Art

If anyone has any ideas for photos, lay them on me so I can try them out...

Giving thanks

Catching Air (black & white), originally uploaded by paperdollimages.

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving. Mine was pretty good. I got some good pictures of my cousin Sam skateboarding (you can click on the one above to see my flickr), and I had fun with the Idaho family. I actually brought food this year and they loved the chicken ramen salad that I made.

I was thinking about the things I am most thankful for, so I will list them here.

My husband. I have to list him first because he is the biggest part of my life. I really have no idea where, or how miserable, I would be wihout him.

My family. I grew up with the best family. I had no idea at the time how unique we are. Families like ours, who adtually LIKE each other, are so hard to find.

My sister. She is the most important person in my life. Adam is my husband but the way I love him is different. Tricia has been there for me since we were babies. She is the only person who completely understands and knows ME. I love her so much in a way only sisters can understand.

My neices and nephews. I get to see Bill, Angela, and Ruby all the time and it's such a neat thing to be a part of their lives while I watch them grow into the people they will be. My nephew Jayme is the only one who is blood related to me and he is my sisters son so I feel a special bond to him and love him more than I ever thought I could love someone I hardly know. I can't wait to spend more time with him.

My trip to Arizona!! My sister asked her boyfriend, Jim, to fly me out as a christmas present to her so I am going to Arizona! Jim is such a great guy to do it. I will be gone from December 6th to the 20th, and I am going to have the BEST TIME. I miss home SO MUCH.

My camera, and my photography talent. I doubt myself all the time, and it seems so wrong to call myself talented, like I am arrogant. But, I am so grateful that I have what people call "a photographers eye" and that my FIL bought me such an amazing camera to develop it with.

Those are the main things. I hate typing on this laptop so I will leave it at that. oP

Twisted

twist16, originally uploaded by paperdollimages.

Things are bad. I thought we were struggling enough as it was, and then Monday they got a LOT worse.

For the past two years Adam has worked at Sam's Club overnights so he can go to school full time during the day. Well, at Sam's Club, all of the pallettes are supposed to be labeled with what is in them and if they can be stacked in the steel before they come to the store. The WalMart distribution center is supposed to have all of that done and then send it to the individual stores. Well, last Friday the night crew guys were putting up some of the shipments from the week that couldn't be stocked, and there was a pallette of product out in Adam's section that needed to be put in the steel. Adam checked the pallette slip to see what it was, but it was just product numbers, and the pallette wasn't labeled as "do not stack", so he stacked it with another pallette and proceeded to put it in the steal. When he almost had it all the way up, it crumbled because the bottom pallette was full of boxes that couldn't be stacked, so they collapsed. Adam told his manager that the pallette wasn't labeled, and his manager looked it and and saw that it wasn't labeled.

Well, Monday he went into work and they fired him. I am SO FUCKING PISSED about it right now I could hit someone. Adam is seriously the BEST night crew guy they have. He works the hardest, EVERYONE knows it, and even when I go into the store to shop people always tell me how awesome an employee he is. He has always worked so hard for them, and been so loyal to them. And it's like the company won't take responsibility for their OWN mistakes, they have to $h!t all over him and then throw him away. It is NOT his job to check every pallette to see what it is and if it should or should not be stacking. That shit is supposed to be labeled BEFORE it even gets to the store. It has never been his job, and now he is being fired because something that ISN'T HIS JOB wasn't done.

I don't know what the hell we are going to do now. Adam feels so shitty about it and it just breaks my heart to see him cry because he feels like he disappointed me. He was fired Monday night at work, and Tuesday morning he was already up and writing his resume, talking to people at school about jobs, going to the job placement center at his school, signing up to be a tutor, and filing for unemployment. Yesterday he went to talk to a guy he knows about working on him making web pages and ads for his magazine and stopped in a few places to get applications. Today he is going to a bunch of places, even a slaughter house, and applying for jobs.

Oh and this is another thing that makes me SO MAD about the situation. The unemployment office told him that he could actually be turned down for unemployment because he is a full time student. WTF??? I get that they are worried that being a full time student may make it harder for some people to either get a job, or be willing to get a job, but Adam worked full time and went to school full time for two years before he lost his job. He has already proven that he can and will do it, and he told the guy he talked to that he would be willing to switch to night school to get a job. I swear if they turn him down and basically FORCE him to quit school to get unemployment until he gets a job, I will be PISSED. How much sense does that make? UGH.

So yeah, we are fucked. Gretta is even mad about it, and it's her mission to find out who's responsibility it was the label the pallettes and let them know that their incompetance got Adam fired and she is going to push for them to get fired. She already voiced her anger about the situation at work and they were reviewing the video tapes of the night crew that next morning when she went in. Adam is also going back to Sam's to talk to the store manager about why he was fired, and let them know that he expects his vacation pay in his last check since he earned it and saved it up and was fired for something that wasn't his fault. We are also thinking of filing a complaint against WalMart for the shitty policy that got him fired instead of the person who should have labeled the pallette.

If Adam can't get a job soon, I am going to have to sell my camera, too. UGH I hate this. What am I going to do without a CAMERA? That's like my LAST THREAD of sanity left being sold off to the highest bidder.

Could my life suck ANY MORE?

Peek-a-boo

Peek a Boo, originally uploaded by paperdollimages.

It's been a while, I think. I can't remember really. Gretta bounced a check to me, the only check she has written me for babysitting. Nice. Now my phone is shut off cuz her returned check sucked up the money I was going to pay the bill with. So, I am going to babysit until she gets her tax return. She has two choices, pay me, and although I quit babysitting we can still be friends, or don't pay me, and not only lose a babysitter but the only real friend she has. I hope she makes the right decision.

I have been feeling drained and dry when it comes to my photography. I want to take these amazing pictures, and I see other people's amazing pictures all the time, but it feels like maybe I don't have it in me. Like I am just faking being a photographer. Maybe it's the struggle of every "artist", you never feel good enough. Not that I am an artist by any stretch of the imagination. Just another thing I am faking.

The Visitor

The Visitor, originally uploaded by paperdollimages.

I gave Gretta the letter and she didn't seem particularly mad about it. Probably because she knows I am right. I haven't had a chance to discuss it with her yet though. That will come when the kids aren't around.

So, instead of handle things with her, I took pictures of my husband and played with long exposures. This is the best one I got.