First Time For Everything..

This week was big on "firsts" for me. I walked in my first fashion show, and it was amazing! It was up in Minneapolis for the designer Katy Schmaty Jewelry, as well as Tim+Thom. It was an all day event, with hair and makeup starting at noon, and not getting done until five. We had "Paul Mitchell" hair team, and they were able to create our "antlers" for the runway. Yep, hair antlers. As a model I had to channel my inner deer. I can't say enough how much I love high fashion! whenever people don't get it I always say, "well what did you expect? the Macy's Day Parade?"
  The makeup artists did a phenomenal job as well with our dramatic looks. And they couldn't have been any nicer to the models. Walking into this experience I was honestly expecting the worst, and anticipating rude, snotty, stuck-up models who just talk a bunch of... crap. And was I ever wrong! They were all friendly, talkative, charming, hilarious, welcoming, etc. I can't even write all the positives because the list could go on for an entire day.
In between hair and makeup we had to choreograph our walks. Each model had 4-6 hot spots to stop at, and had to have 3 poses at each spot. It sounds easy, but when It came time to actually do it in front of press and all of the professional photographers my legs were literally shaking like a timid deers. It was so nerve-racking! Obvious fears are tripping, falling, losing a shoe, getting my antlers stuck to the girls next to me, you know like normal stuff.
I was made lead model of the show, so basically that meant being the first model out I set the tempo for the whole show. And that meant even more attention just on me since I was the only one out for the good first chunk. I have never had such an adrenaline rush in my life. It seriously was the best feeling that I don't think I could explain and only entertainers could understand.

For my second-FIRST, in the same week: buying a car.

So I made my first car purchase! I had no idea car shopping was so exhausting. My Pontiac grand am was for sale and a friend said she would buy it from me. It was my first car (birthday present when i got my license) and I've had it for about four years. I made the decision to get a new car and set out to look. I've been looking for over a month and just thinking about the type of car that would fit my lifestyle. There are SO many to choose from and with my price range it helped narrow some down to what really fits me.

I ended up going to look at a white toyota corolla, (my rules for buying my first car were white car, or black suv) after finding out the corolla had been in two major accidents after i asked for the carfax i had asked if they had any Black Jeep Liberty's. (In my price range) and the second I sat down in the Jeep I knew I was going to buy it! I'm still pinching myself. I just purchased a 2010 Jeep Liberty. All by myself. No co-sign from my dad, no help. And I had a chunk of money saved up to put down at signing. I couldn't be happier with my decision on this truck! :)

Fakebook, When Parents Join..

For this week's blog assignment, think about Alice Mathias' essay "The Fakebook Generation" from our text.  Read the "Writing Suggestions" and "For Further Study" questions/ideas that follow the essay.   Focus, in some way, on social networking or Facebook in this week's blog.''

1.Mathias uses a colon to introduce a list on one topic. Like when she introduces "comedy" and states why after the colon. 

2.I believe Myspace and Facebook change so much because people get bored with it. Ranging from different age groups determines what they use facebook for. It could be for: pure entertainment, drama, to timeline their life, photo albums socializing, making new friends, and even finding people to date. As for older people such as my grandparents I know they use it to watch the grand kids grow up and see things that they would otherwise completely miss.

Parents On Facebook.

The first thing I do when I wake up is check to see if I have any text messages, or notifications on Facebook. Now that mobile apps are available and technology is growing vastly, it is easier to consume our lives with these social networking sites. Normally when I receive friend requests it's from a friend or new acquaintance. But nothing shocked me more then when I checked my friend requests and saw my fathers name. I was in high school and it was "weird" to be friends with your parents on Facebook. I couldn't handle the embarrassment, nor could I stand the thought of hurting his feelings. So, I let the friend request sit in the inbox. After weeks  had gone by my father had mentioned his friend request said it was "still pending" and he couldn't see anything. I was defensive and told him I had forgotten about it. Next day I accepted. The following week I deleted him. he approached me once again and told me he saw we weren't friends anymore and if it had bothered me so much I should have just told him. In all honesty i did not want him to know what I was thinking, doing, feeling. I knew he would judge and go into instant "dad mode" and try to talk about it. 

Now that i have had a few years to mature I'm not bothered by being friends with my father, mother, grandma, and grandpa on Facebook. I know that they are curious and concerned about me. And frankly Facebook makes it easy to follow day to day life, vacations, or special holidays when your family can't be there. 

Now that I'm friends with my entire family on Facebook (moms & dads side) it makes talking to them at family functions a lot easier. "Oh I saw you went to the Bahamas this summer! The pictures were amazing" instead of.. "Hey how are you?" "I'm great! how are you?" "Good" "Okay, great catching up!" I know not all families are that awkward, but mine definitely is.

Now that Facebook has been taken over by everyone and their mother, literally. I now have a social outlet where I don't have to censor, and I can have fun with it. "Twitter." I'd talk about it more.. but I'm afraid it will be taken over within a matter of months by my grandparents so I'll just let people stumble upon it when it becomes the new daily online check in. Until then, I'm going to enjoy my 140 character limit and multiple status updates a day without family following me. Ta-Ta for now.

Getting in the flow of paper writing.

Well, I just got back home yesterday from a weeks vacation in Kauai, Hawaii. It was so beautiful and I documented my whole trip with my camera so I wouldn't forget a thing! From laying on the beach, whale watching, deep sea fishing, making new friends, 2-mile runs on the beach, coffee plantation, etc. I got so much in. I seriously had so much time for self reflection and relaxation. While on the trip I also spent lots of time writing this darn paper, and having writers block! I was able to get in my first couple drafts, but honestly I had about 3 different papers. Completely different topics, but I settled on one that felt right.
 My last days on the island were bitter-sweet. I was excited to get back home and get back into my routine, but i was so relaxed, and it's nice to not have any stress!  Anyway, my family and I got kicked out of the apartment at 10am, so we hung around the pool drinking pina coladas and mai tais until 5pm. then we were off to the airport. I had no idea that coming back would be a harder transition then going there. Hawaii is 4 hours behind so you feel like you're going to bed early, and waking up early even if your sleep schedule is going to bed at 2am Rochester time. it was nice. By the last couple days I was going to bed later... and later... and by the time we hopped on our flight from Kauai to Honolulu, it was 9pm. Once in Honolulu we had to wait 2 hours for our flight to San Fransico. There we only had an hour and a half lay over. One thing is for sure, when you travel that much and get no sleep, you feel really goofy! I got maybe 3 hours of sleep total. I woke up in Minneapolis when the plane landed around 2pm. So, on Saturday I didn't leave til 9pm.. Then traveling til Sunday at 2pm! I was exhausted. I slept so much last night and today, I even crashed during the Superbowl party. I slept all night and woke up at noon today, still not even feeling close to rested i decided to work on my paper. I still hear my bed calling my name....