totally serious: got any advice?

Today I am 29 years old. And while most people don't have any idea it's my birthday unless I say "It's my birthday!" (which I kind of feel lame doing but I've already done it twice) I'm now following "It's my birthday!" with "Got any advice?"

Since almost everyone is older than me (not in a bad way, just stating the factoids) I'd like to know if you have any advice for this 29 year old? Pretend your 29 year old self is sitting across from you asking for advice, what would you tell that person?

please tell me i'm not the only one

Here's a story I'd like to call "I'm an Asshole". I have no problem admitting it, because I am, in fact, an asshole.

I have a new passion in my life. It's called "All Sport Socks" by Reebok. My first encounter with these Reebok socks was last year when I found a pair taped together for $2.97 on clearance at DICK'S. [DICK'S is really the name of the sports store. See?] They were taped together with packing tape, no box or label and one pair was zebra print the other was circles and I'm a sucker for cute, weird socks. I just thought totally cool! and I bought them, not realizing that knee socks are SO FUCKING AWESOME and since that epiphany I've been looking for more ever since but I was looking for knee socks not realizing Reebok calls them All Sport Socks. I happen to find a three pack on clearance at DICK'S yesterday while shopping, the only problem is they are annoyingly black and gold. While I love crazy socks, I really would appreciate just a plain black pair and not have people think I'm buying my socks based on my local sports teams. [Go Pens!]

I bought them anyway. Enjoy the flannels.

If you've never been in DICK'S then I'll tell you that the store is sectioned off and in those are brand subsections. Since the socks are Reebok branded, that means I was in or around the Reebok area of the Women's section. This is important to remember the brand Reebok.

So I have my socks happily in hand when I turn around and this disaster is staring me in the face. 

And I burst out laughing. 

This is where I ask you, my readers that are of or around the same age or maturity level as I to tell me that I am not the only one that thinks this is hysterical. In fact, it's so funny that it's the new wallpaper on my phone so every time I wake my phone up from the black screen I see that picture. Every time I check the time I see that picture. That picture gives me so much joy in my life.

If you don't think it's funny, then 1. You must be all PC and/or 2. You may not know that people [Americans?] have shortened the term Retarded to ReeRee. Does Reebok know this? By this sign, I would say no. However, they did have other signs that said "ReeTrain" and "ReeSomething" and I got what Reebok was doing with those ads, but the ReeRun just jumped out at me as being completely wrong. [Dare I say Reetarded?].

I'd like to thank Reebok for making my day, I know you guys were being clever with this ad concept but perhaps you should give me a ring next time you hold an advertising focus group. I'd be representing the active girl with the maturity level of a twelve year old and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

i'm totally sane.

A couple days ago I experienced a huge wave of relief and excitement after finding something I have been looking for for years: The picture of the UFO I took when I was sent away at two week stayaway camp.

See, back when I was like.. 14 or 15 my parents thought it would be nice for me to go to this camp. Sure it was cool and I met a bunch of rich kids, I can't say I made lifelong friends there because I didn't but I had fun. I was given a disposable camera for the trip and I took a lot of nature shots, turns out when cliques go to camp together they're still cliques even on neutral ground so I didn't have a lot of other humans to take pictures with. Poor, awkward 14 or 15 year old me.

One day we were taken on hike to the highest point in Pennsylvania which is Mount Davis. There we climbed an observation tower where we were told you could see like all the bordering states. With my trusty Kodak in hand I thought it would be a great idea to take a picture of each bordering state from the tower, at the time I thought I was a creative genius not realizing that I would have no idea what I would be looking at once I got the film developed, which is exactly what happened.

BUT! instead of just some boring bordering state like Ohio I inadvertently captured a UFO. Yes, a UFO and the other day I found the picture to back up all the times I told people that I took a picture proving that UFOs are for reals. Ha! Who feels stupid now?


So here's my UFO picture taken about fourteen years ago.

Picture scanned, no edits

Picture cropped, no edits

Picture cropped and "sharpen" edit used.

I am the proud photographer and owner of the obligatory blurry UFO picture and I hope you all enjoy this totally undeniable proof that there are unidentified flying objects zipping around Pennsylvania getting photographed by kids. 

survived.

I'm happy to say that the Holidays are over. Our Christmas Tree and lights came down on December 28th and we've already reorganized the office, something we do once a year, so I guess from now on it's just coasting. Next up will be my birthday, I'll be 29. I like being 28 and I don't want to see that year go, but we all get older and age is really only a number.

We'll see how this 2012 year goes. I'm still not back on Blogging and I can't say I will get back to it or not. I just don't have the flare for it. I've been out of work for quite some time and not sure when I'll go back to regular hours, but it's not looking eventful. My phone is on the fritz and I don't know if I should keep trying to revive it or just get a new one, I'm not in the mood for committing to a two year contract - I have a lot of First World Problems.

Anyway, hope you all had a great Christmas / New Year and maybe I'll read ya soon.

heavy post.

If there was a Miss Melancholy contest, I think I would be crowned queen. I have no explanation to why I feel so down and empty, maybe it's been magnified by the death of one of Eric's family members and being around death and flowers and sorrow but Melancholic is the correct term. [Melancholic makes me sound like I have a bad cough right?]

So while laying in bed last night watching The Vampire Diaries [seriously] I was thinking about everything in general and I really wanted to figure out a way to express how I've been feeling. I'm good with words, not drawings or sketches but I'm not in the mood to write. I thought of my camera and how it's been collecting dust recently and how lame I've been with it and I came up with a new "project" for me after looking at some Camera Phone pictures I took.

Here's the Camera Phone picture I took about two months ago after using my Clever Photo app to edit it:

I've really latched on to this picture and I want to take more like it with my Nikon. I want to capture feelings of Emptiness with my camera. Sure "Empty" is not original in the least, but I think it could be something cool for me to do with my time and an excuse to take my camera with me everywhere. I'm very much introspective, so much that I can't convey how I feel in actual words or any understandable way so maybe my camera can do it for me.