4/29/10

Found a place

W and I went to Columbus over the weekend to search for our new home (renting not buying).  We saw about 20 places and picked one.  It was a bit of drama, as we almost sealed the deal on one place but the property management company was acting shady and we decided not to go ahead with it.  But we had a backup place so that was good.  Anyways, it's a relief that it's almost over.  The place is a bit bigger than our current, and the rent a bit lower, which is nice.  I'm particularly excited about having a 2nd bedroom and bathroom. 

A couple things noted on the trip.  It was a lot warmer than Chicago.  I think it's generally 8-10 degrees warmer over there, which is great.  We were pleasantly surprised by some good authentic ethnic food we encountered.  While there aren't tons of options, we found a Korean, Vietnamese and Indian place we liked a lot.  We also tried dim sum but that didn't go so well.  And a great brunch place, and ice cream shop.  It was also a bigger city than we had pictured.  I think we had some pretty low expectations for the city and so it was better than expected.  There are some cute walkable areas with personality as well, which was nice.

All in all, we're a little tired but it was a good trip, and I'm happy we have a place.  I have essentially 6 weeks left in Chicago.  Crazy.  I don't think it's hit me yet.

4/17/10

It has begun

I mentioned about a year ago that I wanted to get into film photography.  Well, as you've seen here and there in my posts, I've started taking photography more seriously.  It's been a combination of thinking about what I want to do when I move, and also a lot of encouragement from friends (thank you).

When I began to think about photography as a career, I realized that if I get into this, what I really want to shoot is film.  But I knew nothing about film and it felt risky.  Will encouraged me to just go for it if that's what I want to do.  So I did a crazy thing and I bought a film camera.  I really didn't know what I was doing (and still don't).  After I ordered the camera I realized that I needed to buy film.  And batteries.  And then how to develop?  I couldn't even figure out how to release the shutter for about a day.  And it was so heavy.  Everything is different with film.  It's been a huge learning curve to say the least, and I'm only at the tip of the iceberg.

I took the camera out for a spin.  I fluctuated between being thrilled at the process of taking film photos - it's a wonderful, slower and more thoughtful process, and I love the sound the camera makes when I take a shot - and panic.  I experienced anxiety because I couldn't tell if I was doing anything right.  No instant feedback on the LCD screen!  I know, right?  I sent in the film and had to wait for a week.  It felt like eternity. Who waits a week for anything anymore?  I kept wondering if I had done a stupid thing by getting into film.

And then the photos came.

Yes.  I love them.  I love film.  And I'm so ecstatic and excited about it.  Words cannot express!!!

I have a LOT more to learn and I want to keep growing and pushing myself.  And some of my shots were really bad.  But there was enough good there to show me what potential there is.

So here it is.  Thank you for listening.


P.S. I'm shooting a wedding today.  I'm VERY nervous.

4/14/10

Check it out

I wanted to let you know I have a new photography blog!  I've been working on it for the last few weeks and itching to share it with you.  It's the same url, but I moved it over to a different platform, which will allow me greater freedom to make changes as I need to.  I may make a few more minor tweaks but I'm happy with it for now.

I have a couple of exciting things coming up in this arena so stay tuned...

4/13/10

Will & Warren

Will went to Omaha over the weekend to meet Warren Buffett with 160 other grad students.  In this photo, they are wearing each other's glasses.  Apparently it was Buffett's idea.  Isn't that cute?

4/12/10

Mediterranean Feast

I'm so proud of this dinner Will and I made last night for our friends E & R. It was E's birthday and we made baba ganoush, tabouleh, garlic spread, roasted chicken and hummus. All from scratch, except the pita bread! All recipes were from the America's Test Kitchen cookbook, except the garlic spread. I found the garlic recipe online - it was a Zankou copycat recipe, and pretty darn good.

photo by me

4/8/10

New Wines

My friend introduced me to two new wines recently. They are both cheap and really good, and they're both Shiraz, which is new to me. The first is Jam Jar - you should get it, if just for the great packaging. It's on sale for $9.99 at World Market. I noticed some other well-priced wines in cool bottles there too:


The other is Banrock Station's Shiraz. Here in Chicago you can get it at Jewel-Osco (the local grocery store) for $4.99.

This and that

I took a break from fb, twitter, bloglines and korean dramas for lent and it was really good. Now I feel overwhelmed by it all! I can only spend about a minute on fb and then I close it down. I also transferred my blog reading to google reader and in the process cut down my blog following to 40. I used to have 138 feeds. I feel gooood! Hopefully I can keep it this way.

We've had really great weather over here. It's been the complete opposite of last year. This week is a bit rough with flurry predictions and busting out my snow coat after having switched out my winter and summer clothes, but I think I'll be ok.

We're starting to look on craigslist for a place in Columbus. The upside is that things are a lot cheaper out there. The downside is, it's hard to look long distance. But we'll be taking a trip out in 2 weeks so I'm looking forward to that.