Don't Bug Me About This

Sam and I are currently making our way to California for a week (technology! I can blog from the car in the middle of nowhere!). 

A little while ago, we passed a place infamous in the lore of our relationship, and I realized that very few people actually know this story, and that's a shame.  So here I am to tell it to you.

Lo, these many years ago, when Sam and I were still in field school together and "just friends," Sam decided to take me on a Sunday evening drive in his Volvo that smelled like crayons to his ancestral home, Scipio.

I've passed through Scipio a million times and considered it no more than a blip on the map, but that apparently is where all the Wasdens and Quarnbergs interbred (or inbred) and created the large-noggined species of Wasden.  So it's important to Sam.  And, admittedly, I didn't really care what we were doing at the time, I just wanted to spend a little time with him because I loved the smell of crayons, so to speak.

We took a detour through Goshen Canyon to finally look at that rock art that was always just down the road from the site we were excavating. After a while, we met back up with the 15 somewhere and drove along south.

It was at this point that Sam decided to show off his classy Cruise Control (I love a man with Cruise Control). But it broke the computer, and therefore the car.  We began to coast on the freeway (not really a safety concern anywhere in Central Utah).  We pulled off at the nearest exit, a place called Mills--aptly named, since the only thing besides cows and scrub as far as the eye can see was a towering mill with a few outbuildings.

So we called Sam's mom (my heart a-pounding a bit since it was essentially like "meeting the parents", right?), then spent some time on the phone with AAA, who promised to send a tow truck in about an hour from Scipio (the only reason I can think it might've taken an hour to get to a place less than 20 minutes away is that everyone in a 400-mile radius had crashed their cars simultaneously).

In the mean time, we decided to walk around and get to know the exit. I quickly became aware of a sudden and irresistible urge to urinate.

Fantastico. 

Sam felt the same and took care of business while standing on a small bridge in the middle of the field.  I searched around a little nervously-- the freeway was right there, and it was a relatively flat area.  I could imagine the eyes of every mill-worker on me as I considered where to hide myself.  Not to mention this boy who I was still getting to know would undoubtedly be judging me.

The only solution I could perceive was to go down into the creek that the bridge crossed and take care of it there.  So I wandered down and felt very fortunate to be wearing a skirt at the moment.

The fortune I felt very quickly disappeared as I realized that creek+summer+exposed delicate parts=what the heck was I thinking?!

Sam called down to ask if I was ok when I started giving periodic shrieks every time a horse-sized mosquito decided to take a little nibble at my soft underbelly.
I looked completely ridiculous waving my arms around, half-squatting in a creek.  But only the thousands of blood-suckers saw me, and fortunately they don't talk.

I ran like a bat out of Hell back to the Volvo and we laughed and cried about it until the tow truck driver pulled up a minute later with a sprig of hay hanging out of his mouth.

I listened amusedly on the ride back as Sam chatted family history with his fellow Scipian (it didn't take long to find out they were distant cousins) and tried very hard to ignore the building itching.

This turned out to be one of those experiences that only draws you together, but every time we pass Mills or talk about Scipio, I shudder to think of that time when I was raped by mosquitos while everyone at that mill laughed at me (which turned out only to be Sam, but still).

Ketchup and Other Condiments

Yeah, maybe let's pretend like the last time I posted on here wasn't 3 months and 1 day ago.  I got a job that I signed a million NDAs for and therefore can't really talk about, Sam got busy trying to graduate, and we kind of ceased to have a life in the interim.

But!  Things are happening again, and while I probably don't deserve it, I hope I still have a readership out there, somewhere, in the wild blue yonder...

So.  Like I said, I got a job.  January 17th even.  It's kind of crazy, but this job, even though the circumstances were and are not perfect in every way, has been a huge godsend.  If I'd gotten a different job ages ago, I never would've gotten this one, and I really feel like this is where I was supposed to end up.  Pay is not what I should be earning.  Hours are slim (based on demand).  But the job is great fun, I work completely independently, all of my "bosses" trust me to do things and figure things out on my own, they ask my opinions on stuff I think is kind of important, and I basically help their companies function at their best.  Well, I'm sure they could make it without me, but I think I make it a lot easier for them.  And the best part?  It's fun.  They tease me, we joke.  I love being around happy people all the time.  And like I said, it's right where I need to be.

And Sam is graduated!  I'm super duper proud of him.  He's been there for me through all of the crummy junk life threw my way in the past couple of years, and so I've been trying really hard to reciprocate these past couple of semesters so he didn't have to worry about anything but school.  It really paid off.  He's done really well in all his classes, and I've stopped worrying so much about his education, and now-- he's all finished!  Graduation feels like a huge accomplishment to us both, and we're both on cloud nine now.

Other things have started happening too.  My older sister had a very cute baby girl last week, whom they've named Juliet.  Also last weekend we had the opportunity to join my parents and my other sister and her husband on a camping trip to Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde.  We even stopped at the Four Corners Monument, since most all of us had never been.  Let me tell you-- that place is a straight up barrel of monkeys.  But they have Navajo fry bread!  And I loved that everybody there felt as ridiculous as you doing weird poses whilst trying to be in four places at once.  Solidarity, guys.  (I'm putting pictures from the trip below, so in case you hate images you can just skip them-- and I think most of them are not ones I put on Instagram)

Oh!  And I also shot my first wedding a couple of weeks ago!  It was hard work and I was really nervous, plus post-processing took way longer than any other shoot I've done, but it turned out pretty well, considering the light was bad all day and night.

That's another thing-- somehow things have picked up a lot faster than I expected them to with the photography thing.  People are starting to ask me to do shoots for them instead of the other way around!  I still feel totally inadequate, especially when I see people with amazingly clear photos or subjects' eyes are all lit up like gems, but...you know what?  I'm trying.  And maybe my style is a little different.  And most of all, I'm still learning, and I'm just really happy that people are actually giving me a chance!  I really love getting out there and shooting people.  It makes me really, really happy.

Oh, and I promise not to be such a troglodyte in the future.  I'll keep posting.

Grinding that stone at Mesa Verde

Yo.  Wasdens at Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon

Cairns and men

Ascending the Pueblo Alto Trail, Chaco Canyon

Mom hearts Chaco

The 'rents

Cold at Mesa Verde

Short at Chetro Ketl

Ok, this was really cool: Dad's signs at Four Corners!  Woohoo!

A case for the FBI: which state was I killed in?

"Mecca lecca hi mecca lecca hiney ho"

...And descending

OH NOES FALLING OFF TEH CLIFF

Oh, Senior Photos!

Layers of Ommmm