All I do is work work work

Tuesday June 21

Just my regular Tuesday, working at the Wildcat for our weekly publication. Chastity is a doll and took me out to lunch because she is amazing. Laurel (the design chief) played Spotlight for us all to watch while we were editing... talk about journalism nerds. Brett snapped a picture of a few of us watching it:

After my work at the Wildcat, I switched over to working for the Star. Rick (my photo editor) assigned me to shoot an comedy open mic night at Illegal Pete's. I was excited for a couple of reasons: 1) this would be my first shoot out on my own for the Star, and 2) the shoot was for another apprentice's article, so I got to work with her. 

Open mics are kind of really painful to watch, but I have so much respect for people who are brave enough to get up in front of a crowd of judgy people and attempt to make them laugh. 

Technically speaking it was pretty difficult taking photos because Illegal Pete's is not a well lit restaurant, and I did not have an external flash on me, so I was all about that ISO. I was really worried that I had my ISO up so high that my photos were going to be hideous and noisy and make people's eyes bleeds, but they turned out not that bad, so I was thrilled.

In my opinion, I thought this girl was the funniest. She started out her set by talking about how she's a feminist, but a really bad one because she really just likes men to take control in relationships. It was pretty funny the way she talked about it.

Wednesday June 22

I worked my very last orientation today! I'm glad it was my last because I was put in charge of carrying all the display stuff to the grand ballroom... and I just couldn't handle it, so any joy that could have ever been felt while working orientations was stripped away from me after carrying so much by myself.

Once orientation was over I went to the Star newsroom to edit my photos from the open mic night. We (the apprentices) are encouraged to edit our photos/write our stories in the newsroom, even though it can be easily done at home. It's good to be in the newsroom though because I can ask for opinions and feedback on my photos (even though asking for feedback is one of my greatest fears in this world, I just can't handle it).

After I was done editing my photos, I went back to my place to hang out with Ty, Jenny and Rylie. I somehow tricked them into watching a million Grey's Anatomy episodes and postponing their gym time. 

Thursday June 23

I went to the Wildcat in the morning to make a press pass for one of the art's reporters... super exciting stuff.

Then I had my apprenticeship class, which was cut pretty short on Thursday. 

Rick asked me to shoot a soccer game while I was in class. I was pretty excited about shooting soccer because I had never done it before, and it's a sport I think I could do well in shooting. Turns out Rick was confused, and I was actually assigned to shoot a baseball game.... oh baseball. Not my favorite sport on the planet, it's just so hard to watch. But I did it anyway. It was for the Tucson Saguaros who are part of the professional Pecos League. There were probably 80 people max at the game... which was pretty sad, but the Saguaros won, so that's something to be happy about. Another thing to be happy about: the sunset was beautiful thanks to the stormy weather recently.

Friday June 24

Ah Fridays. My big work day at the Star.

I went in at 9 am to work on my baseball photos with Rick. Nothing too exciting there.

Then he sent me over to a sit in that was happening at Congresswoman Martha McSally's office concerning gun control legislation. I got there pretty early, so I decided to get some lunch at Cane's, which is never a bad decision.

That killed some time, and then the gun control activists started to show up. Those people are very dedicated, it was a million degrees outside and they were still there on the sidewalk advocating for their cause, bless their souls. About half of them were lucky and went up to McSally's office to meet with one of her staff members since McSally wasn't actually there. I decided to be a part of that group because of the A/C.  By the time their meeting was over, all the outside people had retired. So it was a short lived sit in, but I got some good shots.

Then I went back to the newsroom to edit these photos and turn them in.

Then I went out to my next assignment, which wasn't nearly as exciting. It was a photo for an article about the construction at the interchange of Ajo Way and I-19... not my best photo work in the world, but I got it done.

Then I went back to the newsroom to edit those photos and turn them in, and then I was done for the day. 

9-5 pm. I'm practically full-time... for one day a week haha.

When I got home I went with Ty, Jenny and Rylie to the YSA water activity. We mostly went for the food, but poor Jenny... the only vegetarian appropriate food were buns and licorice. So we (the four of us +Brenna) went to Fry's to get Jenny and Ty some potato salad. We had quite the complications while trying to check out, but we made it out alive and with potato salad. Then we made our way back to the activity to watch people attempt to dunk people in a dunk tank, and to get hit by water balloons. 

Saturday June 25

I woke up bright and early for yet another shoot for the Star (all the shoots this week made up for the 0 I did last week because I was out of town). This shoot was to get some shots of a man who is harvesting the remainder of his grapes that he grows in his front yard. He was a pretty cool dude, and let me try his grapes and the blackberries he was experimenting with, they were both delicious.

I spent most of the rest of the morning and the afternoon watching shows and YouTube videos with Jenny.

Oh and I got to email Zach of course, the very best part of Saturday's. I'm trying to teach that kid how to take more pictures because he is really leaving me hanging in the photo department... but I guess in his defense, the MTC isn't the most exhilarating place in the world.

In the evening Ty, Jenny, Rylie and I went to go see Finding Dory. SOOOO ADORABLE! AND BABY DORY, oh my gosh, I could cry forever thinking about how cute she was. Jenny and I were the ones to cry in this movie, compared to Steph and Ty losing it in You Before Me.

Jenny got Ty and I hooked on How To Get Away With Murder, so that's the show we all watch now that they have finished Drop Dead Diva. It's pretty intense stuff. Shonda Rimes is a genius.

Sunday June 26

I had the thought this morning about Big Brother starting, and I found out that it started on Wednesday, so I was already two episodes behind. So I spent my time before church getting ready and watching Big Brother. Oh I just love that show, it's too good.

Church was really good today, full of talks and lessons that related directly to where I am in my life. 

I came home to a newspaper at my front door, and I thought I would take a look through to see if any of my photos made the Sunday paper... AND TWO DID! I was soooo excited! I'm in the big leagues now people! I had an official cork board stapling ceremony, for my very first print published photos for the Arizona Daily Star. 

Something exciting I found out about this week: Rick is going to send me to shoot a Kiss concert on the fourth of July! Oh yes, you read that right... KISS! I'm sure they're super lame now, but I am so stoked!

Another exciting thing: I may not like baseball very much, but I do love my University AND WE ARE GOING TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES whaaaaaaaaaa #BearDown