I'm Published

Before I get to my usual daily happenings of my every so exciting life, I just want to write a little bit about the tragedy that happened in Orlando last night.
I woke up from a few notifications on my phone from Facebook saying that two of my friends (who currently live in Orlando) have been marked safe in the Orlando shooting. I was really tired, so I didn't think much about the notifications.
Once I woke up a little bit, I started to read about what happened that night. I was heartbroken reading about it, thinking about the victims and their families, and also for the LGBTQ community as a whole and how this attack would affect them. There was one tweet that I saw via my boss that really struck me:

Could you imagine being in that situation, and hearing those phone calls that won't get answered, or being the person calling just hoping your son/daughter/brother/sister/friend wasn't one of the lives lost? My heart seriously aches.
The sad thing is that this tweet was buried by arguments about gun control.
When I think about the victims who are still fighting to live, or the families of those whose lives were lost, I doubt the first thing on their mind is that there needs to be more gun control or less gun control because it's people that kill people, not guns.
It breaks my heart that people can't wait a hot second to mourn the lives lost and pray for the families, but instead politicize this attack.
So my two cents on this event, just take the time today to pray or do whatever it is you do to help those families who are mourning.
Gun control or lack thereof can wait one day. (And yes, I do think it is important for these issues to be discussed, don't get me wrong on that.)
It was really fitting to me today that in the two sacrament meetings that I attended, the song "Where Can I Turn For Peace" was sung. My heart goes out to the victims and their families today, and I hope that they will be able to find peace during such a heart wrenching time.


Now back to my super exciting life ha.

Wednesday June 8

Happy birthday Rory!

I woke up in the morning, posted on Rory's Facebook, and then I went to go work at the Arizona Student Media booth at freshman orientation. I get paid twenty bucks to hand out papers to people and tell them to join the wonderful world of Arizona Student Media. It's not a bad deal, but also not a great one haha.

Wednesday was also the day in which I made it through one week without Zach. Longest week of my life. And yeah, that does kind of sound pathetic, but you know I'm just going to let it happen.

On Wednesday night the missionaries came over for dinner. It was a grand old time. Steph made spaghetti for all of us, the missionaries gave a great lesson about sin and distractions in life, and we talked about life. A good time. 

My roommates have got me hooked on the Bachelorette, but we don't have cable so we have to wait a whole day until we can watch an episode. We also wait for all the roommates to be home so we can all watch it together. These episodes are so hilarious and so drama filled and so crazy, it's just addictive.

Thursday June 9

My apprenticeship class is at noon on Thursdays so I have the morning to sleep in and run some errands. And by errands I mean I went to the post office to mail a letter and then I went to get chipotle to go and then go to class. I am #soproductive.

Class was good. We had some former apprentices who now work at the Star come in to talk to us, answer some questions and give advice. One of them was Alicia, who is probably my favorite human in the world. She worked at the Wildcat with me, and is just the nicest person ever. I love that I get to see her whenever I go to the Star.

My bridesmaids dress for Sadie's wedding came in the mail on Thursday and I am so psyched about it. It's currently hanging up in my room for everyone to love and admire. I am so excited.

The rest of Thursday was dedicated to watching the Hannah Montana movie and lots of Hannah Montana episodes with Steph and Jenny. I know, we are probably the coolest people you have ever read about. I also went to summer institute for the first time on Thursday. TONS of people go, which is pretty fun. Unfortunately, none of our regular teachers were there to teach us, but we did have an old missionary man substitute and he did a rocking job.

Friday June 10

Friday was my first day of actually doing photo work for the Star. 

I went into the newsroom at 9 am to meet with Rick to see what my day would hold. He assigned me to shadow Mamta, a photographer for the Star and pretty much Rick's right hand woman, during a shoot at BUMC in the.... MORGUE! Isn't that exciting? Apparently there is a week long camp that the hospital runs for middle school kids to help them learn about the medical field. The day Mamta and I went was when they visited the morgue (even though they don't actually call it that). The kids got to learn about autopsies and got to handle some organs. It was pretty cool. But no, I did not get to see a dead body.... well I did see one but it was in a bag... and I wouldn't be allowed to photograph a dead body anyway.

Mamta was really awesome and let me take photos while I was there too to get practice, even though she was the lead photographer. Mamta is the coolest photographer in the world, she gets so up close and personal with everyone and doesn't even feel uncomfortable. She knows what she wants and she gets it. She's the composition queen.

Afterward she took me to lunch at Yogi's and Indian restaurant. I know what you're thinking... Sydney you are so picky, why would you agree to go to an Indian restaurant and possibly offend Mamta. Don't worry I was thinking the same thing, but I was worried I would offend her by not going. I also had never tried Indian food before, so I should just give it a shot. It ended up being pretty good, so I was very happy I didn't have to choke things down to avoid offense. Mamta told me that the restaurant was just like dipping my toes into Indian food, and she will take me to a real flavorful place in the future. So we will see how that goes!

After lunch we went back to the newsroom so I could watch her edit photos. After watching her work her magic she told me to take a look at my photos and start working on them. I wasn't expecting anything out of this shoot, I was just shadowing so I assumed it was just practice. But while I was editing Mamta took a look at my photos and told me to turn two of them into Rick, and guess freaking WHAT, I GOT PUBLISHED! My first Star photo, online... I could cry I was so happy.

Check it out here

I am so excited about being at the Star, and I look forward to all the future shoots I will be doing!

On Friday night I went on a roomie date to go see Me Before You. It was a good movie, but I don't suggest seeing it if you are an audible crier. No no no, I was not the one crying. In fact I did not cry at all, and neither did Jenny. Ty and Steph on the other hand..... Okay, well Ty is the audible one, it's hilarious. Steph is a crier, but also laughed a lot because of Ty's sounds, so it was hard to tell when she was laughing and when she was crying. Poor Ty though couldn't stop crying for a long time, just thinking about the movie makes her cry.

Afterward we went to BJ's for some dinner. It was a grand old time, as the times with my roomies usually are. Luckily there weren't a lot of old people around so I could eat peacefully.

Saturday June 11

Saturdays are the best day in the world!!!! I made sure to be awake right when Zach emailed so there could be a chance of us emailing back and forth. He is doing so well, and knowing that makes being away from him a little bit easier. And I did get to email back and forth just a tiny bit, and it made my whole life. Here are a few pictures:

Red creme soda is one of my favorite things in the world, and I introduced Zach to it about a year ago. He was very excited when he found out they sold them for 60 cents a can in the MTC.

While Zach was emailing I was meeting with JB and catching him up on a photo desk meeting he missed. I probably wasn't all there because of Zach's emails, but I was still able to get everything said that needed to be haha, thanks for your patience JB.

I was pretty much relaxing for the remainder of the day, just working on general photo stuff... nothign all that exhilarating. Until I went to a pool party out in Vail with my roommates. It was technically a 2nd ward party, but since Ty hails from 2nd ward the rest of us decided to crash it. I didn't really know anyone there.... or the person hosting it.... but it was fun meeting some new people. It's also fun getting free dinner and swimming in a very cool pool. The Boerup's house is SO NICE, everything about it, and the family is so nice too. A very good party all around, I am glad I crashed it, and that Steph was willing to drive all the way out to Vail to party.

Sunday June 12

I went to Chandler Brown's mission farewell out in Marana (or Marinara as I like to call it). He is such a spunky kid, he's going to be an amazing missionary in Thailand. 

Steph and I had to leave right after his talk so she could make it back in time for ward council, and so I could study some more for my Relief Society Lesson. That's right everyone, I taught Relief Society. Mollie pulled me up from the boulder I was hiding under and asked me to teach a few weeks ago. I don't know how to say no, so I said yes. Luckily, the lesson I was assigned was so amazing and so easy to teach. It was chapter 11 in the Howard W Hunter book for those of you who are interested. I thought my lesson went pretty well even though I was really freaking nervous. A few people cried... and is it really a relief society lesson if no one cries? Lolz.

Hopefully you caught my sarcasm earlier when I said I live an exciting life... because really most of the days this week weren't really that exciting. Things will start picking up soon, so maybe my blogs will be more exciting in the future.