Sad

You know you have no life when....

The same part of your brain that responds to your own ringtone responds to the ringtone of the main character in your favorite show.

Also, I bought 8 oz of Chick-fil-a sauce today. Winning. At. Life.

Extreme Photography Goals for 2012

• Do 50 paid photo shoots - Two of my favorite quotes from middle school were, "Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you'll land among the stars," and, "Most people don't aim too high and miss; they aim too low and hit." Those quotes are the only reason I feel comfortable posting a number like this. Oh and also, "When you aim for the impossible, the difficult becomes easy and the easy becomes assured." There. Bet you didn't know I'm the Queen of Quotes, now did you?
• Do 3 photo shoots in one day - You know that feeling in your stomach when you see the really cute guy you have a crush on? That's how I feel when I think about this goal. I don't know why, I just think it would be so fun! And I'd get to edit pictures for days!
• Buy Ikelite housing for my camera - This usually runs at about $1,000 and I have to raise $11,000 to go to China, so it seems silly to aim for this, but I think I can do it! I'll think of it as a business investment. With Ikelite housing... my goodness, everything would change! Everything!

How I Ended Up With Blonde Hair

Right around Christmas, it suddenly struck me that I would look great with light brown hair. Not blonde, mind you, but a very light brown. I became fascinated with the idea, and when we went on our Christmas vacation and my mom went to buy her hair dye, I asked her if I could get some, too.

At the time, I looked like this:

After the first box of hair dye, my hair was about one barely-noticeable shade lighter and the roots where my original hair color (brown) had been growing out from my last dye attempt (reddish brown) were lighter than the rest of the hair.

This was not good enough, and I felt ridiculous with the somewhat-lighter stripe in my hair. I get a little crazy in the winter, so I decided to buy bleach blonde. I didn't want bleach blonde hair, but I figured that since the last box had worked hardly at all, this box would get me exactly where I wanted to be. Wrong!

I ended up with yellow and orange tiger stripes on top of brown.

Plus, the harsh chemicals and cold weather frazzled my already-frizzy hair, so when I brushed it, I got this:

I sent this picture to my fairy godmother, Karissa, and got the response, "Do you want me to kill you now or later?"

So for the rest of the trip, I went around like this:

Luckily, I do have that fairy godmother I mentioned, and when we got home she came and did her best to fix my hair. It's still yellow and orange, but now there are no more stripes! Soon I can dye it back to brown. And that's how I ended up with blonde hair!

And now, here are some pictures of the lovely mountains of Georgia with an after-rain mist hanging in the air. The last one has ice in it! (I'm from Florida, what can I say?) These were taken on my phone so excuse the quality.

Yupgi

There's a Korean word that defines me so well:

Yupgi: bizarre, quirky, slightly disgusting but somewhat cute.

How perfect is that?

Blood, Mio, and Other Things

Went to donate plasma today, but something went wrong with my right arm. The vein there is so deep, I guess the needle didn't go in right or something. The nurse was really nice and tried to get it to work, but it kept hurting worse and worse so we eventually had to give up. I still got a coupon for a free sub and some cookies, though! Sorry, leukemia patients. I tried to get you some platelets. My right arm aches now.

In other news, I finally decided to try Mio Energy. It was gross! Don't waste your money. Regular Mio is great, though!

Happy Birthday, Riley!

Happy birthday, Riley! I wish I could meet you.

Babies

It's just way too easy to take pictures of babies/toddlers. They're naturally cute, they're not shy in front of the camera, and you don't have to worry that they'll think they look fat in their pictures. I always thought it would be hard to do kid photography, but now I'm thinking I want to do more and more!