 - broke up with first serious boyfriend; travelled to Moosonee; took first college course in photography; learned how to develop film photographs; thought of becoming an architect; became co-president in several clubs (and remained until end of high school). Below p

hoto taken either by my friend Alaina or myself. Either way, it is from one of the many nights I spent at Alaina’s. Notice the curly hair – she did it and it likely lasted about 1 hour.

2002 – started using ICQ to talk to pretty much everyone; received SLR camera; learned how to take manual photos; started playing rugby on high school team. Below photograph taken by me while sitting in front of the computer in my parent’s house.

2003 - graduated from high school; started university; met best friend; lived in university residence; lost 25 pounds; stopped drinking alcohol (no real reason); employed at Forwarders' Museum. Below p

hoto taken in my residence room while I was studying chemistry with Justin

2004 - started dating the love of my life; Tyler graduated from university; moved into rented house with friends; mom diagnosed with breast cancer; worked for last time at Forwarders' Museum; failed first course ever. Below p

hoto taken by Dave. This was one of the last days of first year – Dave and I took photos of each other around campus as we were going to be apart for the entire summer.

2005 - failed second course; starting working at City of Ottawa (Eng. Assistant); started budget spreadsheet; lost 20 pounds. Below photograph by me. Taken in my room on Glen after getting my hair cut short. I think there are remnants of the first dye-job I had done (blonde highlights).

2006 - moved in with Dave (in ‘boy house’); started my first blog; saw first Cirque de Soleil show live; learnt how to make bead jewellery. Below p

hoto was taken at my City of Ottawa job - it was a co-worker's birthday.

2007 - Eddy died; stopped receiving money from parents (for rent/bills); went to Chris' cottage for first time; worked at City of Ottawa while finishing up B.Eng; got my iron ring; graduated from university; ended career as professional student (over 19 years spent full-time in school). Below p

hoto was taken by Dave. I am holding my B.Eng degree from Carleton University in my room in the ‘boy house’.

2008 - travelled to England; flew in plane for first time; got my first dSLR camera; moved into rented townhouse with just Dave; got EI for 1 month; had the first job I really hated; got my first real engineering job; started night courses in photography; Tyler got married. Below photo was taken in the London Eye while Chris and I were on travelling there.

2009 - got in a car accident; bought my first car; traveled to Montreal; traveled to Chicago; started my grown-up life. Below photo was taken by Christine Sweeton for a class assignment.
I did it – I remembered a few things from each year AND found a photo of myself from each year (though some were hard to find and most had few options). Now it is on to 2010 (though I realize it has already started). I do not know what the next decade holds for me or those I care about – though I do hope the majority of it is worth writing good things about in 2020.

Justin Go Home

For the last two weeks our friend Justin was staying at our place. He arrived the Thursday, Oct. 29 and whipped up some costumes then went to the Halloween parties with us. We spent the rest of the time, generally hanging out and playing a tons of computer and PS3 games. He stayed until two Saturdays ago when he had his convocation from Carleton University. He graduated from the computer engineering program there and is now back home in Kingsville. It was a lot of fun having him around again. Since he left back in April, Ottawa had been a little less nerdy and Dave and I have had one less person to hang out with. Hopefully, he will be able to come back again soon.

Zuma

When I was in university, living on Glen Ave with Chris, I played Zuma quite a bit. I forget how exactly, but Dave got it installed on my computer and I absolutely loved it. When he got the PS3 just a little while ago, we downloaded the demo PS3 version of it and I have been playing it over and over again ever since (about a week and a half or so).
Yesterday, Dave decided to buy it for me on the PS3 and now I am obsessed with it again. It is harder on the PS3 as you can place your mouse where you want the ball to go like I would on the computer, and there are actual 'slots' where the frog can point whereas on the computer he could point literally anywhere. It is taking me longer to beat the levels and I have actually died a couple of times, but it is still very fun.

Shadowed Smile

Chris took this photo of my for the media photography course she is taking at Carleton this term. I have to admit I was a little nervous when she said she wanted to use me for her model but as I used her in the past for modeling (for almost an entire day) and she has barely used me at all for this course, I went along with it. Anyway, I am really happy with the way it turned out. The lighting reminds me of a 50s Hollywood starlet photo.

Perpetual Learner

The dictionary defines the word perpetual as "a feeling, state or quality that never ends or changes". Earlier this evening my Aunt told me that I seemed to be a perpetual learner and I begun to think about this comment.

I have been in school since I was 4 years old, about 20 years in total; 10 years in elementary school (8 years plus both junior and senior kindergarten), 5 years in high school (including OAC) and 4 and a half years in university (mind you I also took two summers worth of courses). I know that when I was not old enough to go to school I would pretend that I was going when my older brother went. I would try and suck as much information from him as I possibly could when he got home - I just couldn't get enough of it. Throughout my 20 years in school, I excelled. Not because I was inherently smart or anything like that, but because I enjoyed doing well. For the most part I enjoyed the schoolwork and what I was learning - though there were a few physics, thermodynamics and fluid courses in there I could have done without.

Now that I have officially graduated and completed the path that we are 'supposed' to take these days (elementary, secondary and post secondary) I have found that I am still hungry for information. I am done - and yet I continue. I have taken so far one term worth (one course) of photography courses at Algonquin College. I loved that first course. It ended mid-December and until today I was not taking any courses - I felt a little deprived. I have been lacking new information. I have come to the realization that I like to learn.

I have a hypothesis for this: I know how to learn. I have essentially been a professional student for about 20 years. I only started to work in the last 5 years of this time frame and even then, only for about 4 months at a time. At any significant point in my life I can pretty much guarantee that I was in school and was learning something. It is a staple in my life and in some weird way, I think it is a comfort.

My life post-graduation has been a little uncertain. I only recently became employed in my field and before this I was very stressed and generally concerned about never being able to find something. Throughout that time, I would surf the net and research certificate programs for different fields such as photography or web-design, etc. I would plan out the path I may or may not want to take to achieve the program requirements and try and figure out every aspect of that process (costing, timing, etc). It gave me some weird feeling of security to know that I could always go back to school. Perhaps this is why so many people get masters and PhDs in many areas - learning is enjoyable and comforting for them in a similar way that it is to me.

I am currently on the road to obtaining a Certificate in Digital Photography. I do not believe I will stop there - whether the future courses lead to more certificates or not, I do not know, but I believe I will keep trying to find new ways to learn.

Back to School

I just registered in a night course at Algonquin College!

I have been wanting to take night courses in photography for quite some time now - well really since I took a traditional film course in high school through St. Lawrence College in Brockville. Well, now that I am have graduated from the Environmental Engineering program at Carleton University, I will finally have the time to devote to my passion - photography. I really want to advance my skills and just have fun with it all. I can't wait until classes start September 10th!

Convocation

This is one of the many pictures of Dave and I from our Convocation on June 12, 2008.

Ashamed

I feel ashamed lately.
Thursday is my convocation and I am dreading many aspects of it. I will be asked my classmates if I have a job in my field and all that - and I do not. My job doesn't even come close to my field and I am so ashamed. Almost all of the students who graduated with me in December have jobs - proper jobs and I do not. I am not really sure why I haven't gotten one yet - I have looked as hard as I could and only gotten a couple interviews so far - most for jobs that didn't even exist and the companies just wanted to talk to me.
I don't know what to say - I don't know what to do.
I just feel so stupid, useless and professionally undesirable.
I feel so ashamed.

Tulip Festival 2008

Today I ventured out to see the beautiful tulips of the Tulip Festival. It started this past weekend but because of the weather I didn't get a chance to get out there. I started out just heading to Chris' old place with a small pit stop at the university along the way. There is a bed of large red tulips there and a smaller bed of yellow ones near Chris' place, but along the way I saw some of the other side of the canal and felt impelled to get there - somehow. I ended up biking down the canal to Pretoria bridge, crossing and riding up to the Olympic Bed near Lansdowne Park, of course making stops along the way. I kept going along the canal and roadway all the way up to Dow's Lake where there are tons of tulips (Chris, you would hate it there, haha!). Anyway, I took tons of photos while biking around the area. There was a girl doing yoga there and I wish I had more courage because I would have loved to take some proper shots of her - perhaps I will get that bravery when I get my proper camera, you know, have the feel of a real photographer. Anyway, I really enjoyed myself, mind you getting home was long and tiring as I was biking against the wind and I had been going for about 2 hours. To make a long story a tiny bit less-long, it was a great day. Perhaps tomorrow I will go looking for those magnolias around Chris' new place (which happens to be just a few blocks from her old one haha).

B.Eng

My parents came up today and they brought me something I have been waiting a long time for - my degree! I am now an official member of the Carleton Alumni and have my B.Eng in Environmental Engineering - yay! Now I just need to get over to the university bookstore and buy one of the university frames for it - although I already know which one I want since I bought my brother's there a couple years ago and got him the one I want to get myself. I am so excited about finally having it in my hands.

Goodbye Student Life

Today the winter term officially started at Carleton University and I am not participating. This is the beginning of my non-student life, up until now I could have been like all the rest of the studnets, just on holiday break - but now that school has started and I have no classes to attend or assignments to turn in, I am done. It still hasn't kicked in yet, meaning I still feel the same as I did before - perhaps when Dave gets home and he too is not in school I will start to realize that I am not on holidays or anything like that and that this is my life now - working in the real world.
I need to find myself a job in my field else I will be working here for the City in an unrelated position longer than I want with no benefits and lower pay than I want. But that will come with time - there is no point in me searching for a job right now as I need to wait to hear about Dave's possibility in Mississauga (we need to know what city we are going to be in). I hope he gets it eventhough it will be hard to move so far away from my family and friends.

Carleton

It's official. I checked my marks this morning and I got two A's in my last two courses at Carleton University -Water Resources and Urban Planning. I just have to wait for the papers to come through now. I have my B.Eng in Environmental Engineering. :)

Time to Study Part II

I have been studying as hard as I can for the past three days. I am however, having a hard time focusing. I have watched almost every episode of Beverly Hills 90210 Season 2 and am currenlty watching crap tv as I print out more stuff to study from. I did the math last night and I need to get 14 and 15 per cen ton my two exams to pass them. Now I don't want to just pass, but the fact that I need to do so little to pass makes me want to study even less than I already do. Well, the prints are almost done - so I should go struggle through them some more. Just two more and then I will be done forever!

Iron Ring

Employment - Part III

I have been working at the City now for a whole month. I decided that I am not going to get a part-time job to go with this one. When I was talking to my parents about it before the summer I realized that I want to have some sort of fun this summer since this is really the first summer I have had in which I didn't have to do summer school (either my choice or not-so-much my choice) and getting a second job would pretty much take away any free time I would have. I also did the math and I don't NEED the money - although more money is always nice.
I am going to ask my boss later on in the summer about working here during the fall term when I am taking my last two courses for my degree from Carleton. If I can work here for 3 days a week then I won't have to get a part-time job then either. I don't know if I am going to be able to get a job here during the fall since it depends on the budget that this department gets and whether or not there is a spot/need for me. I am working extra hard this year to try to impress my boss more than I already have.
I always end up making all these really big goals/plans and then falling just short of them, so it will be interesting to see what happens with this one.

Employment - Part I

I had an itnerview today for a peer helper position with Carleton for the next school year. I had the interview at 1:30pm and got a call from the, at 3:30ish saying that I had received the job. I will be assisting the Career Services Department 5 hours a week during the school terms. It isn't really great pay - as a matter of fact it is crap pay - I get $250 at the end each term. BUT I should get really good networking contacts as I will be assisting with co-ordinating the job fairs on campus - the engineering ones too. It will also look good on my resume as it will be good references and show another side of my capabilities as an employee.

I also got an email from my boss at the City of Ottawa, where I have worked for the past two summers. As some of you know, I screwed up my applications to the City this year as they closed earlier than I was expecting and therefore didn't end up applying for any of the jobs I wanted including my old job. After some work on his part, my boss got me my job which is great. I will admit that I didn't really want to work there again this summer - I wanted one of the enviro jobs in the City, but was going to apply to my old job as a backup since it is good pay and engineering work. I am really appreciative though that my boss would go to so much trouble to get my job back after I screwed up the application.

My summer employment plan is to work at the City for $12.50/hour from 7:30am to 3:00pm everyday and then hopefully get another job at a Shoppers or Blockbuster or Subway or something around where I live and work there on the weekends and then keep that job as I go into the next school year. I will have to wait and see what happens with that part though as I don't really have time to go out and search for that job just yet - maybe during the exam period I will start that. :)