Syd Rich: The Roaring 20s

I've got a lot to blog about so this is going to be three blogposts put into one... brace yourselves.

PART ONE
20 Memories I Have With Stephanie Shaw

Last year for friendaroomie birthdays we did a certain number of things we love about them according to the age they are turning, this year it's memories (and it's probably going to be in chronological order)

1: Before I knew Steph was going to be my roommate, she spent the night at my house along with a lot of other people from Tucson who were joining my brother, EJ, on a trip to General Conference October 2012. I was still in high school at the time and had to wake up for 6:30 AM school. Apparently I was rather annoyed by the volume in which the group of friends were talking, so I tweeted something along the lines of "will my brother's friends please be quiet, I'm trying to sleep". Steph swears she wasn't being that loud, but there you go that was my first memory of her. Also I bought her and the others doughnuts.

2: Easter 2013 Steph came over to my house for Easter with EJ, because she couldn't go home. We went to the easter pageant, she came to church with me, she sang Beyonce on the table with Avery and McKenzie, she joined us in the Richardson easter egg hunt, and I made many vines of her. At this point, I had already been assigned to be her roommate and a great friendship began to blossom.

3: April? 2013 I came to Tucson to go to a Killers concert with EJ, Steph and Kaitlyn. Since the concert went pretty late, I spent the night with Steph in her dorm room and went to 3rd ward for the very first time with her the next day.

4: The first week of living in Tucson, Steph and I were the only ones in the apartment and we spent an entire night playing surgery games, and if they opportunity ever rises, we could probably remove your appendix.

5: One time within the first couple weeks of living in Tucson, Steph, Annabeth and I did a workout video, where we learned that the spine is your lifeline. This was probably the first time I felt completely foolish and comfortable with Steph and AB.

6: In October 2013, McKenzie came for the weekend because she was feeling pretty downtrodden about life. Steph was the main reason we had fun that weekend, she provided us with art supplies to make Honey Boo Boo quotes and took us on an adventure to Mt. Lemmon.

7: This is going to be like 15,000 memories combined into one. Just about every time I wanted to go home for a weekend she drove me halfway to Mesa in Casa Grande, for my mom to pick me up and take me the rest of the way. We jammed out hardcore to Bonnie Tyler, Dexy's Midnight Runners and Celine Dion, every single time.

8: Taylor & Natalie asked me to take engagement photos for them, and Steph and Lauren became my partners and were the "posers" for the sessions, because I do not know how to pose people, I only know how to set the settings and press a button.

9: For Halloween 2013 we dressed up as the Cheetah Girls and I learned how much fun institute dances can be when you have energetic and crazy friends to dance with.

10: For my 18th birthday she practically put my entire party together (decorations, food, etc.), and it was the best birthday party I have ever had.

11: This one is also combining a few memories into one, but whenever my grandparents come to town they take me and my siblings out to dinner and they always want Steph to come along too because she is such a hoot and always brings up the best conversations.

12: Amy's gangster birthday party 2014. This was the first time I accepted that Steph makes the best costumes for any party.

13: Stephohauntus: Painting with the colors of the wind 2014. This was Steph's 19th birthday party. She mixed it up a little bit and had a paint fight at the church ballpark. It was freezing, but it was a ton of fun!

14: I can't remember when this took place but one time we went to Chipotle and had to wait ages for my chicken and for LETTUCE. We ended up getting both our burritos and drinks for free. She also messages corporate about our experience and she got us a coupon for 4 free burritos, chips/guac/ and drinks!

15: In September 2014, we went to the zoo to see the first elephant to have ever been born in Arizona, we also saw turtles mating and it was one of the weirdest yet strangely entertaining moments of my life.

16: Our Will Ferrell party in 2014, was one for the books! Her and EJ had super awesome matching costumes, which Steph made all by herself.

17: Halloween 2014, the roomies went as popstars. Steph was Katy Perry, and yet again had the best costume ever, but that's not just my opinion, she got a whole months worth of dollar lunches to prove it.

18: For my 19th birthday Steph took me to see Flashdance at Centennial Hall! It was a complete surprise to me, but the best surprise ever!

19: Another one I'm combining a lot of memroies into one. All the football/basketball games that I have gone to with her have been an absolute party!!

20: Last week for my photojournalism class I had to take headshots of someone, and Steph didn't even hesitate when I asked her to be my subject. She is always so willing to help me in any situation and will go above and beyond my expectations!

My life has been a non-stop party ever since Steph came into my life and I am so thankful for her friendship!

Part Two
Steph's Saturday Birthday Celebration
Since Steph's birthday was on Sunday, we had to celebrate together. She started out her morning by getting her hair done and then Annabeth, Madalyn (Annabeth's niece) and I met up with Steph at La Encantada to go to do a little bit of shopping. While we were there the Humane Society was hosting an adoption day for dogs, so Steph got to get a little cuddle loving from all the cute dogs.
After shopping we went to Zinburger, Steph's favorite burger place, for lunch. I had never been there before and I was very impressed. I also had a traumatic experience of a bird trying to attack... maybe that's exaggerating, but it seemed like an attack at the time.

Steph's Roaring Twenties Birthday Party
Since Steph turned 20, the theme of her party was the Roaring twenties! She put a lot of hard work and creativity into this party and it was a total success. Throughout the night people arrived in their best 20's party clothing, ate the classiest of appetizers, mingled, participated in Steph trivia, danced, karaoked, and played the game of things. I was very impressed with everyone that dressed up and the entire outcome of the party, it was definitely one for the books!

Steph's Birthday Glitter Photoshoot

On Thursday, Annabeth proposed an idea to do a glitter/confetti photoshoot for Steph for her birthday! I was on board to take epic photos and Steph was on board to be a model. It was actually a lot of fun, and the pictures turned out great. Annabeth has great glitter throwing skills, who knew.

Here are a few of my favorites, the rest you can find on facebook, obviously.

Part Three

Softball

I saved this one for last, assuming that most people wouldn't make it through the entire blog post, and I didn't want to take away Steph being the center of this post. But since I am lazy and I do not want to make a blogpost just for this one thing I'm just going to add it at the butt of this post.

So for my job at the daily wildcat I signed up to take photos of the opening softball game of the season. I had to borrow a telephoto lens from the photo desk and it was FREAKING HUGE, it weighed like a solid 4 lbs. I didn't have a tripod for the lens so it was hanging off my neck the entire game, needless to say my neck was a little sore the next morning. But I had so much fun shooting this game so I wanted to share some of my unedited photos! (Let's all cross our fingers that one of my photos gets it into the paper, and they actually give me credit for it)