365 days 141-150

141/365


Our facility has a staff party at the opening minor league baseball game of the season every year with free food and drinks. This year we enjoyed the game for about an hour before the skies opened up and a downpour of epic proportions was dumped on us. We all screeched and ran for shelter, ducking into the walk-in pantry for some protection against the wind. I was tipsy and irritated, feeling trapped and bored as I restlessly paced throughout co-workers. I finally asked the stadium employees for some trash bags and told Dylan that we were braving the storm to slog to a bar down the road where some of our friends were gathered. He complained bitterly as we pulled on our trash bag ponchos, but both of us were in awe as we ventured out into the storm. We had to ford small rivers that soaked through Dylan's shoes and completely inundated my own flip flops (I almost took them off). Our trash bags helped keep our electronics dry, but did little else as lightning split the sky repetitively above us. We finally made it to the bar and waited for the storm to die down before heading home.



142/365


Even though cities are probably not the best environment for most horses, I still enjoy seeing a well-decorated horse-drawn carriage.3



143/365


With Elise's wedding coming up I knew I needed a wedding gift, so I donated to her honeymoon fund and started a scrapbook for her and her husband-to-be. I love the look of the scrapbook (I'm a sucker for gold foil). This shot was hard to make happen.



144/365


Bagel breakfasts are the best breakfasts.



145/365

I flew to California for Elise's wedding weekend - we were at a beautiful ranch property just an hour or so away from Yosemite. It was absolutely gorgeous, with a scenic lake overlook, a flower and vegetable garden, and a dove loft.


146/365

The aforementioned flower garden, where we took many of our bridal party photos a couple of days later.





147/365

Before more guests showed up, the core crew of ladies (aka the bridesmaids) wandered off into the flower garden when we weren't needed and swung from the limbs of a gnarled old tree with a thick trunk. We could also be found cuddling with the ranch golden retrievers, who were absolutely darling!





148/365

We got in early for a REASON! There's nothing I love more than a good lake day! We all drank beers and floated in the water with Brady, one of the goldens, hanging lazily onto the floaties with us (or otherwise hunting for minnows in the shallows). Earth barked at us from shore while other dogs belly-flopped off the dock. The enormous lake trampoline was hard to actually jump on, but it worked well as a giant party boat. We kayaked up the small tributaries feeding into the lake, watching red-winged blackbirds flitting through the reeds while listening to "Just Beyond the Riverbed". When it was time for the rehearsal dinner, I had to catch a ride with Laura as she canoed back to shore, considering I'd floated to the far end of the lake while sipping a Landshark. It was a GLORIOUS day.







149/365

Elise's wedding day!!! I did get a few photos of the bride and her groom, but honestly they paled in comparison to what the actual wedding photographer captured. I instead focused my lens on the smaller details - the pouring of champagne into personalized glasses made for us by one of the bridesmaids, new and old friends (my loves), sweet puppy faces, and DANCING! So many dancing photos! It was a beautiful wedding with beautiful souls.


150/365

On our last day at the ranch, we woke up incredibly early to spend time down at the lake with Laura. We sat on the dock with cups of coffee, early morning mist clinging to the lake, and nuzzled Brady as we said our goodbyes. I had seen Laura just a week prior to the wedding, but this was a more permanent farewell. We hugged one another and quickly wiped tears from our eyes as she left for the airport. Drea and I did the same a couple of hours later after one last beer in the terminal at Fresno Airport.

365 days 126-140

126/365


I was driving to Sunset Park for my usual after-work run when I saw this little rooster by the side of the road. I slowed down, curious as to what brought this tiny guy out so far away from any houses or farmland, and watched as he foraged for bugs near the ditch. I took some photos and sent them to people as a joke, like, "Why did the chicken cross the road?" and other similar queries, and someone responded back saying that the rooster had been abandoned there for days :( I immediately attempted to catch him, though unfortunately he was far too fast. After my run I drove back and attempted to catch him again to no avail. When I went back the next day he was gone - I'm hoping someone picked him up and he's living on a farm somewhere, safe and sound.



127/365


Sometimes hanging out with your roommate in the vet lab while she looks at x-rays is what makes you feel better.






128/365


Someone brought a little hummingbird that was having troubles flying into our facility, so as I waited for Second Chances to come pick him up I took some photos. HE WAS SO CUTE!!



129/365


Two words: Marshmallow. Nose.



130/365


A HUUUGE perk about having weekends off is that I was FINALLY able to go to the biannual bird mart!! It's an event where there are hundreds of bird toys, stands, cages, accessories, and even BABY BIRDS for sale!! This was one of the literal PILES of baby birds that people could fawn over - kept in a small container together for warmth.





131/365


Laura's last week in Texas :( She loves to rollerblade, though sometimes doing so with Chunk takes a dangerous turn. Especially when I excitedly call Chunk to me from down the block...



132/365


Bouquets of flowers saturated with sunlight♥



133/365


Wharf Dawg!! This is one of the shrimp boat strays who hangs out in the marina near the shrimpers, who throw his dirty pillow (featured next to him in this photo; not a euphemism for something) for him over and over again and who give him seafood scraps every night. We threw his pillow for him a couple of times before heading out.



134/365


Another night outside, drinking out of sorrow and celebration because Laura was moving onto better things, but so much sadness to see her go.



135/365


Chunk makes such a beautiful lion!



136/365


We went to Surf Club for pint night as one of our last hurrahs. Scarecrow People, a fun band that mostly covers 80s and 90s music, asked for volunteers for Don't Fear the Reaper and of course Laura gave it all she got with the cowbell.



137/365


Laura wanted a Trolls themed going away party (aka neon colors and glitter), so we obliged. Our house Flip Cup team reigned supreme one last time at our Matagorda mansion (seriously, we are unbeatable), so many people came by to say goodbye to Laura, we played Kings Cup (where we realized that both Taylor and I were WASTED because Taylor could not get the rules of the game and I had the dirtiest feet of any feral child ever), we took off our shirts in the park and streaked across it in the moonlight, we smoked cigarettes on the curb and I flashed everyone (whoops), and I woke up the next morning supremely hungover with an entire bottle of glitter and burs in my hair (from rolling around in the park). Diana very eloquently put it like this, "It's like you guys all living together was a TV show and that going away party was the series finale."




138/365


I suffered through a day of work while incredibly hungover to come home to the house just utterly trashed from our party. We ignored it, however, and went to dinner as a family before returning home to play with sparklers and do light paintings. In the end, we all worked together to clean up the remnants of our last great party.



139/365


Laura left super early, at like 5 AM, and it was hard. We were each other's people. At the time, I was mostly just tired and was able to go back to bed fairly easily. But at work I was sluggish and apathetic; if someone mentioned Laura I teared up a bit. Everyone who hates seeing anyone show any bit of emotion avoided me at all costs. When work let out, I started to cry. I sobbed, not wanting to return home to an empty house without Chunk or Laura. Sean saw me bawling in my car and immediately went into brother mode, cradling me as I cried and offering a night of video games and pizza. Which is exactly what we did, and it was super nice. But none of that was about this picture, this photo I guess is one of the bright spots that happened during the day.





140/365


As a part of his "make Autumn happy again" campaign, Sean mentioned that he and his girlfriend had extra tickets to Move Live in San Antonio on Saturday. I was PSYCHED - I adore Julianne and Derek Hough (Julianne is my main bitch, though), and was so ready to see them dance onstage! We got to San Antonio early enough to walk along the riverwalk for a bit, go to Dick's Last Resort for some drinks and rudeness, and then cram Subway sandwiches before finding our seats. The performances were AMAZING, I'm so glad I was able to go! They are both so talented, and my favorite dance was definitely the giant fan dance by Julianne to "The Greatest" by SIA. The original plan was to all share a hotel room that night and hang out in San Antonio before heading home the next day, however it turned out I had switched weekends with someone so had to actually work on Sunday. Thus, Stacey and I headed home at 11 PM and arrived in Corpus around 1 AM, six short hours before I had to wake up. I had sweet dreams of dancing and singing and was still brimming with smiles the next day at work.

365 113-125

I'm basically just doing dump posts of my 365 project until I catch up!! I don't want the same thing to happen this year that did in 2015! (This is especially tragic because my images were being hosted on a 365 website, which was helpful for organizing them, but it also deleted them after a year of inactivity so now those posts are filled with grey frames of IMAGE CANNOT BE FOUND - so irritating)


113/365

We all have those situations where we've decided to do an intensive artistic project but you're out to dinner with friends and too busy drinking and laughing and eating queso to take any photos and so you must hurriedly snap something on the way out of the restaurant because it's dark outside and you're too drunk to care, right? No, is that a bit specific?



114/365

There was a point in my life (aka when I took this photo) where I second guessed how many photos of Kogi I wanted in my 365 project. But then I realized that, if I felt like it, the entire YEAR could just be filled with photos of Kogi! And I adore this animal, so why shouldn't he be featured prominently? Here he is being a stunna!





115/365

Wow, I finally got my hands on a Unicorn Frappuccino! I waited in line for hours to snag this magical beverage and I was not disappointed - the mango syrup and iridescent sour powder made it taste just like a sweet tart, and its gorgeous color palette made for an excellent photo.

...

jk, I called all of the Starbucks in my area and every single one of them was already out. I was BITTER, but then read a bunch of reviews about how terrible it tasted and felt better (and then made one of my own!).



116/365

Xena being cute during one of her last stage sessions before her move to the new Caribbean exhibit.



117/365

Googly eyes will never get old.



118/365

A Nautilus! They literally levitate through the water motionlessly with the help of jet propulsion; it's pretty amazing.






119/365

50 Shades of African Grey





120/365

I saw Turkey Vultures chowing down on a squirrel carcass at the park across the street and decided to take a bunch of pictures because I love vultures and the sight of them eating a dead, skinned fluffy animal at a park meant for children was an interesting juxtaposition (I love the photo of them perching on the swingset, it was a bit blurry but I still wanted to include it because it was so cool).



121/365

Someone accidentally left their zombie in the car at Target.



122/365

Taylor was on a wand-making kick in his makeshift garage shop (sawdust. EVERYWHERE). He's pretty good AND wants to get an Easy shop up and running at some point, featuring some product photography by moi!



123/365

I had been sick for a couple of days, so the past couple of photos were really a struggle to achieve (AKA I went to Target for juice and cold medicine and took a full thirty steps to get to the garage for the 122nd day's photo). I finally felt okay enough to take a shower and, reveling in the unknotted state of my hair, took a photo in the park. PSA: there is not a wad of chewing gum in my hair, that's a tiny flower. It symbolizes me feeling better and being a child of the Earth or whatever.



124/365

Laura and I went out with some of her classmates and got wasted. Oh glorious weekends off!



125/365

I occasionally help Andie with her animal training business, specifically with classes on the weekends. This was a recall class aimed at helping dogs who weren't the best at coming when called. We practiced a lot of recall exercises and gave owners and handlers tips on how to problem solve when a dog isn't listening to you. The end of class sort of morphed into a puppy pool party, which is honestly usually what ends up happening. I'm not mad about it, look how adorable!!


Back when it wasn't in the triple digits and I had weekends off!! Now it's so hot that garbage cans are melting in Arizona (and my face is melting off here in Texas) and I work weekends again. I meant to have a sendoff brunch on a Sunday as a final goodbye, but instead ended up sleeping in because of who I am as a person. However, sleeping in is also a wonderful weekend activity so I think that I still did it justice.