Nicole Neff

On Monday night, I received a call from a toll-free number that I did not recognize. They did not leave a message, and when I called it back, there was no answer.

I looked up the phone number yesterday on the Internet and found out that it is from the Hillary Clinton Campaign. Lucky me. Not thinking anymore about it, I received a call from that number again today.

This time I answered. It was an elderly-sounding woman, probably volunteering her time. “Yes, good morning. This is the Hillary Clinton Campaign. Are you aware that you can vote early at your clerk’s office?” Um, yes, I was. But what I wasn’t aware of was how Hillary Clinton got my private cell phone number, so I asked, and expressed my discontent that a campaign would get that number and be calling me.

The poor woman was completely taken by surprise. She started to give a response, but before she could say much, she hung up. I hope I didn’t upset her so much that she had a heart attack or something. But if she’s going to campaign for a woman as mean-spirited as Hillary can be (in my opinion), you would think she could take a little expressed grief from a voter. I wasn’t THAT mean, after all.

Can you tell who I’m NOT voting for?

In the next few months, I’m probably going to wear myself out, but I’ll have a blast doing it. I have so many fun things coming up in the near future that I just have to blog about it…because, you know, that’s what I do.

Yesterday, I got my first client for photography. Granted, it’s not a paying client because I’m not ready to charge for my work just yet, but it’s a client nonetheless. A co-worker’s son is graduating and because they haven’t gotten any senior pictures yet, they are running out of time. She only needs a head shot, but I’ve talked her into doing an entire session as well as some family shots so she can give them as Mother’s Day gifts. I’m very excited about just getting out to practice using my camera and finding creative shots.

I got the okay yesterday to work in Indy the couple days before the 500 Festival Mini Marathon. This is so great for me because I don’t have to stress about leaving work the day before the Mini and fighting the traffic (there will be 35,000 runners in this race) to get there on time, get settled in, get dinner, and get to bed early. I’m planning on staying the weekend with my college friend Jaimie, who has been the one who has encouraged me to take on this beast of a race. I’m so excited she did, because I think this is going to be a really fun race. And to top that off, we get tickets into opening day at the Indy 500. How cool is that? I’ve never been to the race track; I’ve only driven by it, so I think this should be a blast! I can’t wait! My training is going fabulously. Last week I only ran 25 miles opposed to the 30 I had planned, but they were some really great runs (even the 10-miler I did on the treadmill). I got in 5 last night and am hoping to do another 5 tonight. This is the best I’ve trained for a race, so I’m hopeful about the outcome.

After that, the biggie is the Hawaii trip. After the whole fiasco with ATA, I was a little worried that we wouldn’t be going after all (one of the guys I work with was on his way to Hawaii on ATA, but made it to Phoenix where he was stranded in the airport after ATA decided to cancel all their flights), but so far, our airline is still in business. I’m praying that it stays that way, too. It’s going to be the trip of a lifetime with some really great people (we’re going with our friends BJ and Rachel). While we’re there, we’re going horseback riding into a dormant volcano, snorkeling, kayaking, and going on a helicopter ride. Of course, we’ll get plenty of beach time, too.

I’m in the home stretch of my photography classes, too. I’m looking forward to being done. I haven’t learned as much as I would like and having class every week twice a week really eats up a lot of my time. I’m nearly finished with one of the two final projects in my Photoshop class and working on my mini portfolio in Basic Photography. I am really excited about my Mini Portfolio, but after being rejected when I asked to take pictures at a family’s home this weekend, I’m a little worried that it might be more difficult than I had planned. My theme is “Aged,” so I’m trying to get shots of anything that looks old and weathered.

On a totally different note, I’m so excited about this fabulous weather! Today is going to be in the 60s, tomorrow in the 70s. Get out and enjoy it…I know I am!

Tonight was the premier of the new season of The Office. I, Tyler, and our friends love this show so much that we decided to have a party. And dress up as the characters. And we met at Chili’s to start the party off, because, you know, Chili’s is the new golf course.

Left to right: Me as Pam; Elliot as Dwight; Tyler as Dwight; Rachel as Katie; BJ as Andy.

We went back to BJ & Rachel’s to watch the new episode. As always, it was good. Too bad there are only 6 episodes this season. Luckily, BJ & Rachel have some seasons on DVD to hold us over during the breaks.

I just loved Tyler’s costume. He really tried hard, and I think he pulled it off. He gave everyone a good laugh, at least. I did my best with Pam’s outfit. I used what I had in my closet. It’s not exactly what Pam would wear, but close enough.

BJ & Rachel also have this bobble head doll of Dwight. I used my new camera at an aperture of 1.6 to shoot this sitting on a pillow on my lap, with the television behind it. I love large apertures and the effect they have on images. So cool!

Can’t wait for next week’s episode!

…I’ve just been super busy. With work, classes, traveling, and training for the half marathon, I have had little time for anything else.

First, an update on my running. Last week was my best running week in a very long time. I ran three days during the week at five miles apiece, plus a long run of 9 miles on the weekend. Grand total, 24 miles. Not too shabby. And my long run was so great! I did the big loop of 4.3 miles that is near my house twice, and tacked on an extra little loop each time for a total of at least 9 miles, if not more. I only stopped in between big loops at the house to get some water and one other time because a dog started chasing me (it was the first time I was actually close to using my pepper spray). I’m on track this week to do even more…I have done 15 miles already, and I plan on doing another 4.5 on Friday morning, and then my long run of at least 10 sometime this weekend, depending on the weather (it’s supposed to rain on Saturday). This will put me at about 30 miles for the week, which is so great considering the mini is less than a month away. I’ve been really disciplined in the running, even going after my classes at Ivy Tech get over with if it’s not too late. This race is a biggie, with 35,000 people entered, so I want to make it my best run ever. I’m feeling very confident and strong right now, so I’m praying for good health and no injuries between now and then. The only thing I’m down about is that I seem to be gaining weight instead of losing it. I know I like to eat, but good grief, I don’t think I eat THAT much.

I didn’t do my long run until Sunday this past weekend because we were visiting our new niece, Elizabeth. I wanted to go up to Indy to get some pictures of her while she is young, so we made the trip up on Friday night and came home late Sunday morning. I had a great time taking pictures of Elizabeth. She’s such a cutie! But because she sleeps a lot, I wasn’t able to get all the pictures I wanted. I still got some good ones, though, and Tyler and I are going to Ivy Tech tomorrow so I can do some editing on them. I want to get a book made of all the images I’ve taken, and since I don’t have a computer with Photoshop on it, I have to use the computers at the school. I don’t know my way around Photoshop all that well, so hopefully they will turn out okay. I had such a great weekend with Kyla (Tyler’s sister) and Adam. I really felt like I got to know them a lot better and bond with them. They’ve not lived locally since Tyler and I have been married, so I usually only get to see them during their short stays when they visit the family.

Photography is going well. I think I’ve decided to go with Appointed Design in Lafayette to edit my images. Since I won’t have Photoshop for quite a while, I’ll have to outsource the editing. I had been looking into some of the bigger companies, but really wanted someone more local that I could really count on to listen to my ideas and taylor how they edit pictures to my taste. I contacted Pictoral twice, but have yet to hear back from them. So if that is any indication of the kind of service I will get, I’ll gladly go with a smaller, local business like Appointed Design. I’ve been in contact with the owner through email, and I feel completely confident that she will do a great job. I will be building my portfolio over the next few months by taking pictures of some family and friends who have expressed some interest in it and then working on actually getting paying gigs as I go. I’m so excited about this. And I’m quickly learning how my camera works, so I feel much more confident about going out and doing some photo shoots. I plan on buying some filters for my camera in the next couple of weeks. I want a UV filter and definitely a polarizing filter, but I’m not sure what brand to go with. I also need a camera bag…I’ve been worried constantly that I’m going to break my camera without one.

The other good news is that I won $500 this week on the radio. I’m now in the running for the $100,000 grand prize, which would be pretty sweet. We would pay off our house and then work on saving money for a while. Eventually, we’d like to build, but we want to save so once we do build, we won’t have a huge monthly payment. I’m not holding my breath for the grand prize, but there are only three of us so far who have qualified, so it might not be too bad of odds.

So there you have it…my life in the past week and a half. I’m exhausted just writing about it.

Tonight in my Basic Photography class, we were given our final assignment of the mini portfolio. We have to turn in 10 images in black and white. The images should be 8×10 and also have to be matted. 

I’m super excited about it because it means I just get to go out and shoot, shoot, shoot. But the deal is, we have to have a theme. Some people are doing nature, some architecture, one her kids, etc. But I want mine to be unique and something I would want to hang on my walls after I’m done with the assignment. Does anyone have any ideas? I’m open to just about anything.

I’m so proud of him for trying something he’s wanted to do for a very long time. He’s so cute when he messes up, too…he apologizes to me every single time. I tell him not to apologize and that he’s doing a great job. Really, he is.

I played around with my new camera while Tyler was learning bass tonight, and although I didn’t have much space to work with since the room is very small, I got some neat shots. Keep in mind that I do not have Photoshop, so these images are straight out of the camera. And I didn’t figure out the white balance until half way through, so the color is off in some of the shots.

My camera, that is! And it is a beauty, but a heavy one at that. I truly, truly love it so far, what little I’ve gotten to use it. And I love the shallow depth of field that my 50 mm lens gives me, too. I waited with much anticipation yesterday to get the call that I had a package. I never got the call, but when I went to get the mail for work, I saw a box with a big B & H on it, signaling my package from B&H Photo and Video had arrived! I swear I probably had the biggest grin on my face. I was so busy yesterday, though, that I didn’t get to even get it out of the package until the second half of the day. I took it to class and showed it off, though…it was like I was in kindergarten all over again and was having show and tell.

I’m planning on going to take pictures of my new niece this weekend (surprise, Adam and Kyla!) so they can have some (hopefully) professional(ish) pictures of their baby girl to cherish forever. I also have some friends who have expressed an interest in having their pictures taken, as well, so hopefully I’ll get a lot of practice here in the next month. And then I’ll know my camera backward and forward for when I go to Hawaii…aloha, ya’ll!