Where Did the Summer Go

Monday, July 24

I woke up early on Monday because Zach emailed pretty early the week before... turns out emailing as early as the week before would be a rare occasion, so I woke up early for nothing haha.

My class was really interesting on Monday. Susan Hileman, one of the survivors of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting in 2011, came to talk to our class. She told us the story of the day and how she brought Christina-Taylor Green, a nine-year-old girl, to go meet Gabrielle Giffords at a Safeway in north Tucson for Congress on Your Corner, and how she was shot three times and Christina-Taylor had died. She spoke with such emotion, I felt like I was watching it on the silver screen. So powerful. She also talked to our class about how she dealt with the media following the shooting. The biggest message that I took from her visit with us that it's so much more important to be human than it is to get the good story, especially for the victim's sake.

After my class I went to the Wildcat newsroom to start hashing out photos for the monster than is the Campus Guide issue of the Daily Wildcat. SO. MANY. PHOTOS, it was never ending. I got a good amount of work done, probably 3/4 of it, and left the final quarter (which ended up taking a lot of work) for the actual Tuesday production.

On Monday night I didn't have a work meeting for the first time this summer since it was moved to the prior Friday, so I got to go to FHE! It was a talent show combined with 5th and 2nd ward, and 2nd ward has the most interesting people, so it was a party. Since it was combined with 2nd ward, the show happened on the east side of Tucson, which obviously meant Steph, Riley, Ty and I needed to go to Cane's for dinner before the show. It was a smart choice. At the show there was a juggler (my fav, I love the act of juggling even though I cannot do it myself), slam poets, musicians, bands, the whole shebang. It was a good time, and there were doughnuts afterward with lots and lots of dancing.

Tuesday, July 25

So the quarter of photo production that I didn't finish on Monday mostly consisted of sports photos. But not just any sports photos. I had to go back and find photos from as far back as the 1940s. It was quite the adventure. Luckily, the Daily Wildcat has these MASSIVE books filled with all the newspapers that have ever been published (Maybe?), so I went hunting through those to find what I needed... and there was a lot that I needed (at least 12 photos from varying time periods).

I took a break from digging up the past to go to AutoZone with Chastity to fix her tail lights, and then to go to Sonic and then again to go take pictures of the Rialto theatre.

After all that I enlisted a team (Chastity, Bailey and Scott) to help me find all the photos I needed. And we did it (well most of it). Here are some of the clippings I had to gather:

Besides digging through the archives, it was a pretty easy going day despite the monster issue we were making. I got all my work done, watched the Bachelorette while people told me other photos they needed, then when the requests sopped happening, I made my way home... only to get more calls and texts with requests. The work of a photo editor never ends. But I can't complain because I'm never the one that stays until midnight, because I would probably die if I were.

Wednesday, July 26

EJ came to Tucson on Wednesday for one last dirty T adventure before he leaves for Italy on the 8th. In Mesa there really aren't a lot of PokeStops for EJ to hit up, but there's a thousand on the UA campus and at Reid Park, so we spent a lot of time stocking up on Pokeballs and catching pokemon. While I went to a meeting with Courtney at the newsroom, EJ and Steph went to Reid Park and kept the pokemon adventure going.

After my meeting, I joined EJ and Steph as they got pizza at Fired Pie and then we made our way up to Mt Lemmon (which could have been a questionable decision, considering the storm rolling in, but it was okay, we made it out alive mostly). Don't worry, we didn't stop Pokemoning while we were on the mountain, we each added Clefairy to our Pokedex, it was very exciting (I am aware how lame this would sound to someone who does not play Pokemon Go, but really, who is the lame one between us?)

While we were driving up the mountain EJ accidentally hit a giant rock and hit tire pressure light came on. The tires looked fine and we couldn't hear any air coming out of them, so we proceeded on our way (we did eventually make it down the mountain and there was still no tire trouble... until the next morning)

While we were on the mountain we took some photos, and I tried to get some lightning shots, but I was in an unfortunate position with so many trees around me blocking every single lightning strike.

Since the sun was going down very quickly, I had to do long exposures to get pictures of us, and this was a tester picture in which Steph did not stand still haha. She may be a little possessed.

On our way down the mountain it was storming like CRAZY, luckily EJ is quite the driver and got us down the mountain in safety.

We spent the rest of the night catching Pokemon and taking over gyms. The normal life.

Thursday, July 27

While I was in class, EJ and Steph had quite the car adventure (I think God excused me from this adventure since I had a car adventure of my own a couple weeks ago). Turns out the rock we hit going up the mountain made our tire go flat (thankfully not while we were on the side of the mountain and in the rain, although EJ and Steph may have preferred changing a tire in rain rather than midday Arizona sun). 

After I was done with class and they were done with the car adventure, we all went to Tucson mall to go shopping for Annabeth's upcoming bridal shower on Saturday. Annabeth asked us in advance if we would be bringing anything scandalous as we did for Natalie's bridal shower in 2013, and of course we couldn't disappoint, although we didn't take it to the same level as Natalie's shower. We got her some lingerie, candy nipple tassels and fuzzy handcuffs. 

You know when you were a kid and you always wanted to go into Spencers because they had the cool disco balls and lava lamps, but your mom never let you? I have discovered while in college why my mother never let me in. She was a smart lady.

Of course while we were at Tucson mall we had to take over the Pokemon Gym that was there. My app was failing me so Ej and Steph had to do most of the work without my 1300 CP pokemons with their 500 CP pokemons. It was pretty funny.

One of the people EJ wanted to visit while he was in Tucson was Lourena since he wouldn't be able to go to her wedding in a couple weeks. He messaged her when he arrived in Tucson on Wednesday and never got a reply back. Turns out she was in the hospital with a massive blood clot (a very good reason to respond to someone), so before EJ left we went to visit her in the hospital. She's so funny, she actually ENJOYED getting an MRI, she thought it was so fun. Luckily she is out of the hospital now and feeling a lot better!

After we visited Lourena, EJ made his way back home to Mesa, and Steph and I went to institute. The lesson was fantastic as usual, and afterwards there were otter pops, which I am all about.

Friday, July 28

For my apprenticeship I was sent to the American Tarantula Society's annual conference in Oro Valley to photograph the "Spider Mall" inside the El Conquistador hotel. Now I wouldn't say that I am afraid of spiders, but I am not their world's biggest fan, so I was a little nervous but also pretty excited. I met a lot of interesting ATS members while I was there. There was this one girl who came from OKC for the conference and has more than 80 tarantulas at home, and came to the Spider Mall looking for another to join the family. CAN YOU IMAGINE HAVING 80 FREAKING SPIDERS IN YOUR HOUSE? I would be terrified that there would be too many to count and then one would go missing and then there would be a tarantula on the loose.... not my ideal situation.But she was all about it, so go her.

I have apparently been lacking in the variety department for most of my shoots, so my specific assignment for this assignment was the get a variety of angles and shots that were unlike all the others. I was pretty dang nervous that I would fail, but when I went back to the newsroom to go over my photos with Mamta, she said I did a good job, so pat on the back for me.

After work I pretty much just chilled at home with a mountain dew with my roomies and started working on some of the games for Sadie's upcoming bachelorette party.

Saturday, July 29

Sam helped Steph and I pick up a free couch from this lady's house in Tucson. You see, we currently have two couches in our house, but one of them was actually Sam's that we were storing for him until he moved in next door this week. It occurred to Steph that we would no longer have a second couch, so she started looking around the interwebs to find a cheap couch, and she ended up finding a free one! So we called Sam up to see if he would let us use him and his truck on Saturday morning, and it all worked out. Of course the couch we were picking up was on the second level of the apartment complex, so that was an interesting experience... but we got the couch safely into our house. Now the task is to try and make it not smell bad anymore...

Around 11 Steph, Ty and I made our way up to Oro Valley for Annabeth's bridal shower! AB is the first of the OG beezies to get married, so this was quite the momentous occasion. AB is the baby of her family so she has lots of nieces and nephews. I became best friends with one of them: Carianne (sorry, to her mother I have no idea how to spell her name). I tickled her feet and then we were hooked on each other for the rest of time.

OH JUST LOOK AT HER CUTE LITTLE FACE. She's the best.

I pretty much dominated the bridal shower games, I technically won two of them, but I didn't want people to think I was a crazy competitive person, so I switched my scorecard with Steph for the final game, so she could claim the prize.

The games were lots of fun though, and the food was delicious. 10/10 bridal shower for the one and only AB. She's going to be such a beautiful bride, I am so psyched for this Saturday!

After the bridal shower, the three of us went to go pick up a stand/shelf thing for Ty since she is moving in this week #crycrycry, and then we went to go help Sam assemble his bed that he made himself. Fancy fancy.

It was just a day full of moving things.

For those of you who do not know I have lived in the same duplex since I moved to Tucson, and have gone through quite a few duplex neighbors. Well now, Rory (my brother) and his roommates are the newest duplex neighbors. AND McKenzie is moving in in just a few short weeks, so it's pretty much a Richardson duplex party. 

Rory came down with my mother on Saturday also to move everything into the new place. I love when my mom comes to Tucson, it's always such a breath of fresh air having her around. 

For the rest of the day I took a nap, I continued working on my Bachelorette party games, I bought some pizza, and watched a lot of Family Feud. Sam even came over to watch with us. Now that we have next door neighbors that we are actually friends with, I imagine there will be a lot of going back and forth between one another's houses. Pretty much it's going to be a party all the time.

Sunday, July 30

The last week of 1 pm church. I wish I could say I soaked it all in being awake for church one last time before we switch to 9 am next week... but I was dead tired, yes, even at 1 pm with the 9 hours of sleep that I got. #Collegelife.

Since some people believe a fast cannot be broken at 12 pm next week, 5th ward decided to do a linger longer this week with breakfast burritos and lots of other things. I am a firm believer that mexican food is delicious, and breakfast food is delicious, but the two should never be mixed together. So I ate lots of bacon, some grapes and lots of brownie bites. Because I am a normal human being.

Now my summer is kind of almost over. Like I feel like it JUST started, and now it's already August?! Insanity. Luckily though, I do still have a couple more weeks until school actually  starts, but boy are those weeks busy (with lots and lots of weddings).