Potential Professional World Traveler

Today this sentence popped into my head: "What I am going to do with the rest of my life". And then shortly after "Oh crap, REALLY What am I going to do?!?"

 I mean there are a lot of options, but what if you weren't one of those kids who really wanted to be a pilot, or a doctor, or a scientist? What if you happened to graduate from college with a meaningless degree? What if you never actually came up with ONE thing that you wanted to do.

Ideal jobs:
Professional world traveler


Restaurant Reviewer (because food is king)

 Professional book reader (reading a good fiction all day = bliss)

      Photo courtesy of simplemom

Professional Gamer (video games and arcade games included)

Stand-in

I feel like I'm sitting at the edge of this huge edge of decision and the next few years are going to make an impact on where I land. To be honest I'm worried I'm too much all-over-the-board to do one thing, which makes me think I need to make pros and cons of my current situation.

Things I love about film:
-the randomness of being able to jump from finding a house to film in, to building a puppet bear, to editing crazy videos, to researching great music to use.
-Outlet to be creative and produce art
-Music videos in any format
-Working in a group dynamic with friends


Thing I Dislike about film:
-Competitive nature of the film community
-Constantly rushed jobs with intense deadlines
-Underpaid jobs where you have to sacrifice an aspect of the art or yourself

So I do love filmmaking, to be honest it's the chance to be an artist that I never thought I would have, and it's very fulfilling to look at something you helped make and see the product. But I'm not ready to get tied down to one thing like being an producer or an editor the rest of my life, because that sounds awful. I'm starting to think that this might be a generational problem because how else do you get the birth of a nation of bloggers? People who want to do work on their own schedule in their own space. I could go for that.

Diana + Reed a wedding video

My beautiful friend Diana got married last month! I am so glad that we were randomly paired as roommates so many years ago. Diana taught me a lot of important things like how to dance in the car and the importance of spicy food.  I learned that jalapeños are good on everything from salads to Mac and cheese. Two years ago she was a bridesmaid in my wedding in Denver. (She and my other friend Lizzie are the reason the wedding colors (and bridesmaid dresses) changed to blue.) When Diana told me she was engaged I was ecstatic and I knew I wanted to go if possible. I was looking for plane tickets when she called and asked if I would film her wedding.

FILM A WEDDING?! EKK! I have helped with wedding photos, but I have never filmed a wedding. I was VERY nervous about this idea. Weddings are a lot of pressure, if you miss the important moments, there is no fix, a wedding is a one time moment. Hello pressure! I really wanted to go to the wedding and I didn't want Diana to have to get some cheesy wedding videographer last minute. So I did some research, decided I couldn't RUIN the video and said I would do it!

I am so glad I went!  I flew out the day before and was able to go through the temple with her and her family. That night they sat around and shared some of their favorite memories with Diana. It was an amazingly loving atmosphere. I spent the entire next day with Diana, from early morning prep to the final goodbyes.  It started with her hair appointment and then prep with her mom at home. Reed showed up at the house to take Diana to the temple so that they could be there early. I walked out to see Reed anxiously pacing the front hall waiting for his bride-to-be. Such a sweet moment. I was quick to pull out my camera and sneak a shot of Reed pacing. It's hard to be sneaky when you're walking around with a camera around your neck.

It looked like it was going to rain so everyone was nervous about the weather. The ceremony was perfect and it rained when they were getting dressed, but then weather cleared and the moment Diana and Reed walked out it was dry! It was perfect cloud coverage to get some amazing shots outside the temple. Seriously I could walk around and everything was perfectly exposed. Hello documentary heaven! I had never seen the Dallas Temple before, it is beautiful, and very different then other temples. It's built with light grey colored marble tiles and a dark grey slate roof. It is nestled back into a quiet neighborhood, you turn the corner from the busy road and all of a sudden you come into the peaceful nook.

I had to lay down awkwardly not he grass to get this shot. I had no idea how well matched Diana and Reed were.  Diana is an amazing person who is always looking out of everyone else. So I am so glad she found someone who can return her love. They are super sweet to each other. Looking forward, I know they are going to spend the rest of their lives serving each other.

They were very sweet together. Although, It was hard to get them to stop kissing and smile at the camera....

Her bouquet is gorgeous, right?

That evening the family met at the Four Seasons before the reception for pictures. And once again the weather miraculously cleared and was perfect for pictures. The reception was in this beautiful hall decorated in a French style, it was elegant and felt just like Diana.

 Plus the food was great.  I adore weddings with a good dinner. AND they had a crepe bar where a chef created made to order crepes. Delish.

Diana's nephew played a song on the violin. What a great personal moment to catch on film!

 They cut the cake, made a mess of course, and danced. After the couple's first dance, the kids let loose on the dance floor. Some of those shots are priceless.

In the end they rode off to their luxurious suite on a gold cart. Typical Diana. Love that girl. I wish her all the happiness in her marriage!

The wedding was well matched for her beautiful personality. Her wedding was absolutely beautiful and she looked gorgeous. AND overall,  I think the video turned out OK. I survived! And I seriously wouldn't mind doing it again, weddings can be pretty fun.

I am also so thankful to the Titensor family for letting me become an honorary family member for a few days, giving me a place to sleep, and inviting me be to be a part of the wedding!

Check out the video here:

 (This link looks a lot better then the video below!!) : https://vimeo.com/43934967

Being Aunt Katie

I'm not really a good Aunt. I wish I was better. Yesterday was my nephew's 3rd birthday. I decided that he wouldn't notice if I didn't send something. So I didn't. But I still feel guilty. Look at that little face! I hope he doesn't hold grudges. 

The truth is, I am overwhelmed!!  I have 20 nieces and nephews. And I love every single one of them. I have incredible nieces who are talented and fun, and I have crazy nephews who are taking over the world. One of the grandkids pointed out recently that I was destined not to have any children if we were to keep the order.  This can happen when you are the last of 7 children. Here is how our family is structured right now:

Sibling  #1: 6 kids,
Sibling  #2: 5 kids
Sibling #3: 4 kids
Sibling #4: 3 kids
Sibling #5: 2 kids
Sibling #6: 0 kids
Me #7: 0 kids

So you can see there are A LOT of birthdays in my family. If you include everyone that's 33 birthdays to keep track of for a year. And then Husband comes from a family of 6. So it just keeps compounding!

I just sent a birthday card a week late to one of my nieces, and I'm feeling pretty good for getting anything in the mail at all. I've decided at this point I need to either start professionally making cards or make one video I send for the year. Are e-cards still cool?  I love my family but I'm not organized enough to keep on top of this. Sometimes I will get a card off to on kid one month, and then totally space their brother the next month.

Husband has recently decided he won't sing Happy Birthday on the phone anymore. And there is no way I'm calling and singing by myself.

Today is my brother's birthday, I sent a present but it's going to be late. Better late than never right?

How I Found my Great Grandfather's Love Letters in New Zealand

Husband and I needed a break from work and life. I was scheduled to finish school and then we would be FREE. Our trip starts with the fact that Husband has friends who have their own grandchildren. He served with a couple in Russia and they have remained friends.  Although husband is significantly younger, they still manage to think he is cool enough to spend time with him. The couple had invited Husband in 2009 to visit on their yearly winter vacation to New Zealand. We couldn't get away at the time but he promised to go the next year. A free place to stay in New Zealand? Yes, thank you! We didn't know anything about NZ except what we learned from Flight of the Conchords.

We flew on New Zealand Air which was great. I wasn't excited about sitting in the back of a plane for 13 hours, but then we sat down and they played the world's BEST plane safety video. And from that point we knew this was going to be a good trip.

"Disco Inspired Safety Video" (hello and welcome to the most chill country in the world)

We wanted to stay in New Zealand as long as we could, so we were traveling as cheap as possible. We got our car from "Rent-a-dent" which, true to it's name, is a pretty sad looking car. But seriously cheap, and that's what mattered.  I'm not quite old enough to drive a rental car, so Husband was stuck driving. This wouldn't be a problem except that Husband has slowly given the job of driving over to me, so he hadn't driven long distances in a while and he hadn't driven a stick sift since high school. And now we have to drive on the opposite side of the road. We flew into Auckland landed around 6 AM and we needed to get down to Hamilton about 2 hours South.  We were tired and it was tough because you instinctively want to turn in the wrong lanes, and at one of the first roundabouts, Husband drove in the wrong direction. Immediately I start freaking out and yelling - which wasn't helping. The problem is, there isn't an easy way out once you go in the wrong direction because all of the curbs are facing away. So we did the only logical thing we could think of and put the car in reverse and backed out of the roundabout. Yeah, that happened.

Hamilton is more or less in the middle of the island. It is lots of rolling hills and sheep. Here is a shot we took at sunset just a couple minutes from where we were staying:

Rangi and some of her collection. Photo by John Hart

Probably our favorite part of the trip was meeting the people. We were staying with friends by the LDS temple in a little suburb of Hamilton, rightfully called Temple View. Our friends had "set up camp" in some old dormitories of the school. In the 50s the temple and the school were built by volunteers. And just a few years ago the school had shut down. Th buildings were being disputed whether they would  be demolished soon. so there wasn't much there except cement walls, old springily beds, and communal bathrooms. They had borrowed some furniture and couple dishes and had happily settled in for the winter to enjoy the weather and spend time working with a woman named Rangi Parker.

The Maori people have a fascinating history. They believe that people first came to New Zealand on 7 canoes that landed in all different regions of the islands. They have an strong oral history and the patriarchs can recite their heritage back to their original canoe. It is a beautiful chant-like song spoken in the Maori language. Well this history was slowly disappearing with time and so Rangi Parker took it upon herself to restore and preserve this culture.  You can check out the article on Rangi from the Ensign here) She started recording the language, interviewing those who remembered, and collecting every document she could. She especially took the time to find and record all of the LDS missionaries who came to New Zealand. Eventually she took over one of the old school buildings and transformed it into a museum full of photos and videos (most videos she made herself), and just piles upon piles of information. She is an amazing woman and I could go on and on about all of the fascinating things she has done. But what was really amazing was that my Great Grandfather Layfayette Holbrook had served a mission in New Zealand from 1897-1900. We started searching and we found pictures, stories and love letters back and forth from my great grandfather to my great grandmother. How crazy is that? I traveled across the world to find out more about my own grandfather who had done the same nearly 120 years before me.

Rangi has a beautiful atmosphere of life around her. Every thing she talks about is with a exciting and vibrant atmosphere. She was always telling is this person, or that experiences was AMAZING. And she would say "amazing" in her great New Zealand accent very slowly and open up her eyes wide and excited. We immediately picked up on her coined phrase.

We found the best way to get around is to just jump in the car and take off in a direction. There are a million little Bed and Breakfasts places, mostly people with extra rooms and a sign out front. (Note- none of our B&Bs actually served breakfast?!) It is VERY nerve racking to me to not know where we are going to sleep at night, but Husband was very relaxed about the whole thing. He had a lot of faith that we would find somewhere to sleep. We had spent the night before at a beach where a bunch of debris had washed up, and they weren't letting anyone get in the water. We needed to get further up the coasts to actually enjoy the beach.

A shot from Cathedral Cove

It didn't look far so we started driving up to the East side of the Island, looking for the infamous "Cathedral Cove".  It took us ALL day driving and by the end Husband was pretty frazzled from the narrow mountain roads. We pulled into a tiny little beach town and found the one restaurant and sat by the beach eating fish and chips. By around 5 pm we decided to look for a place to stay. Every door I knocked on was full. I started trying to calculate how long it would take to drive back to the next town. 3 hours? After about the 5th door, we drove to the end of the city limits and found a place. We could usually find something around 100 NZ dollars, the conversion to USD was around $70-ish, not too bad,  We ended up staying at this remote beach town for an extra day because it was so beautiful. It was one of our better finds.

It wasn't your typical vacation but our New Zealand trip was amazing.

Everywhere we went, we took our camera and grabbed a couple shots when we had time. I cut together a video last month of the footage for fun:

I Built My Own Website Using HTML

I decided it was time to buy the web address with my name on it. (For example: www.SuzySmith.com)  But when you BUY a URL, you still have to BUILD the page. And pages don't magically come with nice layouts like blogging sites provide for you. Husband was trying to convince me that I should buy a Cargo layout that we use for our company website. $100 a year for a generic layout? No way, Jose. I thought to myself, I can build my own website! Don't they teach kids in elementary school to build webpages? If a 9 year old can do it, so can I! 

SPOILER:  it looks like a 9 year old built it.

I found "Beginner html Lessons" and started learning simple stuff like all webpages begin and end with <html> and </html>. I am using a program called text edit, so you type in the code, save it as an html, and then open it as a webpage when you are done. This means you can spend a ton of time typing stuff out and have no idea if it's going to work until you're done. I learned this the hard way.

Webpage #1:

 To be honest I don't even know why it was blank.  I started over.
Webpage #2:

 Page 2 at least has some words, and a header! Hooray for content! Suddenly I am realizing you have to have something to say on a website. WHAT AM I GOING TO WRITE ON MY SITE? It's a work in progress. Maybe I'll just post a bunch puppy videos. 

Webpage #3:

I was really proud of figuring out how to make different background and font colors until I realized this looks like my 4th grade notebook color scheme. 

Webpage #4:

The colors are improving, but I also found out how to create a line! Only it's stuck at the top of the page...

Webpage #5:

Success! I moved the bar down under my name. And I'm realizing indenting everything wasn't as cool as I thought it would be. I'm starting to wonder if this page is going to be something I actually want my name attached to. 

 Webpage #6:

After hours of tedious work I produced page #6 and it has a VIDEO. Hello accomplishment. This page was decent enough for me to admit victory. I also spaced out this first sentence, impressed? OK the design is a disaster, but it's a site with a video and embedded links that work. So I would say its better then 2% of the websites out there. 

My Parents Want Me to Go to Medical School

Life Recap:
I graduated with a BA in Media Arts, minor in Business Management, and an honors degree just a few months ago. (Were my Media Arts classes the easiest classes I have ever taken? Maybe. Does that matter?) Since graduation, I've been taking some time to figure out where to go next with my career. In the mean time, husband and I started and operate a company in which we make commercials and rent equipment. Graduated from college and own my own company. I would say I'm doing OK so far.

My parents called.

Mom and Dad: (on speakerphone while in the car): Oh hello favorite daughter! How is it going?
Me: Great. Just taking time to figure out what's next. Projects are a little slow right now.
Mom and Dad: Well we think you should go to Med School. It would be a great fit. We will even help pay for it.
Me: .....(silence).... um... that's nice.

Even after I got my degree. Oh you sly parents.  I really kind of like filmmaking. Medical School? Have you met me? I think you have to memorize things there. I can't remember my home phone number. I'm not even sure if I capitalized the right words in the title of this post. I think I will say no, but thank you for the offer.

My Puppy Jumped from 3 Stories

What do you do after you buy a puppy and don't know how to take care of it? You forget to set up the litter box, and you try to name it. The problem was we bought a GIRL dog, and I didn't have any good GIRL names. I have loads of great BOY dog names like Gatsby, Clarke Gable, Kubrick, John Ford, Frank Capra, etc. So we chose a normal human name and called her Aly. Now that I'm pondering dog names I found the Top 10 Most Popular dog names:

(copyright vetstreet.com)

Who names their dog Luna? This list is less then enjoyable. I guess there is no winning.  Either way our dog was now stuck with "Aly" and she learned her name pretty fast since we were ALWAYS yelling it.

Problem #1 ROOMMATES
How do you train a dog when you live in a apartment full of people? You can't very well put her in a kennel for the day and go to class. Incessant puppy whining all day during midterms was not appreciated. I thought people would love having an adorable puppy around, but puppy pee on the carpet wasn't winning anyone over. Jacob and I would switch off who had the puppy every other day to try and keep our roommates from getting mad.

Problem #2 NIGHT TIME
The hardest part was bed time. Aly had to be in my room, because it was busy out in the living room. The first night I set Aly on the floor on her dog bed, and I climbed into my own bed. She immediately jumped up and ran to edge of the bed and cried. I got up. Put her back in her bed. I climbed back into mine. She waited a few seconds and then ran back to the edge of my bed. More puppy crying ensues. I got back up, etc. After we did the puppy shuffle the millionth time, I decided to put her dog bed on my bed but at the end. Aly sat there happy to be up on the bed with me. Finally content, we went to sleep, for 10 minutes. Aly slowly wiggled her way from her bed to my toes. After she was sure she wasn't in trouble, she crawled up to my knees. She continued to squirm up the bed until her nose was touching mine, at which point she fell asleep. Cute, but puppy breath is not so great. So I put her back in her own corner of the bed. Throughout the night I would wake up with a little wet puppy nose licking MY NOSE. Adorable and awful. I didn't sleep for a couple weeks.

Problem #3 THIRD STORY BALCONY

One day boyfriend and I wanted to go out to lunch without the puppy. It was nice outside so we decided to leave Aly out on the balcony. The railing had some fairly big holes so we lined the porch with her little dog fence. Satisfied she was happy, we went out. An hour later we came back and there was no puppy on the balcony.  We are on the third story, where could she have gone?? Either this dog is really SMART or really STUPID. We checked with the roommates and when they didn't know, we frantically searched outside. At this point we had little hope. I thought for sure we were looking for a dead dog on the ground. Someone saw us calling for Aly and approached us. They had found a dog limping and had taken her inside. SHE JUMPED OFF OF A THIRD STORY BUILDING AND LIVED. Hallelujah. Aly is a miracle puppy. After comforting Aly in her distress. We went back up stairs to investigate how she got out; evidently she had pulled the puppy fence out from the wall just enough to squeeze through. I called the vet and freaked out, but they told me to calm down since it didn't sound like it was broken. I think they thought I was exaggerating about the balcony height. I wasn't!

At some point during this fiasco, we realized we were not suited to take care of this puppy.

Problem #4 HOW TO SELL A PUPPY
You can't take it back to the pet store. I tried. They laughed at me.  And you can't "sell" an animal on craigslist, if you search for that PETA freaks out all over your google search. But you can certainly "re-home" you animal and charge a "re-homeing" fee on craigslist.  One person offered to buy her to use to breed. I would NOT sell my puppy into prostitution! Luckily I found someone who was willing to drive 8 hours to come pick up Aly. I figured if she was that devoted she must be a good dog person. I was sad to see Aly go, but she needed a more responsible human. We obviously can't be trusted with baby animals.